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Shrinking Universe
Sep 26, 2010
Muse sucks FYI

Ambystoma posted:

It's definitely a thing in Australia, the trams are usually not too bad but the buses are generally jam packed with all sorts of loud smelly drunk-at-10am while yelling at their kids type of folks, or just the plain unmedicated and severely mentally ill / polypharmic substance abusers :(


Maybe fancy Eastern suburbs trams, but I've been robbed on the 59, seen plenty of paint huffing (including an extremely pregnant lady :( ), as well as the time I saw a guy who I thought was just going to so some pull-ups on the handhold rails on the 57 tram, but instead pulled himself all the way up, flipped around and proceeded to spend the trip hanging from his knees, which was pretty cool.

As far as other crazy public transport stuff;

- old lady (maybe 80?) dressed in matching Kappa track suit rapping at Newport station
- same train station, saw a gaggle of cops in bulletproof vests with guns drawn escorting a kid off the platform, one of them was holding a recently confiscated cap-gun...could have ended badly
- Sitting opposite a cross dresser (which in itself isn't a problem). Problem was he was wearing a denim miniskirt, but sitting like a man.

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Tiggum
Oct 24, 2007

Your life and your quest end here.


Shrinking Universe posted:

Maybe fancy Eastern suburbs trams, but I've been robbed on the 59, seen plenty of paint huffing (including an extremely pregnant lady :( ), as well as the time I saw a guy who I thought was just going to so some pull-ups on the handhold rails on the 57 tram, but instead pulled himself all the way up, flipped around and proceeded to spend the trip hanging from his knees, which was pretty cool.
The 55 is mostly completely fine. At night or late afternoon, particularly on weekends there's occasionally someone drinking, but usually only beer. The worst I've seen was a drunk guy one time assuring some Asians that he had nothing against them, because it's the "black Africans" coming here who ruin everything. :shrug:

Shbobdb
Dec 16, 2010

by Reene
Not sure if this counts, but one time I was riding the Greyhound next to a lady wearing a Grateful Dead T-shirt. Nothing out-of-the-ordinary, plenty of hippie types on the Greyhound. I offered some of my whiskey and we got to talking. Turns out she was getting out of Dodge because 8 people she knew had died of Xanax overdose. Her longterm boyfriend was one of them, she thought that he was asleep but he was lying next to her dead! We start talking about hooking up because, well, what else are you going to do on a long bus ride? She starts crying, saying she can't because she is still not over her boyfriend's death, he died just a few days ago and can't I respect that? Thankfully, there was another guy who was much better looking than me nearby. He shared some of his tequila and the new couple went off to the bathroom together. I ended up being third out of, I wanna say, like seven people. It was a fun ride.

Edit: Also, it was really funny, she'd always say that she felt like she was 18 and doesn't she look 18? No, she didn't. She looked haggared, like 67.

Liar
Dec 14, 2003

Smarts > Wisdom
Was sitting next to a guy on the bus who was cutting his arm until he drew blood with his keys. Freaked me the gently caress out too because not only do I not care for blood but all I could imagine was somehow his blood would get on me.

Shnooks
Mar 24, 2007

I'M BEING BORN D:
Only weird memorable experience was probably taking the Orange Line in Boston home during rush hour and sitting next to this dude who was munching on McDonalds and watching explicit gay porn on his phone with a complete poker face. The only reason we knew he was watching was because it was reflected In the window behind him.

Also people high on whatever falling asleep with food in their mouths. So far I've seen a donut and a woman with an extra large dunkin donuts iced coffee.

Oh and I saw a guy get kicked off the bus for being too drunk. I didn't even know that could happen.

Shbobdb
Dec 16, 2010

by Reene
Another transit story is more of a series of stories, a condition. I don't know why, but I am like crack to a certain type of closeted hispanic man. Living in a Dominican neighborhood in the Bronx, this meant I interacted with them a lot. They'd sit down next to me and start rubbing my leg. If I got an (involuntary) erection, they'd start playing with my dick. At least half the time, the other half of the time, they'd just grab my leg and start going to town on themselves.

