Travel
days are the worst. Times are thrown off. Meals are thrown off. You
have to make it to the airport two or maybe three hours ahead. When
you land, you have to figure out how to get to the place you are
staying, often in a place with an unfamiliar language. And then you
have to hope that whoever you are meeting to get the keys to the
place is there. It's stressful!
I
know, I could just take a taxi in each new city. Sometimes, that is
necessary, but rarely is it the most cost effective. We do not object
to public transportation, but you do have to learn the system.
I'm
getting to my point. When we arrived in Rome, we had to get tickets
for a bus to take us from the airport to a metro station. It was
nerve wracking at first. We didn't know where we were. Would we find
the right bus? The right train? But once on the bus, it was just
riding on a bus. And when we were descending the escalator into the
metro station, I was totally at home. I was in a subway!
We
arrived in Athens. It was hard to figure out how do I get here? How
do I get there? Finding information was a challenge because of the
different languages. But once we saw the bus routes and the subway
routes, it was easy! Their public transportation is well laid out and
comprehensive. And again, compared to New York, it was easy to
navigate.
Now
we are in Budapest. Again, we had to take a bus to a metro which we
took to a different metro line to get near our apartment. And once I
looked over their maps, it was no trouble. They have four metro lines
that connect in only a few places. Four lines! Each line has only two
unique endpoints, so you don't have to worry about which train to
catch. It's not like, well, at these hours the F train goes to this
location, but in other hours the F train goes to some other location.
And weekends, fuhgeddaboutit.
And
it's not just subways and buses. I walk through the streets, and no,
I don't know how they all connect. But I'm there, surrounded by big
buildings, just like in New York. There are public parks that take up
an entire city block, just like in New York. Many places where
multiple streets come together, that's called a square (or a ter or a
piazza or a πλατεία,)
just like in New York.
And
that familiarity helps me. I don't think it makes me overconfident,
though I could be wrong. I still remember there is crime. I keep
myself aware of who is near me and when some alley clearly is not a
place to go.
Instead,
I think the familiarity makes me just the right level of confident.
And because I don't feel so nervous, I can better navigate, make
decisions, or deal with things when they go wrong. Or if none of
those benefit materialize, at least I'm not getting ulcers at every
new step of my journey.
Soon,
London is coming. And that will have a lot more than four subway
lines and a plethora of buses. The good news there is that I've been
to London before. I don't remember it, but I think that will also
give me some of the confidence I need. Plus, I will have the
additional benefit of the signage all being in my language. Other
than spelling on a few words.
So,
coming back to my thesis, as my high school English teachers would
desperately want me to do, I'm glad I lived and worked in a big city
for awhile. I hope my kids will have that chance one day too. And
really anyone who dreams of travel, it doesn't hurt to have made
yourself familiar with the ways of a big city in your home country.
Because once you have, those big cities are a little bit littler.
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