How to get beat down on the street

Before you read further, let me at first state this:

Generally I feel safer in Bucuresti than I do in Oslo. In Oslo guys (and girls) drink more, and all the clubs close at 03.30, so around that time there are tons of drunk people on the streets. So there are more random acts of violence. But while living in Bucuresti for the last year I haven't heard of anyone getting into any kind of violence here. It just seems safer in general here.

***

OK. So my friend Bryan and I are leaving the club "Embryo" here in Bucuresti, close to the the center. It's 03.30 on a Saturday night, and we have walked 50-60 meters when we meet a group of people, about 4-5 guys and 3-4 girls. Bryan and I are speaking English together, maybe they hear that.

Suddenly - completely out of the blue - one of them hits me really hard on my forehead. I had noticed the guy half a second before and thought he looked kinda drunk and/or dangerous, but there was no eye contact, no spoken words, nothing.

I fall down to the ground, shaken and confused, at first not realizing what happened. After a moment of confusion I say half-loud "what the fuck?" so they hear me, but none in the group seem to care. They're just walking away, slowly towards the club.

The guy doesn't come back for more, no one in the group says anything to me. My friend Bryan valiantly follows them, calling the police at the same time. They stay outside the club for 5 minutes, but then disappear before the police arrives, probably because they see Bryan being on the phone and staying close by them.

After the police disappears, because we don't really have any description, I'm feeling better. My head is still hurting, but not so much. The only thing I'm afraid of is that I might have a concussion, but it seems I'm OK.

So I guess I'm lucky. If the guy had hit three centimeters below, he could have crushed the glass in my glasses and blinded me. Six centimeters below - broken nose. Nine centimeters - broken teeth. So I'm not complaining.

***

Ironically, the same thing happened to my younger brother while he was studying in the small town Grimstad, on the south side of Norway. He was also just struck down for no reason, except he didn't even see the guy, and he was hit on the nose and mouth so he was bleeding like crazy.

Anyway. Am I going to be more scared of people after this? Not go out that much? Look over my neck? I hope not. And as I said, it seems there are less drunk people here that in Oslo, so the chances of this happening are very slim.

Quote of the day, from "Californication"

So I'm following "Californication" (Showtime), a new drama TV-series starring David Duchovny. He's a writer who doesn't write, a divorced womanizer who doesn't care about the women he seduces, and he's more than full of wit and pointy sarcasms - yet empty inside.

The tagline is "Trying to get over the one that got away... has never been so much fun."

It's a very good series, and in episode 3 our friend uttered the following line while fantasizing about being with his family again:

"My family goes on without me, while I drown in a sea of pointless pussy."

A promo clip here:



Another promo here:

New pictures

My friend Sara came to visit me here in Romania, and we went on a little holiday around Romania and Moldova. We saw live bears eating garbage near blocks of flats, beautiful small cities, met nice people and ate lots of good food - cool little trip.

You can see all the pictures here.

Yes, it's a bear just 10 meters from us

Let it all out, man

Cool short clip from "Wake Up, Ron Burgundy: The Lost Movie". I can really recommend this movie! It's a companion/sequel to "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy", and both are hilarious. In a good way.