Red lights, stop signs, one ways... what are those?

I just passed my motorbike (a.k.a scooter) license exam last week and let me tell you that even though we paid a guy to "smooth" things a little, it was one of the most stressful moments I ever had since leaving the policing world!!

Let me start off buy by saying that my goal was to legitimately get my drivers license... I'm really serious, for all of you thinking "Yeah right Greeko Suave!" Like many things in this area of the world, you have to go with the flow or else you will not last long in this country. The license I was trying to acquire is for scooters that have engines between 50CC-150CC.

Ok, back to my fairytale. Once upon a time in a land far far farrrr away, a Greek, a Bosnian, a Romanian, a Canadian and a Pole all went to a remote city location to get their DL. It all started with a phone call to a young dude and a cash payment of 3 million (180$ CAN) each. This "dude" has contacts at the ministry of transportation which he uses to set us up to write the exam and then do a figure 8, speed bump and slalom course. The catch is that we do the exam on the same day as the other 150 locals that have been waiting for the last two hours, but we "butt" to the font of their line!

Just when we think things can't get any more awkward, we are told to be ready to read a sentence in their dialect. To just pretend we are fluent speakers and that everything will be ok... Yiiiiikes! I am so f_ _ _ !

In the end, even if 150 irate individuals gave us the evil eye we passed all the tests! The figure 8 was the only real challenge, as there were metallic sensors on our exam scooters that would beep if we crossed over the white lines that delimit the driving areas. If you cross more then four times you fail!

They all got their scooter licenses too!