I can’t sleep, so I figured now – 2:30 am on an overnight bus from Paris to Berlin – was as good a time as any to write.
My day today was lovely and unremarkable. After waking up and stuffing my face with free breakfast, I took the metro to the Rodin Museum. Even though I’m kind of museumed-out, the weather was supposed to be shit and I wanted to spend my day indoors; I’m sick of being cold and wet all the time.
Thankfully, when I arrived, the sun had come out for just a few minutes. It was the perfect amount of time to enjoy the sculpture garden where The Thinker lives, among many other statues. Some of them very funny looking. Those ones are my favorite. Actually, the whole reason I even decided on this museum was how much I enjoyed looking at the sculptures in the Louvre, and I wanted to see more!
The inside of the museum is small and not overwhelming, which was a nice change from literally everything in Paris thus far. It was nice to be able to walk around the whole thing without stressing out that I would be missing something, and I could really enjoy the pieces.
Naturally by the time I was done, the rain had started up again. Still mostly full from overeating at breakfast, (this had been my goal – eat way too much breakfast so you aren’t hungry for lunch to save that money!) I found a small cafe that TripAdvisor said was pretty good. The only thing was, they didn’t have decaf coffee, and I made the mistake of ordering a regular anyway. PROBABLY WHY I’M AWAKE RIGHT NOW AND WHY MY MIND IS RACING BUT WHATEVER WE ALL MAKE BAD CHOICES SOMETIMES. I sat there for a while – at least an hour and a half, maybe longer, I couldn’t tell ya- and I read my book and watched the rain pour out the window right in front of me, dreading the moment I’d have to go back outside.
But go back outside I did, because I actually was getting hungry and knew I was need to eat something of substance before my bus ride. It was quite the adventure to find somewhere that was cheap/not closed for renovations/open at this weird hour between lunch and dinner, but after several failed attempts, I found this cute little place which is mostly to-go food but you can also eat there, with an even cuter cashier.
I was the only one eating in, and I took my time eating my vegetarian lasagna, drinking the rest of my wine from last night hidden discreetly in a water bottle because I’m classy, and reading my book. Eventually I started talking to the cashier, who came and sat with me and I LOVE HIM but I’ll never see him again which is fine. We talked about traveling, tattoos, and it was honestly just so nice to have a conversation with someone that speaks such good English. He definitely asked me out for a drink, which I had to decline with “whelp, that sounds great but my bus leaves in a couple hours, SO…” and then I was sad. I had to leave when he was with a customer so I couldn’t even bid him a passionate farewell (JUST KIDDING GUYS I KNOW HE WAS WORKING. BUT MAYBE I WOULD HAVE GIVEN HIM MY FACEBOOK INFO OR SOMETHING. WHO KNOWS.)
After only one minor mishap of getting off on the wrong stop, I made it to the bus station, which had literally the grossest bathrooms I’ve ever seen in my life. Stall 1: covered in explosive diarrhea. Stall 2: covered in period blood. Stall 3: kind of useable. But OH WAIT there was no toilet paper, and I was saved only by remembering that I had a tiny bit left in my bag. Everyone else was screwed because I only had enough for me. I’m not sure why I’m going into this much detail about the bathroom.
And then there was the mad rush to the bus. Guys, European buses -like FlixBus, which I’m on right now – are terrifying. You don’t know where to line up until the bus comes and then there is a mad dash to the bus, and no queue whatsoever. You have to push your way to the luggage area, throw your bag up yelling the name of the city you’re going to, then push your way to the door, passport and ticket ready to be scanned. As soon as they let you on, you run up to the second level to find two empty seats. I’ve learned from experience that the very first thing you do is to check if there is an outlet, and the very second thing you do is to check if it works. If all that works out, spread the fuck out, cover yourself with a blanket, and pretend to be dead asleep. Also try to make yourself look crazy/intimidating/gross. These steps will help insure that nobody will want to sit next to you. So far on this trip, it’s worked, but it’s a step that needs repeating anytime the bus stops, in case new people get on.
Other thoughts: today was one of the first days in the last few months that I actually felt so grateful to be American. When they came around to check passports on the bus (waking me up from my deep slumber that I’ve now yet to return to) they asked most people a few questions, some people lots. For everyone, they at least recorded a few pieces of info, like the passport number. For me? The guy took one look at my passport, recorded nothing, and returned it to me with a “thank you.”
I also met a really sweet Iranian guy in my room this morning. I guess I never thought about how hard it is for some people to travel through no fault of their own, but for him it’s near impossible. He has to apply for visas nearly everywhere; for me, a passport is enough in Europe. It’s so easy to take things for granted, and today I really appreciated the ease with which I can travel as an American.
But at the same time, we’re all fucked because net neutrality is dead and we have a goon for a president and I just used the word goon in a sentence and I need to move to another country stat.