traffic...

I write to you from aboard our train to the coast, headed to meet a ferry then on across the North Sea to the Netherlands, once again onto a train and into Amsterdam. The world of travel amazes me frequently. As we were on the way marching like fire ants through the tunnels of the London underground I began to analyze this situation we were in. Arms bogged down with suitcases, arm-to-arm, body-to-body against the masses. We made our way, onto the appropriate underground train and stood packed next to our fellow patrons. This is where my thinking started to kick in. I felt like, we were stuck in traffic, the jam packed, cannot go anywhere, no side roads to take kind of traffic, left without an alternative.  Up to this point I had loved the underground travel to and from work, it allowed me the leisure of reading more books than I think I have read in my life, at least in a shorter time frame, I could thoughtlessly sit there and wait for my stop, I feel similar to a child on the school bus, waiting my turn to get out, being served by some master driver guiding us on our way. But then, as we are here, in this mass of “people traffic” I wonder, would I prefer to be in the comfort of my own car, have my own climate control, the ability to roll down my window and or sun roof to enjoy the wonders of fresh air, something you do not get in the underground. My own music, the ability to speak on my mobile phone, which did I really prefer more? To be honest, I don’t know, I loved my car- Emma, as many of you know, but the amazing luxury of being able to escape to a world of, well, whatever you like while making your journey home, to work, shopping whatever it might be at the time. Though the wonderful privacy of having our own little box, your own little space that is not your home, but often an extension of it, holding, in my case, yoga mats, tennis shoes, I pod, magazines, books, water bottles, bits of clothing, while in high school I began to always make sure I had a swimming suit in my car. Living by the lake and having friends with pools you never knew when you would need it. After moving a mere hour away for college, the habit slowly escaped me, it wasn’t really one I wanted to let go of though, it was a wonderful thought, you never know when it might just be the perfect time for a swim. My freshman year in college I purchased 7 new swimsuits, I loved them, they were a “good deal” (always open to a subjective opinion. My newfound friends at college found that to be the most absurd thing ever, 7! To me, perfect sense. I was always in the water at some point in a day in the summers… was this not normal? Apparently not! No need to worry, since they I have purchased…well, not seven in a year, but they are something that I love. Anyway, from that tangent, I do not know which form of travel I prefer, and it mostly depends on what my location is, in Springfield as well as many other regions of the US it is highly impractical to attempt to depend solely on public transportation unless you are ready to add taxi’s to the mix which drastically increases your spending, and the same goes for London, though the opposite. It is much more fiscally possible to solely depend on public transport. What with is host of transport options, underground, over ground, national rail, DLR and the mass of busses.