InterRail Soap Series part 8: Jay seeks toilet

"7) No toilet on a long-distance bus!
The next situation was so embarrassing at the time it happened. On the same Sunday where we were traveling to Seville, we took the bus from Ayamonte to Seville. There is no train service between the Algarve and Seville. After our train ride in Portugal, which only was 20 minutes till the end of the line (so we waited 3 hours for a 20 minute train ride!), we had to change on a ferry which would bring us from Portugal to Spain (Ayamonte). In Ayamonte we had to walk again about 3 kilometers to the bus station. It was an extremely hot day!

After we arrived at the bus station, we bought a bottle of water of 1,5 liters out of a machine. I remembered that my bottle was already empty after less than 10 minutes; I just needed something to drink because it was hot. At that time it was already 3 o’clock in the afternoon (Spanish time) and we were only 30 kilometers away from where we left, Tavira (we ‘traveled’ already for 5 hours!). The bus to Seville was suppose to leave at 4 pm. I actually had to go to the toilet but there wasn’t one at the bus station. So I thought, there would be one in the bus, so I can hold it up. Finally, we boarded the bus and inside the bus, it was cold because of the air-conditioning. We left Ayamonte and I wanted to go to the toilet. But where was it? Imagine, this was a long distance bus/travel coach. There was no toilet on the bus and it was a three hour drive till Seville! Oh my got, what should I do now, I thought… I had 1,5 liter water inside me which had to got out! DJ was reading and I saw that he had a little bit water left in his bottle. I remember, I almost asked him if he would drink his bottle empty, so I could pee in it! And with the air-conditioning on, I just couldn’t hold it any longer.

And then, after 15 minutes of driving we stopped, somewhere in the middle of nowhere on the highway, to let a passenger on board. This was my change. As the bus driver closed his front door, I ran through the bus and with almost tears in my eyes I asked the bus driver to wait, so I could pee outside. At first, I wouldn’t let me, because you can get a fine for it in Spain. But I almost cried, so he let me go. I ran into the bushes and relieved myself from this situation; Now I was peeing in front of bus with Spanish people looking at me. When I was peeing, I saw a second passenger running through the bus to get out. He came next to me, and do you know who it was: right, from all the people in the bus, it was my travel buddy Dirk Jan! So now the Spanish passengers looked at two Dutch passengers, peeing in the bushes. Could you imagine what the reaction was as we got back on the bus again… Yup… we moved to the last row…

After 9 hours we finally arrived at Seville at 7 pm! What a day… 200 kilometers in 9 hours, and an very embarrassing situation… Today, Dirk Jan and I can laugh about it, in fact, I had trouble writing this now, because I had to laugh again about this day!"

TO BE CONTINUED TOMORROW...