Something you should know about me: I’m pretty unlucky. This has prompted several of my friends to come to the conclusion that I must’ve, at some point, been cursed by a gypsy–and my dad confirms that our family’s got a bit of … well, unglück, to put it mildly.
This is one of the reasons I get travel anxiety, because things inevitably go wrong–like the time I ended up in Rome without a place to sleep for two nights, or when my tire blew out in the middle of a forest highway halfway between NC and NYC. When I’m not careful about my flight times, connections, and listening really closely to the station announcements, the curse decides to make my life interesting.
But then there are the times when things just seem to work. I’d looked up the timetables for buses between Trenčín and Holič, my next stop for Active English Weeks, before heading off to Trenčin this Saturday. I knew that there were two bus connections that required just one transfer in Trnava–one at 8am, one at 8:50. Unfortunately, despite my best efforts last night, I still ended up oversleeping a bit. And so, after frantically tossing everything into my backpack, I was hoping that catching a bus to the train station, I’d still have time to find my bus.
Problem is, of course, that I have no idea how the city-to-city bus system actually works here, and so, when I get to the station, 4 minutes to 8:50, my first instinct is to go inside and ask someone.
Enter Super-Annoyed Train Ticket Lady, stage right.
Me: How do I get to Holič?
SATTL: By train?
Me: By bus.
Cue SATTL freakout, telling me in no uncertain terms that she has nothing to do with the buses, ignoring my question of well, who does? shutting the teller window on me, and then ignoring any further queries from me, including when is the next train, then?
It’s one minute to 8:50, and while SATTL has been hissy-fitting, two buses have pulled into the parking lot. One of them is closing it’s luggage compartment. I run up to this one, hedging my bets:
Me: Trnava?
Way Nicer Bus Guy: Trnava? Yes.
Long story short, I’m on the 8:50 bus to Trnava. Maybe, just maybe, that curse is starting to wear off.
The Venture 