13.07.13 – day three
We woke up at around 8-8:30 AM. Silence.. Very strange silence, only few little engine roars and a tractor. We thought that there were not so many cars as said yesterday, but when we got out of the tent we understood, that there were many cars. Many nice cars! But tractor? Tractor was there because there was a need to move the fence around the field further to have more space for arriving cars. Around 9-10 AM more car sstarted to arrive. All together around 100. From 10 AM the meeting place was open for other people.
We can’t say anything bad, but also this year, we had one “problem”, although the situation is getting better and better each time, still such country as Latvia, doesn’t exist for Germans or they know nothing about it – nor where it is, nor what language we speak, nor our currency, nor capital city.
The biggest evidence for this situation is registration plates. Each country has their own ISO country codes, for Latvia the code is LV (El Vau if you pronounce in German), so this code makes sence for Lithuania (Litauen in German), but country code LT with Latvia (Lettland). This misunderstanding might not be the badest thing, because last year and before such country as Latvia didn’t exist and we were from Russia. Despite the EU flag on the registration plates 99% people thought that we are from Russia.
In the end of May, when we were in meeting in Austria, situation was a little different – we got a feeling that people here know geography a little better, because they recognised the EU flag on registration plates, so we weren’t from Russia, but Latvia and Lithuania was the same thing for them despite the fact that we tried to tell them all the time, that we are from Lavia.
The situation in Dresden this year was very good, in comparing with last year. Only one person said that we are from Russia, the rest from Latvia or Lithuania. As we knew that this kind of problem exists we tried to help people and we added our country name on hood, as said before, but even that didn’t help all time. There were many people (especially older ones (more than 50-60 years)) who didn’t believe and said that we are from Lithuania and period. One big and a little funny example was – when 3 men came to our car. One was young – something about 8-10 years, the middle one – something about 30-35 and the oldest one. After few moments of looking, the youngest asked to the middle one – what country we are from? What means LV? The middle one thought a little and then answered – I think Latvia. Then he saw the name on the hood and said with courage – Yes, Latvia, a small country near the Baltic sea! And then the oldest one interrupted the middle one – Don’t tell such stupid things to kid. LV has never been a code for Latvia. It can only be Lithuania. Then the middle one showed the country names on the hood on which the oldest one answered – They are fools. They don’t know from which country they are. LV has been, is and always will stand for Lithuania! Yes, these kind of things happen from time to time and not only in Germany. We have had the same thing in Italy, Spain, Great Britain and many other west side European countries.
While listening to interesting stories from where we are, we tried to answer all the questions from other. Mostly they asked how many kilometers did we drive, how many hours, days did we drive. But there was one Firebird owner who asked – how many times did you fill up in gas station? And when I answered 6 times, he said – whoaaa… that is like driving 1 month to work with my driving style.
Untill lunch time there were so many cars on the field, that Orgs had to expand the teritory even more and reorganize the parked ones to stuff all the villing drivers on the field. And with this little problem a small traffic jam was made on the near bridge.
By this time I understood that I need to fix my front lights, because of the cruise the next day and to get safely home. And I needed to do that today, because as known in Germany – when you don’t work, you don’t work! So all the shops on Sunday are closed. Walked around and asked few people where could I buy the required light bulb. And then i found out something new.. It is forbidden to have orange or yellow position lights in front. Only turning lights. So, it is impossible to buy orange bulbs in Germany. Only if you order them from USA. So I found one shop, where I did find two last bulbs, only problem – they were white. The seller said – I suppose it would look better with orange ones, but we don’t have such bulbs. And I answered – it not only would look better, but it’s original that way. The only way you could register a car with orange from position lights would be to make a huge pile wirh paperworks and even that doesn’t guarantee that Road Traffic Safety Directorate (RTSD) would allow to register the car, so the only way that works is – change the lights. Either way – I got new bulbs. washed the car, changed the bulbs, bought some products for planned BBQ for eve and my dad called – there is a TV guy who wants to make an interview with you. And I was like – what, why, who? So made a little interview and yes… now I’m a little TV star in Germany.
After the interview we went to the little mountain right next to the meeting point and made some pictures from above. Rock&Roll, burgers, nice cars and a girl right next to me – what could be even better?!
