Travel Trouble

I'm starting to think this blog should be called bigman's travel adventures with the number of recent blog entries I've made associated with travelling. So I've blogged my bus journeys, walking adventures, aeroplane experiences and coach comedy. That just leaves the train, more specifically the tube.

So today was the day of my university interview. I made sure I got up reasonably early and ready quickly. I left with a good amount of time to get there. So on arriving at the tube station I bought the travel pass and took the escalator down to the train platform. The train was already at the platform. Perfect. I got on and sat down, my mind starting to wonder about what I could be asked and working its way through these questions. After a little while I started to feel as if something wasn't right. Things were going too smoothly. Taking notice of the stations the train was passing through I realised I'd taken the morden via charing cross train rather than the morden via bank one. Needless to say I wasn't amused. Remaining calm I got off the train and took another train back a few stations to Euston where I could rectify my error and take a via bank train. I was quite surprised at my calmness in the situation as time was ticking away fast. So getting off at Euston I made my way to the correct platform. After waiting for about 5 minutes I started to question the fact that all 5 trains that had been and gone had been via charing cross. It was then I realised to my horror that I was waiting at the charing cross branch and not the bank branch. I felt so stupid. I hadn't thought about the fact that they may have different platforms for the different branches (seeing as most of the other stations don't). So still remaining calm I made my way to the bank branch. Luckily there was a train there already. My immediate reaction was uncertainty about whether to get on after what happened the last time (seeing as I hadn't been able to check the train this time actually was going via bank) but I got on anyway. The train was packed and there was a horrible smell lingering (which some other cruel passenger must have produced and then left for all to appreciate). It was also boiling hot. I ended up squashed against the door (which I suppose isn't as bad as the man who got stuck in the door as it closed). So the journey wasn't pleasant but I made it to the campus area with a few minutes to spare if I wanted to get there half an hour early like they recommended so that I could fill out the questionnaire and consider the case study. The problem was in those few minutes I still had to find the correct building. Somehow I did this with no problem whatsoever, navigating around the university campus and finding the building almost instantly. I got there exactly half an hour before my interview giving myself the time I needed.

In some ways I feel this travel trouble actually benefited me. It stopped me getting too nervous about the interview and my mind was calm and clear (rather than cluttered up with last minute potential answers for potential questions which may ironically actually have resulted in confusion when it came to answering the questions rather than helping me).