Bus Rides and Cesky
A tale of two bus rides
Yesterday, I took yet another bus ride — in significant contrast to the one the day previous. The first bus ride in my tale of two was the one from El Jub to Elsbethen. It was notable for a few things.
First of all, the bus was late. Usually not a biggie, but the bus station in El Jub is a bit, shall I say, disordered? There really isn’t a way to find where your bus will pull in, and it’s not small. Granted, it’s along one street, but still. Standing and looking for your bus when other buses are blocking the view can produce a bit of anxiety.
After the scheduled departure time had departed, and I’d not seen a bright green Flix bus, I checked back in my emails. I then noticed I’d been sent a message a couple of hours earlier that my bus was NOT going to be a green one, but a “partner” bus. Oh, shit. Did I miss a bus that had a partner placard plastered to its side while looking only for the green beast? I could immediately feel the prickling sensation of anxiety opening my pores on my sides.
Timing is everything, and as I started to frantically scan all the buses, I spotted one pulling in with a placard. My bus had arrived.
(Side note: I’m impressed by how on-time trains and buses are. I can understand how a plane can alter it’s route and make up or lose time, since there are many options in three dimensions, but buses and trains are severely limited on route and ability to alter plans. Add in traffic and it’s astounding how on-time they are.)
The bus was an overnighter from…somewhere. I had to wake and move a couple of people out of the seats I had reserved. That took some doing. Twenty-somethings sleep hard. I slide into my seat for the journey to Elsbethen by way of Bled. The bus isn’t too crowded at this point, but it filled up at Bled. I’m glad I sprung a few extra bucks from my wallet for the extra seat, because there was less room between rows on this bus than any airplane I’d been on. And that’s saying a lot.
With one hand spread, I could touch both my seat and the one in front of me. And that’s without the seat in front of me reclined. And I don’t have huge hands. (And, for the record, hand size does not correlate.) The only way I could sit comfortably was sideways. When trying to sit straight, my knees were crunched against it.
Oddly, the other side of the bus had no similar space problem. I think they tried to cram the same number of rows into the bus on both sides, despite the fact the starboard side had both a door and the toilet. Mission accomplished by making the rows a mere 8” apart. The bus was packed as well. Of the 65 seats aboard, almost every seat had a body in it, with the notable exception of the one next to me that I paid to keep empty.
Fast forward one day. The bus “station” at Elsbethen was pretty much a bus stop along the side the road. There was only one other couple getting aboard where I was. No traffic, no other buses. No traffic, really. Empty space. Birds flew by though. Mostly great tits.
Bus was spot on time, and I jumped on, expecting a full-ish ride.
The bus was empty. Three people had gotten off, and us three got on. There was one person traveling through, so we were four. There was easily twice the distance between seat rows (I had the same row as last time), and each row had USB (both B and C) and standard power outlets. This bus was swanky.
We had one more stop to make in Linz before I exit stage left at Cesky Krumlov. I expected a bunch of people to get on, and some did: five.
One person got off, and a grand total of five got on. So for the second half of the ride, there was a total of eight people on a bus that holds 65 by my count. Easy rider.
Fairytale land
Arrived in Cesky in gloom and chill (7°C) in early afternoon. But what a fairy tale place! The view as I walked from the bus station was amazing.
Getting to my stay was easy and quick. Checkin was easy, and, you guessed it, quick. The room is quite large, with a kitchen, and super low doorways. I’ve already clunked my brainbox once. Vegas has made the over/under on future clunks at three.
I speedily dropped off my bags to make my way out into the town. I walked for a few hours. I wound my way through the narrow streets and up to the castle. And through the castle (but not inside, that’ll come another day) and into the castle gardens. I plan on doing some organized things later: one of the free walking tours, and I’ll pay to get into the castle. I don’t know if that’s a tour or self guided, though. And there’s a small museum next to my stay as well. 👍
Some quick hits after my afternoon stroll:
It’s empty.
There are far more Asians here than I expected. I saw probably four or five Asian tourists for every one who wasn’t. I spoke with a couple from Seoul, Korea, and the owner of the local grocery is from Hoi An, Vietnam. He had an impressive selection of Asian foods in the store as well. Heck, the restaurant closest to my stay is Chinese! (And expensive FWIW.)
It’s clean. No trash, no cigarette butts on the streets. Nice.
It’s all cobblestones. Good luck with a roller bag.
Did I mention it’s empty?
It’d be really pretty in the summer, but based on the (empty) seating areas in the restaurants I walked past, really crowded as well.
It seems to shut down at about 1800. At least this time of year. Make way for the werewolves.
More later.
Be kind and take care of yourselves. If you can, care for someone else, too.
Slang, out.
You can't fool me. That's an above ground hobbit house.