This is what Gary and I have affectionately started calling the buses that drive around the island. They are huge buses and they are blue - and they don't seem to mind taking up more than their fair share of the road.
We have avoided using these buses for the past year that we have lived here. I don't know why, actually! If you look back at Gary's and my backgrounds - where we were raised in rural Mississippi - I in Tupelo and Gary in Meridian. We didn't ever use a bus back then. In fact, there were no bus routes (and still aren't) in our country settings. If we wanted to go - "to town" - we drove our car to town.
In 2008, when we moved to an apartment in Stockholm, Sweden - we were suddenly placed in a metroplex with no car. We were fortunate enough to live right by a train/bus/subway terminal - and we literally could walk a few hundred feet and catch any of the three. We marveled at how accurate the Swedes were. If the bus schedule stated it would be there at 1:00 pm - it would be! Very punctual and organized. But, of course - the people wouldn't look at you in Sweden. Everyone was either listening to their MP3 players or reading something - but, never - no never - would they look you in the eyes!
Now, advance forward to the year 2010 and we are now living in Barbados. Barbados does have bus transport - but there really isn't a set schedule and the people are very, very friendly.
Now, saying all that - I have found myself this week in a predictament. We have only one rental car here on the island, which most of the time is OK, since I no longer work outside the home. But, this week - I was to be in a golf clinic every day in the afternoons - and Gary wanted to drive to the golf club after he got off work to hit some balls at the driving range - and then he and I could ride home together. So, I needed to get a ride to the golf club everyday. If I took a taxi, it would have cost me at least 15.00 US dollars a day, so I decided to try out these blue buses of death.
The first time that I went to the bus stop - and a blue bus came up with a sign that stated Fairy Valley - so, I asked the bus driver if this would take me to the Barbados Golf Club - he said yes - I got on the bus - and arrived within 10 minutes at the golf club. No problem.
The next day, I went to the bus stop - and a yellow bus came up with a sign that stated Sam Lords Castle - so, I asked the bus driver if this would take me to the Barbados Golf Club - he said yes - I got on the bus - and arrived within 5 minutes at the golf club. No problem, this is a piece of cake!
So, on the next day - now totally confident that I knew how to ride these buses, I went to the bus stop - and a blue bus comes up with Fairy Valley on it. Well, I acted really cool - and stepped on board and paid my fair and sat down like I did this all the time. Notice that I didn't ask the bus driver if it was going to the golf club! Life suddenly took a turn for the worst, when at Oistens, the driver should have turned left at the Y, but instead he went right!!! Oh no!!! I asked some people sitting around me and turns out that this bus would EVENTUALLY get to the golf club - in about an hour!!! It was going the opposite direction on Fairy Valley.
OK, in a situation like this - you can either get all bent out of shape or just sit back and relax and laugh about it. I chose to laugh about it. It really turned out to be a great adventure. It was fun to watch all the people get on and off the bus. The bus driver stopped at one house so that Mary Sue could run in and tell her auntie so and so. And then at another place, he stopped to let Geraldine stop and give a cake to Matty Lou. Getting the picture? :-)
I was an hour late getting to the golf lesson - they went on without me - but, I wouldn't trade that adventure in for the right bus if I had to do it over again.
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