First night-didn't have to unpack the tent-woohoo!
Trip Start
Sep 23, 2007
1
2
63
Trip End
Dec 15, 2007
St Goar,
Germany
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Border Count = 4 (England->France->Belgium->Germany)
Didn't get much sleep last night - got into hotel room just before 11:30pm & was out again at 6am to go catch the bus. Couldn't see the bus by the tube station tho I found someone else with a rucksack there looking for it too (Emmett) & a guy in a van told us it was across the bridge so like the eejits we looked like, off we headed. We were near Waterloo station by the time we couldn't walk any further so admitted defeat and rang OzBus for the precise location of the bus then got a taxi from Waterloo back to where the bus was & only arrived there almost an hour after the scheduled departure time! Turns out we were the last to arrive since the last passenger had slept through his alarm clock so will meet up with us in Prague instead.
Aside: I found out later on in Kathmandu that "the guy" was actually Barry, another OzBus passenger and he did actually think the bus was over there. I still didn't forgive him though. Remember how much those rucksacks weighed before you judge me.
The press were there at the bus and lots of people had family to say bye to, so the departure was pretty chaotic. A couple of the press even came on the bus with us as far as Dover. There were mutterings of having a singsong for the camera but I think they left it too late yippee.
Our guide introduced himself: Leighton. He's Irish...as are about half the passengers on the bus! Jean-Peal-the main driver-is Belgian and Marcus-the second driver-is a Kiwi.
Tonight we're staying in St Goar in the Rhine Valley in Germany. That's 4 countries in 1 day: England, France, Belgium, Germany. We'll be staying with a guy called Herman the German.
Lots of time on the bus today: 7:30am to about 7pm. They promise it won't be so long every day - that we're trying to get through western Europe fast since most people will have seen a lot of it & so we can get to the interesting stuff. The bus itself is a nice modern Euopean coach & yes, it does have air con. Pic attached.
There is a work rota of cookies, packers, coach cleaners that people were assigned to on the bus today...there isn't a job for everyone so I'm off the hook for now.
Herman's place was meant to be camping but he offered an upgrade to beds in bunkhouses/caravans for €1 so most people (me included) jumped at the chance to put off sleeping on the ground for one more night. Only a couple of people camped.
Herman provided us a great meal of schnitzel and chips and then there was wine tasting afterwards. Wine isn't my thing & there are a couple of other non-drinkers too so I wasn't alone. Much wine & much merriment was had by most of the others culminating in one guy smashing a glass over his head just to prove he would - Herman wasn't impressed.
During the night, one of the girls didn't quite make it to the bathroom before puking on the floor quite near my bed! I was in my sleeping bag up on a top bunk & I could hear someone else looking after her so I just scrunched down into my sleeping bag and tried not to throw up too.
