basica Senior Member Australia Joined 3529 days ago 157 posts - 269 votes Studies: Serbian
| Message 193 of 292 16 June 2015 at 2:32pm | IP Logged |
My mum told me that over there they also have seat allocations for cinemas (something that's only sorta
recently taken off here and only in the bigger cinemas) which are also pretty much ignored. So I guess they're
at least consistent - but yeah I'd be hella pissed if I had to stand for 12hrs while someone took my seat.
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nikolic993 Diglot Senior Member Yugoslavia Joined 3773 days ago 106 posts - 205 votes Speaks: Serbian*, English Studies: Italian, Mandarin, Romanian, Persian
| Message 194 of 292 16 June 2015 at 3:41pm | IP Logged |
Quote:
Otherwise I'm not sure what they are... a joke? a scam to charge a little bit extra for tickets? |
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Spot on.
Even though bus ticket prices almost doubled in the last 3 years, they started charging extra for the entrance to the bus platforms.(???)
There are 3 types of people when it comes to seat reservations:
1. The "I'll sit in the front of the bus even though I have a reservation, and I'll move only if someone asks me to move, and then I'll argue with them even though it's my fault" people.
2. The ones that sit with their friends even though they are supposed to sit behind/in front of them.
3. People that actually sit in the seat they're supposed to sit.
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daegga Tetraglot Senior Member Austria lang-8.com/553301 Joined 4514 days ago 1076 posts - 1792 votes Speaks: German*, EnglishC2, Swedish, Norwegian Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic
| Message 195 of 292 16 June 2015 at 4:03pm | IP Logged |
Why would it be important where you sit? As long as you get a seat...
It's only problematic when they let more people into the bus than there are seats,
something that would be unthinkable in Austria/Germany for long-distance travels (because
of security aspects).
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Radioclare Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom timeofftakeoff.com Joined 4576 days ago 689 posts - 1119 votes Speaks: English*, German, Esperanto Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian
| Message 196 of 292 16 June 2015 at 5:06pm | IP Logged |
daegga wrote:
Why would it be important where you sit? As long as you get a seat...
It's only problematic when they let more people into the bus than there are seats,
something that would be unthinkable in Austria/Germany for long-distance travels (because of security aspects). |
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Precisely because they generally do let more people onto the bus then there are seats! In Montenegro I once got sold "seat 26" in a minibus which probably seated about 15.
If I'm travelling long distance on a route where there is maybe only one bus per day, I want to make sure I actually get on that bus because I probably have accommodation or a flight I need to get to at the other end.
Also I would much rather sit next to the person I am travelling with if it is a 12-hour journey than a complete stranger :)
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Radioclare Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom timeofftakeoff.com Joined 4576 days ago 689 posts - 1119 votes Speaks: English*, German, Esperanto Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian
| Message 197 of 292 16 June 2015 at 5:22pm | IP Logged |
nikolic993 wrote:
Even though bus ticket prices almost doubled in the last 3 years, they started charging extra for the entrance to the bus platforms.(???) |
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Yes, I was quite confused in Podgorica that you have to pay to get onto the platform! I was changing bus there and someone else picked up my tickets for me and paid an extra amount for me to be allowed through the barrier, but I was so confused by the whole thing (and didn't want to start trying to explain in Serbian to some angry bus-guarding-person that I had already paid) that I just stayed on the platform for an hour between buses rather than risk going out and in again!
The worst bus I've ever been on was from Skopje to Niš. It looked like they had sold 50% more tickets than there were seats and people were practically fighting each other to get on. The driver was having heated arguments with people who couldn't find a seat and wanted to stand. He said he couldn't take standing passengers across the border because the guards needed to walk up and down the aisle to collect the passports, but people were begging him to be allowed on until just before the border, then walk across the border or something and get on again on the other side. It was absolute chaos and I was sitting in the wrong seat because someone else had taken mine, so was terrified I was going to be evicted from the bus :D
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Radioclare Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom timeofftakeoff.com Joined 4576 days ago 689 posts - 1119 votes Speaks: English*, German, Esperanto Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian
| Message 198 of 292 17 June 2015 at 3:15pm | IP Logged |
In my anger about seat reservations yesterday, I forgot to say how much fun our trip to Slovenia was :) I visited the little seaside town of Piran for the first time and it was really beautiful there :)
I'm going to be in Slovenia again - for about four days this time - in September, and my day-trip reminded me that I need to acquire some polite Slovene before I go back. At least enough to purchase bus tickets and order drinks properly. I shall add it to the list of things I don't have time to do :)
My next trip will be Lithuania on 1 August. Last time I was in Lithuania I was blown away by how well everyone we interacted with seemed to speak English, but that was just in Vilnius and this time we are going more off the beaten track so I think some survival Lithuanian may also be required. I might explore whether Pimsleur do Lithuanian because I think some audio might be useful and I probably have enough time on my commute to learn how to tell everyone that I'm an American man.
I'm going to Prague for a long weekend on 29 August, which is making me yearn to dust off all my Czech books. Although when I started catching up on logs yesterday and saw that tarvos has learned Czech in an hour or something, I thought perhaps it wasn't such a good idea :D
This weekend is a bit of a write-off for me but next weekend I need to have a serious think about my time and decide what I'm going to prioritise and what just has to drop off my list.
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Radioclare Triglot Senior Member United Kingdom timeofftakeoff.com Joined 4576 days ago 689 posts - 1119 votes Speaks: English*, German, Esperanto Studies: Croatian, Serbian, Macedonian
| Message 199 of 292 18 June 2015 at 9:56am | IP Logged |
I, erm, found Pimsleur Lithuanian last night and listened to the first 10 minutes, where I learned how to say "excuse me". It took approximately 30 seconds for me to become irritated by Pimsleur though, because it started with a really sleazy voice saying "Imagine an American man is sitting next to a Lithuanian woman". Why do we have to imagine that in every single language? :D Could an American woman not want to sit next to a Lithuanian man? Or how about an American man sitting next to a Lithuanian man?
I also did the placement test for Duolingo Esperanto last night. It told me I was at level 9 and so apparently I have 33 skills but there are another 10 I need to master, including sports :) It seems like a fun website and it would be cool if there was a course for Croatian or Serbian, but think that is pretty unlikely.
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tarvos Super Polyglot Winner TAC 2012 Senior Member China likeapolyglot.wordpr Joined 4700 days ago 5310 posts - 9399 votes Speaks: Dutch*, English, Swedish, French, Russian, German, Italian, Norwegian, Mandarin, Romanian, Afrikaans Studies: Greek, Modern Hebrew, Spanish, Portuguese, Czech, Korean, Esperanto, Finnish
| Message 200 of 292 18 June 2015 at 10:04am | IP Logged |
I don't speak Czech but rather I know how to get by very cleverly by using my Russian and
Czechifying it and sneakily glancing at GT while I use Jack Sparrow techniques to keep
going.
But yeah, as long as people speak really slowly and are patient with me they can get my
Czech.
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