Mass Transit

I'm in Chicago today, with my younger son, to visit the French consulate for his student visa. Let's say it's a bittersweet trip for me. I get to spend a couple days with him in a new place, exploring, chatting away. But Saturday (his departure for France) looms too close for me.

Putting that aside for now . . .

Today, we're trying out Chicago's mass transit. Not even sure what it's properly called. Is it the Metra? the El? hmmm.

It got me thinking. We've "done" mass transit in a lot of places around the world:

New York City is famous for it's subway system, right? It is crowded and noisy, though less polluted than it once was. I always emerge from the subway disoriented; I'm never quite sure which direction I need to head off in. In the past few years, we've started staying across the Hudson River in a hotel in Weehawken and take the ferry across the river, then a bus uptown. I love the ferry! Never mind my fear of water; the ride is short, the skyline is magnificent, and I never tire of the NYC skyline!

Washington, DC has a good underground system, too. We recently used it when we were in DC for July 4th, so I can't speak to it's crowdedness, because it was very crowded that weekend! But it was clean and well marked, inexpensive, and fast. That's what a subway should be, right? Our problem in DC (and we always have a problem.... but that's another story) was that 2 of our metro cards got de-magnetized. We didn't know that if you put them near your cell phone that would happen.... It can, and it did. They'll replace them for you free of charge, but it requires standing in a line. Lesson? Don't put your card in the same pocket as your cell phone. Especially, don't put it in your cell phone holder like one of us did! rofl. Luckily for us, both got demagnetized on the same trip, so we only had to stand in line once for both of them.

Next time: London and Paris!