No Bus Station Without Representation

Okay so maybe that's not what the American Colonists were angry about. I know what you're thinking, and no there is absolutely no reason why I, a lawful citizen of the greatest country on earth, would need representation in some old lady's silly parliament. However, that doesn't mean I can't express my frustrations with the British Commonwealth and the traveling struggles I experienced within its borders.

***Before I start, I'd just like to say that I love how cheap it is to travel here. Despite my complaints, it's amazing getting to go places on such a small budget. I'm not trying to be negative in this post, I'm just trying to share the less obvious sides of the story.

A good friend of mine and proud alumnus of the Darla Moore School of Business, Connor Donahue is currently working towards a master's degree at King's College in London. Naturally, I had to come visit him and see what infuriated our founding American ancestors enough to where they had to travel 3000 miles from home just because they couldn't deal with it anymore.

Paying $60 roundtrip to fly somewhere brings with it its challenges, the worst of which having to be at an airport 1.5 hours from your apartment by 7:30 A.M. to fly on an airline that basically charges you to breathe. To ensure I wasn't charged an "Approaching the Gate Less Than 10 Minutes Before Departure Time" fee, I left my apartment at least 4 hours before my flight. Thank goodness I did. I got to Termini, expecting to find a bus there that would take me to the Ciampino airport. The metro took me to the transport hub within a few quick stops and I walked into the station to figure it out. Well, apparently there wasn't any buses leaving anytime soon because it was too early in the day. But look, Google Maps says there's a public bus at the end of the Metro line that will take me there. Perfect.

Do we all remember my frustration with the buses? Ridiculous schedules and unpredictability? Okay good, just making sure we're all on the same page.

So I get to this bus station after a ride on the trashiest train I've ever been on in my life (and I'm used to getting yelled at by homeless people on MARTA, just to put it into perspective) and the one bus that can take me to this airport is full. Darn. It's okay I have time. But wait, the next one doesn't come for another hour and 30 minutes? And the next one after that comes in 15 minutes? At this point why do I expect anything different.

Here is when the blood pressure starts rising.

It would take me another 45 minutes just to get to back to Termini.
Will I even find a bus when I get there?
I'm out of coins for the Metro anyway, so maybe I should just wait it out.
But at best, this bus would get me there with only 20 minutes left.
Looks like I don't have another choice.
Okay I guess I'll just wait it out.

After waiting impatiently, stressed out beyond belief, I miraculously am able to reach the airport 15 minutes before the gates close. I pass through security with no issues, and found that my flight hadn't even started boarding yet. RyanAir in its infinite incompetency wouldn't even start boarding for another 30 minutes after I arrived. So much for the stress.

With the $30 flight also comes with flying into an airport that's an hour and a half away from the center of London, so I had to pay another $10 on top of the $4.50 I had to use on Metro's earlier that morning. It wasn't until 3 pm London time that I finally found Connor. That was an hour later than I expected (naturally my bus driver had to do his NASCAR lap warmups around the Liverpool Street Station). After much waiting however, I was finally there. Here are some assorted pictures from the next few days of my trip:

Not pictured: the $8 million one has to spend on public transportation to get anywhere in this city

London was a beautiful city, but more shockingly the richest I've ever been to. People told me that London was really expensive. But hey, I've been to NYC, how bad can it be? Apparently really bad. One pub meal of a burger and fries was about $20-$25 at multiple places. A one-way, one-trip metro pass was $7.50, and a bus trip was around $3.50 if you were lucky enough to have a frequent pass oyster card. Overall it really added up.

Nevertheless, I enjoyed my time in London largely in thanks to Connor being a great tour guide. I got to see most of the cool sites, as well as some places one wouldn't know about from just visiting. For anyone trying to go, it's definitely a great place to visit but make sure you save up for it. After a lot of walking around for a few days, I was pretty tired and once Sunday came around, I had the chance to relax and sleep until I left for my comfortable flight from Heathrow the next day.

...

Did you believe me? Well remember how I discussed the unexpected costs of cheap flights? Well another thing you lose from paying the low bill is not having the chance to sleep much before your flight. In fact, I didn't sleep at all my last night in London. See, I had to get to Stansted Airport 1.5 hours out of London at 5 A.M. This entailed walking 30 minutes at 1 am to a public bus stop,and waiting 15 minutes for one of the buses to take me to the coach bus station. Well apparently, the coach bus station wasn't there at all, and I had to walk another 10 minutes down the road to find it. From there, I waited an hour for a 90 min bus to the airport, where I waited another hour and a half for my flight to leave.

