Friday night on the Megabus to London
“Aright mate, how ye daein?” is yelled in a nasal tone from the back seat as I board the over night Megabus to London. “Dae ye want some wine?” his friend asks as a bottle of Buckfast is waved in my direction. Its telling that the seats near them are all unoccupied, I also opt for a seat away from them.
As we try to sleep we have the pleasure of being serenaded by Rangers songs; “If ye cannae dae the bouncy yer a Tim! If ye cannae dae the bouncy yer a Tim! If ye cannae dae the bouncy, cannae dae the bouncy, cannae dae the bouncy yer a Tim!” is sung to the tune of “If you’re happy and you know it”.
The football rivalry is one aspect of Glasgow which I hate. Rangers and Celtic both draw a large number of fans that deem it necessary to bring sectarianism into the mix. In recent years both clubs have made big efforts to expel it, but its not something that I can ever see disappearing completely.
Silence. They’ve finally gone to sleep. Now if only I can get a couple of hours.
“Shut the window, its raining!” complains a lady at the back, “Naw, we need some fresh air” retorts the man in the back seat as the smell of cigarette smoke fills the bus. Someone shuts the window and the threats ensue “I’m gonnae open it again and if any a youse shuts it I’ll smash yer face in”. Like everyone else, I put my earphones in and try to block it out.
As the bus approaches London the bus fills with laughter as we hear “I’ve been robbed! One of youse has stole a tenner oot ma pocket. Nane of youse is gettin off this bus til I’ve searched ye!”. This is followed a moment or two later by “that’s mine, that’s Scottish money, its Scottish money that I had” as his friend tries to prove to him that he hadn’t taken it. The fact that we’ve just come from Scotland seems to have escaped him.
The Megabus pulls into the station and everyone gets off, everyone apart from one guy who is still crawling about under the seats at the back of the bus looking for a £10 note.
The joys of travelling by Megabus!
Posibly related posts:
I’ve only been on the UK Megabus once. It was a midnight one from Oxford back to London and me and my friend were the only ones on it. haha. It RULED.
I briefly commuted by Megabus, back in 2004 when it started and Oxford->London was the only route. The buses were ordinary local buses (not coaches) and the driving was more enthusiastic than smooth. Definitely a no-frills service.
After a month or so I moved to London, and the rest was geography
Interesting post about Megabus UK. I took Megabus in the US today for the first time (Baltimore-NYC.) It was actually a decent experience and I’m in the process of writing a blog post on it right now.
I had an awful Megabus experience from Glasgow to London.
First of all, I arrived at Buchanan Bus station in plenty of time to get the pick of the seats…or so I thought. I was the first person at the stance and slowly people started to gather behind me. Then the bus pulled into the bus station and the madness started. All the people that showed up after me starting pushing forward, knocking over me and my case. Not one offered to help me up. When the bus got into the stance they all shoved each other to be the first to tell the driver their booking number. Then the driver decided to tell us that those with hold luggage had to wait til the end. I was ragin! I had waited for an hour in the pitch black in Glasgow to get the soddin thing and I had to wait til the end. I told the driver and his simple response was ‘Tough’. I was the second last on the bus, which was really busy. People had sprawled themselves over two seats, whilst I looked for one to myself. Eventually I had to shift a guy at the back of the bus who was not best pleased but I had paid my fare the same as everyone else!
As the bus pulled out of the bus station onto Killermont Street, some imbecile decides to use the toilet. He had literally been on the bus for two minutes. Another thing to add to my list! This happened constantly all night and before we even got to Keele services the bus was stinkin! At this point is was the back of 3 in the morning and some Asian dude decides to play some rubbish rap music full blast on his mobile phone. A few folk told him to put it off, they were all told to F-off. I just put in my headphones and drifted off into a half sleep, clutching my personal belongings. I got about 2 hours sleep in total.