Step on the grass please!

Versiune în română

One of the stupid ideas inherited from the communist regime was that never ever, in any circumstances, one is allowed to step on the grass in a public park. From my childhood I remember that any strip of green grass had a sign on it saying “Don’t step on the grass!”, sometimes with the smaller addition “Fine xxx (some ammount that my parents were not prepared to pay) lei”. After 1989, when Romanians were finally allowed to own a passport and I got to see the world outside my country I was puzzled to find out that most corners of the world don’t have this policing of the grass. First time I stepped on the grass in a park I felt a bit guilty and I asked myself why is it OK to do this in other countries and why is it not OK in Romania? But some things change with time and last summer I’ve read in the press that from now on the citizens of Bucharest will be allowed to step, sit, loiter, etc on the grass in public parks. To be honest I didn’t really believe it to be true. Yet, lo and behold, to my surprise, Cişmigiu Park is full of signs like the one in today’s photograph, reading “It is allowed to step on the grass” (it’s an approximate translation, since the verb used doesn’t translate directly into English). I guess I lived to see the day 🙂