On the Buses

Having to go home via Tachana Mercazit in Tel Aviv never fails to provide some sort of adventure and excitement. Summer is always worse because all of the people who come to the beach. If a bus or two is late the patient crowd quickly turns to an unruly mob.

Thought I had seen everything until yesterday. The snaking queue went for 25 metres past the door. Outside were about 50 people milling around waiting for the bus to come and when it did they stood in its way obstructing it as if to say, "Stop right here where I am standing."

There was an almighty shove and groan when the bus came to a stop. And nothing produces whinging and complaints like a late bus. An old lady to my left was blaming the Americanisation of Israel for the decay in society and its behaviour while a guy to my right said how it was Egged's fault because if the buses came every 15 minutes like they were supposed to there was no chance of a huge backlog of people waiting.

The first bus was barely touching the sides of the massive mob trying to get on so it was assisted shortly after by a second bus which came that was then followed by a third. Couldn't see how much of a crowd was left when the buses left but I think it wasn't much.

After that everything was uneventful but for the jerky-jerky driving nature of the driver.