When Braila reminded me London

“MISTER ILIAS” (the tone of her voice was really loud, I felt for a second like as I am a very important person) “these are the lands I was telling you about” “These? What do you mean these? Where do you see these?” “Look right and left, here you can see the areas where you can start buying properties”…
When I was young, I was told many times that I have the “eyes of the hawk” and I was really proud of it. That day I realized that it was just a compliment to a young kid… I turned my head right, I could barely see 5 meters inside the road. I turn my head left…. things were better; I could see even more than 10 – 15 meters. The fog was hiding everything, but the lady was talking as if the atmosphere was dry and she could see far away: “From there, after that channel, you can buy around 1.000 hectars (for the ones who don’t know, 1 hectar = 10.000 sq.m.). There, if you see carefully, you will see an electricity pillar. On its left there are around 500 – 600 hectars to buy”. “What am I doing this morning in this place” I thought…
…
The intercity train to Braila was leaving at 06:00. It was February of 2005 and it was just my third “excursion” out of the Romanian capital, the second time in Braila. At around 09.00 I arrived at the train station and the “old time classic” Dacia 1310 was expecting me (the first Dacia Logan appeared in Bucharest 6 months after). The weather was foggy, but the schedule was fixed. “We go to see agricultural lands!” shouted full of happiness the real estate agent, as if we were on the way to the 5th Avenue of New York for crazy shopping…
“Isn’t it a problem that we don’t see good? I barely see 50 meters in front of me in this road” I complained to my happy joyful company in the car. “No, its ok, soon it will be clear and don’t worry, where we go, you will see all you need to see”. “I had asked for a map, is there any here?” “No, but we don’t need it, I will explain to you everything, you are clever, you will understand” (and then we search for reasons why people lose their self confidence…. how do you feel when someone finds you intelligent for understanding something and you don’t?).
At around 35 – 40 km from the city we turned left and then we entered in another road, not large than the previous one but with enough space for 2 cars to drive. After 3 more minutes of drive we stopped. No, alarms were not necessary; no one would see them anyway. The fog was impressive and the atmosphere really wet, I felt like a “Londoner”. …
I tried really hard to explain the basics to the smiling agent, who was so proud that she revealed to me “the… national secret of the best properties to buy” and she was ready to accept my order, so as to start buying there. “I am sorry, how can I buy properties when I can’t see them?” “But it’s clear, ah ok, wait some minutes and you will see”. After 1,5 hour in the freezing cold, trying to invent a discussion so as to wait the fog to leave us, we even had a conversation about half an hour regarding the only car that passed from that road… but it wasn’t meant to be…
Some people say I am bad, with a cold heart. That joyful (until that moment) lady was ready to join the club. I tried to be as polite as possible, but my face was showing all I was trying to hide. “Let us go back to the city and we come another time, we less fog”. I guess the reaction of hers would be better if I would have told her the worst words. Her smile disappeared; she started talking to me really rude, for a moment I thought she was discussing with the others to leave me there. There, in the middle of nowhere…
No, of course not. She was grateful enough to allow me to return with their car back to the city. She refused to discuss again with me about business. For her and her partners I was a “tourist who came here to spend our time and he will never buy anything”. She was right. Since then my company participated in transactions of just 13.500 hectars…