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I live in a country where if you drive in a straight line for 3 hours, chances are you'll end up in the sea. England is a small island and we're not used long journeys, in fact Brits are pretty suspicious of large distances - because we don't have any!
The looks on people faces when i told them we were going to the Alps on a coach veered from a stare that said 'That will hurt, you absolute fools' to a frown that said 'Thats not possible , you absolute fools'.
But the deal was there - £199, coach, hotel and half board - the snow was there - 12 inches in the past week - and it was the last week of the season... I was going to be there!
We Rolled up to Victoria coach station just 15 minutes before the journey began, a relief from the usual '2 hours to the airport'.
No queues, ticket checks or baggage restrictions. We carried on a few beers from the nearby off-licence and we didn't have to take our shoes off or be forced to consider buying a 7 quid Toblerone.
As the coach began its journey without any
of the silly rituals of safety routines, or the ceremony of the stewardesses, coach travel was suddenly more civilised than the cattle-prodded airports and dehumanizing airport security checks that i've become used to if I want to leave my country for a bit of exploring.
We all chatted and compared sandwich boxes as the the bus crawled through London's evening rush hour. The freedom of life on the road seemed so much more relaxed and civilised than the crush, rush and push of airtravel.
At Thurrock services a group of young lads got on, beers in hand, swaying along, swearing, drunk and ready for action. This was more like a traditional British coach journey, and by the time we had reached the Channel Tunnel a fight had broken out amongst them!
So much for civility.
Rolling through the odd experience of the Chunnel - a slight dizzy, rolling feeling while firmly encased in a compact solid tube with no noise - I necked a Nytol, my secret weapon for the journey.
It worked. I slept through the driver putting on the shouty-shooting-violent movie 'Blood Diamond' at full volume, and missed the lads being sick in the on-board toilet followed
by the bus emptying out from the smell.
I Slept through the whole lot, and woke up as the sun was warming the tip of Mont Blanc, ready and refreshed for our 3 days of spring snow riding. The sun shone and softened the slush, and on the higher slopes snow was still falling, fresh and clean.
Why is it that I have done 20 hour coach journeys in India, 2 day train journeys across Europe and long-haul economy flights... but I'm almost sick when I consider a coach to somewhere more than 3 hours away from home?
Is it British snobbyness about 'poorer' forms of transport?
Maybe it's a lack of marketing by coach companies?
Or is it a built-in island-nations fear of drowning in the ocean?
Personally i think its the last one - the 10mile stretch of water that separates England from Europe may as well be the Atlantic Ocean in a plane, and one consequence of the rise and rise of budget flights is that we slowly are becoming disconnected with our sense of distance on our little island.
Who knows, but after 3 days hitting the slopes in the sun and riding
May Day with Stalin
May the 1st parade in London with communist banners and large pictures of Stalin...
Why are these workers idolising a dictator that unfairly killed millions of workers? like crazy, we had to climb onto the bus again, brave the journey and try and get comfortably curled up in our seats...cramped on the journey, and then cramped up on arrival, but happy and glowing from riding the last snow of the season. I'd do it again.
P.S.
this picture is nothing to do with the story!! Just a photo for a forum.
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TravelWankers
#TravelWankers
Hi
I agree, there does seem to be a real snobbery in the UK about coach/train travel in general. I have traveled across China and Australia by train and everyone I know thinks thats great, but when I mention that I want to take and overnight sleeper from London to Fort William I get some very quizical looks! I am plannng a trip through Europe and into Russia by coaches/trains and when I metion it to people, they react like its not 'real' traveling, people do see it as inferior to flying. I think it is small country syndrome, (either that or people have deep scars from bad National Express trips as kids!) it doesnt seem to exist anywhere else in the world that I have been. Very strange!