"I'll sleep when I'm dead." This was a phrase common to one of the sweetest and most lovable characters I have ever met in my life - my mom's best childhood friend. Everyone would laugh when she said this, in the spirit of staying up for the eternal 'one more drink'. Miss Barb always wanted to get the most out of a social gathering, and it was up to you to buckle up and stick out the night with her. Bless her soul, I still try to live up to her expectations in the spirit of fun and making memories. I think this story epitomizes one of the many times where I decided to buckle up, and it's one hell of a series of events.
In April of this year, I visited one of my girlfriends who was studying in Poland. At this time, I was still deep into my own studies as I was wrapping up my last full-time semester of my undergraduate degree. I had only a short amount of time, 12 days, between my last final exam and the start date for my new contract with Agriculture Canada. Non-negotiable, and I already had to pull some strings to have this much time (shout out to my professor for rescheduling me for an early exam). You best believe that I booked a flight to leave for Poland the morning after my evening final, with my return flight getting me home just 12 hours prior to my expected return to work.
Completely unprepared but full of excitement on finishing the last final of my degree and going on a trip to celebrate, I threw my gear in my backpack first thing in the morning and left for YVR. This was a Tuesday, and my day started at around six o'clock in the morning. My flight left in the afternoon, and was reasonably comfortable, just long. Despite the comfort though I am chronically unable to sleep when I am travelling. By rail, air or car - I will be awake until my head hits a real pillow (and I can actually be vertical). This doesn't bode so well for me with these long-haul flights or trains through multiple countries, but I have accepted my fate.
So - lo and behold I arrive in Frankfurt, Germany for a quick layover after a ten hour flight, around ten o'clock in the morning local time. I checked in with my girl Caitlin to update her on my status for our meet up after one more flight from Frankfurt to Katowice, Poland. I was trying to connect to the WI-FI to have a brief conversation with her while I was booking it from one end of this obnoxious airport to the other since my layover was brief - too brief for the hour-long queue to get through securities. Also, my terminal for my short flight to Katowice was on the exact opposite end of the airport from the long-haul international flight I had just gotten off of. Anyways - now sweating bullets and hustling my way to the other terminal, I was getting in some quick texts with Caitlin. Caitlin is informing me at this time, tired and sweaty, that Wednesday's are THE night to go out in Katowice with the rest of the international students she studies with. She has primed them for my arrival, and it is going down. Keep in mind that today is now indeed Wednesday, so she was talking about later on that same day. I didn't sleep a wink from Vancouver to Frankfurt. I was trying to squeeze in some quick "maybes" and the old "I'm tired" before I quickly got flushed out of the airport and onto my plane once I reached my gate, late but happy to be getting on the plane.
Fast-forward to arriving on the ground in Katowice. I usually don't need to collect baggage since I fly with just my carry-on backpack, so I was out of there in a heartbeat and just as soon as I could. Caitlin was waiting for me outside the terminal, where we caught up and headed for the bus to bring us to her flat in the city. On the bus ride, I remember fully believing that I did not have it in my soul to do a night out. I was desperate for a shower and some decent food, and I had already been up for almost twenty-four hours without a wink of sleep at that point. An eternal optimist, Caitlin was definitely pedaling the inspiration for me to meet her friends. I kept saying maybe, but I was 99.9% sure that it was not possible for my ass to get into a pair of jeans and do anything but sleep that evening. As I am sure you will guess though, "I'll sleep when I am dead" Paige showed up and that's why there's a story.
Caitlin and I got some food and a couple of drinks and headed back to hers to chat and catch up and chill. Emphasis on the chill. I still was thinking that it wasn't in me to get out of that flat. I was showered, my hair was in a towel on my head and I was basically a zombie sipping on a beer on Caitlin's floor in my sweatpants. A vision I am, I know. I must have said about a hundred times that that is where I would be remaining until the next day (we had an early bus ride to Vienna, Austria the next morning also), but for whatever reason, when Caitlin told me she was officially going to message her gang that the night was off for the two of us, I strapped on my party pants and delivered. I remember so clearly the wave of energy that hit me, and all settings were a go. We both got ourselves together, took some photos, drank diligently for a quick five and shot out the door. At this point, a couple of drinks with the gang but definitely no club was the confirmed game plan. I was still bagged (this would've been about hour thirty for me) and we did have an early bus to catch.
Fast-forward to six am. We are walking (hardly) back to Caitlin's flat from one of the local clubs. It was actually quite an ambitious walk, and we were watching the sun come up as we walked through town. This would make it the dawn of Thursday now. Hour forty-eight or so for moi. Our five-six hour bus to Vienna was in a couple of hours. At that point, Caitlin and I made the decision that we were for sure not going to be getting on that bus, and that we'd opt for a later departure. We hit the pillow and were out cold until very much the mid-afternoon. I think we were both shocked out of our sleep when we saw that time, granted that we did of course have other things booked in Vienna that we needed to get there for, so we got our lives together for the next episode and bolted. Hungover and all. We got down to the bus station to catch our new bus - which was over an hour late - where we essentially sat on a curb half-dead and recounted the events of the night before. Our bus finally arrived, at last, and we were en route to Vienna.
