i got a 100€ fine and it saved me 3000€

 

i've been driving for 10 years now, and this is my first ticket ever ! so yes, you better believe i decorated it, and will cherish her forever ! !

i reside and work in 2 different cities, both very tiny and very close to each other. it takes me around 20-30 minutes to travel from one to another by car, 45 min by train. in either case, from the train station or the parking spot, it takes me 20 minutes to get to the cafe i work at. 

so there goes a whole hour (two, if you count getting back home) of my life i use for work without getting paid. not that i get paid that much anyways, it's well known all around the world, touristic countries exploit their waitresses. i work 8 hours a day, five days a week, for 600€ a month. you can try and do the math there to figure out how can i afford living like this, it doesn't add up.  

it's been 2 years since i gave up on the train, we get 1 train per hour up until 10PM. that is, if i missed a train i had to wait for an hour for the next, and if i get out of work after 10 (so every time i work the night shift), i just can't go back home. it was very frustrating, i lost so much time waiting. 

the car makes it much easier, but it's not all good: i have to pay for parking. the cheapest one is 1.20€/h, but you can only pay for 3h at a time, so every 3h you have to go back to the car and pay again. you can imagine why those conditions are not ideal for the working class that can't afford any other parking spot, but everything in the city is built for the guiris (tourists /neg), fuck the locals !

the locals have tricks tho, we have to, how else are se suppose to survive ?  so what i do is: park and pay for the 3h, and then pray to the almighty sun, there's not a ticket on my car when get back to it by the end of the day. 

this "cheap" parking is just the street, you can find them all over the city, some of them are hiding, some of them are in a big concrete ugly looking place, very far away form the main city, and with no shade at all, it gets so hot there you could fry an egg on the floor. 

i know for a fact, if i park there, there's little to no chance, the dude in charge of driving all over the city with a tiny car with no doors, that can't go faster than 20km/h, will go there to check on my car. i know he's thinking the exact same thing i think when i park there, and have to walk to work: it's so far away and it's so hot (not just in summer, it's hot in here almost the whole year), it's not worth it, they don't pay me enough. so he places a bunch of tickets in way more easy to access cars and calls it a day. i also know, that if he goes there, because he has to go at least a few times a week (it's his job), he will do it at the beginning of his day to get it over with, which is why i pay for the first 3h. 

that means i've been parking for 2 years, paying only 3h, when i should've been paying for 9h a day (sometimes more, night shifts can get veeery long).

tw: MATH ! 

1.20/h for 9h: 10.80€/day - i pay: 3.60€/day , i save: 7.20€/day

i work 5 days a week: i save 36€/week, around 144€/month

for 2 years: ~3456€

the fine was 100€, 50€ if i pay for it as soon as i get it, which i did.

in conclusion, paying for the fine was way cheaper than paying for the parking. also i should add, i got the ticket for parking not in my usual spot, but on a different one right in the middle of the city. i was late for work and i couldn't afford walking for 20 min, so i had to park there. which means the sun wasn't looking over my car and couldn't protect it, doesn't matter how much i prayed. 

sighs, it's sad that poor people have to trick the system to survive, when the system should be there to make everyone's life easier and safer. i hate mass tourism and my fascist government with a passion.