Bumper People and Eerie Stations

Last weekend we had dinner and a play in town and did the pin balling from local map to local map to find where we needed to go.  This weekend it was much worse and not quite so easy.  We had tickets to see The Full Monty and also to have dinner at the Spaghetti House before the show, one of the pre-theatre dinner packages.

Started out badly.  We arrived at the train station and found a parking place without a problem but when we got to the window to purchase our tickets, the train times had been changed from the usual times we were familiar with and counting on.  dang. when did that happen.  Had I purchased the tickets on line like I usually do, might have discovered that, BUT after last weekend when the trains were delayed and we had to find another way home, we were told to go back to our original station to get our refund - hence we were getting today's tickets at the station so that we could also get our refund.  Nope, didn't happen.  So now we are without our refund from the prior week and we are also going to be quite late for our 6 p.m. dinner reservation.  We called the restaurant and told them we would be there at 6:30.  

Our train should have gotten us to Waterloo at 6:20 but it arrived at 6:30.  Still we figured we could make the restaurant in about 10 minutes.  Just not to be this evening.  Not quite sure if it was rugby or football but the Tube was full of fans going to Leicester Square and a good many of them were already well into stages of inebriation plus wildly enthusiastic about their teams and a good deal of shouting and cheering and singing.  Exiting at Leicester Square proved to be an experience in bumper people rather than bumper cars.  It was so crowded that we were bumping everyone next to us as we struggled towards the exit.   It was the kind of crowd that had anyone fallen down, they would have stayed down as people wouldn't have been able to find them underneath the feet.

Finally we burst into the open and there is a drunken crowd of about 50 people clustered around the map.  It is now 7:40 p.m.  We can't even get close to the map and we can't remember which way to go so we just turn and walk down the street to try and get out of the crowd and find another map.  Nope, not to be.  Hubby pulls out his phone and speaks in the address and it points off in a direction so we walk along its path.  Tonight is the night that the phone GPS plays tricks on us.  twice we walked around the block in a circle trying to find the right street.  And finally I realize we have to give up totally on the restaurant because it is now 7 p.m. and our play starts at 7:30.  I tell hubby to put the theatre into the GPS and it takes us in a total different direction.  huh?  the restuarant and theatre were supposedly close together.  Oh well, we head back towards the tube station and again are bumping our way through the crowds that are still there and surging out of the tube and go a couple of blocks and there is the theatre.  Wow, had we just turned the other direction when we came out, we might have made it to the restuarnt in time to eat!   Across the street from the theatre is an Eat so we dash in there to get a sandwich and drink and couple of cookies.  Into the theatre for our seats and we share a sandwich and our cookies before the play begins and that was our dinner!


Lovely play, enjoyed it immensely and then when it is over, we struggle through the crowds back to Leicester Square Station.  There are even more people in the streets now. We've never seen it this crowded.  There are police stationed at each exit/entrance to Leicester Square Tube Station and they are blocking the entrances and telling people to go around the corner.  We do but the queue to go into the station is so thick that we decide we will just walk until we find another station or a cab, whichever comes first.

Unfortunately, we have to "swim upstream" against a very solid mass of shouting fans and drunken fans and theatre buffs.  A policeman at one of the entrances tells us to walk up the street to find Tottenham Court Tube Station and we can get back to Waterloo from there.  One would think that as we got a block or two away from this tube station that the crowds might lessen but there were too many like minded people heading for Tottenham Court tube station so we strolled up the street as it was impossible to get around the people and stride out.  Finally we get to the Tottenham Court Tube Station and the first entrance is closed.  We're thinking it still might be a taxi then but when we walk around the corner, there are people going into the station so we do also but at the bottom of the stairs just around the corner, the crowd grows into a large lump of humanity that is shuffling towards the entrance gates and now we are stuck as there are too many people behind us to turn around and make an escape.


Amazingly enough, when we finally go through the turnstiles, it opens up and there is still a crowd but not so bad as some people peel off to go on the Bakerloo line and we go towards the Northern line.  We walk down to the platform and it is heaving at the beginning as the fans who are still drunk and cheering are getting to the platform and just standing there waiting for the subway.  We push and shove and bumper our way through this knot of people and walk to the far end of the platform where there are only a few people and WHEW at last we are out of the crowds.


The train comes and there are very few people in our car so we have seats.  An announcement is made that the train will NOT be stopping at Leicester Square due to the station being closed due to overcrowding.  Wow.  have never heard of this happening before.  Glad we left that station.  As we roll through that station though, they have totally cleared it out and not a single person is on the platform at all, not even a tube worker.  rather eerie.  Charing Cross might have taken up some of the slack but it was surprisingly sparse as well.  Embankment is closed for their escalator repair anyway so another eerie station as we pass the empty platform.  

