A Bus-y Day

What a day we had yesterday! It began when we decided to go to the immigration office to pick up our residence permits. (Praise the Lord! We received a call that our permits are ready to pick up! We will let you know when we have them in hand.) We were told we could pick them up any time the office was open. Anyway, we took the tram to the bus stop and took the number 19 bus to the immigration office. We walked the three or so blocks to the gate and realized that the office was closed to visitors. My mistake, I should have checked online! So, we decided to go to Cora, a department store in another part of town. We walked back the three blocks to the bus stop. Rather, we walked and ran since the bus arrived just before we did. We decided to get off at an unfamiliar stop since Mike's map showed a bus going close to Cora stopped there. When we looked at the bus schedule at the stop, however, it showed the bus only came in the early mornings and late afternoons. We walked back to the stop we had just left and looked for a bus that would take us to Cora. No such luck. We could have made a couple of changes and arrived at Cora, but that would have left no time for shopping and made us late for class.
After our language class, we made another attempt to go to Cora. I told Mike that the Cora bus (a free bus run by Cora to and from their store) stopped by the downtown tram stop. If we hurried, we would just make the 4 p.m. pick-up. We hurried and made it just in time, but the bus schedule at the stop said the bus came on the half-hour, not the hour. Oh well, there was a kiosk near-by so Mike had a coffee and we shared a pastry while we waited.
We finally made it to Cora, bought what we needed and went back to the Cora bus stop. When the bus arrived, we realized it was not the one that would take us back to our tram stop, but another one that would leave us another long walk from the stop. I said I was tired of walking and that we should ride the bus to the end of the line. I told Mike it would be an adventure. I thought the end of the line was the train station, very close to another tram stop. So we rode the bus past our regular stop into a north part of town we were unfamiliar with. Did I tell you it was dark now? Anyway, the bus didn't go back to the train station. We had to get off at the last stop in unfamiliar territory and walked several blocks to another bus stop where we again waited for a bus. Finally, one came that would take us close to a tram stop. We arrived home just before 8 p.m., hungry and tired, but we now know where the number 2 Cora bus goes!