The first time it happened, I wasn't sure how to react and was just sort of paralyzed. The second time it happened, I tried to move and dude freaked out and threatened to stab me. After that, I'd still try to move away but tried to do so politely. Sometimes that worked, which was great. Other times, it was clear that I was gonna have to sit there and just take it. It was incredibly unpleasant.

Skutter
Apr 8, 2007

Well you can fuck that sky high!



I have a lot of funny stories from riding the bus, but my favorite was from about two years ago I was working a seasonal retail job across town for extra cash, and took the bus to save on gas and not have to deal with parking at the mall during Christmas. The route I took connected the downtown area to the local college town to the nice, expensive mall, and always had drunks and crazies on it every day. The best night was when a really drunk, very tall guy got on the bus with a kitten that he had "cleverly" hidden in his inside jacket pocket. The kitten was maybe six weeks old and was crying because it was hungry. He kept shushing the kitten and then yelling about how "SOMEONE HAD PUT THIS KITTEN ON THE STREET AND SOMEONE PUT ME ON THE STREET ONCE AND I AIN'T GONNA LET THAT HAPPEN TO NO KITTEN SHE AIN'T GONNA DIE ON NO STREET THIS KITTEN AIN'T GOT NOBODY BUT ME" and on and on.

So like an idiot, I decide to engage the guy really politely to talk about how to take care of a kitten (I was volunteering at a cat rescue at the time, and was fostering kittens), and I suggest what kind of food to feed her. He was totally fine with what I was saying until I brought up some examples of what to feed her, and he got this very serious look on his face and yelled: "HER NAME IS MEDUSA! SHE IS GONNA EAT STEAK!" I just smiled and nodded and then waited for the trip to end...

E: I forgot to add that the entire time this was going on, his buddy who looked like the guy from Aphex Twin with a meth habit and a pencil goatee was sitting across from me and staring at me hardcore. :/

Skutter fucked around with this message at 02:30 on Sep 1, 2014

Kimmalah
Nov 14, 2005

Basically just a baby in a trenchcoat.


Ambystoma posted:

It's definitely a thing in Australia, the trams are usually not too bad but the buses are generally jam packed with all sorts of loud smelly drunk-at-10am while yelling at their kids type of folks, or just the plain unmedicated and severely mentally ill / polypharmic substance abusers :(

The one memory that really stands out for me is the time I got stuck sitting on the tram next to a completely normal looking woman who was giving off the most incredible unwashed vagina smell I've ever encountered. I'm guessing she must have had bacterial vaginosis or something because holy poo poo, it was like a fish market at high noon level of bad. It was too full for me to get up and move, so I took some perfume out of my bag and sprayed a little on my wrist to try and cover it up and make the rest of the trip a little nicer and she starts doing this exaggerated "cough and handwave" routine while glaring at me. I just ignored her and kept using my phone, so I guess she thought I was the rear end in a top hat :shrug:

It's rare, but there is a genetic disorder that makes a person smell really strongly like fish regardless of stuff like hygiene.

I've ridden Greyhound a bunch and somehow I haven't gotten any really bizarre stories of my own. I think the worst I remember was some other poor guy on the bus who got stuck sitting next to someone who would not stop talking about conspiracy theories like the Illuminati, the Bilderberg group and how they control the world etc. etc. It went on for at least 2 hours and you could tell the other guy was trying so hard to be polite and also bring the conversation to a close. But most of the time like half of the bus is truck drivers in training on their way to some out of state schools that kind of sound shady.

Ambystoma
Oct 22, 2008

At least I looked like a popular idiot.

Kimmalah posted:

It's rare, but there is a genetic disorder that makes a person smell really strongly like fish regardless of stuff like hygiene.
Oh wow, I'd totally forgotten about that one - I really hope for her sake it wasn't that and just something that would clear up with some antibiotics + destroying all her underwear in a blast furnace :ohdear:

Kimmalah
Nov 14, 2005

Basically just a baby in a trenchcoat.


