Day 38. Friday 8 May.

Early start, easy one hour or so drive to Ljubljana (according go Apple Maps) to hand back the car to SixT, with enough time to go back to Lupo, our favourite café, for a humorous chat with the barista who remembered: ‘double espressos, hot water’…  ‘Well, no, we’ve changed…1 double shot Americano & 1 normal A.’ The change is to extend the savouring with a bit more lingering. The playlist had Animals, Bob Dylan & Stones today – T tapped her feet. ‘There is a house in New Orleans’ took D back to 1969 when another Animas’ hit  ‘We’ve gotta get out of this place’ was almost an anthem. On leaving, ‘Lupo’ asked where we were going next…Vienna, for music…’Ah, classical’ he said.

At an outside table T engaged in conversation with another customer, a woman sitting alone & with a broken arm (the café is next door to the hospital). She explained she’d fallen over 10 days ago on a trip to Uzbekistan; the break didn’t need plaster, just a sling. She said that Uzbek had terrific, brightly coloured Islamic architecture, was very clean & safe (now added to the bucket list).

And enough time to get to the bus station – D had conniptions when looking at the departures board and not seeing our bus, until the ticket lady told him that  he was actually in the train station and he needed to cross the road to the buses!

While seated awaiting our bus, T was joined by a young woman on her way to Rijeka, on the bus before ours. She was wearing a splendid hat & when T complimented her, she said that she’d got it in a shop that sells hijabs…it comes in a variety of colours & is good for hiding unwashed hair (T’s, btw, was freshly washed). There was then chat; a Bosnian,  she has been living in Munich for 3 years & will qualify for residency after 5, giving her a more flexible passport for work opportunities (Bosnia’s situation is still not so good). She cycles & hikes…’if you want to change your life, just cycle or hike’ (followed by some detailed travel routes accomplished). It’s safe for a woman, too. In summer she has a tent. T asked her about living in Germany now…’better than Bosnia, but in these last few years, Germany has become very expensive…rent!!! Because of Ukraine…economy has ‘fu….d up the working people’. She talked about Bosnia having the oldest pyramids in the world…T asked what they were made of…the explanation sounded a bit ‘supernatural’…maybe ‘forest bathing/positive energy/chakra stuff ?…she was studying in that field & that is where her next job will be. Then her bus pulled in and she waved farewell.

T navigated the bathroom at the bus station. It meant lining up at the ticket office to buy a token to go into a slot at the gate…on arriving at the gate with said token, a woman behind T asked where to get a token. When T explained the system, the woman (Pommie accent) was not happy, so T offered that we go through the gate together…the gatekeeper was not happy! D had an equally convoluted experience getting his token.

On the bus for the five-hour drive to Vienna – stops on the way to drop off/pick up passengers but no relief stops for those continuing. We dared not take much from the water bottle and wished we’d brought some snacks. Drivers changed over at Graz – neither had any compunction about letting other road users know they’d stuffed up: horn, flashing headlights. To be fair, on every occasion some gentle remonstrance was justified if not really such a good idea. The worst was a Tesla driver who was driving slowly until the bus started to overtake, then sped up and cut right in front of it from an inside lane. Drivers not impressed, nor was D.

Arrived at Wien, debussed and called Uber, as it was too far to walk: Ahmad was there immediately. D had seen him drop someone off and do a U turn to wait opposite. He was very chatty and particularly happy to pick up Uber rides (he was also a ‘phone’ taxi driver, which was far more stressful) as Uber was prepaid, with a pre-arranged route, so no arguments with suspicious customers…so ‘no stress’. ‘ I’d rather have a smaller amount of money with no stress’.  A philosophy for life.

Arrived at the apartment, self -checked in, shopped for essentials (salmon, spuds…milk, tomatoes…) and that’s the end of the day, with 2 little baked spuds to kick start tomorrow.