This is a story of things that begin badly but end well.
Day1, “Hello Saturday”: Of course, one alarm clock never does its job as well as 2 alarm clocks… But I’m guessing you can have 100 of them and, if you are tired, they are still useless. This was my case.
The evening before, as I was packing, I promised myself I’d go to bed early, or at least earlier than the nights before (thinking that I had to wake up at half past 5). But well, as always, I found all sorts of other things to do (like waste my time online, complain about the music, then realize that I hated my music and start downloading something new), so by 10pm I hadn’t even really started packing. The suitcase was in the middle of the room, but all my clothes were still in the drawers. A little voice started mumbling in my head that I should start with my luggage but I was not really in the mood. Anyhow, looking at the time, I realized the little voice was right so I started putting some clothes in the suitcase, Then I took them out, I had forgotten about the shoes. At about 12 (midnight I mean) I was almost finished with checking and rechecking and taking stuff out of and putting other stuff into my suitcase. Then I said to myself “The train ride takes 8hours… I should download some movies”, so another couple of hours went by. One would think downloading is easy, just click on the title and wait a few minutes. But first, you have to decide what to download, and, exactly when you feel you’ve reached a decision, you find something better, read the plot outline, skip through the cast, right to the comments page. The first comment is bad. Really bad. You try to ignore it, but still that little voice keeps nagging. You give up, and go back to your previous choice of which you are by now dissatisfied since you built yourself up for the other one. Eventually I found something, I had read the book so… Why not? Slow download speed. Murphy was right. Always. Estimated time: eternity. Perfect, just perfect. Then I remembered someone had told me about this TV series so, without thinking, I downloaded the first season (it was an excellent choice, since the series is quite funny and entertaining).
Luggage – check; watchable stuff – check. What else? Oh, yeah, I should take a shower and sleep. Wait a minute… where is my train ticket? So I started rummaging through my luggage again, took everything out, put everything back in – no train ticket. Desperation kicked in; I was literally pulling my hair out by the time I found the ticket; it was in my lunch bag (why and how it got there… I have no idea). But good thing I found it there, because I had forgotten about my lunch. It was already 2 am. I was too tired to cook so I decided not to pack any lunch, but to buy some crappy food from the train instead. Off to sleep. Luggage – check; watchable stuff – check, train tickets – check… what am I forgetting?
The alarms. Right. I set all 3 of my phones to a quarter past five, just to make sure I’d finish in time (‘cause I’m a bit freaked out by the thought of missing my train, usually). Off to sleep (this time for real).
Unfortunately for myself, 3 hours of stressful sleep equal 1hour or normal sleep (at most). As the alarms started going off, I started turning them off and I said to myself “5 more minutes, there’s enough time”… There wasn’t, because the 5 minutes became 50 and my train was leaving at 7 am. When I snapped back to reality, I was completely crazed. Pulled some clothes on, took my bags (forgot half of the important stuff like the camera and some gifts) and called a taxi. Murphy’s reasoning proved true again. I waited 10 minutes for the lady at the other end of the line to tell me she hasn’t got any available taxis in my area. I decided to run to the nearest taxi stand, caught a taxi (fortunately) and after what seemed to be endless time spent at traffic light I arrived at the train station in the nick of time. I ran towards the train, managed to get on and as I was still searching for my seat, the train left. I felt so relieved! “Phew!” I said to myself “Can’t believe I’ve managed to pull this off”.
