Train Training

This may come as a shock to some people; but I have only ever been to London five times before, and three of those times were for school trips. I suppose I am more of a countryside girl, having lived in Devon all my life. I’m somewhat nervous of big cities so London could be one of the worst places for me. However, this week I put on my big girl shoes and braved the famous city to see the musical, Wicked.

I have another confession: I’m not very train savvy. In fact, if anything, I hate trains. This feeling started last year during the snow days when all my trains home were delayed or cancelled. I probably spent about three hours sat alone at frozen stations. Not the best way to start the Christmas holidays. Anyway, I don’t like trains, and what’s the easiest way to get to London? That’s right: trains. Luckily, I had my sister, Barbara, and boyfriend, Nick, with me; they’ve both practically got PHDs in train travel.

Obviously, the train from Winchester to London Waterloo wasn’t too bad; that’s a pretty simple one, an hour with no changes. Although, I did panic that we would be late and miss it. Things got a little crazy once we were at Waterloo Station and had to get to the underground; we were heading to Victoria. I had no idea where we were really going or how to even get there. I have only been on the tube once during an art trip; one of the girls in my class didn’t make it onto the train before the doors closed, that was a very scary moment. Fortunately, the doors opened again and she got on. A lucky break.  But now I’m scared this is going to happen to me.

The underground actually really surprised me. It looked like an Enterprise Starship corridor from Star Trek but much more crowded. Walking through the crowds I felt in the way, I also felt so obviously touristy as if everyone knew that I wasn’t from around here. If I’m honest I didn’t really know what I was doing so just followed the others everywhere; they seemed to know exactly where they were going even when there was no map around. Then no matter how many times they tried to explain it to me I still didn’t get it. Actually, being on the underground trains wasn’t as horrid as I thought it would be; it wasn’t as busy as it seems in the movies, I actually managed to get a seat!  And it wasn’t as dirty as some people make it out to be; Nick said that last time he was on the tube the tracks were crawling with rats. I kept a lookout for rats after he mentioned that!

Although the train journey wasn’t that bad in the end I was glad to be back above ground and I don’t think I could commute like so many do each day.