Bus Station and ATM Mafunctions

So I had decided to take off and go to Vienna today. I bought a ticket online, but then realized I had to print it and I had no printer! I rushed to get my stuff together and ran out the door knowing time was going to be tight. I had only walked to this bus stop once and I had to find a printer as well now.

I got to the city center and ran into a hostel. They weren't able to help me. I ran into an internet place across the street, and I had barely enough Polish change left to print (I thought I had none it was a fluke I found some even!)

I printed my ticket but the tram had already left. I had 20 minutes to walk to the bus station, and I had only walked there once so this was going to be from memory and very very tight for time now.

I walked as fast I as humanly could with my backpack on. I was still just getting over this cold, so I was covered in sweat in no time; felt like I was really really pushing myself especially after dancing so much the night before... I tried and I was only 5-10 minutes late. I was hoping the bus was late.

I walked into the station and showed them my ticket asking if my bus had already left. The man shook his head and pointed to the date. The ticket was for Thursday! It was Sunday! Somehow I had messed it up online... either when I went to buy it I had to re enter info and it was on the wrong day and I didn't notice, or that was the ticket that showed up for Sunday because that was the next bus leaving by that company. WTF.

So I was disheartened. I looked and there was a bus at 9pm that night, so I went back to Ali's by tram feeling very defeated.


I told my host in Vienna that I had missed a bus (that may or may not have even existed) and that there was another but it arrived early the next morning. She was okay with this so I hung out at Ali's for a while...




... and went back to the bus stop. I had gotten rid of my Polish money, so I had to go to an ATM first. I left early to make sure I had time to do this. Good thing I did! There was an ATM outside, but I tried and then afterward it said it was a broken machine. UGH. There was one inside, but it was inside a store that had closed half an hour ago and the guy cleaning would not let me in to use it!! FUCK!

I had ten minutes before it left now, and I had no money! I was again looking like I was going to miss the bus. Then I had a genius thought that the train station is across the street and they should have one... so I ran for it. Again I was covered in sweat with my backpack bouncing behind me, but the ATM worked and I made it with a few minutes to spare. That was close.

Unfortunately since I was so close there were no places with two seats empty, so I had to be one of maybe three or so people that had to sit beside someone and not lay down sleeping on the seats for the overnight bus. Eight hours in a bus seat overnight later, I had not gotten very much sleep and it was not even 5am when I got on the Ubahn in Vienna. I arrived at about 5:30am tired and hungry.

Ida, my wonderful host, met me at the station at this ungodly hour and showed me back to the house where we both went to sleep right away....

Dancing away a Cold

Okay I woke up feeling fully sick. I had a cold and it was a bad one. Luckily my bladder was feeling okay. I had a bath, lazed around, went on the computer, etc. I ate a little food but nothing tasted good. My nose was like a leaky tap and I was sleepy all day! Didn't really do much.

I was going to go out that night but fat chance of that now. Ali was wonderful and cooked delicious dinner in a clay pot he had from Pakistan! We watched funny YouTube videos on the couch for most of the night :)

The next day I was feeling still tired, but better than the day before... I was well enough to go to the post office and mail some things... The mailbox was so old I wasn't sure if I was supposed to put mail in it or if it was a display...







So mission accomplished there! We walked to the bus station to check times for going to Vienna, my next destination, but I didn't buy any tickets yet. Just looked at times.

At night, we went out. I didn't want to have beer that's for sure, and I was hesitant to even have alcohol. I ended up being convinced to have some gin and tonic (it's helped in the past) but no beer. The place was awesome, the decor was nice and the people just kept coming in the door.

A dance floor formed and I ended up dancing for a while! It really woke me up and I was feeling refreshed from finally moving around again :) Ali and I had originally gone over to meet up with the coworkers from another night, but then CS people were there too and some of the coworkers left. I ended up bouncing between the two groups and the dance floor until I got tired. We hung out for a while in a bench thing with CS people then, predictably, we left haha.

Wrocław Walkabout, and Revenge of the Bladder

I woke up in a very unfavourable way.

My bladder was not happy. AGAIN! I thought maybe it was the beers that I had - I couldn't think of why this was happening! My sore throat thing was progressing to something more too, so it was a double sick whammmooo.

I was not happy. I was in fact stuck going to the toilet every few minutes. Ugh. This went on for several hours while I guzzled water and tried to flush it out. It seemed to work.

I figured I was well enough to go into the city. I bought 1.5 Litres of water on the way, but I didn't realize it would be bubbly and it exploded at first. Stupid fizzy water! Ah well at least I didn't have to pee the whole walk into town!



I made it into the city center and I was doing okay! Took some photos:

















It was nice to see the city in the daytime too... Plus there is a story behind the gnomes; they appeared in 2005 (according to the internet) and are associated with the peaceful protests that went on against communism back in the 80's by a group called the Orange Alternative Movement.

They are scattered everywhere, so I was walking around and sometimes I'd stumble across one of these guys - made walking around the city more of an adventure, which was very welcome since I've already walked around so many cities at this point!

The guy looking at Lego was also a high point. I was walking down the street and this guy in a fancy suit started walking in front of me. It was by far the fanciest suit I had seen so far in this town, and he looked very business-like on his cell phone etc. He crossed the street, and ended up staring at the window of the LEGO store for quite a while - really cracked me up! I was so happy to see this I took a picture of him :)

Soooo I had some ice cream, sat and ate it, and eventually it was time to go to a BBQ put on my Ali's co workers. All the people except us were going to be Polish at this BBQ, so I was interested to meet everyone. I was a little late getting on the tram with Ali, but we still made it pretty early.

We chatted, cooked food, etc. I was starting to feel really tired though, and after having only half a beer I was peeing (not an extreme amount but more than I should) so I opted to not go out after this BBQ and we shared a cab home with 2 other people. I was starting to feel like I was going to be fairly sick :s

From Berlin to Wrocław

Breakfast and showers ensued for all at the house... Sandra had to start hitchhiking to Lithuania, and eventually Floh was going to have his apartment back. I wasn't able to connect to the internet with my computer at Jonas' house for some reason, so I went to a cafe and had some food and did some computer stuff...

Floh came and met me there, and then Jonas came for key exchange. I can't remember how exactly it worked, but I ended up dropping my stuff off at Floh's and then Adam and Falc were at the place and we all hung out for a while. Eventually everyone stayed over at Floh's :)



I had found a rideshare out to Poland for the next day! I was recommended to go to Wroclaw, so I found a host and a ride on Mitfahrgelegenheit leaving in the evening.

I hadn't really unpacked much, so it was fast to get my stuff together. Floh came with me to the meeting point, and it's a good thing too because they were 20 minutes late so I would have been bored (I have no books left) :)

The trip there was not very far at all... so it was still daylight when I arrived!
The driver was really nice, and even dropped me close to where I was staying :) I found my host, and we went back to drop off my stuff. I started much-needed laundry. We also took photos of the Polish version of the Trabi, the Maluch.




That evening we took the tram into the city center. I was surprised at how different it was from the outskirts! The outer areas are much more communist style, but the center has some really pretty buildings and squares. We had a few beers outside in the square, and eventually walked home. I slept well.