I had my first run in with the “Bus Gestapo” Wednesday on bus N
o 313.
I was the last person to squeeze onto a bus that was so full the doors literally hit me in the behind when they closed.
Traveling by bus this way is a lovely experience, especially in 80 degree heat with 90% humidity.
In order to validate your bus ticket you have to manually punch it in these little “machines” on the walls of the bus.
Of course, they are not conveniently located near the doors, you have to actually get up the stairs and into the bus to get near them.
I pulled out my ticket and planned to get mine validated after a few people cleared.
3 stops later, the bus was still full, but had cleared a little and I thought, “After the next stop I should be able to get to the machine and punch my ticket.”
One thought too late for the bus Gestapo - the lady next to me proceeded to rip out and put on her “controller vest.”
She looked directly at me and asked for my ticket and made no attempt to look at tickets of those near me.
In my broken Bulgarian I said, “I want to, but can’t” and handed her my ticket.
She took my ticket, mocked me to some nearby passengers repeating what I had tried to say and handed me a 7 leva fine. A fine for not having a ticket while keeping mine.
I refused to pay the “on the spot” ticket, which is the custom here, because I felt that if she was going to single me out, I was going to make her go to the trouble of writing me a paper ticket.
I know this was not a very “Christian” attitude and it was stubbornness on my part.
I should have just paid the ticket, but I didn’t.
She proceeded to ask for my Litchna card, our Bulgarian identification card.
Thinking she was just going to use it to write me a ticket and then give it back - I handed it over.
Instead, she just placed it in her bag.
Now in English, I ask her how to get it back?
She made a motion for me to wait but spoke to me only in Bulgarian - most of which I didn’t understand.
As stops passed by, the passengers on the bus started sticking up for me.
I assumed they were pleading my case and telling her to give my card back.
Given what happened next, I should have just paid the 7 lev ticket. We finally got off the bus and my “friend,” the bus lady, starts briskly walking. So I follow - for six blocks I follow her and all I can understand is her saying “chef”- which means boss in Bulgarian. She takes me like her personal prisoner, bound by the fact she still has my ID card, to the main city bus office. I thought we would get there, she would write me a ticket and I’d go on my way - that’s the way civilized society should work! Right? I think I’ve mentioned before, but assumptions don’t work so well in Bulgaria.
She proceeded from office to office with me not letting her out of my sight. People kept shooing her away. She then walked in on a meeting in her boss’s office and again was told to go away. At this time I took out my cell and called Marc. Marc wisely suggested I get a Bulgarian on the line so I called my friend Mimi to find out exactly what was going on. Mimi talked to her and translated to me that as soon as her boss was done we would talk to him and be done. I kept Mimi on the line to explain my side of the story to her boss. Mimi then talked to the boss and they began chatting about the people he knew in Florida and Chicago – how random is that? After they got off the phone, Mimi translated that she would write me a ticket and he dismissed us.
I am finding all of this unbelievable. It is now 45 mins after my little bus infraction and I have walked 6 blocks to this office. The woman then takes me to a room, pulls the tickets out of the SAME bag she had with her on the bus and begins asking me basic questions – now in ENGLISH (this is the first English she has spoken to me since this started!) Her boss was not needed for the process; he didn’t even look at the ticket. Come to find out, she should have taken me off the bus at the very next stop and written me a ticket there. The only reason I should have been taken to the station is if I didn’t have Bulgarian identification AND refused to pay the ticket.
I was ready to catch a flight back to the US last Wednesday. However I have now simmered down and think most of it is funny. At least I know what to expect next time!
-Lisa
