I have to admit, I was spoiled in college as far as our travel is concerned. We were fortunate enough to fly most places, with only a few bus rides here and there, I think the longest being 6 hours. But in no way do I mind riding a bus or feel above it. However this bus trip to Slovakia was a different story.
The day started out early, with me waking up at 5 am (to get in some quick last minute internet time, not knowing if it’d be reliable at the hotel). I’m not gonna lie, I haven’t been up that early in a LONG time. And I was completely alright with that... It’s crazy to think that I used to get up that early every day in the summer for workouts and even crazier to think I made it through when we had 5 am practices last fall at SLU. It makes me sick thinking about it now! Ha. But regardless, Migle was there at 5:30 to pick me up and after picking up two more of the girls we meet everyone at the bus. It was nice because we all had our own full rows to stretch out on and the ride started out good. However it didn’t take long for me to realize that this big charter bus was in fact a stick shift (and a VOL-VO) and was also taking every back road possible. So what does that mean? Lots of bumps and coming to a sudden halt, which also means lots of me almost flying down onto the floor. After awhile though I got used to it and settled in, watching the Sex and the City movie on my computer (which made me miss Liv!) and jamming out to my ipod.
Another different thing about this bus was that there was no bathroom on it. This was good because I was sitting in the back so I didn’t have to worry about smells or people constantly climbing over my legs. However this also meant that we stopped at least every 2 hours for everyone to go to the bathroom. A little annoying but it was nice to get out and stretch all those times too.
I was originally told that this was about a 16 hour bus ride, but as the time ticked on and we started stopping at random gas stations more often, it was easy to tell that we were lost. After stopping in the middle of the road to flag someone down to help us we finally pulled into our hotel at 1 am, giving us a total trip time of 19 hours. Which makes that the absolute longest I’ve ever been on a bus or on a road trip in general for that matter. I can’t complain too much because we all just slept, listened to music or talked most of the time, and we did end up making it safely.
But this was also my first “big” trip that wasn’t for SLU so that was weird. Every time we got back on the bus after a rest stop I was ready to start counting off. And although we did have our own fun, no one taught us any school yard songs/rhymes like Ayrie. But if I had to pick one thing or person that I missed the most from this trip it was hands down James. As all my SLU family knows, when it comes to bus drivers, James is THE man. Over the years, he has been there to charter us on most of our east coast trips. He’s a cool older guy who knows how to whip a bus around smoothly like a Cadillac. And his affinity for Natasha Bedingfield music made the deal that much sweeter. No matter how long and hard our trips, we always had a great time getting on James’ bus, bumping to some Pocket Full of Sunshine (especially when Liv and JB did their choreographed dance! Lol). So although the trip was long, the thing that was the most disheartening was the absence of James, Natasha and all my girls in blue/gray/black sweat suits…
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