Ambystoma posted:

Oh wow, I'd totally forgotten about that one - I really hope for her sake it wasn't that and just something that would clear up with some antibiotics + destroying all her underwear in a blast furnace :ohdear:

Well like I said it is rare and since we are talking about public transit it's entirely possible you were right in the first place. :v:

Balqis
Sep 5, 2011

PT6A posted:

Are crazy people on public transit a particularly North American phenomena? I can't say I've run into the same level of bizarre bullshit travelling in, say, Europe, even really late at night.

Heh. I made the "mistake" of taking a tramway back from a beach in France in a bathing suit and shorts (it was a one piece). A fat Tunisian man took advantage of how crowded the tram was to press into me and told me he wanted my caresses. He then proceeded to try to touch my hand and arm the entire way back. I was too frightened and noobish to really know how to react.

A friend of mine was molested and groped on the Parisian metro. Two gendarmes were nearby, and when she reported it, they scoffed at her and did nothing.

That being said, there's something to be said when you've grown up with the DC Metro and its "brutalist", as someone mentioned, architecture when you pull into Arts et Metiers for the first time. The station is made of some brassy metal, and the rivets and portholes make you feel like you've stepped into a Jules Verne novel when you've stepped off the train.

From an even nerdier standpoint, I noticed all the trams and subways in France had the same cool computer lady announcing the stops, the same pings and rings announcing your arrival. Does France go through such ridiculous pains to seem centralized and homogeneous that even the aesthetics of the public transit match one another? Or is it just small enough that everyone just gets their machinery from the same plant? Probably both.

Inu
Apr 26, 2002

Jump! Jump!


My best story is from one time when I was riding the C train to Hoyt-Schermerhorn in New York.

I'm sitting on the train, and I suddenly start to think "Boy, it sure smells like cigarette smoke!" I look around the train, but I can't see anything unusual. However, as time passes, I realize that not only is the air getting hazier and hazier, but some of the other people on the train are whispering to each other "Dude, is that person smoking?" and the like. The person smoking on the train was sitting in a forward-facing seat facing away from me which is why I couldn't see them myself. The idea that it would even occur to someone to smoke on the subway is so bizarre that I just assume that this person must be such a hardass, don't-give-a-poo poo, beat-you-up motherfucker that he just does whatever he wants.

However, when I get off at Hoyt-Schermerhorn, the smoker gets off too; and it is then that I realize that they are not a man, but a severely becoated homeless lady. It doesn't end there either. The woman, as soon as she gets off the train, proceeds to lower her pants and lean over slightly so that she can project a stream of urine backwards onto the train platform behind her. Needless to say, I moved to another part of the platform to wait for the awful G which never comes ever.

redreader
Nov 2, 2009

I am the coolest person ever with my pirate chalice. Seriously.

Dinosaur Gum
racism
I was on a ferry between israel and somewhere near athens /or actual athens. The ferry took like 2-3 days but the currency on the boat was cyprus pounds and I didn't want to break a 20 just to buy food since I was 18 and only had about 800 pounds total. An Israeli guy was nice to me when he found out I was from South Africa. "I cried when you gave your country to the kaffirs!" he said while giving me a carrot, an apple, and heating up a mug of instant coffee for me using a portable heating element that plugged into the razor socket in the bathroom. Nice guy but obviously a giant racist.

I am drunk
Once in London I was drunk and waiting for a bus since I had refused to do drugs with a guy I ended up working part-time with one day, who I happened to know from junior school in Cape Town. I waited for a bus for maybe 45 minutes, and someone had spilled white paint outside the bus stop. Of course I stood in it and slid my feet around and stuff, so when I got onto the bus I left white bootprints everywhere. I also put my feet up on the partition in front of me and left tons of paint there.

party
I was in on the last circle line party in London before drinking on the tube was made illegal. They stopped it before even one circuit happened though, I think the concept of circle line parties was just too well-known by then.

