Back to Bulgaria by bus after all

***Storyline:* *Vidin to Ruse Bulgaria via Romania by train Jul – Aug, 2017***

We should have taken the train. The day after we arrived in Bucharest, we walked to the major international bus station, Filaret. We read online that the Pegasus group bus stops in front of a hotel near our place. On our way to Filaret we swung by that hotel and asked about such bus at the reception. We were told that, yes, they see the bus, but they didn’t know where to buy tickets from. Maybe from the driver they said. So, we continued to the bus station with the hope that there would be more information there. At least an information desk or so. It’s a major bus station after all. And our experiences with buses in Bulgaria, where there are many booths that sell tickets for all over Europe and there is lots of information, had been good.

We arrived to a very dirty and empty Filaret station. Asking around we finally located a booth with hand written note, that was supposed to be the schedule, in the window. We found the Bucharest – Ruse timetable and asked if we could buy tickets in advance. We would travel on the 6th. The lady knew a bit of English, enough to tell us that the bus runs everyday and no we can’t buy tickets in advance. We have to come and buy them the same day. Hmmm…. What if there were no seats available? We were expecting too much of her English skills, I guess. The lady kept repeating you come on the 6th… Shall we take our chance. Bus is faster than the train. At least an hour less. There is a bus at 10am and at 1pm. The train departs from Gara de Nord at 12:54. We made a plan: if we were at Filaret for the 10am bus and there were no tickets we’d take a cab to Gara de Nord and take the train. There was one small caveat. The 6th was Sunday and reading again the scribbles on the torn piece of paper on the window, it looked like there was no 10am bus.

We decided to take the 1pm bus, but arriving early enough to buy our tickets and in case there were none left, to take a cab to the train station. On the 6th we wheeled our luggage out into the sweltering morning heat and strode off to Filaret. Early enough that if the tickets were sold out, we could act on plan B.

Arrived at the station all wet from the heat. Everything there was closed. There was one lady sitting behind the same window we visited two days ago and chatting with someone. She was the only one for the entire station. We tried to get her attention and after a while she went to another window and opened it. She rumbled something angrily in Romanian. Any attempt to communicate with her verbally or with sign language failed. A young guy approached and told us that we buy tickets from the driver. Well, at least he spoke English. He and his partner appeared to be from Serbia. They would also make us company later in what was to be a mini-bus, together with a few more passengers. So much about plan B. We just hoped that the bus would be big enough and we could get on.

There was some time to kill in an empty and dirty station. A few more people arrived. We asked about toilets and everyone pointed to a locked door. Hmmm, that will be interesting. With more than an hour left before departure and about 2 hours on the bus, we for sure needed one. No one knew what to do but we all needed a solution. Finally, the Serbian guy, who seemed to speak some Romanian asked the angry lady behind the window.

Ah, problem, she said loudly and came out with a key. 1 leu, she declares and after collecting the money she lets us in. There was even toilet paper inside. I realised it was time to change my soaked t-shirt with another one. I went out, grabbed a dry t-shirt and back in still unlocked toilets to change… After a while the lady start screaming at the Serbian couple. No one had any idea why. She locked the toilet and went back to snooze in her office. Forty minutes later it appeared she had opened the toilet again, so I went in. I gave the lady all my change left, which amounted to 1 leu. She begun screaming at me. I wish I understood what she was saying. She screamed for a long time. When out I looked at the Serbian guy who put it simply and plainly – “Depressed emotions. She yells at you knowing that you don’t understand her, just to release stress.” Apparently, she was accusing everyone of stealing…using the toilet without payment…even when they had paid. As far as we could tell, her only stress could be attributed to getting off her chair, unlocking the toilet and yelling. She didn’t seem to have anything else to do.

Finally, and just on time, a mini-van with Bulgarian signage arrived. The mini-bus was full as there were about 17 of us. The driver loaded our luggage, tetris-like into the small area behind the seats, gathered the money (Romanian lei, Bulgarian leva or euros – all goes). A Brazilian girl came with a bar code on her phone. She apparently had prepaid her ticket online. Duh, we could have done it too. The driver had no idea of such an option, so I translated the conversation. After he phoned in for instructions, all was OK. We wondered what would have happened if more people showed up. The mini bus left exactly at 1pm. And off we went.