Vignettes

Moments from 11 years in the European Union

I passed by a woman letting air out of a tire. She said her ex-boyfriend had promised to buy her a white Mercedes for her birthday. Then they broke up and he bought it for himself instead.
  - Nijmegen The Netherlands, 2004

"Ma, are we in Youghal? (pronounced yo'll.)"
"No, honey, this is killeagh (pronounced killa.)"
"Wha?"
  - On Bus Eireann in County Cork, Ireland, 2009

"It could be worse; you could drop dead and not know it."
  - A Hungarian-born Australian on a Romanian train, summer of 2009.