“Hi, my name is Nadina!” “Hi! I’m Alexandra” (if you really need to know). We started talking about this and that. She was going to Filiasi (I would later be very glad she was not travelling towards Bucharest), to her parents’ house. She needed some chicken and such, because the market is expensive. Anyhow she suffered from God knows how many bacteria (information that she willingly shared) and market food is not trustworthy. Nothing is in fact trustworthy, because, of course, there is this ginormous conspiracy going on. “Ok” I said to myself, “But what do you do?”I asked her. “I’m a teacher” she responded. “Oh great, so you mold young people into adults” (just wonderful). No really feeling up to sharing my life with a stranger (not quite a sane one I would add), I said to her “How about watching a movie?” “Sure!” she enthusiastically replied. I took out my laptop and randomly played a film. It was a thriller, not the best but it was better than hearing anymore personal details. Too bad reality was different. Could you imagine that her life resembled the movie? And of course, she had comments to every scene, every actor/actress, every plot twist…
After 5 daunting hours, we arrived at Filiasi. We said our goodbyes and she got off the train. I could never understand train talk (or bus talk, tram talk or other similar talks), telling personal stuff to strangers (although it’s probably easier to talk to a stranger… somehow?). Finally I could watch the series. Brilliant. I started laughing at the first lines (I’m sure now that all the people around me were looking at me a bit strangely, but I just couldn’t stop laughing). Suddenly, the road didn’t seem so long and boring anymore and the 3 remaining hours went by very fast. By the time I arrived, I was secretly hoping for another 12 minutes so that I could finish watching the current episode. Of course I was happy to arrive, but I got so caught up in the story and I was having so much fun…
I got of the train amongst the last passengers, not wanting to push or get pushed around by the ones who were running to the doors like the train was supposed to leave any second. First thing I noticed – masks. A lot of them. I was (and still am) surprised how easily people can be manipulated into… almost anything.
Anyway, I went towards McDonalds (that’s where I was supposed to meet with Alex who was running a bit late, mostly because I had texted him that the train was going to arrive later).
After the “hello” ’s and the “how are you” ’s we went out the train station and into the tube station to grab one that would take us “home”. I’m not yet able to comprehend the tube system, but maybe in time it will reveal it’s “secrets” to me. We arrived home at about half past four if I’m not mistaken, after changing several (2, to be more specific) means of transport. Alex has the absolute bachelor’s crib (or so he wants people to think). Even the bathroom sais “Men only” so it was kind of awkward for me to invade his space, but he seemed happy to have me over. Frankly, I was happy to be there; he’s a nice guy and a good friend.
I don’t remember much about the first day, I was extremely tired and I was literally feeling the need to help my eyes stay open with tooth picks (just like Tom in “Tom&Jerry”). I remember unpacking some stuff, and going to some pub where the waiter didn’t speak Romanian too well, but he understood what we wanted, so it was perfect. We met with some of his former high-school colleagues, sat down at a table, ordered some drinks and started chatting. I don’t even remember what we talked about (although the most popular topic these times – the presidential elections – must have come up), but I do remember the tea I ordered was below expectations (on the bright side, it was only 5 lei, so it measured up to it’s price more than enough).
We went home quite early (we caught the tube so it couldn’t have been later than 11) planning to grab a good night’s sleep. But we started talking (or better said, I started talking) and we talked for hours. I probably told him more than I should have because at one moment he told me I was crazy, but the fact is I do express myself a bit weirdly when it comes to my feeling, so I don’t blame him. Since I remember inhabiting this planet, I’ve always felt the need to divide an issue into 7345 pieces, especially when it comes to how and what I’m feeling. Probably comes out of lack of confidence, or maybe just control freak-ness.
It was about 3 or 4 am when we finally couldn’t take being awake any longer.
PS: I remember also going to a concert, it was Damian Draghici, sort of gipsy music, quite interesting, but not the place to leave anything unattended.
To be continued...
Since stories are all about endings, here is this one's...
The days went by quickly, walking through the city, visiting this and that, going here and there, meeting X and Y... Of course each day had a name and it's own series of events, but now they seem irrelevant. It's been 3 weeks since I came back to my routine (wake up, go to work, work-work-work, chat with the girls, some more work, go home, stare at the ceiling, read/study, sleep) and nothing really seems relevant anymore, except maybe the fact that I really need a vacation AGAIN. And yes, the strange feeling that I forgot something in Bucharest...
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