The Bus to Strong Espresso...

Trieste, Italy

October 1, 2007
N45°38.948
E013°45.935

There was a wet chill in the air at 7:30 AM as we wandered out of the Trieste bus station. After a ten hour journey we knew our day was still far from over.

Our "day" started by catching the 1:00 PM ferry from Hvar Island to Split. We spent our final hours in Split enjoying the coastline, reading in the sun, spending our remaining Croatian Kuna, grabbing a light dinner, and basically wasting time since our overnight bus for Trieste didn’t leave Split until 9:30 PM.

I should mention the reason we opted for a bus instead of a train to Trieste is because the train system in Croatia pretty much sucks! The majority of the locals also use buses and those were our fellow passengers on the journey with us.
The ride started out uneventful. Most of our fellow travelers decided catch some ZZZ’s as soon as we pulled out of the station. Others, however, had a different idea of what they were going to do on the long bus ride—they wanted to party!

The ten hour journey was riddled with pit-stops every 30-40 minutes. At each stop a group of 3-4 young men jumped off the bus, took a piss, had a smoke, and bought another "tall boy" beer that would almost last until the next stop. After each stop they got drunker and louder; making it difficult for the civilized people on the bus to sleep. Even with headphones or earplugs jammed in our ears, we could still hear the raucous crew falling around at the back of the bus.

After each stop, when the crew rumbled back, they would pass me in my half conscious state. As their drunkenness grew, so did their stench. Beer now permeated their skin mixed with the lovely smell of sweat and cigarettes. By 3:00 AM they absolutely reeked and the smell was intolerable. I had to hold my breath as they stumbled by me. Luckily, the drunks got off of the bus around 5:00 AM when we arrived in the Croatian port town of Rijeka.

I think everyone slept a little better after the crew departed; however, we only had two hours left before we hit Trieste and there was no way to recapture our lost sleep. Needless to say, we stumbled off the bus, found our hotel, dropped our gear, and immediately started our hunt for a strong Italian espresso.