Take public transportation, they said! It's a man's life, they said!

Let me start this post by saying this right off the bat: although I frequently use public transportation (yeah yeah, I know – still, it’s one the easiest ways to get around), I’m not one of these people who complain every time the pettiest mishap or delay occurs. I mostly ignore their lamenting and bewailing because of insufficient services – especially when it’s oh so very clear they’re part of the problem. Being 5 minutes late isn’t that bad, who cares? And if that amount of time makes the difference between being on time and being too late, well, maybe it’s you. Just saying.

With that said, let’s move on to what happened to me today. This morning, I left the house on time, i.e. 7:20. I had been planning to ride my bike to Leuven station (and, yes, in English, it’s spelled Leuven, not Louvain, nor some other exotic spellings that often make me chuckle), to, as always, take the train to Brussels, to partake in some fun fun fun Languages classes. All in all, this should take, and normally does take, just under an hour – 20 minutes on the bike/bus, 25 on the train, the rest spent waiting/walking/…

When I stepped outside, it was raining cats and dogs, so I quickly decided that it’d be madness to go about your day in that weather, and that it’d be best to take the autobus to the station (something I also quite frequently do). First mistake. When I came to my bus stop after racing like a madman at the speed of 30 km/h (about 20 mph), I saw a bus just coming to a halt there. I yet had to put my bike away, so I thought, no biggie, let’s just wait for the next one. It’d come in a couple of minutes anyway. Second mistake.

As you might’ve guessed, that bus arrived about 10 minutes late, effectively making me wait in a light snowstorm for 20 minutes. Great. On top of that, a traffic jam prevented the bus from making much progress – when I arrived at Leuven station, it was 8:15. 15 more minutes and the class would start. But another problem loomed ahead: due to a problem somewhere in the Limburg, many trains to Brussels were canceled. Normally, I have a train every 10 minutes at this hour, yet the first one wouldn’t arrive until over 20 minutes later. Just awesome.

So, again, I waited and waited in the cold for what seemed like an eternity. Of course, what with so many trains canceled, everyone (and I literally mean everyone) wanted to get ahold of his/her place on this transportation utility (not everyone succeeded, though). Can you imagine a small train, naturally taking all the time in the world to get to his final destination, packed to the brim with all sorts of people? It was worse: some people felt the need to constantly look for a leftover sitting place – immensely disturbing the sane ones who accepted that there was no such thing left; the weird guy next to me stank; one girl nearly fainted, greatly upsetting ‘my’ compartment. There simply is no such thing as enough.

                                                    

When the train finally arrived in the Brussels-Central, it was 9:12. I reached my class at 9:18 – 48 minutes late, one hour and fifteen minutes after I initially meant to arrive, 2 hours after I set out on this trip.

So, how was your morning?