Budget travel can be challenging. It often requires some serious flexibility, and creative thinking. Thankfully, it also opens doors to some amazing experiences.
I was traveling through Poland a few years ago, and despite the country being amazingly cheap, I was quickly running out of money. I had recently discovered ‘megabus’, and their 1€ fares, and found it too good to pass up, when the time came to move along from the country.
I booked myself a ticket and went to the appropriate pick-up location. Being slightly overly cautious, I turned up almost 45 minutes early, just in case. I waited patiently, reading my book, looking probably very much like a road-weary traveller, or homeless person; because at that point, I probably could have passed for either. I wait for an hour; and then tried to catch a stray wifi-signal to see if something had changed.
I double checked the bus website. I was at the right place, at the right time. I tried calling the help line with no answer. I sat and waited. Finally, after the bus was more than an hour late, I went inside the nearest coffee place, figuring that if I saw the bus approach, I could quickly run out and catch it.
The coffee shop was packed and I knew right away I was going to find a table all to myself, so I looked around, found the most friendly looking table that had an empty seat, and asked if I could sit down.
Thankfully, the family I chose happily made room for me, and watched my bag while I went to order. They tried to include me in their conversation, but between their limited English and my very limited Polish, we could get much past pleasantries.
Then, finally we had a breakthrough when I realized I had wifi in the cafe. I turned on google translate and we were finally able to talk with some sort of normalcy.
They discovered that I had purchased the cheap bus tickets and they let me know that they live nearby and have only seen the bus come through once or twice since service started more than a year before. It is either very late, or it just doesn’t come.
They helped me by calling the phone number, and the opperator replied by saying that the bus had been there at the proper time (obviously not), and seeing as how I hadn’t boarded, and had ‘missed’ the bus, my ticket was now invalid and my money was non-refundable.
Upon hearing this, the family took it upon themselves to escort me to the coach terminal, where they directed me to the infinitely more reliable ‘eurolines’ bus company. They confirmed with the ticket window that the bus I needed would be leaving, and they even negotiated a discount on my ticket.
They even waited until I boarded, to make sure there were no problems. As they waved from the station, I realized several things:
– This was just one of many occasions in Poland where locals went out of their way to help me, and I felt terrible for not thinking to get their contact information
– I will probably never book with megabus or its subsidiaries again. If you decide to, please make sure you are departing from the original departure point, and that you are departing from a major station (like a coach station – the ticket might be a little bit more expensive than a side-of-the-road stop, but you’ll be less likely to be the only one getting picked up, and the company has more incentive to actually collect multiple riders at one stop)
Moral of the story: if a rate is too good to be true, it just might be. Or your bus company may just not care enough to stop at the pick up locations. Reputable bus companies may charge a little more, but they have far better chances of being where they say they’ll be, at the right time.
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