A trip to Bucharest to run a training session. I landed late on Sunday evening and caught a cab to the Radisson. I unpacked and went out to find something to eat. I quickly found a small restaurant and stayed there. The streets were wintry and it was raining so I was going to spend the minimum time outside.

A fairly basic meal but hearty and I was ready to walk back to the hotel. Retracing my steps to the Radisson my way was temporarily blocked by a lady who spoke something in Romanian. I didn’t understand her and wasn’t sure if she was talking to me so made to walk around her and continue my journey home. She then switched to English and I realized that she was in fact offering her professional services for the evening. I explained that I was married and didn’t do that sort of thing and she seemed to accept this. I returned to the hotel without further incident.

The following morning my dear friend Simona collected me and drove me to the office. Bucharest traffic is fairly crazy and a combination of road construction and wet weather made it a long journey. I had a meeting with the country management team, and then delivered my session which went well.

Driven back to the hotel and met Simona again for dinner. We walked to the restaurant where we were joined by an English colleague and his wife. Richard has been in Romania about 10 months and I was amazed by the amount of Romanian he had acquired.

We walked back from the restaurant and parted as they found their cars. I was heading back to the hotel bat passed a sports bar where there was a match showing and thought it would be more interesting to watch some soccer than sit alone in my hotel room.

I went in to watch. I was in luck. This was the famous Real Madrid- Barcelona game which Barca won 5-0 and played the most incredible football. I was captivated for the whole game.

Match over I set off back to the hotel. As I left the bar, a group of young men surrounded me and started begging for money. I was very wary of them as they were also weaving around me and I was of the view that they were seeking a pickpocketing opportunity. I kept walking and another figure stepped out of the darkness- different street but the lady from the night before. She repeated her offer and I repeated my reply. Her response took me aback.

“It’s nothing to do with your wife. Tell me the truth. You don’t think I’m attractive do you?”

I’ve never been in the position of having to boost the ego of such a person so I tried to explain as I kept walking that my wife was very important to me . It must have been a strange sight, a middle aged man wandering down the street with a woman asking for pscholigical reassurance and a gang of pickpockets buzzing around him.

My progress was stopped with the lights being against me, much to my chagrin. My lady friend tried a new tack. “we don’t have to do anything, we could just talk” she said and tried to massage my shoulders. I had recently fractured a shoulder so this was extremely painful and I winced. “There- you prove you do not find me attractive” she said- you can’t even bear me to touch you”. I was saved by the lights changing and made the last 200 metres pursued by my swirling entourage.

Like the fairy story, the Pied Pier of Hamelin, the piper goes through a door which closes behind him leaving a child who cannot get through. My entourage would not have lasted 10 seconds with hotel security and they faded away. It’s the first time I have been glad to walk into a Radisson.

Advertisement