September 12, 2018 – koła w autobusie idą w kółko… and now in German — Die Räder im Bus drehen sich um und um

I’m headed to the station here in Wroclaw to grab the 1300 mid-day bus to Berlin. On a frustrating note, for the second time in as many weeks, a guy sneezed on me and I awoke this morning with a sore throat and yucky drainage. I’m popping echinacea, turmeric, grape seed, suphedrine, aspirin, and spinning around three times before spitting. Maybe I’ll sleep on the bus. I’m leery of doing that as I have this recurrent nightmare that I’ll wake up and find myself in the wrong country.

Years ago I was sick and my Mom and in were in Barcelona. I got us on the wrong train; when I realized it, I figured at worst we’d just get off at the next station. Unfortunately, it was an express out to the coast and we had to ride an hour to the next stop. Had I not been coughing up a lung and struggling with staying upright it might have been funny. It IS funny now. But at the time — man, I proved once again that the Hannas are amongst the worst sick people/patients on the globe. Sorry again, Mom. Not my finest hour… er, well, two hours counting the roundtrip.

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After a few language barrier miscommunications, I realized I needed to go downstairs to the bus stops to catch my bus.  I guess I knew that, I just wasn’t sure if I was in the right place for my bus line.  I’d never used these folks before, typically riding FlixBus.  But IC was significantly cheaper on this route.

The bus itself was comfy enough and I got my checked bag loaded without too much trouble.  The trip itself was uneventful, and mostly nonstop from Wroclaw to Berlin.  There were just a few stops in Berlin proper (the airport and a southern bus depot) before we arrived at the Central Bus Terminal, the Europaplatz.

I was in a weird semi-consciousness state, unable to really focus on my book or pull much enthusiasm for watching a movie.  Mostly, I just sorta floated through the journey, both in and out of body.

A few notes though from the road:

The bus company had a purser on board in addition to the driver who offered drinks and snacks for purchase.  You couldn’t buy alcohol within Poland’s borders but once we crossed into Germany, it was pretty much anything goes.

I was yelled at by another passenger for being in their seat.  I couldn’t really figure out where my seat number was on my ticket… and honestly, even if I did, finding that seat number was like playing Bingo or one of those hidden picture games — there didn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason to the sequencing of the numbered seatbacks.

My first impression of Berlin?  Um… they seemed friendly enough…

My host here, Kristof, was super chill about everything.  He recommended a place around the corner where I had some nice Arabian food.  I’ll hunt up some local German fare tomorrow but this was tasty and easy.  Not as cheap as Poland to be sure but totally fine.

I meet up with TravellingFit on Friday so tomorrow is a free day to explore.  It’s the only day in the forecast for rain though so I may spend it chilling.  Ironically, my leg hurts more from having been sitting on that bus for 4.5 hours today than it did when I was just walking about town post-Marathon.  What this means for Sunday’s race is anybody’s guess.

I skipped the slightly more expensive Berlin gelato (where have you gone 1 euro Dusseldorf cone?).  But because I’m at an AirBNB with real glasses, I decided to stop at the local grocery store and pick up a bottle of red for my own personal movie night.

I didn’t check GoogleTranslate but I assume this means in English either, “Grape Juice” or “Don’t Bother!”

Anyway, as I walked back to my AirBNB, I whistled a song from The Producers and thought, “Sunset for Kevin in Germany…”

Until we meet again… Gute Nacht!