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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19, 2023
EYES (Bamberg)
"Eyes, I just do eyes."
- Bladerunner
Today was one of the most important days of my life. For the past three weeks, I have been functionally blind, with each day becoming progressively worse. I can see things in general; that is, I can see shapes reasonably well. But I cannot discern any details. Reading is impossible. Any light or glare is magnified a hundredfold, not in intensity but in circumference. Everything is covered in a greyish haze. That is supposed to change today. My appointment for the laser treatment is at 4:50 p.m.
We arrived at the RV park in Bamberg at 10 a.m. A few spots were open, but they quickly filled up soon after we arrived. My first order of business was to find the clinic where my treatment was to take place. We had the address, so I Google Mapped it. Walking was too far, and we couldn’t drive in the RV. That meant a bus. Maps suggested a couple of bus routes. I wanted to make a dry run.
Reaching the downtown bus hub was no problem. We had ridden the Park and Ride shuttle to town several times when we were in Bamberg before. Things got trickier in town. Maps suggested either the 918 or 903 bus. Of course, I couldn’t read bus stop signs, so I had to ask people, hoping they spoke some English. Another complicating factor is that most bus routes go from one end of town to another, with the center bus hub being the middle of the route. It was easy to get on the 903 northbound when we wanted the southbound. Each direction was at a different bus stand. The only thing that discerned the difference was a German street name that the route ended at. So, 903 ‘something’ Strasse was at a different bus stand than 903 ‘something else’ Strasse. The bus drivers, bless their hearts, helped the best they could even though most spoke precious little English.
Somehow, we stumbled onto the right bus and ended up at a huge modern klinicum (hospital or giant clinic complex). Now, we had to find the correct individual clinic within this massive complex. The main receptionist pointed us to a smaller detached four-story building a half block away. The name of the office I had on my paper, with the address, didn’t match anything on the building's list of offices. Fortunately, we found a guy that spoke English, and he recognized the name. He pointed us to the basement floor. There were several offices on that floor, but none that matched the name on my paper. I randomly picked one.
In broken English, the cute receptionist checked her schedule and declared that my appointment was in the system, but we were hours too early and had to come back when it was my time. It was far too complicated to explain that we were in an RV, we were unfamiliar with the city, and we just wanted to find the place so I didn’t miss the appointment. So, I just smiled and agreed to return later. I was pleased that we made this dry run.
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