There and Back Again: Gettin' around

I like to think myself a bit of an urbanite. With London, Chicago, New York and, of course, Gambier, OH under my belt I'd say I'm seasoned in the ways of getting around a city.

All the city's have their fair share of public transportation woes. Most of which have to do with timeliness, stinkiness, and over crowdedness.

I had heard rumblings that the London tube was not up to snuff (mostly from NYers). It was slow, inconsistent and not easily accessible. But it did have a countdown to net train clock - a major plus.

But after living here for a month I've found the tube to be just fine. It arrives just when the countdown clock says. They seem to come fairly regularly, though close just after midnight (a major no-no) and are generally clean, save for the lack of a/c, but I don't even have to deal with that. And just to tie a bow around the whole experience, I live just one block from the tube stop. it's a breeze!

That is, until, Saturday rolls around.

On the weekends the clean colorful lines of the tube map dissolve into gray-out burdens of construction zones. The Olympics are comin' (in two years)! And they are taking their time to make sure everything is in working order (Chicago, trust me, you were saved).

So that tube stop I mentioned, the one just a block from my flat? Consider it dead on the weekends. That's not to say that I'm trapped up here on the northwest quadrant of the city. It just takes some finagling.

Thank goodness I'm a seasoned urbanite. (gulp)

It's just that this bus system is a little more complicated than I expected. Not to mention I have an inherent mistrust of the bus system (traffic + crazies = no thanks) And there seems to be no one map that contains ALL the many doubledecker options. Which is a little problematic for this city-exploring girl. I'm east, I'm west, I'm all over this city, but, on the weekends, I'm mostly on the top floor of a big red bus.

When friend was visiting I wanted to show off my gettin' around the city skills. In preparation for the weekend transportation chaos I settled on a walkable distance brunch spot. It would have been two stops on the tube but it appeared on my hand-held map (don't want to look like a tourist, now) to be just a 10 minute jaunt.

Ten minutes turned into an hour and a half when we found ourselves at the cross section of four major highways, a Toyota dealership and the 'Staples Center.'

Luckily, Staples Center is JUST where I meant to be. They have a delightful brunch of giant post-its with a side of multi-colored pens. Scrumptious.

SO we hopped on the next bus that came our way, drove right down the sad little path we'd just taken, past the street where I took the wrong turn, and about three blocks south, where we got off. yes, it would have been a ten minute walk.

I just wanted to show visiting friend, not only the glories of the American industry at work abroad, but also the real London. The slightly seedy, great big open stretches of highway and industrial warehouse London.

Thank god it was sunny.

But I think I'm learning.

For instance, I found out there's a shuttle bus that takes the place of the tube. Gee wiz! For some reason I had the skeps about said shuttle but it's actually quite helpful, if painfully long.

And just last weekend on my major trek from the northwest to the southeast (below the Thames (insert dramatic music)) I took a bus to the tube to the overground (which required a whole new ticket). Then heading back I took a boat (!) to the tube to a movie (hey, I was pooped) to another tube to a shuttle. And home sweet home.

Ah, city-living.

But I've still seen loads of London. So the adventures continue, tube or no.

A sampling:

What is that, a cottage behind a wrought iron fence? Soooo English, it's ridiculous.

Some sort of custardy heaven from Lisboa Patisserie (SO much better than the Hummingbird Bakery Cafe cupcakes. I know, because I tried one not long after) at the north end of Portobello Road