Just had the most bizarre night
My hotel couldn't get my debit card to charge so they told me to walk a mile (in the rain!) to get to an ATM. They drew me an incredibly crude map of Middle of Nowhere, England. It was more than a mile. I finally found it and they did not take mastercards, but I thought 'that must be impossible' because it didn't say that. It said 'go talk to your bank.' so i went into the store nearby and they said "we dont take cards without chips." and i said, "but american cards dont have chips!" he saod, "we take american card, but they must have chips. Everything is pin and chip here." they said, "get used to england." i said "i have a pin, just not a chip." i said "it works fine in London! Are you saying Middle of Nowhete, England is more technologically advanced then London?!" they threw we me out adter that. so then I tried to go back to the hotel to use Skype to call my bank, but everything looks the same in Middle of Nowhere, Enland *and* it was nighttime *and* it was dark. So I got lost. I wandered in the rain for another hour, then jumped a fence and broke into a high school campus to huddle under a bike rack shed because I couldn't stand the rain anymore. For gods sake i am really sick. At about 11 I decided to call my bank, international charges be damned. They told me nothing was wrong with my card(btw it worked fine at gatwick earlier that very day!) I asked, "what if the card is broken" and they told me that, basically, if it's one piece and it was working fine earlier, it's probably not broken. I said, "but what if it is" because I needed a back up plan. She repeated the card should be fine and then the phone died. At 11:30 it stopped raining, so I went outside again. I tried to hail a taxi, but none of them would stop. I started retching on the side of the road. Finally saw a stranger and asked him if he knew were Europa was. He said miles away. He said he would pay for a taxi for me if one went by. None did. He said, "I'm not a weirdo. If you come back to my place, I will get my phone and I will call you a cab." I looked at the idark clouds in the sky and decided I'd rather risk murder, then a sad, cold, ever sicker night outside. I went back to his place. At one pint we literally went down a dark alley, and I thought "well this is it." But damn if he didn't give me much needed drug-free water and wait with me and pay for a taxi when it finally showed up. He gave me his number in case i needed help in the morning. I went to the desk, now past midnight, and explained what happened. I said. "it's not my fault." I said " I can call the bank right now if you want me to." They tried the card again, and it declined. Then they said (because before they were trying it in dollars) they said "let's try pounds." it worked, and I started crying. That was my night. How is this my life?! How strange. It doesn't seem real at all. Maybe I died huddled in that bike rack and this is a dream? I left my computer adapter in Budapest, but needed to get this down, so I wrote it on my IPod. Good night ever-weirder world.
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