Tuesday, August 22, 2023

Bus from Hell to Lyon

I had the brilliant idea of taking the night us from Munich to Lyon. Taking a 12hs us now a days, already sounds too much, but I had no clue how bad it became. At the bus station, there is a sea of people gathering around the us, some trying to put their luggage on hold, others trying to board it and most (including me) having no idea of what was happening. Stephen was one of the people trying to leave our suitcase on hold. While he was trying to do that, I was a bit further back watching the people around. But one in particular caught my attention, this tall, over muscled and extremely rude. He was creating trouble from when i first saw him. On the door of the toilet there is a sign, €1, everyone is paying the man seating by its door. However the hulk, just does whatever he wants, including going inside the toilet without paying or saying anything to the man, who started shouting that Hulk needed to pay. as I understood, as the conversation happened in German, Hulk shouted back saying he wouldn't use the toilet, just brush his teeth and more that I couldn't really grasp it. I was horrified, that this kind of people because of his size and attitude could do whatever he liked. After a while Stephen is sent to the other side of the bus, as the people going to Lyon had to leave their stuff on the other side. After a lot of waiting, we finally board the bus. We already knew the trip would be tough, as the seats were automatic allocated to us and they were the last one, which one was the middle seat on a 5 seats row. But for my surprise, not only we were on the worst seats, Hulk was seating on the window seat, right next to me. I was already in shock, on the top of that he put his huge bag on his feet, taking half of my feet space and he was seating taking over 1/3 of my seat. I said excuse me. he moved a tiny bit. I pushed his bag to his side and tried to squeeze myself into my seat. The bus was hot and I was seating between Hulk (who was wearing a tank top) and Stephen, both sweating a lot on me. I still had hope and thought, once the bus gets going the aircon will be turned on and it will all be fine. Sweet dream I had, turns out the aircon of the bus wasn't working and the windows couldn't be opened. It was very uncomfortable and that man clearly didn't care for anyone, so he was seating as he owned the bus and taking over my seat as he thought it was his right. The bus had the blue lights on all night and was stopping everywhere, always in the middle of nowhere and never near a convenience store. I was extremely tired and Hulk was taking over my space more and more. Evetually, I reached my limit and said, "Do you mind?", hoping he would give a bit of my space back to me. He started shouting, "I fucking mind! You are fucking annoying!", I answered with a very calm voice, you don't need to be rude, we have a very long trip and this will make it only harder. If you are not moving, I will keep my foot here". Gosh it was scary, as he was huge, mean and rude. He already proved it before, with the toilet episode and shaking really hard the seat of the person in front of him, for no good reason. I was shaking, but I kept myself cool and hoped for the best. Stephen asked if I wanted to change seats, but i said no. As he would be even more uncomfortable and it could be that this crazy man would be more annoying and creative with him. Anyway, after I told him off he behaved himself and trying with more effort not to go over to my side. As a extremely hot bus and a psychopath was not enough, around 3:30am a Spanish man seats in front of me and starts calling all the people he knows. He has very long unimportant conversations, having no consideration for the others in the bus that are tired and trying to rest. Thirty minutes of the Spanish nonsense phone call call and he hangs up. Only for making another call a few minutes late, luckily, this time a bit shorter and his last. Eventually, around 4 or 5am there are finally seats available and Stephen and I move to another seats in the bus from Hell. It felt so much cooler, as I was seating on the window. Only a few more hours to go, but we could at last try to get a few hours of sleep!

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