Finally Waterloo and as we are riding the escalator up to the train station, we hear an announcement that says "Victoria Line is currently running slow due to a person under the train, No other lines are experiencing delays".  Say WHAT???  I turned to my hubby and he heard the same thing so I didn't "mis-hear" it.  Wow.  Entirely too many people on the tracks these weeks.  


Unfortunately, we have about 1/2 hour to wait for our train and it isn't a fast train either, stopping numerous times before reaching our destination.  So we stand and watch the board so we can make a dash for the correct platform when it is listed and also we are watching to make sure there aren't any delays like last week that turned into an all night stoppage.  We know from experience that the trains leaving from about 11 p.m. to a bit past midnight are almost always full as people are going home from a night in the city.  And tonight there are all these football or rugby fans who are roaming the station, now very drunk and either maudlin-ly sad or ridiculously happy but either side is still shouting and cheering and singing.  


Finally we get a track number and we rapidly walk to the gates.  We skip the first couple of cars and get on where the first class car is located.  It is next to the toilet but experience has taught us that usually, USUALLY,  these seats are left to the end before they fill, if at all but other cars without the first class section, are usually quite full and people are standing until they get as far out as Farnborough or Fleet.   Well, tonight was an exception to that rule as has been most of the travel evening.  By the time the train left, our coach was quite full with a queue for the toilet.   In the group of people left standing without seats was a group of football fans who were fairly well lit with liquor including one friend who couldn't really stand, being that intoxicated.  Luckily his friends got him into the toilet by requesting to jump the queue and everyone agreed because we all thought he was going to hurl on someone otherwise.  Then his friends took him off to the end and sat him on the floor.  Some nights, my hubby can sleep on the train going home but not tonight.  Rowdy and loud but polite in that the fans stayed within their group and didn't bother anyone else on the train, other than falling over on occasion when the train hit a curve.  

So an interesting evening where nothing went as planned from the very start, a very entertaining play, a missed dinner engagement, bumper people game up and down the street and through the tube stations, and drunken train companions all the way home.  Geez, I just LOVE London!!!!

   

Pin balling through London

We had a lovely weekend planned which involved us heading into London both Friday and Saturday.  On Friday we were going to The Shard for the view and lunch.  Boy did we get lucky with the weather as Friday was a beautiful day with hardly a cloud, certainly no rain, and even very little pollution it seemed.  

 Looking at the maps, it appeared we were only about a mile away from the location so we set my hubby's phone to a GPS mode and started following it out of London Waterloo Station.  As we weren't positive where we had to go, every time we saw a sign that offered a map of the surrounding area, we would stop and look to see where we were and how far we had to go.  Mostly it was rather in a straight line so no worries and we ambled towards the Shard without a problem.  Good navigation.  And nice to walk along on top of the streets rather than riding below the streets for once.  After our lunch and view though, we hit the tubes to go back to Waterloo and head home.  

Saturday
 Hubby and I had a nice Sat in London last weekend.  We had tickets for him to attend the Craft Beer Rising Festival which is a yearly gathering of different brewers, mostly from the U.K., and their brews and a good many of them started as home brewers or still do beers in the home brewing fashion.  As my husband has been a home brewer for the last 40 years, this festival interests him a great deal as he gets to talk to the brewers and exchange ideas and gather tips, yada, yada.  Much better than the beer festivals where there is just a wall of kegs and everyone is drinking as fast as they can.

So to the Craft Beer Rising, had a lovely time, talked to some great brewers who are quite proud of their stuff, only tasted a few that were less than stellar, and then out and on for the rest of our evening.   

We had tickets to see Agatha Christie's Mousetrap and a nice dinner before hand with one of the special Pre-theatre dinner restaurants that offer you a two course meal for a reduced rate in the hopes that you will also buy a bunch of drinks and maybe desserts, etc.    As we didn't want to retrace our steps to the metro tube station where we had arrived for the Craft Beer shindig, we set up my hubby's phone to a GPS mode to follow it to our restaurant.  It had been quite easy on Friday to follow it to get to The Shard.  Of course, it helps being able to see your building over all the other buildings too.

    We wandered around the neighborhood first as there were several markets in action but nothing really worth buying that day.  And then we followed the GPS to the tube station.  Oddly enough, his phone told us to exit at Embankment which was at least a mile from where we wanted to be.  It would have made much more sense to exit at Leicester Square which is smack in the middle of the theatre district but for some reason, the GPS/phone was playing tricks on us.

