As you may well imagine, driving in a city of almost 15 million people can be harrowing at best. Factor in roads that were built to handle very few cars under the communists with a flood of cars now coming in from Europe, snowfall, which never quite gets cleared from the roads and then the driving habits of those who "start their engines" in the morning, and you have a mixture which can be quite volatile.
The rules of the game are quite simple - NO Rules - unless you get caught. One thing that is strange to westerners that I've met is the basic theory that left turns are not allowed. There are three "ring" roads in the city and heaven help you if you're on the wrong side needing to turn left. On Christmas Eve I was in one such situation. It took me 10 miles of driving to get to the U-Turn lane (yes, they have those). Except that when the light turns green, everyone turns left and does a mass U-Turn. Reminds me of the schools of fish I saw swimming by the coral reefs in the Red Sea. They all turn at once! I proceeded to turn with the crowd and the cop standing on the corner waved his "magic wand" at me and took my license for turning too soon. I got to visit the local police office to pay my small fine (by going to the bank down the street from the police office) and spend the day with my interpreter walking around and riding the metro to get to and from.
It's amazing to learn how to go through the system of a foreign country when the rules are different. If you have bad nerves, you shouldn't try the roads here. Just walk to the metro and try getting into the wagons to get where you're going. It's less comfortable, but you can leave the driving to them.
![]( <p align='center'> <a href='http://www.blogs.com'><img src="http://www.blogs.com/badges/find-the-best-blogs-magenta.gif" target='_blank' alt='Find the best blogs at Blogs.com.' border='0' ></a></p>){kind=link}