Surfing the city

I'm reading a book by Nick Hornby, Slam (2007), and his main character, a teenager, tells something about London that reminded me of Bucharest right away:

Whoever invented skating is a genius, in my opinion. London gets in the way of every other sport. There are tiny little patched of green where you can play football, or golf, or whatever, and the concrete is trying to eat them away. So you play these games in spite of the city and, really, it would be better if you lived just about anywhere else, out in the countryside, or the suburbs, or some place like Australia. But skating you do because of the city. We need as much concrete and as many stairs and ramps and benches and pavements as you've got. And when the world's been completely paved over, we'll be the only athletes left, and there will be statues of famous skaters all over the world, and the Olympics will just be a million of different skating competitions, and then the people might actually watch. I will, anyway.

It sounds so right... But then, why don't I bump into skaters around here so often? Maybe Bucharest is a step further (or behind)... There's no lack of pavement, but of smooth pavement; plenty of stairs and ramps, but discontinuous ones, shabby and full of holes.

Just an idea.

I know I must be patient with this in-construction, promising city, but some days it's difficult, I get tired... Sorry about that.