Radka Rubilina: Car Driving Try-out, Armenia, Yerevan 2013
I have been driving since 18 years old. But this is a new job and rules are rules, so I had to pass an exam on driving again. One of the local drivers was sitting next to me, observing how and if I can open a car with a remote key control. “And what is this?” teasing him, I pointed at the hand break... It was about a time to go.
But, to drive a car on wild Yerevan’s streets is not the same as to drive a car on cozy Swiss district roads. I did not make any driving offence, nor did I cause any dangerous traffic situation. However, by the second minute, the driver was already infuriated. “Why do you let the clutch go so early?” he asked with interruptions, evidently fighting his irritation. But the car was going smoothly, without jerky moves, so I did not understand his point.
He did not dare to scream at me, but after a few minutes …he almost did. “Damn it, you really don’t feel it? Step on it. Step on it! Come on! Go for it! Step on it!” the driver was yelling at me.
Me, the one, who – for a very first time - was driving by-authority-entrusted car in a strange city, was controlling all the mirrors for crazy motorcyclists coming to the streets from left and right, plus by soft honking was letting them know about my presence...
Oh, how sweet it is, later in the evening, to be in the bed with a book of my favorite poet and to let her melodious poems cradle me…
Radka Rubilina, 2013