Becoming a World Traveller: One Night in Bangor

One night in Bangor makes the tough girls tremble......

This is the story of our unexpected adventure. It goes like this:

Once upon a time, Mandee and Brontë were planning on catching a bus to Edinburgh. They took a ferry from Dublin to Holyhead where they were going to purchase bus tickets and take the bus from Holyhead to Edinburgh. However, in Holyhead they were informed that the nearest bus station was a few towns over in Bangor.

So they took a train to Bangor, but when they got off at the platform the map of the town posted there did not have a clearly marked bus station. (Because why on earth would things be that simple, right?) As they were staring intently at the map, a young man approached them.

"Excuse me, are you as lost as I am?" He asked with a slight Russian accent. Their first thoughts flashed to a scene from a well known movie where an accented young man approaches two girls and asks if they'd like to share a taxi, so they hesitantly answered in the affirmative. However, he seemed genuine enough and he also had a phone with internet access so....

"We're trying to get to the bus station, but it's not marked on the map," they told him.

"Well let's see what Google has to say about that," he replied.

They ended up wandering further into town with him, and finally came upon what had to be the bus station. (Google confirmed) Their hearts sank. It was more like 8 bus stops right in a row and the little office around the corner looked like it had been closed for several years. The kind Russian young man offered to call the bus company because neither Mandee or Brontë had brought cell phones (rookie mistake), but when he did, he was on hold for over 10 minutes and never actually got to talk to a real person.

Right around then the bus he needed to take showed up, so with something like pity in his eyes, he gave the girls his contact information and told them to try to get a hold of him if they needed anything/if he could help at all. Then with a final "Good luck!" and a wave he was gone.

So there they were. Fortunately they miraculously had wifi and they checked the bus company's website and it said that a bus was scheduled to stop at their location at 1:25am. All they had to do was wait until then. It was still pretty warm and they were hungry so they set off, suitcases in tow, to find some food. But for some odd reason, even though it was prime dinner time, ALL the food places at the little shopping mall they were at were closed. Well, all except KFC but in their stubbornness they refused to eat American food while in Great Britain. So they had granola bars for dinner instead.

As they were sitting at one of the bus stops enjoying their meager dinner, a hobo decided that he would join them, despite the fact that there was about 8 unoccupied benches right next to them. He sat uncomfortably close to them (as in violating personal space close) and tried to talk to them, but either his words were all slurred or his accent was reeeeeeeally thick, and they couldn't understand him in the slightest. Also he hadn't bathed in quite a while and the sun was starting to set and they were kind of getting the creeps, so Brontë made up an excuse and they left the bus stop and wandered over to a park in front of the cathedral that bore the name of Bible Park.

It was a pretty and peaceful park and they joked that if their bus didn't show up they could just sleep there. They decided to stay in the park until 11:00pm and then hopefully the hobo would be gone and they could wait for their bus in peace. They sat in the Bible Park as the sun went down and watched the rather interesting procession of college students headed for the bars and pubs, living up their Saturday night. At one point a guy in a plaid mini skirt (and yes it was a skirt not a kilt) and a belly shirt ran through the park blowing a whistle, very obviously intoxicated. It made for some interesting people watching to say the least.

Finally the clock chimed 11 and so Mandee and Brontë headed back to the bus stop to wait. Thankfully our friend the hobo had vacated the premises. By this time it was getting pretty chilly and the minutes were ticking by excruciatingly slowly. Midnight passed, then 12:30, then 1, then 1:25 came around and there was no bus. They had been a little panicked before because of the uncertainty of the bus and now they were majorly panicking. They decided to stick it out until two just in case the bus was running late, but the panic button had definitely been pushed.

Around 1:45 a white unmarked bus pulled up and relief flooded them as they collected their bags and prepared to board. However, the driver stopped them and said "Not for you!" and pointed to a large collection of overly intoxicated young men who crossed the street and started to board. At this point it was really difficult to keep back tears, but somehow they managed.

Finally 2:00am rolled around. It was fairly certain that the bus was NOT coming, and they didn't have a back up plan. However, they had noticed a police station right behind the Bible Park, and since Brontë was not too keen on sleeping in the park while all the drunk students and hobos ran around they headed over to the station.

The front doors were locked but as they went around to the back there were two officers, a man and a woman standing there talking to an officer in a car. They walked up to the officers and as when the officers turned to talk to them Brontë promptly burst into tears. (It had been a really rough night if you couldn't tell) When she was finally able to choke out what their problem was, and that they needed help the officers immediately took pity on them and brought them into the station. They put the girls in an interrogation room while they called the bus company to see what the deal was.

However, the bus company still did not pick up their phone, so the officers decided to take the girls to the hotels in town to see if they had any rooms for the night. (They got to ride in the back of the police car which was pretty cool, even though that's where the criminals sit) Unfortunately most hotels don't really have any openings at 2:30am/sometimes nobody is even awake at that time in a hotel, so the kind and wonderful officers took the girls back to the police station and let them use the bathroom, then offered to let them sleep in the front lobby for the night which the girls gratefully accepted. The officers even brought them water and offered them chocolate.

So they spent the night in the police station. It wasn't the greatest of sleeps because the floor was freezing and the bench was rather uncomfortable, but the girls were so grateful to have a place to sleep indoors that it didn't even matter. The next morning the officers took the girls to the train station where they purchased tickets to Cardiff, and off they went. Somehow, the girls managed to successfully navigate the British train system and made it to Cardiff that evening where they checked into a hostel and had glorious showers and sleep and everything was right in the world.

And thus concludes the Pre-Study Abroad adventures. Stay tuned for more of my adventures in the beautiful country of Wales. Let's hope they're slightly less traumatic than Bangor.

Love, Brontë