Bus Rides Part II

There are many more bus ride adventure stories to be told. The bus ride back from Sarajevo will have to be shared. Look for that to come in the following week...it will most likely be added to the first Bus Rides entry through a careful editing of that blog entry.

However, today's bus ride adventure began with a trip to Rachel's apartment to help her clean before leaving. I ended up spending most of my time making trips from her apartment to the WiB office with stuff I inherited from her (books, dishes, loose change, and a Serbian-English dictionary). However, I also needed to go register with the police again since I had exited the country to go to Sarajevo (I also had to go the police station to let them know I was leaving so they could take me off their massive list of foreigners in Belgrade). Since Rachel was focusing on packing and cleaning, it became my mission to make it to the bus stop where I meet the man who registers me. It seemed like a simple enough mission. If only.

2:45 pm --It began with Rachel dropping Katie off at the corner of a street to catch a bus to get to the bus stop. She is wearing a pair of sneakers and warm Smartwool socks. She wonders if she would have worn her boots, but thinks she will be fine since she won't be doing too much walking. Her sneakers can generally go through several puddles without any worries or uncomfortable wetness. There were two possible buses she could take to her destination -- number 6 or number 7. Unfortunately, number 6 arrives on one side of the six lane street while number seven arrives on the other side of the seven lane street. So, she had to try her luck and pick a corner in hopes that she would pick the one with the first bus to arrive. She did not. To be honest, Katie picked the corner of which she could see the tram stopped about 5o yards away from the actual bus stop. She thought they were taking a short break to switch drivers. She waited for about ten minutes at this corner on the break to end. She then realized that it was not a short break, but a permanent stop since the tram was empty. During the time it took her to figure this out two number seven buses had passed by on the other street corner (She might add they were one after another so my opportunity to cross the street after she saw one was not a long enough one to make the second bus). Rachel had told her that she had the option of crossing the six lanes of traffic if she wanted in order to catch the bus. The idea of running out in the middle of the busy street in the slush and snow did not seem like a good idea to her; it didn't seem like a good idea to any of the other pedestrians who also waited for the pedestrian crossing lights.

2:53 pm -- Katie crossed over to the other street corner after the realization that tram number 6 was permanently stopped on the tram tracks making any other number six arrivals unlikely.

3:00 pm -- Katie is still waiting in the wet, cold snow/rain/slush for a number seven bus. Katie is starting to get a little nervous about timing. Rachel has said before to her that everyone in Serbia runs late. She never calls ahead to say she is running late unless she knows she will be at least fifteen minutes late. Katie is trying to keep this advice in mind.

3:15 pm -- Tram number seven arrives. Katie boards this tram. She feels more confident in her ability to arrive at the destination. She just needs to keep her eyes focused to the left and looking out for the large Lilly store on the corner. She reminds herself over and over, "Get off at the stop after the Lilly store on the corner. Get off at the stop after the Lilly store on the corner. The Lilly store will be on the left. The Lilly store will be on the left."

3:18 pm -- Some older woman in a fur coat and fur hat asks Katie a question in Serbian. Katie stares at her in confusion and nods her head no. A young man then answers the woman's question (in Serbian, of course). Little did Katie know that this information was perhaps vital to the success of her trip.

3:19 pm -- The tram stops at the first stop since Katie's boarding of the tram. Everyone exits the tram as the tram operator stands up and yells something. Katie stands up and stands by the door in utter confusion as the bus driver instructs a middle-aged woman about something (in Serbian). Katie exits the tram. She begins to worry about how she will ever arrive at her destination since she does not even know the actual street names of her destination. She attempts to ask someone (in English, of course) what is going on, but is stared at and then roundly ignored.

3:22 pm -- Katie paces back and forth at the bus stop. She sees a bus with the number six pulling up to the bus stop. She decides to take a chance that bus number six uses the same route as tram number six. She jumps onto bus number six punching yet another all-purpose (tram, trolley, and bus) ticket as she enters. She finds a seat on the left side to keep an eye out for the promised Lilly corner store.

3:27 pm -- Bus number stops at a bus stop, starts to pull out, and finds itself stuck in the snow. The passengers all hold their breath in anticipation as to whether or not the bus will be able to get out of the snow if the bus driver pushes down on the gas enough. This strategy does not seem to be working. Katie is hoping that it works even though her past experiences with snows and wheels have shown that pushing the gas harder and harder several times is a very poor strategy.

3:29 pm -- The strategy doesn't work. Everyone exits the bus. Katie is thoroughly frustrated and very, very cold. She starts following the other passengers who are walking. She hopes she is following them to a bus station. She turns around to see that another number six bus is pulling up behind the first one (which is still stuck in the snow) and has graciously stopped to let the ten or twelve people (who stayed by the bus rather than walked) onto the bus. Katie turns around, runs full speed down the block without care to snow piles and slush puddles to catch this bus. She arrives just as the bus pulls away to be standing next to an elderly woman who is also trying to get on the bus. (The elderly woman had been standing waiting for the bus, but was having trouble making it through the slush and snow). Katie stares in frustration as the bus continues down the street. She then turns and walks back up the block she had just run down with soaking feet. Her toes are not very happy. She walks to what she believes may or may not be a bus station. She waits for another bus.

