Underground

          

             We flew through the air, sailed across a channel and drove the countryside. However, most of our time in London and Paris was spent underground in the subway stations. This was my personal favorite way of traveling because we do not have anything like it at home. I have been on the subway in New York and in Boston, but it was nothing like using it almost every day on our trip.

 In London, the subway is called the Tube. It is in London that we first formed our “Tube Groups.” Each chaperone was assigned 6-8 students to make navigating the Tube a little easier. Surely, the name stuck and we used our Tube groups while on the Metro and for various other things including a trip to Churchill’s War Rooms. Each day in London, our tour guide Cornelius would distribute Tube tickets to everyone. These tickets were valid for the whole day, although a quick bend or crumple could ruin its ability to scan. A quick slide through the machine and off we would go. You would also slide your ticket through to exit the Tube. London also had escalators that were extremely steep! Sometimes I would have to refrain from looking down. However, London had some great people watching and awesome musicians. The British have a strict system of standing on the right of escalators for people in a hurry to pass on the left—and boy are they in a hurry. A few times I saw some one risk their life to squeeze in between the closing doors of a car. However, the doors on the Tube seemed much more forgiving (almost like elevator doors where they bounce back open if motion is sensed).

 In Paris, the subway is called the Metro. One of the first things I noticed on the Metro was that the doors were extremely fast to close and they seemed more powerful. There was no way I would ever stick my hand in there to stop a closing door! The Metro was also different from the Tube ticket wise. Instead of one ticket that worked all day, the Metro required a different ticket for each ride. This ended in my purse overflowing with little pink Metro tickets. However, you did not need your ticket to exit the Metro, as you did in London. To be quite honest, the Metro seemed a bit gloomier compared to the Tube. It could have been that it was harder to communicate and meet new people with a language barrier, but the people on the Metro seemed less friendly to me.

Before traveling underground on the subway, I had some preconceived notions about the transportation. First, I thought it was going to be dirty. The way I imagined it, there would be a horrific stench, homeless people and a general sense of germs. My predictions ended up being wrong and I actually found the stations to be well groomed and fairly clean. My second prediction was that it was going to be confusing. This was definitely true while in Paris, however, I found it quite easy to navigate the Tube in London. The name of each stop was pretty direct. For example, if you wanted to go to Picadilly Circus, simply take the Picadilly Line to the stop named Picadilly Circus! Paris was not so direct. Maybe it was my lack of French vocabulary, but it was definitely harder to navigate the subway with a language barrier. My final prediction was that it was going to be packed like sardines with rude people pushing and shoving. I definitely thought I was going to get stuck on the subway and miss one of our stops! I was wrong about the pushing and shoving, but boy could it get packed in there. During the morning and afternoon rush hours, the car would be packed to the max with people standing on any surface available. Temperatures would rise along with tensions. I don’t think the businessmen and women enjoyed traveling to and from work with 50 American teenagers. However, we made due and I am proud to say that no one ever got lost or stuck on the subway!

Overall, I would say that the subway is one of the things I miss most about Europe. It was so easy to get from place to place and you never had to worry about gas or parking. It is such a different lifestyle than we have here in Michigan. We are the Motor City and we rely so much on our cars. It was nice to experience a different kind of travel for 10 days.