The Little Bus That Couldn’t

We spent a lovely morning in Belfast. Then we got on our bus to Dublin. Our ticket said “Free wifi, power outlets, A.C., and even reclining seats!” Great, we thought! The bus pulls in and it is pure white with no markings to tell what company it belongs to. In the past, that type of bus has told us we would have power, and wifi, and A.C. but then we don’t. Little did we know what we were getting into. Skip forward to fifteen minutes into our drive. By this point, we have realized that we don’t have power or wifi and we have found that the handle for reclining your seat is unable to be moved for everyone.

While driving all of a sudden the driver pulls over stands up and says “Does anyone know if the mall is on the left or the right?” I kid you not, the bus driver was lost. We finally pull up to the mall after the people on the bus had to pull up Google Maps to help the driver. We drive on and at one point end up spending five minutes finding how to get back on the highway because we accidentally exited. By this point talks of rebellion are gaining support on the bus to nowhere. We pull off the highway in thankfully the right very small town for our next stop. Unfortunately, our driver somehow manages to get lost in the town of Banbridge, Northern Ireland. Never heard of it? Us either. I still am not sure how we managed to get lost in the smallest town I have seen in quite a while. We even turned down the wrong way on a one-way road and had cars driving at us. At one point the person behind us said quietly “He needs to get off the bus, I’m driving now”. After about 35 minutes we pull up to the bus station and three ladies board the bus to whispers of “Get off while you still can.” Of course, this didn’t matter to them as they all had margaritas and were clearly drunk. One of them sat down and promptly started to paint her fingernails on the bumpy bus. She did this while holding her margarita!

Just wait, it got weirder.

We started to drive out of town past the entrance to the highway onto a single track road past a mine or quarry of some sort. At this point, the all-time favorite line of the trip occurred. The 5 year old near us said, “Mommy this isn’t the way the bus is supposed to go.” There was such concern in her voice.

We made it to Dublin but then as we were driving the driver said, “Where is the bus terminal?” A man had to help him navigate and we pulled in amazingly, on time! We got off thankful to be on solid ground again. And that is the adventure on the crazy bus to nowhere. Hope you enjoyed it!