Friendly Foreigners - There are some!

UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUMS THE UK PROFESSIONAL DRIVERS FORUM (INTERACTIVE)
1

Was parked up by Tesco off M6 J2 Coventry, forget the name of the estate but they have recentlt double yellowed most of it!

Anyhow, got a space and there was a single space in front of me, into which dived a Turk.

Anyhow he does the old sign language thing of “Is it ok to park here?”, i replied “yeah, no problem”

Anyhow he then comes over with a map and asks the best way to Buxton, so i showed him, in my truck, out of the cold. I then offered him a beer, which he refused, and scuttled back to his cab and returns with a bottle of RAKI!!!

Anyhow they drink this stuff in short measures with Water, which turns it white, very wierd! He only had 1 all night, dispelling myths of them all getting trolleyed!!!

He then dissapeared to cook for a bit and returned with meat (Dog?) and cheese and olives, plated up for 2!

By now we were chatting well, using his ropey english, my non existent turkish and sign langauge! He was telling me about his job, Turkey - Italy - England - Turkey. Told me all about his family, working to get his kids into Uni etc.

He then got into admiring my TV, and offered me cash for it!!! So i pulled my old lcd 7 inch jobbie out which i aint used in years, and sold it for £30, about what it was worth!

he then opened his side locker which was full of Garments and Linen and gave me loads of Mothercare Duvet sets and Blankets, all brand new!!!

I swapped these for an old Manchester United scarf i had in my locker!!!

What i’m basically saying is that we all slag them off but they are just people like us, and if u get to chat to them it can be a good experience, they’re not all “Dirty foreigners”!

2

nice to see someone not slagging off foreigners, so I’ll second the above wholeheartedly.

3

sounds like swap shop industial estate to me :laughing: :laughing:

4

Of course, they are all drivers like you and me, the difference being, they are trying to support a family on a much lower wage than us, yet they will still give you anything they can.

If you read all the anti crap on these forums, you will see it is local shopkeepers supply dollies or children making all the crass comments about Norfolk being kept for local people to fertilize themselves :wink:

Many drivers who have been stuck in a dusty truck park or outside a factory in Poland, Spain, Greece, Turkey or even France will have stories of being invited for a drink or a meal with a local family, or another driver who speaks the language. I had my truck dash rewired by a Turk in a Belgian parking area, and my only payment was an icecream because he had never had one.

5

I agree with Wheelnut. The surprise of this thread is not a friendly foreigner, but a friendly British driver. :wink:

6

muckles:
I agree with Wheelnut.

So do I…

muckles:
but a friendly British driver. :wink:

now, don’t get me started :open_mouth: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :smiley: :wink:

7

muckles:
I agree with Wheelnut. The surprise of this thread is not a friendly foreigner, but a friendly British driver. :wink:

I didnt expect you to agree with the self fertilization of the good people of Norfolk :smiley:

8

Wheel Nut:

muckles:
I agree with Wheelnut. The surprise of this thread is not a friendly foreigner, but a friendly British driver. :wink:

I didnt expect you to agree with the self fertilization of the good people of Norfolk :smiley:

:laughing: :blush:

9

I found that too whilst working as a deputy warehouse manager in a previous life. The fact I speak passable Russian, and know the culture well, helped to break the ice too with the fella’s from eastern Europe. Drivers are the same all over, as are people in general, some are diamonds and some are total ■■■■■.

10

as are people in general, some are diamonds and some are total ■■■■■

couldn,t agree more

11

Yes Gaz, that is a Turkish driver to a T
they are one of the most nicest people
around and as wheelnut posted will help
out when they see you in trouble.

12

i have met many turks here and abroad one occasion i remember well was in a factory in dundee 3 turks just getting out of bed got all the side boxes opend up to prepare breakfast on doing so beckond me over to join them for me no problem i joined them lots of smiles they washed me a glass for my black tea and had a bite to eat with them they were chuffed to bits me to we shook hands said goodye then they wer of to dover i told some of our drivers they thought i was nuts ignorance eh its a funny thing . :smiley:

13

So i pulled my old lcd 7 inch jobbie out which i aint used in years

I got a bit scared when I read that bit! :wink: :wink:

Good on you, not all auslanders are bad 'uns.

