It was a rather normal, yet not-normal day on the world race…travel day.
The one thing about a day like this is, it always promises adventure – and never falls short of providing it – even in the strangest and most unexpected of moments.
Travel day started early on Monday morning in Dublin, Ireland. Accompanied by rain and cloudy skies, we packed up our wet tents + bags, boarded a chartered bus to the airport – and began the adventurous process of check-ins. Once all was clear – we waited around the peaceful Dublin airport (which is more like a 5 star mall than an airport) as our flight was delayed an hour or so. This news is nothing new – so we waited and boarded the plane as directed quickly making friends with an Australian man, his Hungarian wife, and their close friend.
Landing at the airport – our 5 teams prayed together and parted our separate ways. We hurried to catch an air-tram to a local bus station. Getting off too early on the route led walking across a large parking lot and arriving at terminal 1 – not where we needed to be. Realizing we still had a bus to catch by 11 pm, we were a bit crunched for time. Opting out of a second bus + the metro, we piled into 2 taxis and flew to the bus station. As the bus was rolling out of the parking lot we caught a very angry and grouchy bus driver – loaded our gear on the bus and searched for seats…one large and cranky Russian man laid across 5 seats in the back – and shared a colorful speech about why he was entitled to them with us all – providing some comic relief for this experience.
A Polish woman named Hanna asked me to sit with her. We spoke all of three similar words – and smiles – but that was all we needed. She’s Polish. I’m Polish. We were insta-friends. Seven hours later we arrived in Prague, Czech Republic – after mystery bathroom stop 3 hours into the trip at a gas station…and various bumps along the way. Here we searched for someone to make change with our team money – so I could pay 10 crowns to use the bathroom. The woman monitoring the bathroom was not at all pleased that I needed to go – and was especially unimpressed that I did not have exact change. It was good fun!
It was an adventurous day…and little did we know after arriving -the fun and storytelling possibilities had just begun!! (stay-tuned)
