Billa, Trash and Rules of the Road

Today, I write to you from the comfort of my apartment as I now have internet access!!!! I hardly left the place at all today because I can now see what is going on in the world.

But I did leave for a bit to go to the grocery store...this is pretty much an every other day event. What I didnt budget for this year was that my cat eats like a horse and the ever dropping dollar. However, be that as it may, I was buying more cat food at Billa...this is the biggest grocery store on the island...probably about the size of 4 CircleK's if I had to guess. As I was standing in line with the hords of others buying their daily allotments, someone dropped a bottle and it broke everywhere. What I heard was a bunch of "Mia Madonna" and "Mamma Mia" from everyone..you would have thought the world was ending....hands were flying everywhere, people were talking louder and louder and time stopped as we all stared at the floor. Conversation ensued as to who was going to clean up the mess, who should pay for it and should this woman be allowed to get another bottle (since she was obviously a klutz!). It was all pretty humorous to me. In the meantime, this woman comes from nowhere to the end of the conveyor belt and starts talking to my cashier. She has some grocery items which she would like to purchase...for the life of me, I am not sure why she thought this was ok to make her own line, but it worked and the cashier waited on her (I dont imagine I would have gotten the same response). But while my cashier was busy gestering and Mia Madonna'ing she double charged me for my cheese. I didnt realize until I was about halfway home and looked at the receipt. So, I trudged back and showed her the mistake. She told me to go get another one!!!! I dont want another one I said and so she took my receipt, crossed out the second amount with a pen and refunded me the money....no ringing anything up, no logging of mistake, nothing...I imagine she will be short this evening and it wont matter.

As for trash.....I pretty much take out the trash everyday....most people use a grocery store size bag each day for their litter--there are no 13 gallon or 30 gallon trash containers around here. Needless to say, there is whole lot of trash going on on the island...some people are to put their trash bags outside at night or in the morning or on certain days and then these people with overgrown wheelbarrows come around the city and collect the trash, put it on the trash boats and it goes to trash heaven on the mainland. I realize its just trash, but it truly amazes me. Additionally, it is next to impossible to find a community trash can anywhere....with all the trash being created by the tourists, one would think they would need a place to put it. Today, I got a piece of pizza to go (take away as they call it). With my paperlike plate and napkin empty, I searched high and low for a place to throw it....it was enough to make me want to become a litterbug! I actually ended up walking to another part of the city out of my way before I found a place to throw my trash....again, probably not interesting to you as you read it but I am amused.

And while we are searching for a trash can, lets talk about the rules of the road. This is Europe and for those of you who have ever driven here, they take their road rules seriously. You only get in the left hand lane to pass and then you immediately get back to the right hand lane. Something long lost in America. Anyway, why doesnt this concept hold true when people are walking. Is everyone here from England and driving on the wrong side of the road??? I realize it is crowded, but as they say, Dai! (come on).