Fairly easy to get to the Strand from Embankment but then we were sure exactly which way it was telling us to go, so we navigated by the combination of GPS-phone instructions and stopping at every map on the street again to ascertain where we were and where was the restaurant and where we wanted to turn.  Felt like we were pin balling from sign to sign.  Hit one and spin off in another direction until you hit the next one and then spin off some more.  What's wonderful about London and a good many large UK towns and even European cities is that these maps are up and about the town and make it quite easy to find places.

So bouncing around and we found our restaurant quite early actually.  There was a comic book store right next to it and I don't think we've been in a comic book store since my teens but we went in to see as we had the time.  My gosh!  Exactly like The Big Bang Theory.  I looked around for Howard and Leonard and Raj and Sheldon.  They could have been there.


And then to dinner and then the show, both which were quite enjoyable.  Heading back to Waterloo, we managed to snag a cab but the trains were delayed.  First time we've been caught out and had to detour to Staines and get a cab home from there.  geez.  not a cheap night. 

The Court at Barbican

The Court at Barbican Station

            Recently I had to go to the Russian Visa Application Center on Gee Street which is closest to the Barbican Underground station.  First time, it was raining and I’d gone during peak time and was trudging down the street in what I hoped was the right direction.  Across the street from me were 3 ladies sitting under an awning outside of a coffee shop.  When I returned to the underground station, I passed them on the same side of the street and they were all drinking coffee and cackling with the delight of old friends getting together and talking and gossiping.

            My first trip was fruitless as the Visa Application Center didn’t like my letter of introduction so I had to get that fixed and then return.  Again, I was going in the early morning rush hour time (approximately 8-8:30 a.m.).  As I pass by the café on the opposite side of the street, again I notice the three old ladies (OK, I am old too but I’m fairly sure they were all older than me by at least 10 years).  Again they are enjoying themselves in front of this café and drinking coffee or tea and gossiping and laughing.  I noticed that someone stopped and joined them for a few minutes and then I was past and almost to the Center.

            Yesterday I returned one last time to the Russian Visa Application Center to pick up our passports with the all-important and vital visa inside.  The Russian Visa Application Center gives you a very short time frame to pick up your documents.  I wanted to be there when the doors opened so I would be assured of getting our passports returned..  But at the time, I was rather too early (after three trips, I knew the way much better) so I stopped at the same café where the three ladies were sitting.  Before when I passed them, it was around 8:30 a.m.  Yesterday, it was 4:15 p.m. and yet there were the same three ladies sitting at their favorite table.  It seemed to be their favorite table because they were there all three times I passed and always in the same spot and always arranged in the same manner.  Not only their favorite table but favorite café and apparently favorite chairs as well. 

            I went inside to buy something to drink and sat down at the table next to them.  While they were all speaking English, it was with a bit of Eastern European accent of some kind.  Couldn’t really identify it.  I’m not ashamed to admit that I was quite actively eavesdropping.  After seeing them there from early morning to later afternoon and not knowing if they ever moved away or not, I was thinking there was more to the story.

            It was a good day yesterday weather wise.  There were many people on the street walking up and down.  About every third person was hailed by the ladies and stopped for a chat.   These ladies must live outside at this café during the day and were holding court with all the neighbors.  Sometimes there was hugs and air kisses all around and sometimes just brief handshakes.  Sometimes the person being hailed was just talked to for a couple of seconds as they continued to walk and passed out of hearing shortly.  Other times, the person being hailed would be halted and queried on their business, both past and present. 

            The three ladies were always happy to call out to the people passing and knew them all by name and seemed to know them all in great detail such as children, husband or wife’s name, pets, business, shopping habits, church attended, holiday plans, gardens, enemies, other friends, and troubles.  It was quite educational and fascinating to sit and listen to this font of knowledge coming from these three old ladies as they held their social court in front of this small café.  I know quite a lot now about the people and general population of people living around the Barbican underground than I ever wanted to know or thought I would know.  Probably wouldn’t recognize most of the people that stopped to talk though.

            After each “guest” had moved on and before the next “guest” was called to the “docket”, the three ladies would discuss and assimilate any new knowledge just received and glean through it for juicy bits of gossip, or sympathize with the problems, or discuss with disdain the choices made by some of the residents.  These ladies were the judge, jury, prosecuting attorney and defense attorney all rolled together in a neat package of three old ladies holding court every day at the Barbican.   Next year I will have to return to get another Russian Visa for a different trip.  I can hardly wait to see if they are still there in their capacity of the neighborhood court.

