Today was a travel date, and the 8am bus departure was extremely unpleasant given the night I'd just had. Did pass out for a bit, so I wasn't a complete wreck. We were stuck in traffic jam for an hour, so our stop in Dresden was a ten minute scramble. There was a long break after the Czech border however, and an unexpected one at that. Busabout apparently makes a "bonus" stop for a tour of Terezin. I had calculated my last bank withdrawl so that I'd basically run out of euros by today, and rather unfortunately, I was right on the mark. Hence, I had to borrow money for the tour of Terezin. The tour itself was rather ill-timed. Our scramble to make up time lost to the traffic jam had left us with no ... read more

The day started out with pouring rain, so I was quite thankful that most of Berlin's major museums are rather tightly packed on Museuminsl (literally museum island). I did make the blunder of mistaking the national gallery for Pergammon Museum, and wound up in line for close to 3 hours for the wrong museum! I did get to see what all the fuss was about though: special Goya exhibit, which was quite interesting. The guy had incredibly disparate facets - his portraits and tapestries are a world away from his politically motivated drawings, which show a very active and darkly twisted imagination. My blunder did land me in line with Alexandra though, a local student studying medicine. With someone to talk to, the lineup wasn't so bad. I did finally end up in Pergammon Museum, which ... read more

I was barely awake this morning when Busabout decided to test my nerve and grace. Until today, none of the coaches I've been on have ever been completely full. That changed today. I was one of four stand-by people this morning (my booking for the Paris-Brugge-Amsterdam trip being 2 days too late courtesy of my impulsive decision not to stay in Tours), and the guide informed us that there was one free seat. That turned into two free seats when there was one no show, but two was still two too few. As is Busabout tradition, the driver drew ID cards, and one guy and one girl got chosen. Fortunately (for me that is), the guy was traveling as part of a pair. Splitting up not being an option, they elected to take the train, leaving ... read more

They say all's well that ends well. That's a pretty accurate description of today. The day certainly didn't start well. I had decided to visit St. Emilion (35km south-east of Bordeaux) last night, and booked tickets for a 10:46 train. The train station in Bordeaux is actually quite a ways from the city centre, and getting there took a bit longer than expected. I still got there with about 15 minutes to spare however. That margin didn't last long when I discovered that the automatic ticket machines not only required the purchasing credit card to retrieve an E-ticket (expected), but didn't take mine due to the lack of a smart card chip (quite unexpected). To add injury to insult, on the second try, the machine decided to keep my credit card. Suffice it to say that ... read more

Despite having spent five days there, I was reluctant to leave San Sebastian. The place just sucks you in and tries very convincingly to keep you there. On the bright side, San Sebastian is a day stop on the Busabout route. Translation: departure time is 3:30pm instead of 8am. Hell Yes. I didn't realize just how close to the French border San Sebastian is, and we had crossed over less than 30 minutes after departure. The whole trip was about four hours, with a couple of episodes of ER to entertain us along the way. Amazingly, I'm the only one staying in Bordeaux! I'm talking out of a bus of 40. I though I was hallucinating when the accomodation bookings form went around and "1 Day" was marked across the board. How can everyone else just ... read more