All in all, I had about 10 hours of traveling that night, about 2 of which I was able to get some minimal sleep. I barely made it to my monday class on time, and I was pretty tired the rest of that day.

Although I got to catch up with a fellow Gamecock in London for cheap, I did learn a valuable lesson in traveling:

When they say you get what you pay for, they mean it. 

Whatever money I saved from getting cheap tickets I paid for in hassle and stress. I could have had much easier flights and traveling days, with more time to visit in between if I had just spent a bit more money on better flights, on better airlines, into better airports. My tip to anyone traveling is to do your research, not just on prices and times, but on logistics. Try to avoid airlines that fly into airports far away from the city. Try to time out your flights so you can get to and from the airport without stress, and plan everything, I mean everything ahead of time. It can be ultimately be the difference between anxiety and stress filled traveling, and a relaxing trip. I learned this lesson the hard way, and I don't want you to as well.

But hey, I went to London for sixty bucks, so that's pretty awesome.

The Not So Magic School Bus

If there is anything I hate about Italy, it’s the 168 bus. It is the vehicle that takes me to and from LUISS. It is the decider of whether or not I have a 25 minute walk, or a comfortable 10 minute ride. It is the barrier between a drenching downpour, and a warm transport to school. This bus should be a lifeline for me.

It’s not.

This bus is like Donald Trump, or Clemson fans. It consistently has negative effects on my day, and there’s basically nothing I can do about it. Its inefficiency is infuriating, and it’s almost impossible to predict. Oh and did I mention it’s one of the few Rome bus routes that isn’t accurately tracked by the RomaBus app? Because it is. It was supposed to show up today at 5:47 PM so I could make it to class. Well it didn’t. In fact, there was about an hour between buses. And then the timetable said the next one was coming at 6:18 PM. Then another at 6:24. Then the one after that wouldn’t come until 6:59 PM. I could be waiting for 5 minutes, or 45 and there’s no way to plan for it. You just have to hope for the best, or in me and my roommate’s case, sprint 50 meters down the block to reach the stop before it does.

I wish I could say that Italy is not like this bus route, but it is. Everything is run so inefficiently and poorly organized. Cars drive and park where they want, people take their sweet time getting anywhere, and nobody puts any effort into getting out of the way.

Oh you forgot a block of cheese? Never mind that there’s about 8 people waiting in line behind you, go ahead and run across the store to grab it!

You’re in the middle of a busy staircase? That’s a great place to stop and talk with all 5 of your closest friends.

You’re in the process of cutting my hair? Yeah just go ahead and walk outside and grab that phone call. It’s okay I didn’t have anywhere to be or anything.

There’s no order or unwritten rules of society and it doesn’t seem like it bothers anyone, but the disorder stresses me out. I like things to be predictable, or I get anxious and frustrated. The worst part is that my schedule is just as unpredictable and chaotic as everything else.

The classes have arbitrary dates and times and there’s no routine. Some classes are at 6 PM on Monday and 8 AM on Friday, then at 4:30 PM on Tuesday and 8 AM and 6 PM on Wednesday. There’s no reason or rhyme to it, and it drives me absolutely mad. Of the 7 classes I wrote down to take here, I could only use 1 in my final schedule. Every morning, I either have to wake up early for class and do nothing for 8 hours, and then go back to school later or just not have class until 4 PM. There’s no consistent schedule, and it makes me appreciate so much the system at USC.

Although I could complain about the annoyingly indifferent culture of Italy for hours, I realized today that it can be pretty endearing. It even makes me want to be a more patient and calm person. In the States, I know these situations would bother everyone, but I feel a bit out of place here when I start getting stressed about the chaos. My roommate Frederico seems to have no problem with it, or anything for that matter. Honestly our apartment could be on fire and he would be completely unfazed. The Portuguese (shoutout Fred, Nuno, and Mafalda) are all like that, and I’m trying my best to learn from them. When I’m around them and the Italians I try to keep my visible stress to a minimum when things start going off the charts. As much as I love the organization and order of the States, we could learn something from their patience, and maybe even calm down every once in a while. So as much as the 168 bus, my schedule, and basically every person over the age of 60 in this country drive me crazy, I will start trying my best to just be okay with it, because I guess that’s what’s important about experiencing new cultures and people. It’s not just about learning about them, but what lessons you can stand to gain from them, no matter how annoying, stressful, and unorganized that process may be.