Today was my first day at uni...it was a one hour introduction to art history and the laws and rules of university law... at least it was supposed to be...I was only there for the last 15 min...
My friend in crime and confident said a couple of days ago that stockholmers would panic (seriously panic) if the metro/tube/train would stop, cease to exist...let me tell you she was right!
I took an earlier train to make sure I wouldn't be late (I hate being late) and arrived with plenty of time at 8 past 8 to slussen...went up to the red line, listening to awesome lady gaga, when I realized that the train thingy (the digital thing that shows how many minutes are left before the train comes) was not working, it was blank. I took of my head phones and right at that second a voice started talking and in the mist of my panic...and the panic of the rest of the travelers I got the importance of the message...no train...NO TRAIN... take the replacement busses...
My first thought was that, ok...I’ll be a little late...it will be ok... I'll call Lisa, she can probably find an alternative way, much faster than the replacement bus that will take all the other happy travelers to their work or wherever they where going... so I woke her up, but she couldn't find another bus either... so I walked up to the yellow suited man who pointed me in the right direction... but believe me... 1000's of Stockholmers use the subway every morning and especially at rush hour, and buses are much much smaller than trains...MUCH SMALLER!
After the third buss with people almost pouring out of the windows and doors... my friend (a women I met a couple of minutes ago who was going the same direction but not the same stop and was keeping me company) decided that she was walking to at least get somewhere, so I turned and right there were a couple of girls all talking about being late to school...so with them I jumped on a random bus and I was on my way...one of the girls went to another university while the second girl worked at my uni... the bus driver said that we could get off at a station called Valhallavägen and take the train from there... So we were on our way, and I looked at the watch 5 min left to 9...I started to panic...slowly I felt the panic come closer and closer... but at least I wasn't alone... hundreds of lucky students would be late for their first day in school...
Around T-centralen the bus radio said that the problem with the trains had been fixed and that trains would start rolling immediately...awww relief... you could feel the stockholmers breathe more calmly...
I arrived 9.45 to class...with ten others...late... I sat down and took no notes...I sat down and relaxed...finally... then the class ended... and I went to town and bought a filofax and some other necessary uni things...I feel older today...
ps. the train problems where because of a train battery that started boiling and the smoke caused the train to stop and the entire platform to be evacuated... life is funny sometimes...
