With few exceptions, the roads in Bulgaria are in a serious state of disrepair. This is just something that everyone here gets used to and even jokes about—this is why the picture here (circulated by email—originator unkown) is so funny to us. Lately, the new mayor of Sofia has made an effort to address this; but most street remain pothole-strewn. I chuckle when I think of the great lengths we go to barricade and demarkate construction sites in America. Here, there is a greater assumption of responsiblity by the general public—namely, watch out!
Pothole "Swallows" Jeep in Sofia
Politics: 15 June 2006, Thursday.
An entire Land Cruiser jeep fell into an enormous pothole in Sofia's Slatina neighbourhood, media reported. Local Nova TV reported that the accident took place at the "Ivan Shterev" street. Workers dug the whole the previous day, but left no signals for the threat. The driver was taken to Pirogov emergency institute. He suffered a broken arm and some other light injuries.
To read more unintentionally humorous stories like this, check out Sofia News Agency novinite.com I do this every morning for my daily chuckle. This is actually quite representative of Bulgarian journalism; more fluff than hard-hitting, investigative reporting. In fact, many times I find they even forget the basics: who, what, where, when, and how—seriously, I'll often finish reading a story and ask my self, "Wait, when or where did this happen?"
1 comment:
Hmmmm...it reminds me on most of Budapest's outskirt roads....every day when I take my daily commute to work from Boráros tér, and back it is like I would be at the funfair.
When I went (yes, from yesterday on I can talk about it in past tense) to Budapest Business School (on foot from the HÉV (local green train)-stop) I also had to be really careful to avoid my shoes getting stuck into one (especially when I wore high-heeled shoes).
Although the one interesting thing in Budapest is that they do repairs every year, but after a short time the state of the roads will be the same as before the repairs.
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