Tonight I spent 3 stops with my face buried in a man's unpleasant armpit. It's hard to imagine, but picture a very full train...then picture people literally shoving there way into a train car that is too full. And when you think it's over people figure a way to fit into that tiny spot that makes up the curve of the train. It's madness. And it smells. Today was an armpit. Two days ago I was positioned in such a way that I was face to face with a woman's boobs. Face in boobs might not sound bad, but I assure you it wasn't pleasant for either of us.
So tonight after a work function I decided to take the overland train home. It's so much more refined. No pushing or shoving. No armpits or boobs (unwanted or otherwise). I sitting comfortably while reading a newspaper the previous occupant left...then I hear my stop "Clapham Junction" called. The voice on the box also states the next few stops and I hear "Wandsworth Junction" which I ignorantly think is closer to my house. Well a few miles out of town on the last train south I found out I was wrong. The train closer to my house is Wandsworth Town station. My mistake. My 3 mile mistake.
Long story short I've had some issues with public transit here. And I I didn't even tell you about the time I was locked on the top of a double decker bus. It's embarrassing.
3 comments:
Wow...I know what you mean Chris. The tube is craziness at the peak hours of the day. I was always amazed at how hot the stinking train could get...and of course, I was amazed by the number of people squeezed into such a relatively small space. It stressed me out.
I totally get that "how do you think you can actually squeeze more people on this thing?" feeling. That happened to me once in Atlanta, GA during the '96 Olympics - we were on their newly constructed metro, and it was packed to the gills. Then the Japanese tourists arrived just as the doors were closing, and literally 50 more people just pushed (physically pushed) their way on to the train. I would have fallen over from being pushed, but was held up by all of the other riders. I eventually fell over when people got off because I was pressed in on an angle. :-)
Haha... London travel can drive you to near insanity! I just wrote a blog post about tube etiquette after being in London this week http://adamellis1985.wordpress.com/
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