14

I thought that when i typed it, can i say i got my 7 incher out for a Turkish bloke?!

15

Gaz:
I thought that when i typed it, can i say i got my 7 incher out for a Turkish bloke?!

His delight :smiley: :smiley:

16

I still maintain that the influx of foreign drivers and workers is partially to blame for the state of the economy in this country due to money going out of britain, but like with british drivers there are good and some bad and as per usual its the bad that comes to light more than the good. Glad to see people sharing their good experiences with our foriegn counterparts.

17

Gaz:
I thought that when i typed it, can i say i got my 7 incher out for a Turkish bloke?!

at least it wasn’t a 32 inch wide-scream

18

Good to hear :smiley: Turkish drivers - most friendly drivers I have seen it. They were happy to offer us for a brew or meal something like that.

19

Oh, foreigners can be really nice :slight_smile: I even met once a nice British driver in some industrial estate in Birmingham. He invited me for wine and I gave him a CD with a russian disco (completely crap music, but it’s better to keep you awake than dozen of Red Bulls :smiley: )

:laughing: :laughing: :laughing: :laughing:

But as for Turks: I had once a good adventure with them.

I was hitchhiking arround Europe at this time (as a young student) and I was geting back from La Rochelle to Prague. I couldn’t catch anything on one MSA in germany, but there was one Polish camper going opposite way, they invited me to spend night inside as it was really huge and they had one bedroom empty.

At the morning I hit the road again and two turkish artics stopped. They told me “poor guy, we seen you here yesterday” but I happily explained them that I wasn’t sitting all night at the shoulder. But they offered me a lift to Nurnberg, which was quite far away from that place.

On 45’ they stopped on lorry park, pulled some drawer from under the trailer and it was fully fitted kitchen with LPG bottle and cooker and grill. They invited me for something similar to hot-dogs but it was so hot, that they barely were able to refill this tiny glass with a tea for me.

It’s worth to mention that they had only two folding chairs so I sat on the kerb, but they were insisting that I shall sit on the one of the chairs as I was their guest.

On the way they had a flat tyre. They stopped, looked at it and told “OK, there are still 5 good ones” and then we started to drive again. Unfortunably soon another one went burst. That meant that situation is serious and we left a motorway in first town, stopped at the roadside and asked some random turkish pedestrian.

Soon we landed in some centre of muslim culture, next to mosque, where I stayed with some boy who claimed he can speak english (but he was only able to tell “Very good” and “Wanna tea?”) Every single muslim guy in night gown who were entering the room was shocked of my presence and was looking strange on me, but then the young boy was explaining something to them and then they becomed smiling and treated me like some prince or something… I was really confused by this situation (and it was lucky that it was BEFORE the 9/11 :smiley:) but soon my drivers, who went away with driver and translator to find tyres came back. They told me that this one lorry must stay there for one day before it will be fixed. I told then “not a problem, thanks for the lift, I will go and catch something” But the guys told “No! You are our guest and we promised you a lift, so we will deliver that promise” and they just put me to second lorry and guy gave me a lift.

On my depart from muslim centre everybody left the building and were vawing to me, few more important guys even gaved me a hug :unamused: I wil always wondering what they told them that who am I?

The other driver wasn’t speaking any english, but he knew few words in russian so we were able to exchange few words, as russian is very similar to Polish…

When we approached the Nurnberg, I told him that I want to get out on one particular MSA, but he was only nodding, and smiling and keep driving. Just before the slip road I told him “STOP STOP !!!” so he stopped… IN THE MIDDLE LANE ON GERMAN MOTORWAY!!!

I thanked him a lot and risking my life jumped out the lorry and run to the car park…

Yeah, Turkish lorry drivers are quite nice people :slight_smile:

20

brit pete:
Yes Gaz, that is a Turkish driver to a T
they are one of the most nicest people
around and as wheelnut posted will help
out when they see you in trouble.

The local kebab man is Turkish and is the nicest possible bloke you could ever meet (even gives me free drinks :laughing: ) and he even gave me a lot of encourgement to do my HGV - “you can pass it, you’ll do well” :laughing: :laughing: :laughing: