Detours

March 23, 2013 (continued)

When I woke up, it was dark out and we were driving through a heavily forested area. I couldn’t tell if we were still in Germany or back in Prague. Listening to the radio, it sounded like we were still on the German side. Ivana was still asleep, but Lubos noticed when I woke up. I checked my watch and saw that’ I’d been sleeping for a bit over an hour. I also realized that I needed to pee.

Based on the time we left Berlin, I figured we had about two hours to Prague. Typically, on road trips, I am a champ at not having to use the bathroom. Although thinking back on today, I hadn’t gone to the “toilet” since we left the hostel.

I adjusted in my seat trying to get comfortable and enjoy the view. I was aware of the pressure in my bladder, but I figured I could ignore it. We passed more open fields, wound up more mountain passes, and darted in and out of different tunnels. Every few minutes I’d cross or uncross my legs. At one point I actually sat on my feet which elicited a few odd looks from Lubos in the rear view mirror.

Ivana woke up and announced that she wasn’t doing much studying. Lubos told her we’d both been asleep, although he said I’d actually stirred a few times when he’d been changing the radio before I woke up. I didn’t remember it so I must have been out pretty cold.

I tried journaling a bit more, but between the dim light and the growing pressure inside my abdomen, I gave up. I started counting trees out the window to distract myself, but it didn’t work. I really needed to go to the bathroom. Soon, as we came into one small town I could see a gas station coming into view.

I haven’t really gotten use to using the word “toilet” to describe a restroom. It still sounds very off and crass to me. I suppose I’ve always been a bit more private than most about going to the bathroom. I don’t consider myself a shy person, but I’ve always felt like it wasn’t a polite thing to publicize.

As we got closer to the gas station, I weighed my options. We still had at least 90 minutes to Prague. Could I make it? I bit my lip in anticipation. I didn’t want to slow us down. Lubos had been so nice to drive, and I knew it was hard to drive this far at night. I’d had opportunities to go before we left Berlin and I’d passed. It didn’t feel right to make them stop.

I decided I could wait.

About two minutes after we passed the gas station, I wasn’t sure I could wait. I still didn’t want to make them stop, and I felt embarrassed for not having gone when they did back in Berlin, but I wasn’t sure I could pull off another 90 minutes of squirming in my chair.

"Do you think we could find a gas station?” I asked.

“Why?” Lubos said.

“I need to use the toilet,” I said, admitting my weakness.

They laughed. “I think we just passed one,” he said. I pretended I hadn’t noticed. “I think it was the last one for 15km.”

I did the math in my head. Fifteen KM was like ten miles, right? At the speed we were travelling, that should be less than 10 minutes anyway.

“We can stop at next one,” he said.

“Sounds great!” I replied, faking a smile.

Just seconds later, the iPhone started to chime and showed that it was thinking. I’m not sure how you say “recalculating” in Czech, but I’m pretty sure that’s what the next instruction was. Lubos and Ivana looked at it then at each other with confused expressions. Then, we took the next exit.

“It told us to get off the highway,” Lubos said.

“Will there be a gas station on this road,” I asked as we started out into an empty field.

He chuckled at my growing single-mindedness. “I don’t know. I don’t know why it wanted us to get off. Maybe traffic. Maybe something else. I’ve never been this way before but the iPhone always knows the fastest way.”

I bit my lip again. I’d passed on the gas station earlier for fear of looking foolish. Now, that fear was literally getting tossed out the window.

“I don’t know if this sounds weird or if people even do it in Czech, but can we pull over?” I asked. “I really have to pee.”

They laughed. “Let me find a place,” Lubos said.

“You will do it the Czech way?” Ivana said.

“People do it here?” I asked.

“Oh yes,” Ivana said. “Is very common for teenage boys.”

That made me feel a little bit better. I still couldn’t believe I’d gotten this desperate. Back home, I would have laughed at anyone peeing on the side of the road.

