When starting this blog last year, my
goal was to share in my adventures overseas.
Looking back I can see that I started out in talking about life in Genoa
a bit, here and there, but then my posts mostly were sharing the travels I
took. While I plan to still do that,
this year I want to get back towards documenting more of regular life, the
day-to-day activities, for an expat in Genoa, Italy.
For the first instalment of this idea, I
introduce….the bus. Yes, public transit at its finest. I know many of you may be thinking, “What
could you possibly have to rant about in regards to the bus?” Oh, readers.
For those of you who frequent public transport I’m sure you’ll be able
to connect with much of what will follow.
And for those of you who don’t, consider yourself very, very lucky at
times.
In moving downtown this year I knew that
taking the city bus was now going to be a daily affair. Last year it was only necessary for trips to
get downtown since I was within walking distance of work, groceries, and the
sea. As I’ve become a regular rider, I
now ‘luckily’ get to experience the bus, its customers and all it has to offer me
on a Monday-Sunday basis.
Let’s
start with the clientele.
It’s been widely mentioned within certain
groups (aka my co-workers) that showering before entering the bus should be a
requirement. Or at least having showered
in the last 48 hours. Fifty + people
crowded onto a bus does not make for the most pleasant smells in general, especially
come the rainy winter season, much less if someone already has a nice, ripe
odor going. The warm, moist air just
brings it out and willingly shares it with all of us nearby. Thanks but no thanks. Plus, the bus already has a pungent odor from, well I'm not sure what and I don't think I want to know.
Personal
space.
What’s that?!?! Yes, buses get crowded. We all know that. However, if there is still standing space in
the aisle MUST you grab both poles beside my seat and stand as if you’re
prepared to straddle my head? Really?
Plus, I am then not comfortable in turning my head to peer over to the
other side of the street to see how close I am to my stop. Nope, not going to face that situation. And I already cannot recall how many times my
head and neck have been breathed on, much less my face being much too close to
someone’s armpit. Oh, to just be a couple
inches taller sometimes. Buses really
aren’t a short person’s forte.
Logistics.
The one thing I do find interesting, and
welcoming to an extent, is that enter and exit doors are separate. This really does cut down on the crowds and
greatly helps the flow of traffic on and off the bus. Yet, it causes for a lot of congestion near
the front and ends of the bus as people who want off at the next stop are
usually standing beside or close to the doors to make a quick exit. (The entrance doors are at the ends of the
bus and the exits doors are closer to the middle.) And yes, you need to be there and ready to
get off for there is no waiting by the bus driver once the stop is made. Therefore, you have to try and PUSH your way
past, usually resulting in a rub here, a graze there, :o to get to the center
of the bus where usually you can find some room to breathe your own air. I say sometimes because, well, it doesn’t
always happen. Depending on the bus line
and the time of day, you may just get on and hope to hope that when it’s time
to get off you can. And then you just
become part of the mass body of humans that gets jostled and rolled as crowds
shift, people get on and others get off.
I’ve found that flip-flops and sandals aren’t the best footwear when caught
in these types of situations. Many of toes of mine have been squished, yet I’ve
done the same as well so….I guess fair is fair.
This makes me recall a situation where a
friend had luckily got a seat (lucky because they are few and far between;
usually when we get on they’re occupied and if you do get one there’s often a
baba or gido along the way whom you’ll ‘graciously’ give it up to). However, to her avail, as the trip got closer
to the centre where we live and the amount of clientele on board increased, she
literally could not get off at her/our stop.
Or
the next one.
Or
the next one.
So
when she finally could escape the abyss of the bus, quite a distance in the
wrong direction, she smiled, bought a gelato and caught a different line home. I don’t know if I’d have had the same
temperament she did upon arriving home.
Kudos to you C! :D
The
clientele. Again.
Now most of us riding the bus are hardworking
folk, trying to just get from point A to point B. And the high schoolers, who start back to
school this week and will make the trips a little more…..full. In saying this, we all know that there are
those, no names being placed, who make our trips a little more interesting. To name a few:
a)
The
bumper – someone who likes to bump into you. Like really, center your core please.
b)
The
man-spreader – yep, sitting or standing the person who likes to take up a LOT
of space.
c)
The
dog – animals are often on public transit here.
Fine, but when you lay down and try to take up my friend’s foot space, not
cool bud. Her foot was there first btw. At least he didn’t lick you B. I guess there’ll be more opportunities for
that in the future though. :p
d)
The
loud cell-phone talker – seriously?
Shouting into the phone RIGHT by my ear, or really anywhere on the bus, is
not courteous. And if you feel the need
to shout into your phone, instead of talking in a proper voice, then you
shouldn’t answer or call until you are out in the open.
e)
“That
Guy” – We all have one of these. That
person who you just give a wider berth to because the comfort factor is nil. S’s
“Naked Man” is just the one for us. :/
Those
are just to name a few. Please feel free
to add to this list in the comments section of this post and share some of your
interesting bus clientele. ;)
To
end I’d like share my most recent bus adventure….
There we were, standing at the bus stop
around 7:10am on Friday hoping that it wasn’t too crowded (a multiple daily
wish) and that even if we couldn’t get a seat that we may have a little elbow
room. As luck would have it, it turned
out that way. We should have known this
was only going to be a precursor to the morning’s event. Now, some background information here.
1)
The streets downtown and in the residential sections of Genoa are narrow and
windy.
2)
Drivers around here are…risky? Rule breakers? Space snatchers? Impatient? Not sure the correct word here but
hopefully you can draw a conclusion on what I’m attempting to say.
With
that, the story unfolds.
So we hadn’t been on the bus for even 5
minutes when it happened. The screeching
of tires on pavement, the slamming of brakes and the tossing of a poor dude who
hadn’t been holding on very well (which I know he wasn’t expecting to be thrown
violently about while waiting to exit). As
we glanced out the window we could see that the left side of our bus and the
right back side of a car were touching.
Not a good sign. Unfortunately we
could not understand the exchange between drivers, as it was all in Italian L, however we could infer that
there had been a meeting of metal/plastic where there shouldn’t be.
Now from what I could infer, there was
only space for one vehicle, not two, however the game of chicken ended
badly. Who’s to say who was in the right
(although I’ve seen many a car driver try to get by others without patience and
thinking that they are right and almighty) all I know is that a bus is bigger
and if it were me, I’d let it go first.
Not try to squeeze with or ahead of it.
Common sense? Perhaps. Well,
traffic was held up behind us as both drivers took pictures, and unsure of the
situation we were in and how it was going to be handled we couldn’t help but
think “just our luck”. I’m actually
quite surprised that these situations haven’t occurred more often having
observed the driving habits of people in this city. I’m just really glad it wasn’t a scooter and
that no one got hurt.
Finally we were on the move, only to
pull over up ahead for the drivers to ‘chat’ some more, the bus driver getting
off to look at the car amid curious glances of the bus riders to see if this
situation was going to escalate. Thankfully
we were again shortly on our way, the driver of course trying to make up for
time lost. Arrival at school wasn’t too
much longer and without any further incident, at least on our leg of the
trip.
Oh
the adventures to be had on public transit.
Each morning is a new day and a new set of anxiety as to what will
unfold before one. ;)
Lovely paper month pass. Gotta take real good care of this.
Had the bus all to ourselves for a bit today. NEVER happens!
