Today Carly and I went to the gym. It was quite an adventure.
Being a typical Wednesday, we finished school at 12.15 and ate at the cafeteria after our last class. French fries as usual :) Mmmmm. So as part of our new get-into-shape regime, we were off to the gym for an afternoon workout. The plan was to catch a different bus than normal to Bayonne (Villa Pia if you want to be specific) and walk to the Gym. The bus left St. Jean de Luz (school) at 2.00pm and was due to stop at the Villa Pia at 2.40. Estimating the time to walk from the bus stop to the gym, we thought we'd be there around 3 to start exercising. We were wrong.
The first problem that arose was getting onto the bus. We had been waiting at the bus stop for about half an hour and were so deep in conversation, we didn't think to check we were all set to get on the bus. I had 2 euros and a 50 euro note. Carly had nothing. We had spent all our other change on lunch. We realised 2 euros wasn't enough for the both of us, and the bus driver couldn't change a 50. We didn't think our bus card would work either because we were going on a different line. Of course at first I thought 'somehow we'll get on'. Then it actually hit me that if the bus driver says no, we're either going to end up paying 50 euro for a bus trip or waiting another hour and a half for the next bus while we buy something and break the change! 'What'll we do?' we said, both freaking out in the que as everyone else got on the bus. 'We'll just explain the situation and hope he's nice. Or we'll play the dumb Innocent foreigners act. That should work.' So I stepped onto the bus first and not knowing what to say exactly..I just tried to buzz my card, buying myself some time to think of an excuse and start the plea to let us on. To my surprise, I heard the short, sharp
beep of the machine and looked down to see the screen read BON VOYAGE. What? It worked. Sweet! That was lucky. We both got onto the bus, settled down comfortably in our seats and continued our previous conversation.
We were on our way and all was going well. I was checking the signs every minute, paranoid we would miss our stop. After watching the first 3 pass by, I said to myself 'Maddy just relax. You've got 40mins, you can start paying attention later.' So Carly continued her story and I continued to listen. We were laughing and joking and the time flew by. The next thing I knew, I was looking at my watch thinking 'oh we should be there soon, we're running a bit late.' I watched and waited to see what the next stop was, expecting ours to be soon. We drove and drove. I was starting to think we'd missed it, then thought 'no don't worry we're probably just running late.' Villa Pia was 3 stops from the last, Place des Basques. Finally we stopped again. We looked out the window and to our horror, the bus stop sign read PLACE DES BASQUES.
Shit crappidy shit. We missed our stop! How could we have? We were watching, watching, watching, (talking, talking, talking..). So we were at the end of the route, we had to get off. On the way out, I asked the bus driver how to get back to Villa Pia. He told us to wait here and get back on the bus at 3.30 to go back in the other direction. Luckily it was already 3 and Villa Pia was only 3 stops back. So we waited at Place des Basques for half an hour, half a bit frazzled in the worry of being lost, half amused by the fact that typical us missed our stop cause we were talking.
The time was going slow and at 3.20 when the bus driver was still having his smoking break we decided since I still had my 2 euros and there were shops just across the street, we'd go buy a snack. 'Maddy we better not miss this bus again or we'll really be screwed' Carly said. My reply was 'Don't worry, we've still got 10mins and its just across the street, and we'll see if it starts moving. We can run fast. Besides, the bus driver knows we want to get back on.' So we went to the tabac and bought ourselves a kitkat each. As we stepped out of the store we saw the break lights flashing on the bus. Evidently, our immediate reaction was RUN!!!!!!!!!! So run we did. We sprinted down the street, almost waving our arms frantically in fear of our lift back to Villa Pia would leave without us. Who knows how long we'd have to wait then.
Luckily, people hadn't even started to board. We were safe. 'That was close, I woulda killed you if we missed this bus over a kitkat Maddy.' Thanks Carly, I woulda bloody killed myself! We got back on the bus and almost didn't say a word, our eyes glued to the screen. The bus timetable said Place des Basques, St Leon, Lachepaillet, Villa Pia. We watched them pass by, some random ones in between also. As we approached Lachepaillet we searched for the button to push to notify the driver we wanted to descend the next stop. First we couldn't find it, and I was thinking we're gonna have to just yell STOP! Then when we did, we fought for a minute over who should press it. Finally I gave in and pressed it (had to reach over her head cause she was, in fact, closer but whatever Carly) and we both sat and waited for the bus to stop. When I saw the next bus stop in the distance, we started shuffling our things making it obvious we wanted to get off.
The bus didn't stop. We watched the VILLA PIA bus stop pass by us and turned to each other, mouths open in shock and worry. Why the hell didn't her stop? We pressed the button and everything! After passing the next stop after that and a 10 second freakout I pulled my head together and thought 'we gotta say something or we'll end up stranded in some random suburb. So I said 'Excusez-moi Monsieur, mais on a passe Villa Pia?'. 'Oui.' 'Uhh...pourquoi?'. He then told me how he doesn't stop at Villa Pia because normally no one gets on or off there. His next stop was La Glaciere, at the end of the next city and 6 more stops away.
Oh shit. We can't walk from there. We'll have to call someone to get us. We are literally lost now. We won't be able to get to the gym. We're going to have to admit that we missed our stop because we were talking, then missed it again the second time cause IT DIDN'T STOP and we'll have to disturb Didier and pull him away from work. Ahhh damn.
Luckily, the bus driver saw how frantic we were and pulled over at the next stop (even though he was
supposed to). We thanked him profusely and got off the bus. 'Alright, so we're two stops away from where we should be, and it's still on this main road, so we can just walk back and then follow the map from there like we should have AN HOUR AGO. ' We began already long walk, which was now made longer, to the gym. At first I wasn't sure if we were even on the right side of the road, going in the right direction, after being thrown off by coming back from the other direction. Although at that point, I really didn't care if we were taking more time and going in the wrong direction. We had a phone if we really couldn't find our way and it was better being on solid ground and in control rather than stuck on a bus going far far away.
The walk was not exactly scenic but easier enough and we found once we relaxed and started to see the humour in the whole situation, we got there in no time. 4.00pm to be exact. An hour later than expected but we were then and in one piece, it was good enough for me! I felt like I had been around the world and I was exhausted from the walking and stressing so my French was all a bit mumble jumble when we signed in but we managed! And finally we were in and on the treadmill ready to shed some pounds. PHE-EW.