Within a minute, we pulled over and I stepped out of the car. The wind was howling but I didn’t even care. Walking a few yards behind the car, I also didn’t care there was another vehicle coming.

Within minutes, I felt so much better!

Getting back in the car, I thanked both of them profusely. They both chuckled and we resumed driving. I reopened one of my chocolate bars and started munching on it. “Do you guys want some chocolate?” I asked.

“No thank you,” Ivana said.

“If you have some open, I will,” Lubos said. I broke off a piece and handed it to him.

We drove through hills and around tight mountain bends. At one point the radio crackled and went dead. “Do you hear banjo music?” I joked, but they didn’t get the reference. After explaining the storyline of Deliverance they laughed a little. Just as I finished the plot synopsis, the radio crackled again and switched on opera.

“Do you hear opera music?” Ivana joked. We all laughed.

This led us into a lengthy conversation about American movies. A few of their favorites were Good Will Hunting, Shawshank Redemption, and The Ninth Gate. As we were talking, a Czech song came on the radio and Lubos said we were close to Prague.

“This song was written to protest communism,” Ivana said.

She had talked to me a lot about what she called “hippie music” in reference to bands like The Beatles, Peter Paul and Mary, and Bob Dylan. “You know,” I said. “A lot of the hippie music you’ve talked about was written to protest the American’s invasion of Vietnam.”

“Vietnam was a bad idea for the Americans,” Lubos said.

“You know,” I said. “It is honestly probably the part of America’s history that I know the least about.”

“Was just as bad as going into Iraq,” he said.

I wasn’t really sure I wanted to get into a political debate. I wasn’t even sure what my opinion on the war was. “My views on America’s foreign policy are evolving,” I said.

“Do Americans believe that terrorists really exist?” Ivana asked.

The question shocked me! “Yes, we do, at least I do,” I said.

“Why?” she asked.

“I know there are a lot of theories about what happened on September 11^th in the US, but from what I saw, I think it was a terrorist attack,” I said.

She shrugged. “Maybe. There have been terrorist attacks in London before. I just thought that it had been proven that George Bush did those attacks in New York.”

It surprised me. I’d certainly heard this rhetoric before, but hearing it from another culture was shocking. It made me wonder how much we really know about the world in America. We can call it what we want, but in the end of the day, I’m noticing that all governments and cultures are made up of people…not infallible ideals or organizations.

“We made it to Prague in three hours,” Lubos said. “iPhone was right!”

I was surprised when I recognized where we were. They had come into Prague from the opposite direction that we had left from and we were driving down the street my dorm was on. I’d planned to just catch the tram. “Thanks for bringing me home,” I said.

When the iPhone told him to turn, I mentioned that it was a block over. He said, “The iPhone knows the shortest way.” In the end, the street we’d turned onto didn’t go through. Ivana scolded him in Czech, but I said it was ok.

“I can walk.”

We all got out of the car and I got my stuff out of the trunk. “Do you guys want to meet for dinner on Wednesday and I can pay you both back?” I asked.

“Sure, that works,” Ivana said. “I am going home for Easter on Thursday so Wednesday is perfect.”

“Great!” I said. “Thank you both so much for taking me this weekend.”

“It was okay,” Ivana said. I shook Lubos’ hand and gave Ivana a hug. “We will see you soon!” With that, they drove off.

With my scarf blowing around in the wind, I walked up the hill and into the dorm. It felt good to be back, even though I had only been gone for a night. Having a familiar bed, and a familiar space was comforting.  I made some soup and finished journaling. At the time, I had no idea how I was ever going to get all of these note typed and on to the blog.

As I ate dinner, I checked email and set up a time to Skype with my friends Bryan and James in the coming week. I took a shower and then tried to call my Dad for his birthday. It took me a few tries to get through. I uninstalled and reinstalled Skype a few times, but I don’t know if it was the software or my six year old computer that was the problem.

We finally got through and I was able to talk to my Mom for a bit and wish my Dad a Happy Birthday.  After we hung up, I made a few last notes in my journal before passing out in bed!