Having lived in Europe for 3 hockey seasons before this one I was already aware of the fact that they don't always have the same safety standards as some things in North America.
In North America, we are taught to always put your baby in a car seat when you are driving... here I was told tonight by the cab driver who wasn't being patient as TH hooked the car seat inside..
"JUST throw your baby on your lap.."
YA RIGHT BUDDY.
I remember watching out the window of our apartment in Holland as children played in the playground outside..
a rope play structure jungle gym....
Something that would have been taken down at home in a second.
Another example is when mom and I went to the catacombs in Paris. Underground cemetery... rows and rows of skeletal remains.. right there in arms reach.. mom even stuck her fingers in someone's eye sockets which I was NOT impressed by..
This would be a health issue at home..
I am VERY grateful to having an elevator.
I basically need one for the stroller now.
Our elevator here is VERY small. It fits me, TH and the stroller in it tight.
Then you must close the main metal door, then the 2 wooden doors have to close which means you have to lean and step backwards so they can close.
If someone forgets to close the metal door on one of the floors the elevators just won't work.
GEEZ..
When this happened TH ran up the levels above us.. the doors were closed.. then he stayed with A and I ran down the levels below.. main floor.. door open.
I got inside closed it and rode up to get them.
We live on the forth floor but here they don't count the first floor as 1 so we press 3 to get to our place.
When we first moved in nobody told us that the bright red button with the symbol on it meant main floor.
We figured... red button = emergency stop
So when we got in and went downstairs we pressed 0.
When we got to 0 we opened the little wooden doors and the metal door was locked.
WTF
It is that nightmare that we all have about getting stuck in an elevator except for us... we don't speak Serbian and nobody knows us here to even come looking for us.
We closed the wooden doors and pressed 0 thinking we were on the wrong floor... wouldn't move.
Panic sunk in...
TH pushed the doors harder and I lost control and pressed buttons 1, 2, 3.. finally it moved to floor 1.
We get out.. and it is actually floor 2.
So we walked down the staircase and carried the stroller.
Same thing happened the next day when I was with TI except she pressed the red button when we were stuck on 0 and the elevator went to the main floor.
OF COURSE THE RED BUTTON MEANS MAIN FLOOR!!??
When TH got home a while later I couldn't wait to tell him what we figured out (we meaning TI).. he said that he figured it out too because he was stuck in there for a while until someone else got in on a different floor and he thought he would be nice and pressed the 0 button for him.. when he did the guy was like... agghhhh and then pressed the red button and they finally got off.
Floor '0' is the bomb shelter.
Which you would expect to be a RED button right??
NOPE.
Simple as that... if you are a local I guess.
