Bus trip to Brasilia

I am so glad I was able to come here, it has been really uplifting so far, feeling a bit recharged. The bus ride here was quite an adventure, good and bad. So Phyllis wasn’t able to take me and I had to take the bus from itu to campinas. Ali dropped me off and right before leaving Thomas insisted on going as well. When we got to the bus station he helped me get all my luggage and such to the bus…side note on the way back to Maktub from the Circus Bruno and Thomas insisted on walking us the short way to our apartment. So sweet! Anyway so he takes me to the bus platform and then hands me a little velvet red bag. I opened it up and it was a thin gold bracelet! It was my birthday present! I thought my heart would burst! I couldn’t believe he got me a birthday present awwww. After that great moment my bus doesn’t show until 20 minutes past the original time. haha and then we switched buses twice. The whole time I am so confused but am paying attention to people that seem to be in my group, ended up working okay but I was quite nervous, I admit.

So take the bus to Campinas get off at their big bus station, take the escalator to the shopping/ eating area and walked around, with my rolly bag, the thing 3 times trying to find the bathroom haha. Find it and then stare at the sign for at least 5 minutes seeing how much I have to pay to use it andddd I have to bust out the Portuguese phrase book! embarrassing but little did I know it wouldn’t compare to getting dinner. After handling that I decided to get something to eat and I only have an hour. I look around and the lines are crazy long! I pick an Italian place that has the shortest line. Get in line and after 10- 15 minutes a lady comes up with a menu and asked me what I would like. I tell her I want lasagna. Well it happens to be a place where you pick out every ingredient! Ahhh. We try to communicate, unsuccessfully, and then she just tells me when I get up there to point at things. Oh and by this time everyone in line is aware I only speak English and am holding up the line so I am getting a few dirty looks along with “oh that poor girl” look as well. I get up there and somehow find out they don’t have lasagna! Then the cook lady starts losing her patience and starts speaking very harshly to me. I want to just run away and go somewhere else but by this time I only have 20 min and am to the point of extreme frustration. I am not about to let this lady be rude to me and run me off, I have stood in her line for over 30 min and I am going to get food! haha The woman behind me and the lady who takes the orders in line both help me and somehow I get through the line. It was a horrible experience! Then I get my food and it doesn’t even taste good but I eat most of it knowing I won’t have another chance to eat for 13 hours. haha at this point I just want to cry and hurry and get on the bus. The lady was incredibly mean!

Then I go to get on my bus and you have to go through a little security thing and the guy realizes or guesses I am American so he tries talking to me and makes sure I know where to go. This guy doesn’t even speak English well and I don’t even ask for help and he cares enough to double check that I am okay, goes out of his way. So after that I am able to smile again and be okay. Well I get down and my platform says 14-17, something the guy had pointed out, thank goodness. I had thought I was suppose to go to the number which was actually my bus seat. haha

Wow this thing is long

I end up getting help from a very nice bus driver, he tells me to just look at the sign on the bus to know which one to take and then he winks at me. I love it when people wink at me! He was a cute older man. haha this is so much I know but it just doesn’t end. So my bus comes about 10 min late and I go to get on and a grouchy old man who takes the tickets to board points at a part of the ticket I am suppose to fill out and he won’t let me on or help me/explain. So I get out of line and see some bus drives standing out and one of them talks to the guy trying to convince him to let me on. No luck so he finds someone who speaks English and that guys fills it out for me. So nice. Then the guys taking tickets still won’t let me on and so both of them are arguing with him. One of them pushes me on the bus and the old grouchy man just rolls his eyes and lets me on. O goodness it was a mess. But I was mainly just excited I had people who were taking care of me! They were great.

So I get on the bus and a guy in his thirties sits beside me and he doesn’t smell bad so I am relieved. haha He doesn’t try to talk to me either which I am grateful for, exhausted by Portuguese at that point. The bus ride was okay besides the fact that it is FREEZING! I was in a ball in my seat trying to stay warm. I had brought a light jacket but it wasn’t enough. At the next stop I get one of the guys to get my luggage out from under the bus and I get a long sleeve shirt and another t-shirt. Try to sleep but can’t, I even have my laptop case on top of my legs to help keep me warm and then my backpack leaning up against my legs. I looked quite silly. Around 2 am we stop at a rest stop and I jump off and buy a ski jacket looking thing. Pink by the way haha. not much of a selection, the only one in my size. Good price but I wasn’t too worried b/c I was miserable. Get back on the bus and it helped a lot, still not able to be warm enough but I caught some sleep here and there. Had a conversation with the guy beside me in Portuguese. That was cool, and found out he was freezing too, awww and he bought me a water at one point. Cool guy. Get to Brasilia and Gail is waiting for me. Yay no problems there.