What's your worst nightmare (aside from discovering that you left your computer at the security check in Frankfort)? How about walking out of a reststop in middle-of-nowhere Croatia and seeing your bus pull away? Well that's what happened today on my trip to Belgrade. I had made the trip before before. I thought I knew the routine. 20 minutes. The drivers smoke and eat, then get back on the bus and count heads before they leave. So, when the drivers, who were sitting opposite me, got up to leave, I went to pay the check. I wasn't worried that they would leave without me. But they did.
When I saw the bus was already moving, I did my best version of running, while screaming, "WAIT!!! HEY!!!," only to watch the bus move down the entrance ramp onto the highway. I kept walking and screaming as it merged into traffic. Curiously, however, it appeared to be going very slowly and then it appeared to stop. Was there hope? At just that moment, a car pulled up beside me and the driver waved me in. He said, "I saw what happened," and then sped to the stopped bus about a quarter of a mile down the road. I climbed aboard, muttering "hvala (thanks)" and trying to avoid eye contact. Disaster averted
At the next reststop after crossing the Serbian border, I waited near the bus until the drivers left the cafe. As they approached, I pointed at the bus and said (in English) "I'm getting on." That brought a chuckle and apparently broke the ice because a couple of women from the bus began talking to me in rapid Croatian. I didn't understand a word of it but it sounded like, "What were you thinking back there?" I said, "ne govorim (I don't speak)." To which one of the women replied, "Ahh, ne govorim (stupid foreigner)."
When I saw the bus was already moving, I did my best version of running, while screaming, "WAIT!!! HEY!!!," only to watch the bus move down the entrance ramp onto the highway. I kept walking and screaming as it merged into traffic. Curiously, however, it appeared to be going very slowly and then it appeared to stop. Was there hope? At just that moment, a car pulled up beside me and the driver waved me in. He said, "I saw what happened," and then sped to the stopped bus about a quarter of a mile down the road. I climbed aboard, muttering "hvala (thanks)" and trying to avoid eye contact. Disaster averted
At the next reststop after crossing the Serbian border, I waited near the bus until the drivers left the cafe. As they approached, I pointed at the bus and said (in English) "I'm getting on." That brought a chuckle and apparently broke the ice because a couple of women from the bus began talking to me in rapid Croatian. I didn't understand a word of it but it sounded like, "What were you thinking back there?" I said, "ne govorim (I don't speak)." To which one of the women replied, "Ahh, ne govorim (stupid foreigner)."
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