Wosa. I took the 305 bus home today from Eagle's Bridge to Mladost.  It was 5:30 pm.  Holy-smokes. I've never seen anything like it.

The bus was so super-duper crowded. And people were fighting to get on the bus. Oh they were also fighting/pushing to get off the bus.

It kind of made me wonder why I thought taking the bus during rush-hour was a good plan.  For the record, I thought it was going to pour and that I'd rather be on the bus than walking to and from the metro.  That turned out to be a tactical error.  A big one.  First it didn't rain.  At all. And second, well, the bus was a nightmare.<!--more-->

I got poked in places I would rather not have been--with purses and god knows what else.  I was smooshed in the back of the bus and to top it off it was both hot and smelly. Oh and did I mention that I never even decided to rain? Yeah, serves me right. I should have taken the metro but now I know that I need to buy a purse sized umbrella and use the metro.

But I think what was worse than my rather long and fairly uncomfortable ride today was watching everyone from the window of my bus.  There were men and women who had clearly been at work all day who wanted on the bus only to be left on the curb because the bus was too full.  The swarms of people at the bus stops waiting for various buses was also kind of disconcerting.  I've ridden on a lot of different kinds of public transportation in a lot of different cities and I couldn't remember seeing something like this as a normal or everyday occurrence.

Maybe the closest it ever came was in Washington DC when a train broke down in the metro or a big event like a baseball game was let out but the crowds and pushing was always the exception rather than the rule.  However looking at these men and women it was clear to me that today was the rule--not the exception.  It was normal to push and to be pushed.

The thing that always gets me in a tiny crowded space is the way that people look right through you.  They are doing everything they can not to acknowledge you.  It's as if, when they acknowledge you they've got to then acknowledge that you're human just like they are and that you're in the thick of it right next to them.  If you accidentally do this, it makes it a lot harder to then push your way on or shove your way off the bus.  At the same time it does make a little bit easier to ride the bus when you realize that your fellow-riders are just equally tired people who want to get off the bus and get home. Okay, okay, it doesn't make the shove any more friendly but I found that at least I'm a little less frustrated by it.

By far the worst is when some realizes you're a little more human than you'd like.  I had this happen taking the 306 bus into the city in July.  The bus was almost empty and an older man sat down next to me.  At first his leg kind of crossed over his half of the seat. I moved a little bit. Then his leg is kind of pressing up against mine. I gave him a look.  He pretended not to notice.  I calculated how far away I was from my stop and gave him a "what are you doing look!?" finished off with a glare.  We apparently did not speak the same language (imagine that) because his leg is now rubbing against mine.  This is when I decide that I'd rather get of the bus a stop or two early and walk rather than try to tell him off in Bulgarian (which I pretty clearly am incapable of doing).  As a result, I am forced to climb over him to get out of the window seat.  The whole thing makes me really uncomfortable and a part of me wants to swear at him and the other part of me kind of wants to accidentally kick him.  I don't do either.

I guess that there's a lesson in all of this and it has to do with public transportation.  The only problem is I am not wholly sure what it is yet.  Some might read this post and think: hey, Carolyn, it's clear to me--don't take the bus any more.  But I don't think that is a reasonable or likely solution to the problem.  So I am left pondering exactly what the lesson is that I am supposed to be learning is.