I had to buy two tickets today.  One from Romania to Sofia, Bulgaria and one from Sofia to Budapest, Hungary.   The great thing is that I could do it from one office.   Before I would have to wait to get to Sofia to buy the ticket to Budapest.

I wanted to look chic and Romanian today, so I wore my tight jeans (not difficult now since I’ve put on a few pounds of bread) and my heeled boots.  I worried that I’d wobble on the cobble but I’m all good.   No bruises!

Several years ago it used to be called the airplane ticket office.   You went in and waited in line standing.  You had to leave your place in line to go get the exact change at the exchange office and then go back and wait standing again.   It took forever as they hand wrote the tickets out, page by page, and where carbon could be used, they used huge sheets of carbon paper.  They had several official stamps for every page and line and you signed the receipt.   The agent was stoic and unfriendly.   There was only one price.  The price was cheap.  You were handed a hand-penned ticket and you leave happy.  You have been there two hours.

Now it is called the travel agency.  It is a modern office, you go in and stand in line, it takes forever, you have to leave your place to go get the exact change at the exchange office and then go back and wait standing again.   The agent is cheerful and helpful to get the best price.  The ticket is typed into the computer and you have to wait and wait for it to be issued and printed.  They print several copies.  The computer keeps printing the same thing out over and over, a mistake.   So you wait more.  The price is in Euros, outrageous.  Finally the ticket.   They have several official stamps for every page and line and you have to sign the receipt.  You are handed an e-ticket and you leave happy.   You have been there two hours.

So the efficiency is the same, with or without computers.  This is the way it is.