What happened in the bus

I woke up and looked around.

I was in a bus to Pitesti.

I looked out the window.

We were going through a road along a river, and there were steep mountains at the other side, covered deeply in thick green trees. Some mountains were pretty misty, forming a vignette I have never seen before.

I had a chance to think about why I am going to Romania, what was waiting for me there. I had watched a lot of clips on Youtube, and they were extremely, well, extreme.

The driver looked at me. He saw a tired guy, trying to write something on a bumpy ride.

There was another man looking at me. He introduced himself as Nikko. Like me, he was going to Pitesti from Czech Republic.

A bit drunk, yet friendly, he kept me informed about the journey -- and his life story. We understood each other in a mixture of Romanian, Czech and English.

After Nikko talked to the driver for awhile, we got off the bus at the gas station. Uhh... It's not the bus stop. It's a gas station. Why are we stopping here? Nikko keeps guiding me to go somewher, helping me with my luggage. Wait a minute! I have a feeling that this guy is going to mug me after taking me somewhere.

So I wrote a text message to the AIESECer who was supposed to pick me up. He must have been waiting for me at the bus station. Then I fared well with Nikko, after exchanging our numbers.

I am a paranoid but paranoia is competing salesman over naivety. So here I am, waiting for the hosts to pick me up. It's already a nightfall, and the streets are dark; I search for a lighted place and find an ATM of Societe Generale Bank. After having texted the AIESECer that I was here, I wondered about what they look like, how many of them were waiting for me. Most of all, I wondered about what was ahead of me that summer -- in Romania.