Plans for Budapest foiled. I tried to catch a bus last night without a ticket. The information attendant was able to tell me what time and which platform the bus left from but couldn't tell me how much or where to buy the ticket. I assumed that you could purchase tickets on the bus and as it turned out you could (note to self: ALWAYS buy your ticket in advance), but they only accepted Florints (Hungarian currency) or Euros, not Koruna (Czech currency) or US Dollars which I had plenty of. The bus drivers didn't say anything to me except give me your passport and get on the bus. I was nervous about being separated from my passport but figured that there wasn't really anywhere for them to go with it.
The bus departed and I tried to settle in, waiting for the attendant to come back to me for payment. After a while he did make his way back to me asking for payment, while gripping my passport. 36 Euros. I had a few leftover Euros from my jaunt in western Europe but certainly not that many. I had, and not unreasonably, expected to pay in Korunas since I was boarding the bus in the Czech Republic and the fare was posted in Koruna as well. There was no reason for me to expect to pay in any other currency, none. The attendant said no and asked what other currency I had: only US Dollars and Koruna. After my slightly agitated negative gesture he motioned me to gather up my things and follow him up to the front of the bus.
Nothing good ever happens at the front of a bus. I think Rosa Parks was taken away after sitting in a seat reserved for whites at the front of the bus (of course this was a pivotal event in the fight for black rights in the US, just go with me on this.) When I was in elementary school the front of the bus was where the really bad kids were put when they got in trouble usually thumbing their nose at authority from the back of the bus. The front of the bus was also the place that the nerdy kids sat to be out of harms way from those same kids sitting in the back of the bus. There was always a strained silence when the two converged.
At the front he again asked me if I had the currency. Again I said no, but in a desperate attempt to delay the unavoidable I asked if he would allow me to pay when we arrive. No response. He waved the driver to pull over and I was promptly ejected from the bus surrounded by all of my bags on an unknown stretch of Praha 4 sidewalk.
I yelled out a hearty "Awww, FUCK!" mostly aimed at the bus driver and his assistant in villainy, wallowed in my misery for a few moments then had a good laugh, also quite loudly. This served me in two ways: 1-I was able to vent my frustration then laugh at the stupid situation I found myself in because it was in fact very funny, 2-It alerted anyone in my immediate vicinity that I was completely out of my mind and not to be messed around with.
I took in the situation and looked around me to see what there was. A phone booth. Good--that is useful. I walked around the corner and a holy sight met my eyes. In glaring green neon my salvation: 'Holiday Inn.' The attendant at the desk pointed me to the nearest station and I headed back, just a little deflated, to the hostel.
The next day I was able to find a cheap flight to Istanbul via Warsaw that would put me in Turkey on the 9th, a day before my flight to Bangkok. Although I was ready to leave Prague, this was a minor set back and ended up working out well.
I had a one-day layover to spend some time at the Grand Bazaar and do a little haggling with the shopkeepers there and stopped off to buy some gifts for the friends I would visit in Southeast Asia.
The flight the next day delivered me from freezing temperatures in Central Europe to the height of the heatwave in Southeast Asia. A welcome change.
I found a very efficient way of disposing of my heavy winter jacket, which I had been dying to ditch in the UK and Spain, before I had needed it in Germany and the Czech Republic. I ran into a photo journalist who was on her way to Iraq and was in desperate need of a warm jacket. She couldn't believe her luck. Sometimes you are provided for in unexpected ways.
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