I cannot seem to get my act together the last few days.

This morning I got up to get a bus to the train station.  I arrived a minute or two after the bus arrived this morning.  My host had told me sometimes they come early and don’t wait.  So I assumed thats what happened.  Until I realized my watch was about 8 minutes slow.  So much for the cheap watch being a good idea.

So I waited for the next bus, which I knew would get me to the station in time.  I had three options.  A direct route, a longer route, and one that didn’t go all the way and I would have to walk the rest (raining here this morning).  So i waited for the longer route, which was the next bus.  It never came, and my assumption (I’ve become something of an assumption wizard on this trip) is that it had something to do with the french phrases written in the “Observations” section of the line info.   So I waited for the next bus, which was due to come by about 20 minutes before my train left.  I got to the station, went to the self checkout kiosk where the online site told me to get my tickets.  Apparently U.S. credit cards are inferior to those in Europe and because my Mastercard doesn’t have a chip in it, it wouldn’t take it.

So I went to stand in line and waited for some time…long enough that my train had left.  And the person helping me knew very little English.  We went and fiddled with the machine once more and when my card didn’t work again, he took me back to the desk and rescheduled my train for 12:26.

At 12:20 I went out to the platform, platform C – as described by the monitors, and waited.  A train pulled up but the monitor above me listed it as a different train.  I asked the conductor and he pointed me to another platform, where my train was just pulling away.

I went inside to look at the monitors and realized I had looked at the monitor listing the train that was arriving from  my destination city instead of departing to.  So I went and rebooked again…this time for 4 pm.  It’s not even 1pm right now.

I get the feeling I’m posting a lot of gripes the last few times on here…and for good reason: I have been.  But I want to make sure you realize I accept this as part of travel.  If anything, it is teaching me that I really need to slow down.  The first half of my trip had extra time built in here and there.  If anything went wrong, it wasn’t a major crisis.  This portion of the trip, from the Balkans on, has been very hectic time-wise.  I was rushed to the bus station this morning, rushing to try and get the train, rushing and rushing.

It’s no coincidence to me (though I might label it Serendipity rather than any kind of divine ordination) that as I prepare to enter Taize, a community designed to get people to slow down and breathe, I find myself out of breath.  My hope is that all my humanness that has evidenced itself the last few days will be replaced with a relaxed, centered individual…one that looks more like the one I have always hoped to be, and sometimes even accomplished.

So I will sit in this station for a few more hours and wait.  And by the time I reach Taize tonight, I will be ready to relax, to breathe deeply, and to simply be.

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