Long Day of Travel

This picture was taken while we were on our "short" trip from Malenovice to Sumperk. We were in Malenovice for a work project on a guest house for missionaries for a few days, and this is a trip I've taken often. Well normally this trip takes just over 3 hours, actually a nice trip by train through Czech. There was apparently flooding throughout the region we had to travel through to get back to Sumperk, so instead it took us 7 hours. In that 7 hours we encountered quite a few rediculous situations that had us laughing about in confusion:

My first "Cancelled" train
Train > Bus > Train > Train > Bus > Train
Sitting in a train for 1 hour at a station with no warning
(see above) Crowded more people on the train than could fit - I thought I had seen it all, but people didn't get on the train and the ticket lady yelled at people from outside the train
Sat in the front seat of a Bus as a buddy driver
Went the wrong way on the highway in a Bus
Rushed to catch a train that decided to wait an extra 1/2 hour anyway

Let me tell you the story of the bus ride. So we get on this overcrowded bus (something common in Czech when they're doing this) and I'm standing by the door. The bus driver decides he wants to leave space for him to see past me to the door, so he throws down a seat in the middle of the bus (I think it was a ghetto tourist bus). I'm sitting there, enjoying the ride and we get to a detour. The driver opens the door and yells at the police man, then makes a u-turn instead of following the detour. The door is still open (and my huge hiking backpack is sitting on the steps as we head back up the exit ramp. I have a front-row seat to the whole thing.

As we get to the highway, the bus driver actually tries to block others from going down that same ramp! He gets right in the middle of the exit ramp and keeps waving them to say "no, don't go that way". Then he waits to make a u-turn for about a minute, and we never know when he's actually going to go for it. He makes it and some people clap, probably because we're actually alive. We make it to the train station later than a lot of other busses because of our detour.

Now the door was open for that whole u-turn/wrong way on the highway thing. My back was litterally perched on the stairs, and I had to hold it with my leg. Afterwards, we all talked about how the bus driver was insane, and we totally don't get why he didn't just follow the cops' detour.

Just one crazy experience with Czech travel and an insane bus driver. A front-row seat in a dangerous situation.