3:39 pm -- Another number six bus arrives. Katie boards this bus with an anxious eye on her watch and a naive hope that things will start to go easily. Silly Katie.

3:45 pm -- Katie sees the Lilly drug store on the corner. She jumps up, scoots past the grandmother sitting beside her, and stands behind several men (one of which also just stood up). She thinks she sees the man she is meeting through the shoulders, heads and hats; she is feeling a slight sense of victory. Katie gets in some sort of line or clump to get off the bus. By the time she realizes the men are not actually moving, she starts to push her way through. (This is a time when she realizes the words Excuse me in Serbian would be very helpful). She reaches the door just as it is closing; the fingers that were starting to go out the door are quickly drawn back. She tries to get the bus driver's attention to stop the bus and reopen the doors, but to no avail. She feels a rising wave of frustration and desperation as she watches her destination slowly fade away.

3:50 pm -- Katie exits the bus at what is the first stop since her destination passed. She runs full speed through the shin deep snow in an effort to catch the man. She also splashes through several puddles. Her feet have stopped crying out in pain and are now numb. But there is a nice, watery, squishy sound going on when she walks. She arrives at her destination point to not find her guide to the police station. A feeling of defeat washes over her. She is now unsure of what to do. She decides the only option is getting on the bus again to take her back to her original starting point. She waits with numb feet and painfully cold legs in the cold.

3:55 pm -- Katie gets on another number six bus. She rides the bus for about ten minutes only to have the bus stop and everyone exit the bus. Katie also exits the bus, but for what reason she does not know. She sees another number six bus sitting right in front of this bus and realizes this must be some sort of end of the line stop. She follows a few other passengers onto this bus. She sits for a minute or two before the bus pulls out and she is headed on her way back to her destination. She did not make it register with the police, but she has until tomorrow evening (then her 72 hours will expire). She is frustrated, but excited to be heading to somewhere warm where she can put on dry socks, pants, and shoes and can wring her socks out over the sink and empty her shoes of the water.

4:03 pm -- The bus gets stuck in the snow. By now, you all know the drill. Katie then walks the streets in utter confusion. She walks to what appears to be the nearest bus stop and waits for 3 or 4 minutes. Several buses come by (None of which are the numbers she needs, or it would be more accurate to say the numbers which she knows she can take and arrive somewhere remotely near her destination.) then Katie makes the startling realization that she could have passed a vital bus stop and she does not even know how far the bus goes before it would be turning onto the street where she started. She does not know the name of the street where she started. She then realizes that her feet are probably going to be frostbitten if she doesn't start moving and try to keep warm. She keeps walking. She walks for ten more minutes before she realizes she needs to find a way back to warmth, but this is a problem since she also doesn't know the name of the street where the office is located. She arrives at the conclusion that she must take a taxi to the only landmark she knows that is near the office from which she plans to walk to the office. She debates whether or not it is worth the precious dinars for a taxi to keep all ten of her toes. She decides it might be worth it. She then must find a taxi. This proves to be another challenge since the first few taxis to pass are already in use. She finds a free taxi, but quickly realizes it is stuck in the snow. She keeps walking. She had learned the previous day that one of the tricks to city living is to avoid getting to close to the street when cars are driving fast in the snow and water. This proves difficult while also trying to be seen by passing taxis. A most lovely taxi driver stops. Katie steps into the taxi, asks for Hotel Moskow, and listens to the lovely background music. In the ten minute drive, Katie realizes she is having serious doubts about this whole Serbian adventure lifestyle. The beauty of Indiana is calling her. She arrives at Hotel Moskow, pays the taxi driver a small chunk of the dinars in her wallet. (The equivalent of 3 and a half euros -- not bad, but still not something to part easily with in the world of a lowly volunteer.) Katie tries to walk as quickly as possible to the office to change into dry socks, pants, and shoes.

4:30 pm She arrives at the office. She changes her socks, pants, and shoes. She wrings her socks out in the sink and wonders when they will ever dry. She is grateful that she was wearing her Smartwool hiking socks rather than regular socks and briefly wonders how many toes she would be missing if she had been wearing regular socks. She calls Rachel to inform her of the mishap. She asks Rachel to call the man she was to meet and apologize for her and explain the situation. She promises Rachel to come back to help clean the apartment (cart more inherited things to the office) after an hour or two, when she warms up. She jumps into bed under the covers and tries to get warm by putting on numerous socks, sweaters and blankets.

Much later, Katie walks to Rachel's without mishap, talks to Rachel (and hears about Rachel's own horrors that occurred while Katie was away -- which mainly consisted of a conversation with M, the landlady) and hears Rachel's advice of looking on the positive side for the small things that go well. Katie decides the small, good things that happened that day were the following: she arrived at Rachel's apartment a few minutes ago with dry socks and shoes (boots); she did not get bit, kicked, or hit by any person or animal; and she now knows how to travel back and forth from the WiB office to an apartment which she will no longer be moving into and will probably never visit after today.