I run a lot
I used to work late at night in London too, and get a night bus home. Very often (late 90's, but I heard it still happens) they'd just... not let anyone on. I think it's a nightbus douche driver thing. Once they let nobody on so I ran to the next stop along the bus, they let 2 people off and nobody on. Then I ran to the next stop and they let 3 people off and nobody on, then I just walked home since I got too tired to carry on running, it took maybe an hour to walk most of the way(?) to Neasden. In the end I caught the next night bus on the same route to get the rest of the way home.

I am a coward
I was lifting a lot and doing kung fu back then, but when a businessman type started getting bullied by 5 under-18 kids on the london underground, I didn't stand up or anything, and tell them to gently caress off. He was sitting oppsite me more or less and everyone else on the tube also said nothing. this was maybe moorgate station, around 5pm possibly. He got off and they followed him off, pushing him and stuff. I have no loving idea when/how it started or ended but I found out that day that I don't gently caress with kids? or something.

I take E and this train goes to alexanderplatz
I took E one night in east berlin. I felt a bit sick so I went home with my friend. I don't like sitting a lot so at some station I was standing near the exit. For maybe 10 minutes? 20 minutes? The train was stopped at a certain station. German people would come in and say 'blah blah alexanderplatz' in German. I couldn't stop laughing, and asked my friend what they were saying. In the end, since maybe 15 people asked me the same question (the carriage I was in was close to the stairs and I was the closest person to the door) I started just answering ja. My friend and I could not for the love of god stop laughing.

Soviet Commubot
Oct 22, 2008


Balqis posted:

From an even nerdier standpoint, I noticed all the trams and subways in France had the same cool computer lady announcing the stops, the same pings and rings announcing your arrival. Does France go through such ridiculous pains to seem centralized and homogeneous that even the aesthetics of the public transit match one another? Or is it just small enough that everyone just gets their machinery from the same plant? Probably both.

I've only ridden the trams in Brest, Nantes and Angers and the latter two sounded the same. The one in Brest sounded different but the voice did announcements in Breton too so I imagine they needed a different person to record it.

I've literally never seen anything weird or crazy on public transit, or at least not weird enough to remember. Maybe it's because I've mostly used it in medium to small cities and all the crazy stuff happens in big cities.

FairyNuff
Jan 22, 2012

Heard UKIP voters on a bus; they 'don't want to get rid of all the blacks' so aren't voting BNP as they are 'too racist' but they feel that buses should only be for British people and that immigrants are stealing their jobs.

Long Francesco
Jun 3, 2005
My favorite thing about riding the train are all the freshman art school kids wide eyed and deeply concerned for every passed out drunk guy/dude doing the Baltimore lean.

Tears In A Vial
Jan 13, 2008

redreader posted:


party
I was in on the last circle line party in London before drinking on the tube was made illegal. They stopped it before even one circuit happened though, I think the concept of circle line parties was just too well-known by then.



What time did you start? I was on the last round party as well and we were there for hours, it was a great laugh.

foutre
Sep 4, 2011

:toot: RIP ZEEZ :toot:
On the C in NY there was a group of kids learning to dance on the subway to thier little speakers. There was one older kid, maybe 17 or 18, who was showing them moves and teaching them how to respect people's space while performing. They were actually really good, and it was a cool thing for some kids to have organized.

On some lovely line in London me and my brother were drunkenly singing old Foundations songs and dancing around. Some British girls joined in and we sang together till we got to the next stop.

When I get drunk I dance on the subway an embarassing amount, and two weeks ago on the train to Bushwick a couple joined me.

Earlier that day someone told my friend, on the same line, "Don't wanna gently caress me white girl? You scared?" and so on after she tried to get away from him harassing her.

Unfortunately, poo poo like the latter example happens a lot more than the former ones...

