4) Bus city travel — 2 months ago
Most of my commuting has been happening in the dark underworld of the tube. Not that I don’t like the métro, I happen to quite like it in fact. It’s fast, relatively comfortable and it works well – having once lived in London makes you appreciate any working tube system for the rest of your life. It goes everywhere and the stations are pretty cool. It has its drawbacks (bad smell etc) but it’s cool on the whole.
I recently moved from one part of town to another and I’ve been trying different routes to get familiar with my new commuting options. This included trying bus routes.
I noticed that something very important happens when I used the buses: I look through the window and I feel like I’m part of the environment. No less than that.
I feel like I’m going on a trip through Paris rather than being simply commuting from point A to point B by tube. A bus trip means I truly enjoy and admire my city. It’s easy to forget how beautiful this city is when all you see is an underground tunnel from the tiny window of a train that is jammed packed with not-fully-awake-yet faces in the morning peak hours…
On the inner city routes I travel on each week, traveling by bus tends to take longer than by tube. But the experience is so enjoyable that I plan on going by bus more often. I’ll still take the tube in the morning (I’m not keen on leaving any earlier than I already do) but I’ll be going home by bus in the evening. Generally, I’ll try to take the bus whenever I’m not in a hurry.
