That's great. 8h for 550km ain't that bad. For 2 years, I traveled 825km to see my daughter down south. By bus, that took me 16-18h. The car wouldn't have been much faster, at least during the day. When I earned more money, I started using the plan. Still quite a bit of travel, but 6h (2h bus getting to the airport, 1h waiting, 1h flight, 2h bus to the destination) total is a lot better.