The Public Transportation Circus

Now that we have traveled around Europe for a couple of weeks we have had many experiences with public transportation. Some of these have been great while others have resulted in high stress levels and frustration for many. I figured it would be nice to let all of you at home into our world of European travel.

The first main aspect is the transportation within the cities themselves. As most of us do not hail from large cities it was at first odd to be on someone else's schedule rather than just hoping into our own car. Furthermore there was this crazy idea of walking somewhere from our stop rather than it dropping us off exactly where we needed to be. All joking aside the subway/train systems have been highly convenient and fairly easy to figure out (assuming you're paying attention to which way the train is going or you might end up heading in the wrong direction as many of us did our first time alone in Munich). There still have been a few issues in relying on the public systems which include the train suddenly stopping halfway into the tunnel in Laussane as well as the line in London being cancelled causing half of our class to end up wandering in the rain and missing our walking tour about the Olympic park.

The other half of traveling is when we are venturing from city to city. We now all understand that the weight limits on flights were not the only reasons we should have packed light! Train travels have generally involved a hike to the station then upon boarding the train we had to carry our luggage down the aisle to our seat where, if we were lucky, we then had to lift the luggage over our heads into the racks (or in my case find a nice strong male on the trip that could get it up there for me due to my lack of height and upper body strength) that were generally not big enough to fit all of our luggage nearby. If we weren't lucky it meant sitting on the train with our luggage in our laps or taking up the room for our feet. Once we were at the hotels there was also the joy of getting our luggage to our rooms. Europe seems not only to enjoy smaller food portions as one often hears about but also small elevators. If we were even lucky enough to have an elevator it usually only held 2 people plus their luggage therefore most of us ended up taking the stairs. My personal favorite was in Torino when we went to the registration building and began hauling our luggage up the 4 flights only to learn we were in the wrong place so we went back down, around the corner, and up another 4 flights. Let's just say showers and beds were in high demand after that.

I think, however, what had to be the biggest circus was the torino airport. When we got there we walked into a sea of people. By the time we found where to check in and got rid of our bags (which there was a panic to be sure everyone was under the strict weight limit of about 40 pounds) we had to stand in a security linebthat wrapped around half of the entrance area! We finally made it through that only to find another line where they checked our passports ( for the 4th time). We finally make it to our gate where we learn that our flight does not have assigned seating so it is a throng of people pushing tirades the gate. Suddenly (about a half hour late) the line starts moving where we are all packed onto busses to bring us out to our plane where it is a mad rush to the stairs to find a good seat on the plane. Many of us agree that this was the most unorganized airport we had ever been to!

All in all travel has been quite the experience, although inconvenient at times we are all still together and have all of our luggage (minus one forgotten coat in Torino). I'm sure all if the headaches will be something we will be able to laugh about once we are back at Luther.