Eurolines suck when you are in Poland

Travel Journal Overview: There are some things that go wrong when you travel. Sometimes its not so bad. But somehow they linger in your mind for months, if not years to come. This is one of mine …

Next day was a usual hungover one. Not good for a travelers mind, but after this I would know no one for the rest of my journey. I was more tired than anything else. Another day of internet, sitting around not doing much other than hoping I would start to feel better soon as a long bus journey started that night. My polish friend was also leaving that night for his home town in the north, and the bus station was right next to the train station so we headed down together.

Sitting outside in the bus lane area we waited for my Eurolines Krakow to L’viv 9.50pm bus, and we waited, and so on…. 10.10 came and no bus. Now, having known a previous Eurolines trip where the bus did not come on time I was not that worried as my polish friend headed off to catch his train. By 11pm and two tours around the deserted station I was getting the feeling I was going nowhere. Shit happens, buses breakdown, pissed off as I was it was not something to get angry over. I headed into the near empty terminal and spoke with only official person around, the toilet cleaner… I showed him my ticket and explained. He kindly told me in was Saturday and “No bus to L’viv on Saturday, you go tomorrow!!”, A nice chap but it began to raise my deep hatred of Eurolines as the ticket clearly stated tonight. I shuffled off backpack in tow back to the hostel at 11.30pm on a Saturday night in the hope that they still had a bed, thankfully they did, and everyone was asleep. . . earplugs in, and I passed out.

I had never seen the teenage kid in the office before, and I bet he never wanted to see me again. His first response was it wasn’t anything to do with him, and to come back tomorrow.
Grrrr, I sat down in front of him and replied I was not in the mood for shit. I then did point out to him I bought the bloody ticket from the people he works for. This is when Eurolines do this line “It’s not a Euroline ticket, its a Eurobus ticket…”

I headed into the seating area and took out the travel bible, I needed to make some decisions. The maps added to my anger. I crisscrossed cities and countries to come up with a new plan, dates, money, and inspirational sights all came into the equation. Istanbul, never really wanted to go there, but it would give me two days to decide – Sarajevo or Bucharest… both with ample choices after wards. Sarajevo meant I would see the place I saw being bombed 10 years ago on TV, a trip to Serbia to see someone I know. Bucharest would mean Carpathians during full moon, a trip Moldova and Transnistier. . . Whats more, I had appointments in the Ukraine, promises of free stays and tourist related jobs. All were now going up in a puff of smoke.

I headed to the train station, there was a direct to Budapest for 220 Zloty… sounded good.

I would have loved to have seen more of Poland, the people were friendly, the food was surprisingly good, as was the beer, incredibly punctual, also cheap. And yes the women are really quite beautiful, a veritable supermodel supermarket. I cannot comment on a country from spending so little time there, and not getting out and about too much to other parts. But this place was far better than the thieving, poor, dirty down trod image I got from western Europeans.

Boarding my 10.36 pm train I settled in for long night in the cold, a place call Budapest awaited and I knew very little about it…

Read the full story of what happen in the Eurolines office in Karakow here: Whatever happend to the Ukraine
I will never take a Eurolines bus again.

Links: Travel Guide to Poland