We’ve all been on a bus at some point, whether on a school trip or to get around a city. However, a more unique experience that not as many people have is travelling long distance on a bus. One of my roommates and I took a bus 535 miles to visit a friend over a long weekend, and a lot happened in those eleven hours.

We got to the bus station, very excited to see our friend. We were the only ones there and everything looked hopeful. Then we found out that unlike what our tickets said, we didn’t need to be there an hour before the bus was scheduled to leave. We were so early that we got to listen to most of an episode of The Bachelor before the bus even arrived, and there was another five minutes before we were allowed on it.

Once on the bus, we were still pretty bright eyed with excitement.

We ate our prepacked sandwiches and read for most of the ride, which was about two hours. When we got to the stop where we changed busses, we got off and bought drinks, waiting for the next bus to board. I’d say we were patient, but let’s be honest. At this point, it was about 9pm and we were so bored.

There was a guy who was excited to announce that this stop was his final stop, and I muttered under my breath that he was lucky. With a laugh, the man turned to me and informed me that he’s been on busses for a trip that was supposed to be about two days, but ended up being six due to weather delays. I wasn’t at all jealous of him after that.

After finally getting on the next bus, it should have been smooth sailing. My plan had been to fall asleep and wake up at our final destination, but I had no idea how impossible that would be. I think I slept for about an hour during the entire trip, and by the time it was about 2am, I was honestly so over the whole experience.

Even though I had a book and a reading light, I was so tired and so hungry by the time we got to our friend that I was pretty close to tears. I had been alternating between reading and trying to sleep and failing for hours, dealing with the unnecessarily cheerful driver turning on the lights and telling us where we were every time we stopped.

This experience was generally exhausting and I definitely don’t look forward to repeating it to go home.