Day 16 of 365- a very stressful journey
16th of January 2022
Yesterday’s journey was super stressful, it was more stressful than anticipated, I was basically going crazy throughout the journey. As mentioned in Day 15 of 365- a long and boring journey, I got to the park since a few minutes to 10 am but was the first passenger in the bus, I waited for hours for the bus to get full hence seized the opportunity to write. Surprisingly, the bus didn’t get full until a few minutes to 3pm, which means I had sat in the bus for four hours while waiting for passengers to fill it up. It was an annoying but necessary wait as there was no other bus available, the bus I had met at the park was halfway full and available spaces weren’t convenient as already mentioned in yesterday’s article. I waited with hope that the bus would be full within minutes, but I was wrong, minutes turned to hours and the rest is history.
I didn’t realise I had not had anything to eat until it was a few minutes past 1 pm, by this time was stomach worms were already biting, hence I had to locate the nearest restaurant to the park, while informing the driver and passengers that I was gonna be back in a jiffy. I found a nearby restaurant and bought a very weird combination of Rice, Spaghetti, Egg, and fried plantain which was served in a take-away plate. I made payment and returned to the bus where I devoured the combination without minding whoever was sitting beside me. It is said that a hungry man is angry, hence I had no reason to notice whoever was staring at me for the simple reason of “I don’t care”. I wanted salad to be a part of this combination, but it wasn’t available hence I had to make do with what was available.
The long wait was a necessary sacrifice since I wanted to be as comfortable as possible during the 5-hour journey, I was considering my knee since I had long legs, my back was being considered as well. I had to make sure I sat beside the window since I sometimes had difficulty in breathing whenever I wasn’t receiving enough air. After waiting for about 5 hours at the park, the bus eventually got filled and the journey began by 3pm. Inter-state travels are always long and boring as mentioned yesterday, hence I already prepared my mind for the journey- there was no special plan but to simply stare into deep space until I got tired of staring and eventually lose my mind, after which I may sleep a bit, wake up, them watch movies on my laptop till I got tired, and the rest would be basically random. Surprisingly, this plan didn’t work, things went random at some point, and I could barely keep up with the complexity of the journey.
The journey began and we got stuck in traffic while attempting to leave Lagos, getting out of Lagos shouldn’t take more than 10 to 15 minutes, unfortunately the traffic was more than expected hence we were stuck for about 2 hours, thus making the journey longer than it should have been. My eyes began to close at this point, I began fighting the need to sleep but eventually gave up, I simply flowed with it, and by the time I woke up we were already out of Lagos and the real journey had begun. After hours into the journey, my buttocks began to hurt from sitting for too long, my butt was hurting badly and had to constantly change my sitting position in order to feel better- this wasn’t helping. The rest of my body followed suit (my back, shoulder, and knee).
I slept off more times than expected, I was basically losing my mind, and had to watch movies on my laptop at some point in a bid to stop me from losing my mind completely. Surprisingly, this didn’t help me feel better, but worse. I watched a movie which I liked very much yet I didn’t enjoy it even one bit, I simply forced myself to watch it all the way through, but it felt more like I was entertaining those that sat behind and beside me. My mind was lost and there was no strand of excitement in me even when the movie reached a climax. I was simply indifferent and could no longer wait for the journey to be over.
The journey finally ended late night and a 5-hour journey ended as a 7-hour + trip. I got to my Bus stop about a few minutes past 10 pm, there was barely anyone out there which was a bit risky because anything could happen and there would be no eyewitness. I was initially scared but got lucky to get bike not long after. I got home about 10.17 pm or so and was glad the long journey had eventually come to an end. I had pains all over me from sitting for too long, my bones were weak and my chest heavy. I was super hungry as well and didn’t have no choice but to eat what was available- rice. I had already eaten rice at the park hence eating rice again was a bit weird, but I had no choice, stomach was biting.
Closing thoughts
Altogether it was a very stressful journey and I’m glad I got to my destination safely, I was so tired last night that I landed on bed immediately after dinner. I didn’t wake up this morning until a few minutes past 9 am today but was grounded on bed all through the day. Church was cancelled, I was terribly tired and couldn’t go anywhere. At the time of writing, I still feel very weak, my bones ache, especially my shoulders hence couldn’t write or interact today. I simply had to force myself out of bed so I could write this article since I do not like a day passing me without hitting the publish button. The journey was accident free, all thanks to God, but I’m never doing this again. I’m taking a flight next time!
Long land travel was indeed stressful and tiring, I remember before pandemic I used to travel like this sometimes once a month in quarterly. It was either for Audit purposes or inventory, since I had a low tolerance, I usually took the seat beside the window. I am just sleeping the whole journey. I remember one time I got mad because someone wake me up, just to find out it was the "konductor' ( our term to person collecting fare".