I had to buy two tickets today.\u00a0 One from Romania to Sofia, Bulgaria and one from Sofia to Budapest, Hungary.\u00a0\u00a0 The great thing is that I could do it from one office.\u00a0\u00a0 Before I would have to wait to get to Sofia to buy the ticket to Budapest.<\/p>\n
I wanted to look chic and Romanian today, so I wore my tight jeans (not difficult now since I\u2019ve put on a few pounds of bread) and my heeled boots.\u00a0 I worried that I\u2019d wobble on the cobble but I\u2019m all good.\u00a0\u00a0 No bruises!<\/p>\n
Several years ago it used to be called the airplane ticket office.\u00a0\u00a0 You\u00a0went in and waited in line standing.\u00a0\u00a0You\u00a0had to leave your place in line\u00a0to go get the exact change at the exchange office and then go back and wait standing again.\u00a0\u00a0 It took\u00a0forever as they hand wrote the tickets out, page by page,\u00a0and where carbon could be used, they used huge sheets of carbon paper.\u00a0\u00a0They\u00a0had several official stamps for every page and line and you\u00a0signed the\u00a0receipt.\u00a0 \u00a0The agent\u00a0was stoic and unfriendly.\u00a0\u00a0 There was only one price.\u00a0 The price was cheap.\u00a0 You\u00a0were handed a hand-penned ticket and you leave happy.\u00a0 You have been there two hours.<\/p>\n
Now it is called the travel agency.\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0 The agent is cheerful and helpful to get the best price.\u00a0 The ticket is typed into the computer and you have to wait and wait for it to be issued and printed.\u00a0\u00a0They\u00a0print several copies. \u00a0The computer keeps printing the same thing out over and over, a mistake.\u00a0\u00a0 So you wait more.\u00a0 The price is in Euros, outrageous.\u00a0 Finally the ticket.\u00a0\u00a0 They have several official stamps for every page and line and you have to sign the receipt.\u00a0 You are handed an e-ticket and you leave happy.\u00a0\u00a0 You have been there two hours.<\/p>\n
So the efficiency is the same, with or without computers.\u00a0 This is the way it is.<\/p>\n