"I love rock music" my Russian cab driver yells over the blaring radio.
I found him in front of the airport, along with a line of cabs waiting to take newly arrived passengers to their destinations. I chose him because he takes credit card, and he understands my Lithuanian translation app that i use to speak for me a little. I press the button to say "take me to this address" and point to the street address I have displayed on my Xoom in the email I received with allt he information on my new home. There is a quick discussion between the cab drivers and he decides, yes, he can take me there.
Now we are barreling through the narrow streets of Vilnius. He takes me the scenic way to the address, even I can tell, but it doesn't matter, I am tired and dazed but the city around me is amazing.
We find the address and i give him my credit card, he inserts it into his card reader and waits for the transaction to complete. There is a problem. This is my first interaction with the credit card readers in Vilnius, they all take "chipped" cards, but i don't know that yet.
So he gestures and shows me that the card is not working. Fuck it, I think. "American dollars?", I ask. "Sure, sure, is ok", so I pull out some 20's as he points to the meter and writes down the conversion rate "$1 U.S. = 2.3 Litas" so i do the math on my phone's calculator. "Is this right?", I ask as i show him the result. "Litas" he says and points to the meter again. Our comunication is starting to break down.
I give up, pass him a couple of 20's and this seems to satisfy him greatly. We get out, he pulls my bags out of the trunk and helps me take them to the curb. I thank him for the ride and he says his goodbyes. That's the end of that...or so I think.
I found him in front of the airport, along with a line of cabs waiting to take newly arrived passengers to their destinations. I chose him because he takes credit card, and he understands my Lithuanian translation app that i use to speak for me a little. I press the button to say "take me to this address" and point to the street address I have displayed on my Xoom in the email I received with allt he information on my new home. There is a quick discussion between the cab drivers and he decides, yes, he can take me there.
Now we are barreling through the narrow streets of Vilnius. He takes me the scenic way to the address, even I can tell, but it doesn't matter, I am tired and dazed but the city around me is amazing.
 |
| The apartment building, located in old town. |
So he gestures and shows me that the card is not working. Fuck it, I think. "American dollars?", I ask. "Sure, sure, is ok", so I pull out some 20's as he points to the meter and writes down the conversion rate "$1 U.S. = 2.3 Litas" so i do the math on my phone's calculator. "Is this right?", I ask as i show him the result. "Litas" he says and points to the meter again. Our comunication is starting to break down.
I give up, pass him a couple of 20's and this seems to satisfy him greatly. We get out, he pulls my bags out of the trunk and helps me take them to the curb. I thank him for the ride and he says his goodbyes. That's the end of that...or so I think.
No comments:
Post a Comment