This is Erin writing a guest-post for the UIAD blog. It's so nice to share with you some of my memories of our trip together.
Did you see the name of this post? The Choob. Of course, the correct spelling is The Tube, the London word for subway or underground, but when you pronounce T and U together, you often get the sound CH (tch) when you're speaking quickly. Try saying the words picture, feature and lecture, you'll see what I mean. The same thing happens when you say train quickly.
There were some very brave ladies who chose to come with me to scout out the London Underground system. Jane, Joelle and I wanted to be familiar with the intricacies of the Tube and the practicalities of buying tickets etc before we guided everyone home after the theatre on Thursday night. And Audrey, Lucie and Anne wanted some more adventure. We were the scouting committee.
These were the questions we wanted to get the answers to:
How much does a ticket cost?
Are the stations easy to find?
Is the map easy to read and accurate?
How long does it take to travel around London by tube?
Would we feel safe?
Is it possible to get lost in the tunnels under London?
We soon found that the Tube really is a great way to travel!
You will be happy to know that the system we used to go from St Pauls to Canary Wharf looked very direct and easy on the map.
In this photo we are all looking very serious, but it was very easy to understand, really. So we set off into the Tube tunnel.
We bought our tickets in a machine. They cost £4.
We were ready with our tickets to take the Central line as far as Bank, then the Northern line to London Bridge, and finally the Jubilee line to Canary Wharf. We knew we could walk from there. However, as we were walking to the platform, there was an announcement saying that the Northern line was closed! It happened right as we were about to step onto the platform. We looked at each other. There were a few other people who wanted to use this line too. Suddenly, a young man approached us and asked us if we needed any help!! How lovely.
He soon showed us another route going in the right direction, but on another line, and explained to us that closures and cancellations happen quite regularly. Most Londoners have at least 2 ways of getting home. We went with him almost all the way home. His name was Steve and he was a chef de partie at a restaurant near Piccadilly Square. He invited us all to come in for dinner. Unfortunately we were going home to France the next night. How funny if all 50 of us had arrived at the restaurant. “Hello, a table for 50 please. We are friends of Steve.” Imagine the fun.
After that, we just had to walk to the Hotel. We didn’t exactly get lost in Canary Wharf when we arrived, but we did wander a little off course for 5 minutes or so. Of course we found our way in the end, and so felt very proud of ourselves. It was a lovely night, clear and not cold at all. We were laughing a lot.We had the answers to all our questions, we had a good time and met a friendly, helpful Londoner. We didn’t get lost and it was more fun than the bus....although Melanie had an adventure too!
So, choob anyone?
Erin
