Day 54
Location 14: Barcelona
Dec. 24, 2022
Due to the holiday season, I was forced to take a 12-hour overnight bus from Paris to Barcelona. Unsatisfied with this situation, I searched for–and found–solace in my illegally downloaded copy of Midnight Cowboy (i.e. the movie where Dustin Hoffman famously yells "hey I'm walkin' here!!").
The film's opening follows the protagonist (played by Angelina Jolie's dad), Joe Buck, riding a Greyhound bus from California to New York. Here I was, sitting on a dark bus in unfamiliar land next to unfamiliar people watching a guy sitting on a dark bus in unfamiliar land next to unfamiliar people. Even though Joe is a fictional character in a 50-year-old movie, I was no longer alone.
On that bus ride, here are a series of unfortunate events Joe Buck experiences:
A suspicious character sits right next to Joe and proceeds to remove his shoes and socks.
Once (too) comfortable, the weirdo falls asleep. At one point, he topples over onto Joe's lap, requiring a gentle shove and verbal warning. Needless to say, Joe is uncomfortable.
Then, the freak receives multiple 3am calls that set off his melodic ringtone, waking up everyone on the bus (except him, somehow).
It's really quite impressive that the monster doesn't wake up from the calls because of the energy drinks. Oh did I not mention that yet? By the end of the trips, he's drunk six cans of an energy drink.
By the way, he's not drinking them one by one like a normal person, though. No. He takes one sip of one can and immediately cracks open a new one (there are about 3 open at all times throughout the bus ride).
His nonstop sips of endless energy drink cans are interrupted only by hidden sips of a vodka bottle wrapped in a black plastic bag. Not ideal.
Sorry, I got mixed up. None of that last paragraph happened in the movie. It all happened to me:
Right: Only 4 cans are visible, but 1 is hidden in the pile, and he's holding 1. 6 total. In 12 hours. And he slept most of the ride.
3am Calls: this happened multiple times throughout the night. Not once did he wake up or silence his phone.
