Today and the first half of the next day were consumed in an effort to undo the deleterious effects of the boat party. I was terrifically thirsty, but couldn’t keep down more than about two glasses of water. I realized fairly quickly that any attempt to reach Prague would have to wait for tomorrow.
The hostel crew were very nice, especially this one beefy curly-haired dude with headphones. They sympathized with my plight, and while they chuckled a bit about my complete scatterbrainedness and helplessness, I managed slowly to eke my way back to health and logistical preparedness. I slept until 6pm, managed to drink a little soda and eat a few noodles the hostel had. I turned in my clothes for laundering, then foolishly hit the supermarket in hopes of making myself some oatmeal. I spent an unhappy 15 minutes trying to figure out which bag of Google-Translated “oat-flake-flour” might actually be oatmeal, finally grabbed a bag of cream of wheat or something, but when I got back was too tired to make anything and crashed again.
Remarkably, I slept straight into the morning. That’s a lot of sleep! I must have needed it. In the morning, I got my laundry back, took a shower, and managed to recover my coats, which I’d left on the boat. I also plotted an itinerary to Prague and thence to Stockholm.
At the end of the day, I was happy with myself for not having lost anything and getting back up to logistical speed. Oog, a bit of an ordeal! I have to believe that these kinds of experiences, to a point, make me stronger–but I’m not in any hurry to repeat the trial.
I said goodbye to Mollie and the other hostelliers who’d helped my convalescence, grabbed a sandwich and a bag of churros, and headed out on the metro to the Nepliget station. It was completely packed. There was a fun moment catching the transfer bus just as it pulled in :D Then I was at the Nepliget station. Tried to stretch my legs a bit before boarding, then hopped the bus. An incredible record of no flights or buses missed while in Europe :D I shouldn’t even say this now, I’ll probably jinx it, but hehehe not booking that flight to Berlin on the Convalescence-Day sure worked out!
Reread a bit of Catcher then wrote some blog entries.