It's a Journey - right?

So I should probably start with letting you know that I’m somewhat directionally challenged. I am comfortable once I have been somewhere a few times, but I have been known to get a little turned around. That disclaimer being stated: last Tuesday, me and the girls took quite a little trip – unintentionally.

The day started with lots of excitement. We went to work with Jason, toured the embassy, got our ID badges, met with lots of different departments, shopped at the commissary, and had lunch. All in all, it was a fun morning. After lunch the girls and I decided to walk through the park across the street before heading home.

The park was amazing. The flowers and foliage were in full bloom. The playground was great. We spent entirely too much time enthralled by a lady with a pet rabbit – on a leash! Who knew!

We then felt compelled to stop in at a newly opened café for some much deserved dessert. We walked quite a bit so far during the day and a little apple pie and strawberry cake seemed like a fair trade. Not to mention, free WiFi! Having very limited internet availability right now has proven to be frustrating to say the least. Any café with free WiFi is very appealing and tends to draw us in.

So after our little detour, we planned to head back to the embassy to get on the bus we arrived on, but decided to be adventurous and walk a little in the area we were in to see if we could find a bus that would get us home. Let’s just call this the first mistake.

After walking all the way to a metro station that we had been to the weekend before, the girls decided they would rather walk back to the embassy bus stop than take the metro and hike home from the closest stop to our house – 3 miles away. So we detoured again, and found our way back to the embassy. By this time, Carlie was complaining and needed to go to the bathroom and Alaynah was giddy about all the walking and how good it was for us, which apparently in teenage girl code means she is about over the whole walking thing.

When we arrived at the bus stop, we had a 12 minute wait for the bus. I just so happened to ask a lady waiting with us if we were at the correct stop. In broken English she assured me we were not and that we had to get to a stop that was across the street and down two blocks. Because Carlie really had to go to the bathroom, we practically ran to the new stop – just in time to watch the 222 bus whiz right by. It didn’t even stop. Let’s just call this the point at which the frustration began.

I assumed the bus stop lady must have misunderstood me so we started off back toward the original stop. For good measure I checked with the police in front of the embassy; they were sure that the original stop would get us home. So we caught the next bus and within minutes knew we were heading in the wrong direction. I just began praying that the bus would loop around to the beginning once we reached in the end. No such luck! Once the grumpy driver finished the route – he yelled at us in Polish to get off. Or at least I’m pretty sure it was something like that. Let’s just call this the beginning of the confusion.

And by confusion, I mean being lost. We finally discerned from our friend the grumpy bus driver that we could get off his bus and get on the one waiting in front of us and that it would get us home. Our new grumpy driver said he would be heading toward our house. Yay! Except we only had a few minutes left on our bus tickets and there was NO WAY we were going to make it home. So we rode it as far as we could and had to get off. We were about a half a mile on the other side of the embassy. This is when one keeps her head down and bites her lip and just walks. She may or may not have given her children the look that ensures they do the same.

Once we were back at the embassy for the 5^th time, we went in so Carlie could use the bathroom and ask for help. The marine at the front apparently knew less about how we could get home than I did. Let’s just call this the time when steam began to pour out of my ears.

While I waited on Carlie, I formulated a plan. It was not easy, and it was not direct; but it was the only way I knew we could get home. So once again we left the embassy and headed out. After walking off all of my frustration we arrived at the Metro station I knew would get us near our side of town. I bought new tickets and tried to use deductive reasoning to figure out which stop to get off at. I guessed and got lucky! We were only a few miles away from home. And I knew how to get there! Let’s just call this the “Dear God, if you get me home, I swear I’ll never leave again!” phase of the journey.

On the way home we passed a little grocery store that sold us great Polish frozen pizzas and chocolate. Lots of chocolate! By the time we arrived at the house, Jason was about to call the Marine guard to come look for us. Did I mention I didn’t have a cell phone yet, oh and I don’t speak Polish.

Just inside my front door, laying on the cool tile floor, I decided it would be wise to obtain a map and not leave home without it. Let’s just call that the wisdom gained from experience.