Day 21 + 22 – Pretty much living on a bus: Bled-Ljubljana-Munich-Berlin

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Right, well that was a tiring 48 hours.

Monday morning was nice – I had a few hours before I had to bus to Ljubljana from Bled, so I finally took the time to walk around the entire lake and see it from the other viewpoints. Very pretty.... and longer thann I thought it would take!

I had my leftover pizza for lunch, so I sat on the edge of the water, just people (and duck) watching. I also had a good laugh watching people in their boats. You can pay something like 20euros to take a boat to the little island, or you can rent a rowboat for 10euro... the thing is, it looked like for most people this was the first time they’d ever used a rowboat... ahahaha. They were so lost – it was fun to watch.

I also watched some “rowers” (the professionals! With the long boats – like in the Olympics) practice for the upcoming World Championships that’ll be in Bled at the end of the month. Now they knew what they were doing.

I went back to my home base, Andrea’s Home, to get my bag. I had a nice talk with her before I left – she’s such a sweetheart haha. She was asking me all about my stay, how I liked Bled, how I liked my room, how I liked Slovenia, where else I’d been in Europe, etc etc lol.

I def recommend staying there if you’re ever in Bled – treated like royalty there I tell you.
Anywho. Bussed back to Ljubljana and puttered around for about an hour... got one final doner kebab for good measure (ah, so big and so filling!) and then waited for my next bus.
And I waited. And waited. And waited. And waited some more.

Bus was supposed to leave at 6:30pm – it only got there at 7pm and it was already practically full. Awesome.

I went to give my backpack – guy asks where I’m going. Munich. “What?” Mew-nick. “What?” *facepalm* I showed him my ticket. “OH! Munchen.”

Ok, sorry... if you’re working on an international busline... you think MAYBE you’d know how to say Munich in a language other than German. Maybe? Yeah. Cool.

The bus ride was horrible... nearly as bad as when I took the overnighter from Estonia to Lithuania. The only nice thing about it was the poor guy beside me was determined to have a conversation with me... in German. I’m like... English? No speicken ze deutsche. English. He then shrugged, “no Deutsche?” nein. And a few min later he’d try something else in German haha. Still nein on the Deutsche front, sorry.

The entire back row of the bus, plus the 4 seats in front of it, were full of 25-30 year olds who were drinking beer, listening to music with speakers (no headphones) and talking really loudly. Awesome. At first I was like meh, it’s only 7pm... how long can they go?

Yeah. Wrong. At 10pm they were still going strong – and the bus driver (Eurolines always has 2 drivers on overnight trips, for safety I guess) could see/hear them and did nothing. More awesome.

So guess who didn’t sleep on the bus? Yep. I got maybe one hour of sleep.

We then pull into a huge city just past midnight. I’m looking around trying to see where we are because we were only supposed to arrive in Munich at 1:15am, and we’d left late, so I didn’t think it was Munich. And of course they don’t announce stops on Eurolines (seriously? Why you fail?) so I asked the guy beside me – Munich? “Munchen? Yah. Yah.” and he pointed out the window haha. Ok, cool.

(See, random old German guy can understand Munich – how a Eurolines employee on the effin’ international line can’t is beyond me)

I then wandered around Munich hunting for my hostel. You know, it’s a liberating thing when you’re working on no sleep, are weighted down by 50lbs of bags, are hungry and need to pee. I was totally muttering to myself as I walked haha. If anyone would’ve wanted to rob me, they probably would have had second thoughts about going up to the crazy traveller 😊

The hostel was actually pretty easy to find – but I didn't sleep well at all. Bed wasn't all that comfy and the pillow was atrocious... I could've got up to get my own pillow out of my bag, so I guess it's my fault I was so miserable... but I was too lazy to move. All in all, perhaps got another hour or two of sleep at the hostel.

At 6am Tuesday morning two girls in my room decided it would be appropriate to have an epic convo, as well as open all the blinds to let the sun in. Cool. Nice manners ladies. Instead of fight it, I got up for breakfast and went for a quick stroll around Munich. In that 15-20min, I quickly remembered why I loved this city, and Germany as a whole for that matter. It was lovely.

Bus to Berlin was at 9:30am, so I went back to the station (no muttering to myself in daylight, thank goodness!). Bus ride was interesting –I didn't care for the fact the 'Berlin Express' stops in just about every other town, and yet makes no restaurant/pee breaks. Cool story.

Sidenote: I think it’s cute that people were waving with handkerchiefs, and that they wave by moving their hand up and down, and that this old married couple (easily in their late 70s) had the longest goodbye ever at the gate. Too cute.

One funny moment on the bus: we pulled into a trucker stop – I was really excited because I thought that meant a rest stop! But no... it meant customs. Awesome.

So they come on board, checking passports. One of them got off to do something, and I guess the bus driver thought they both got off, so we goes to drive away hahaha. One of the ladies on the bus screamed something (I presume something along the lines that border control is still on the bus, idiot. lol). So, the driver promptly stopped 😉

Seriously, I have the world’s easiest time with passport checks – I’m a white, Canadian, girl. Of all the non-Germans on the bus, I’m the only one who didn’t get any questions... I feel that’s a problem...

We got stuck in a horrible traffic jam after that - just outside of Berlin. There was a huge accident between an 18-wheeler and a truck/van/car...? Whatever was left of it was undistinguishable, flipped upside down in the ditch, with skid marks all over the road. The front of the 18'r had a huge dent though, so they hit hard. Film crews were there and a bunch of ambulances, so I hope it wasn't fatal...

It happened not far in front of us (ambulance passed us after we were stuck for a few minutes), so we got stuck in the inbetween - two far up to take a different exit, and we couldn't pass. We were stuck there for over an hour and half... but that being said, I'm happy we were there and not in the ditch.

Anyway. We arrived in Berlin almost two hours late, so I had to hunt for my hostel in the dark. Of course, it was at the complete opposite end of town haha - yay for 30-40min on the SBahn! And then I had to wander thru this sketch neighbourhood. Ugh. Stupid hostel.

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