A TOTALLY BIZARRE EXPERIENCE! (but memorable) BlaBlaCar Bus or was it Crnja Tours Paris-Brussels

*I know I made fun of Greta in this video, but no harm was meant. I don't have a problem with Greta Thunberg. In fact I think she's done a fantastic job raising environmental awareness with the younger generation. I consider myself environmentally aware, and so salute her work, and the work of the younger generation trying to change the mistakes of *my* generation.

The plan was simple. Catch BlaBlaCar bus from Paris Bercy to Brussels Midi. I was left scratching my head several times. Instead of a BlaBlaCar bus, we got a wet lease (which included two drivers) coach from Croatian Crnja Tours. There was a hint of disorganisation from BlaBlaCar and I had a feeling this bus driver was new to the route, especially when he tried to enter a motorway the wrong way down a slip road.

*** FOLLOW ME AT:

*** MUSIC:

*** TIMESTAMPS:
00:00:00 Introduction
00:01:25 Paris Bercy Coach Station
00:03:23 Roissypole / CDG Airport
00:03:46 Motorway mishap
00:04:39 Lille
00:05:13 Brussels

[steve-marsh]

Wow Scott, that could've been your last ever review :O very entertaining review though :)

[taniaedwards]

That scene in the bus station reminded me of Monsieur Hulot's Holiday with the poor people running from one platform to another only to see the train arrive on a completely different platform. Look forward to watching your videos Scott, you do make me laugh!

[craighobbs]

A lot of Parisian public transportation hubs are not only filthy but are extremely dangerous

[vivianhughes]

Well done for trying it - but it looks like a real cowboy outfit. Totally shocking when the driver was heading down the slip road the wrong way

Scott, just wondering, could you post the amount you paid for your trips on future videos? I know you do sometimes for Ryanair, but it would be useful to get an idea of the cost of your road trips as well. Cheers. Vivian

[chuckpenfold]

This was hilarious! You're lucky he didn't take you back to Pula! Nothing against Pula, lovely place. The sign on the front of the bus read (if my broken Croatian is to be trusted) "occasional transport." The music may have been Oliver Dragojevic, and I think you could hear someone telling him when he went down the slip road: "You need to get over there!" Great stuff!

[michasreisefieber]

The Bla Blas Bus toures are served by individual bus conpanies. Maybe this was a sub contractor, but maybe it was only a different bus, because the bla bla panted bus was maintained or broken deown.
After the first peak in the long distance bus scene around 2014, most routes now are very long and serve different countries.
Most of the busses come from eastern europe and they have very different standards. So this worries me a bit and I think it is a dangerous practice.

Sub contracting is even more dangerous, because especially in big contracts the prices are already bad. A sub contractor even gets less of the money from the main contractor, that makes it even more worse.
They have to save everywhre, drivers, busses, maintainance...

[tstuart]

Nice little adventure. 3am set-down where! did you go to sleep? Many thanks once again Scott. Always interesting content.

[markmcniven]

That sounded like the start of a bad joke. A Scotsman on a Croatian bus going from Paris to Brussels.

[marygarner]

Hello Scott so do look forward to your adventures always BIG 👍👍👍👍👍👍

[davidbutler]

Reminds me of some grim, dangerous 1980s coach trips

[David]

Would you consider doing the Bus from London UK to Dublin Ireland by Bus Éireann? They operating days are a little strange however.

[JohninRosc]

Always interesting and informative. You've given me a lot of good ideas for travel (though a 10pm to 3am bus ride between Paris and Brussels isn't one of them). Thanks for the video.

[PatrickLeFloch]

How was the bus itself? I recall being on Flixbus which had good reclining and a slide-into-the-aisle feature which is great for elbow room. I was wondering if Crjna had the same.

[ameerali.ouarda]

I’ve been on blablabus twice and it was a horrific third party bus and the legroom was horrendous. Virtually non existent my legs were locked. Wouldn’t go on them again!

[Bruce-]

I've seen eastern European trucks reversing on motorways because they missed the exit.

[derekstuart]

'I know I made fun of Greta in this video, but no harm was meant. I don't have a problem with Greta Thunberg. In fact I think she's done a fantastic job raising environmental awareness with the younger generation. I consider myself environmentally aware, and so salute her work, and the work of the younger generation trying to change the mistakes of *my generation.'

Don't be intimidated by these little econazis, Scott. They're obsessed and no matter how much you appease them it will never be enough. They're like little religious fanatics.

[kevinellis]

I do love your adventures, perhaps time for a relaxing UK timetable challenge?

PS - Just had 8 days Spirit of Scotland train pass and loved the look of Paisley Gilmour Street as we were passing through a couple of times (looked out for you :)) Please keep the trips coming.

[atsmph]

In the US Bus industry we call this a “Farm Out”. Whenever there is a schedule that we can’t keep due to a driver or equipment shortage, we start calling around. We will give the schedule to whoever is licensed and able to do it for our price. Unfortunately this often time leads to a passenger experience that isn’t uniform, and can be quite poor. My former company got into hot water with one of our contracts when we started farming out regularly. However after customer complaints, and the companies we farmed the service to didn’t follow the contract boarding and seating policies, we were asked to stop, or they’ll find a carrier that will run the service with their own drivers and busses.

[royhumphrey]

The driver should have been sacked for gross incompetence!

[mary-janejenkins]

Love the wrong way down the slip road all adds to the excitement 😂😂💕