A frustrating journey

Tonight was a night that tested my patience and was extremely frustrating. I was supposed to go on my first hospital tour, but it was pretty much a complete fail thanks to delayed trams and buses.

One of the many downsides of not speaking great German yet is that I don't watch or read much news regarding what's happening here in Basel. Tonight I missed the fact that there was an FC Basel football game. Combined with that, I also didn't realize that the hospital I was going to is really close to the stadium, meaning that it would be a madhouse tonight.

I knew that it would take me 35 to 40 minutes to get from our apartment to the hospital, which included all walk time and changes I needed to make. I also planned my route so that I should have arrived with 10 minutes to spare, just in case I got lost or something. Little did I know, the trams would be late and the bus would not be running from the stop that I needed to take it from. I finally got to the bus stop about 15 minutes late, only to find out that the bus wasn't running and my other option was to walk another 15 minutes in the dark to a neighborhood I am not familiar with. Grrr…

I will say, I'm kind of just using this hospital as a comparison to the one that I actually think we're going to use. The one tonight is a private hospital and is supposed to be really nice; I'm thinking maybe more one-on-one attention, more continuity of staff, more comfortable for BK to stay. I say this is a comparison because it's more than 30 minutes from our apartment, with numerous changes on public transportation. On the other hand, the University hospital is a 10 minute walk from our apartment, or two bus stops. I guess my comparison will have to wait until next month.

When things like this happen to me, I do recognize that there are far worse things to be dealing with. I think it's frustrating for me because it just makes me feel like a moron that I can't figure out how to get somewhere on time. I'm sure it also has to do with the fact that this was the ONE appointment I had today, and really, I can't get there? Seriously?

Obviously this is not the end of the world. It just means that next month I'll have two hospital tours, and will hopefully be able to let my doctor know what our plans are at my December appointment. I'll report in on it- hopefully with more success next time.