So I had a flat bike tire this morning. ugh! I go upstairs and get my pump. Pump up the tire and dally a bit as it seems to not be holding air. Öܧ€§äÄÜkkkk (cursing my bike in german)…

I grab some coffee and a pastry, then wander across to the bus stop…I’ve never ridden the bus here, so I have no idea how it works. It seems complicated and I notice that the bus I would need only runs at 8:05 and 2:30PM and 6 somethingPM…great! It’s about 8:15. In fact all the buses but one have a bizarro schedule like this…Go back to the bike and figure I’ll ride to work and just stop to pump up the tire a couple times on the way and worry about getting home when it’s time to get home (immigrant life)…so pump up the tire and go about 1,5 meters before realizing that this isn’t an option…the tire is flat again after about 10 seconds of me sitting on it…
Lock up bike again and take pump upstairs so I don’t have to carry it around all day. Go back to bus stop and try to buy a ticket at the machine there…after putting in €1.20 I notice the machine seems to be non-functioning…whilst looking cool hanging out at the bus stop I ponder getting another coffee – whilst pondering…the one regularly scheduled bus arrives…
get on even though I have no ticket…Bus drives around for a while…and we end up in central carrara??? I’m not quite sure where I was as I’ve never actually been to this part of town…I just got off where most of the other people got off…Good strategy when lost.
I was just hoping for a taxi queue at this point, but don’t see one…read the bus schedule for about 10 minutes and see a tabacchi (tobacco shop). In rome the tobacco shops also sold bus tickets to I have a mosey and they do sell bus tickets…I bought 5.

Wander back to the bus stop and notice that some other bus seems to be going somewhere else…attempt to follow that bus – still looking for a taxi queue or a different bus stop. Find no taxis, but do find another bus stop that seems to go to Massa Centro…that’s only about 5k from the office. great…ballpark! There is more likelihood of finding a taxi there i suppose to i hop on…as I am some dude says somethinge somethinge somethinguhhh Massa? (good thing he was inflecting or I would not have known it was a question)…I sorta know what he’s asking, but I just said…”I don’t know…english???” We get on the bus together.

Bus gets to Massa Centro driving through some area that is vaguely familiar. I think I’ve driven this route when I was here in May….anyways. Wander around Massa Centro and find a cab with no driver. Hang out there for a few minutes and finally some guy with keys comes over…This is the worst taxi I’ve ever been in…There is no heat and the inside of the windows are condensated. No worries. he gets me to the office. It only took like 2 hours from when I first found the flat.

I’m taking tomorrow off to fix the tire and Wednesday is a holiday here as well (European random holiday generator – beep – boop. bip. bop. – beeeeep).

I only used 22 of my 30 holidays last year, so I guess I’ll have to work harder this year on my vacationing skillzzzz.

Mundane as ever 😉