Not many gentlemen on the morning commute

Not Many Gentlemen on the Early Commute

            Had to take the early train into London this morning in order to turn in our passports for our Russian visas.  This was my second effort as the first time; our Letters of Introduction weren’t acceptable.  Both times, I went in early so I would get to the Russian Visa place early enough to spend a bit of time in London and to take care of any problems if I possibly could OR to go to the one other location where I might get a Russian visa but would cost me a heck of a lot more money.

            Trains in the morning at 12 coaches long.  People in the know walk to the far end of the platform because there’s probably a good chance to get a seat on coaches’ number 10, 11 or 12.  That was the case this morning although I just barely managed to find a seat before it was full and there were several women left standing and not a single man looked up from his paper to see if there was anyone less abled or pregnant or anything.  Not a single woman looked up either though so people are just not willing to give up their seats in the morning.  I wasn’t either.

            I had to go from Waterloo to Barbican Underground station.  It is not the easiest station to get to even though it has three undergrounds running past it.  First time, I only used two undergrounds but managed to get lost because the Metropolitan line seems to have numerous tracks and platforms at the station where I was so I thought I’d go a different way today and maybe it would be easier.

            I chose to go from Waterloo via the Waterloo and City line to Bank Station.  It only goes between Waterloo and Bank station.  I’m following the signs and when I get to the entrance, it is backed up all the way up the stairs and all the way up the ramp.  You could tell when a train arrived as the people would move forward a little ways and then stop until the next train arrived.  It only took me two times stopping and waiting before I was on the platform and able to move down a ways to where I would hope to get onto the next train. 

            The train arrives empty since it is only running between the two stops; it has let everyone off and now comes to pick up the people going back the other way.  There were station personnel announcing “Leave a wide gap in the middle for all people to exit the train” over and over again and then “Use all doors to enter the train and move all the way into the train” and finally “The doors are shutting now, do not get on the train, there will be another train shortly”.  I was close enough to be able to get on this train after everyone got off but just as I got on, the last seat was taken.  I am moving into the center of the aisle so I am standing in the middle of the car in front of 5 men, all of whom have their noses buried in a newspaper.  I turn around and look at the other side.  Same thing.  Standing next to me are several men and several women, some of whom look to be more tired than me and older than me.  I’m looking up and down the car and see several women who need a seat, one being pregnant and YES, one man gets up and lets her take his seat.  Not a single other man even looked around him to see if someone else needed a seat more than he did.  There were very few women sitting down but they all looked like they needed the seats.

            I understand that going to work through this madhouse every day probably is very tiring and very hard to bumper car your way through the subways but still, it would be nice if there were people still able and willing to let someone else less able to sit.  I’m hanging by the overhead bar and I can reach it.  The poor lady next to me is on her tiptoes to reach it.  Luckily it is crowded enough that she’s not going to fall over should she lose her grip.

            I reach Bank and exit the train along with everyone else and plot my next move to get to Barbican.  I figure out I can take one more train to Moorgate, change there and then one stop more to Barbican.  The train from Bank to Moorgate was not any better.  Crowded, crowded.  This time, I did not make the first train as I was standing on the platform.  The station personnel start announcing the same/similar mantra as they did at Waterloo “Make a large gap down the middle so people can exit the train.  Do not get on until people have exited the train” and then segue into “Use all doors and move all the way into the train” and finally “The doors are closing.  There is another train right behind this one. Please wait”...

            He made the final announcement just as I was about to see if I could squeeze onto the train but it was pretty packed with one man standing so close to the edge that I thought the door would hit him.  So I didn’t get on.  Then someone got off and that made a space but the station man was still saying “The doors are closing” so I didn’t move.  Two younger and much thinner ladies ran up and jumped onto the train right in front of me and squeezed into the mass of humanity.  The doors still didn’t close which was good because one of those ladies had to divest herself of backpack and coat or the door would have hit her for sure.  Finally the doors did close and no one was hit and the next train was right behind it.

            I made it on this time and moved all the way into the train and luck was with me because the doors on my side opened when we got to Barbican so I was first off the train.

Thank goodness I was only going one stop though because all the seats were taken again and nobody got up for anybody.

            Coming back was much better as there were seats every time on each underground and I made it home without too much trouble.  Tomorrow I get to repeat the procedure to pick up our visas but it will be much later in the day.  We’ll see how it goes on coming home.