The Tube

Also known as the Underground, this is how I usually get around London. Coming from LA, public transportation was a bit of a mystery to me, but I've gotten pretty adept at navigating myself around town on the Tube. I rarely take the bus since traffic in London can get pretty congested and I live in mortal fear that I'll go tumbling down the stairs on the double-decker bus - I've heard of this happening!

As convenient as the Tube can be, it can also be pretty awful in other ways. First off, it's expensive - 1.90 GBP per trip for central London, and it gets even more expensive the farther away you get. Second, it's the oldest public transportation system in Europe, which means that the trains are NOT air-conditioned. Be prepared to sweat when you ride the Tube during summer, especially if you're riding the Central or Northern lines. They recently introduced air-conditioned trains on the Metropolitan line, but I've only seen them twice, both times passing me by while I sweated myself into oblivion while standing on the platform. And finally, the people that ride the tube. It's granted that in a city as large and diverse as London, there are going to be at least a few weirdos. And weirdos need to get from place to place, just like regular folks, so you'll inevitably run into them on the Tube.

My friend and I got out of work early today, and we spent our walk to Farringdon station swapping  war stories of all the strange characters that we've encountered riding the rails. We were almost inside the station when we noticed a much older man walking alongside us. He was around 80 years old and looked like any other old retiree, but then he started to... quack/ meow. My friend and I looked at each other - I don't think either of us thought we heard it right, but then the quacking/meowing persisted as we walked along. The timing couldn't have been more perfect, and we burst into laughter as we entered the station.

Ride on, weirdos. Ride on.