Yessod
Mar 21, 2007
I was riding on BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit, the train for SF / Oakland). I was a young man of almost 20, with a big pile of bags, headed south into Oakland. A chubby man in his 60s sat down in the row behind me, and asked if I was headed to the airport, and where I was headed. I told him I was just heading back to San Diego to see my parents for Thanksgiving, and we got into a long conversation about San Diego. He talked about the times he'd been there on vacation, and so on. His favorite thing to see was the pipe organ in Balboa Park - there's the world's biggest pipe organ, and they use it for concerts, or during the summer for silent movie screenings. He explained that he really liked hearing it, because he played the organ in his church choir, and had once gotten to attend a concert in San Diego, and etc etc. This led into a bit of a discussion around his church, which was mostly him telling me about his very standard liberal protestant church and playing music and etc etc. Basically, he came across as one of those old guys at church, a little attention starved but generally cheerful.

After like 20 minutes of this, he asks "So, do you like gay porn?"

"Uh, no."

"Well, if you ever do, here's my number, we can get together at my place and watch gay porn, maybe have a beer or listen to some music. Have a great vacation, it was nice meeting you!"

The rest of the ride was pretty awkward.

redreader
Nov 2, 2009

I am the coolest person ever with my pirate chalice. Seriously.

Dinosaur Gum

Tears In A Vial posted:

What time did you start? I was on the last round party as well and we were there for hours, it was a great laugh.

I can't remember, the meetup said to leave on a specific train and I was there at liverpool street beforehand and got onto whichever train it was we were supposed to go on. I didn't start early, I think it was some time between like .... 6 and 7:15pm that it started. Anyway they all made us get off at like... I don't know, I cant't remember, some place I'd never been before. I think it was Sloane Square.

Justin Godscock
Oct 12, 2004

Listen here, funnyman!
I remember this one time I was riding the Edmonton LRT home after a long day of work and there apparently was a political protest going on above Grandin station (this was the night of our mayoral election last year) that got broken up because a bunch of people ran into the station (still carrying protest stuff) and quickly bordered the train. The driver got on the PA system warning everyone that just got on that Transit Peace Officers were awaiting at the next station. Apparently, they didn't make it there in time because there was no-one waiting on the platform and the driver just kept on going.

This also happened a few months ago, notice the transit cops immediately jump on the native involved in this first: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eGy6eGKoHTQ

DelphiAegis
Jun 21, 2010
Two stories:

Friend and I were riding the 42 across town. The bus was deserted, since it was like 7pm and most people use it to get to work or whatever. Around a third of the way through our journey a very old black guy with a cane got on the bus and proceeded to sit in one of the front seats reserved for seniors/disabled. After a block, we start smelling... something. That something was poo poo. Friend and I moved to the back of the bus where the stink was profoundly less, but still there. After a few blocks the old man gets off the bus, and after the driver closes the door and drives a block, he looks back at us and exclaims, "Did that guy just poo poo himself?" and then proceeds to drive the rest of the way to our stop with both doors open to air out the stench.

I was riding the El into town. It's an elevated train and subway in center city, hence the name. It's a lightly crowded train and only one or two people are forced to stand. There's a woman with three children in tow. One is older (maybe 12 or so) and helping take care of an infant while a post-toddler (Maybe 5?) is running about on the train generally making a nuisance of himself. The mother repeatedly tells him to "Sit the hell down" and the child continues to run about without a care. Now, the El has pretty good acceleration and if you aren't prepared when standing it can easily make you lose your balance. This is compounded by the fact that the drivers just straight up do not give a poo poo and will go as fast as loving possible at all times. So the train lurches and the kid goes flying into a pole smacking his head and he immediately starts crying. The entire car is expecting the mother to croon over her child telling him it's alright, etc. Instead she picks him up, sits him forcefully on the seat he was supposed to be sitting in and she says, "See, I TOLD your rear end to sit down!" while he bawls.

a cyborg mug
Mar 8, 2010



The people using the public transport in Helsinki, Finland seem mostly not-insane apart from the occasional belligerent drunks at night. Maybe it's a cultural thing, too, as it's considered extremely impolite to bother anyone else in public places here. So apart from some drunken brawling and your garden-variety homeless people (my favorite is the incredibly ragged guy carrying around mysterious packages apparently containing "paintings" and asking for "a tiny little penny for a morning coffee"), I haven't seen all that much really weird poo poo.

