Happy Birthday, Rachelle!

As Rachelle is waking up, I sing Happy Birthday to her and give her the tailor made sandals I bought her. She put them on immediately. Our bags get packed up and we check-out of the hotel. The bus we're taking later doesn't leave until 6PM so we leave the bags by reception and hire bicycles for the day again. When we get to town we find a restaurant and order American breakfasts: Baguette, scrambled egg, lettuce and tomato, ham, bacon and pancake. It was a good birthday breakfast in our opinion. Then we spent some time looking in jewelry shops, because Rachelle would like a ring. Nothing managed to persuade her to get my wallet out, so the ring shopping will have to be adjourned to a later date. Instead, we head to a restaurant specifically for cake. Chocolate Forest Gateau and Chocolate Cream cake, shared.

Rachelle seemed to enjoy her morning of food, but it has been her specific request that her birthday involves beach. I'm not one to deny her it, so off we bike to the beach. The one problem is that we don't have any towels. We had previously used the hotel towels, but having checked-out, we have none. We sit on the sand and make-do, go in the sea and use the sea breeze to dry off. I drew a birthday cake with candles in the sand and when I asked Rachelle to blow them out, I brushed the flames away. It's the best I could do for her. She even made a wish.

After having an early dinner, we bike back to the hotel. I go in the pool for a little bit and then shower - we're allowed to use the hotel's facilities despite being checked-out. Then we wait for the bus.

The bus doesn't show up outside the hotel as we thought it would. Instead, a man comes and tells us we have to walk all the way down the road with our heavy bags. We do so. The bus journey is 12 hours long and the bus is a 'sleeper bus'. These are buses with rows of bunk beds. Rachelle and I thought we would get two next two each other, but we don't. The bus is already almost full, so we have to occupy two of the last available bunks. We are forced to spend the night apart. 

I'm at the back, on the lower bunk, which is level with the floor, and Rachelle is ahead, two rows away, on the top bunk. I can occasionally see her eyes over someone else's legs. It's a clean enough bus, but not comfortable. At one point, Rachelle was going to come and sit in the aisle next to me for a short chat, but little did she know, there was an old man sleeping in it, right next to my bunk, and therefore, she couldn't get to me. That man kept putting his knee in my bed. Neither of us got much sleep.