Because our bus was an hour late arriving, we didn't get to Vienna until the wee hours of the morning, around one o'clock or so. Caitlin had snoozed the whole ride to Vienna (she can sleep soundly anywhere) while I, of course, was wide awake. When we did get to our beds finally, we decided we would wake up around seven the next morning to make the most of our little time in Vienna. Maybe we would actually see some sites before we had to catch our next bus to Budapest the next afternoon... go figure.
We slept off the travel and did as we set out to do by waking up early to get the most out of our seriously dwindling time in Austria. We allotted enough time to see some of the major things, but we didn't have all that long before we had to get back to the bus station to catch our noon or so bus to Budapest. We hit Schönbrunn palace and St. Stephen's Cathedral and that was about all that we had time for. We wanted to leave a generous amount of time to get to the bus station. We caught a city line bus to the long-haul bus station that we had come in on - Vienna International Bus Terminal - and after some trial and error we figured out how to get inside. Considering this story is still ongoing, you might guess that we ran into some hiccups.
I remember we got in and settled down a bit, considering our issues with getting from place to place thus far on our adventure. As we were waiting I was watching the terminal television to find out what platform our bus would be arriving on. As the numbers were flashing by, first I noticed that I hadn't yet seen our trip number up there yet, then I noticed that the platform numbers were different from the one that Caitlin had pulled up on her app for the bus company (i.e. A1 versus PL-9). This wasn't a good sign, but before panicking I decided to talk to one of the ladies at the front counter. There was a long line. A long line which was moving at a snail pace. Eventually, a security guard approached us and asked if we had a question. Maybe we seeked him out as we started to worry more, I don't remember. This is about fifteen minutes prior to when our bus was scheduled to depart. To our literal horror, the security guard informed us that we were at the wrong bus station. Apparently there is not only the 'Vienna International Bus Terminal', but there is also an 'International Bus Terminal'. Wow. Just wow. This security guy had all but dismissed us at idiots for mixing up these *insert sarcasm* OBVIOUSLY different stations, and informed us that we'd be missing our bus.
In a fashion that we seemed accustomed to at this time, Caitlin and I made one last effort to catch this godforsaken bus to Budapest. Caitlin called an Uber that was thankfully right outside the station door, and we all but busted his windows as we shoved inside and dramatically asked him to get us to the *International Bus Terminal* as quickly as possible. Bless him because I think he really did try his best, all the while Caitlin and I are stressing to the max and watching the clock like a couple of crazy people. I remember the minutes ticking by, as I poured over the driver's GPS watching us slowly but surely getting closer to our destination. By the time we arrived at the correct bus station, it was already two minutes past the scheduled departure time for our bus. For those of you who aren't familiar, the long-haul bus trips in Europe are very punctual - like VERY punctual. They will often pull into the station about five minutes prior to their scheduled departure and the wheels are rolling at the exact minute they are scheduled to depart.
I had asked Caitlin which platform the bus was supposed to be on one more time, and since I had only my trusty backpack and no suitcase. I booked it out of that Uber and headed for where the driver had kindly informed our insane selves the platforms were located. I was looking for platform P-something. I am running and dodging folks with a stuffed, heavy backpack on my shoulders. I see A, B, C... all the way through F or so. And then it stops. Now I still don't know to this day where in the hell platform P would be found, but it wasn't in sight. As I am pacing at the end of the deck and looking around for any sign with a P on it, Caitlin has caught up (by the way, for some more comedic relief, Caitlin was literally cheering me on as I ran out of the Uber. It was pretty epic and hilarious, and even then I remember chuckling at the absolute movie-dramatics going on around us). At this moment, Caitlin spots a bright green Flixbus. Our bus company. These busses are hard to miss, but they are also very popular. This could literally be any Flixbus bound to any city, but it was the only one in sight and it was stopped at a red light at quite a big highway intersection.
I had pretty much given up at this point, but Caitlin was going for it. This chick runs across the road and I follow. At this point, we might as well try. This must have been the longest red light I have ever seen, and the bus was still waiting there as we ran up behind where the trip codes are printed on the back of the coach. It was OUR BUS. It still blows my mind with the luck of the whole thing. Further to the point, I was not sure that this driver was even going to let us on in the middle of an intersection. Caitlin was waving her arms and knocked on the door, and I think I almost cried when he opened them. We piled in through those doors in a heartbeat, and we just looked at each other with the most disbelief ever as we found some seats and ignored all of the shameful looks from the more coordinated travelers on the bus.
At this stage we were celebrating and we were on our way to Budapest. Budapest is really a story all in itself for another time, and this was also essentially the end of the really dramatic travel hiccups for this trip. It was an insane four or so days, and by far some of the least amount of sleep I have ever had. Compounded by two days thereafter of all-nighters in Budapest, but I will tell that wicked tale later!
The moral of this #storytime is definitely that travel, at least in my experience, is usually not smooth-sailing. It is not always as ridiculous as this experience, but missed buses, getting lost and moving on to plans B or C is very common. It is important to be flexible, and to travel with a partner (if you aren't travelling solo) who balances you out. When things don't go according to plan, you want to be able to scheme with someone else who sees the things that you don't.
Here's to hopefully fewer missed buses and more good times on my next adventures, but at least I got a great story to tell out of it!
xx
Photo Guide
Photo 1: Kraków, Poland
Photo 2: St. Stephen's Cathedral, Vienna, Austria
Photo 3: St, Stephen's Basilica, Budapest, Hungary
Photo 4: Budapest Eye, Budapest, Hungary
Photo 5: Caitlin and I, Katowice, Poland