There was one case that really touched me, though. I was on the metro heading to a lecture and reading my notes from the last one when an older, slightly homeless-looking guy sat on the bench opposite of me. He then very politely ("sorry to bother you" and all that) asked me if I was a student and was going to the university, which I confirmed. He then told me he used to study once, too, to become a priest, which he became, too. He was a priest for twenty years and had a nice house and a lovely family... until one day he woke up and "Click! Went crazy, just like that", in his words. Then he told me with just the saddest look on his face that it's pretty hard to hold on to a job, a wife and kids if you're insane and got off the metro. :smith:

Sometimes I remember that dude and think about how easy it can be for anyone of us to just flip out one day and lose everything.

Warzoo
Nov 19, 2004
Nyahhh seee... Pork chops and apple sauce...
One night in Seoul, South Korea, I was sitting on the subway train waiting for the doors to close when i saw a local man bounding down the stairs to the platform. He jumped to the bottom and began to sprint to the door, but on the way he tripped pretty badly.

Anyway, I guess he was really desperate to catch the train as instead of falling like a normal human would, he just continued to run forward as he fell, driving his body into some kind of desperate kamikaze attempt. His chest hit the ground just before the train door, but he extended his arms baseball style and slid right in. The doors shut behind him.

He got up, brushed the dust off his business casual, offered a coy, half embarrassed smile, and then sat down. This being Asia, nobody else on the train made any acknowledgment of what just happened. Just another day on the way home from work.

Warzoo fucked around with this message at 02:00 on Sep 26, 2014

redreader
Nov 2, 2009

I am the coolest person ever with my pirate chalice. Seriously.

Dinosaur Gum
In england I used to he-man the tube doors open (mostly you can only prevent them from closing more, you can't actually open them fully once they've started closing) to catch trains and save myself a 10 minute wait or whatever. It was standard practice and nobody ever, ever cared.

I did it last year on Caltrain in the USA. I he-man'd the doors open as they were closing, the conductors did not expect it and were loving dumbfounded. As soon as I got in they said 'never, ever do that again'. Apparently it really isn't ok here at all.

blackswordca
Apr 25, 2010

Just 'cause you pour syrup on something doesn't make it pancakes!
I was on a greyhound out of Eugene, OR heading south to meet a friend in Medford. The bus left Eugene late, about 10pm and there was only one seat available. I sat down and the guy beside me was just glaring at me. He spent most of the two plus hour trip opening and closing his pocket knife.

On the way back to Eugene at the end of the trip, the bus broke down somewhere in northern California. Waiting at the bus terminal one other guy happened to be on the same flight to Vancouver as me so we split a cab to the Eugene airport and made it two minutes before they closed the gate for our flight.

For local public transit, the only real story I have is the two teens drinking everclear from the bottle and throwing up in the train. That was a fantastic evening. Luckily one end of the LRT system here to the other is 45 minutes tops.

blackswordca fucked around with this message at 18:51 on Sep 26, 2014

CBJSprague24
Dec 5, 2010

another game at nationwide arena. everybody keeps asking me if they can fuck the cannon. buddy, they don't even let me fuck it

We were on a city bus from the Fremont Street Experience back to Mandalay Bay in Vegas in 2002 when this decently-dressed guy started yelling at the bus driver. The bus stopped and, eventually, the police were called, which set him off even more. A middle-aged black guy in front of us said "I have to get to work!", which was met with a "YOU SHUT THE HELL UP!".

This tension lasted for about 15 minutes until he decided to get off the bus. The driver collected him/herself (I can't remember), and we continued down the Strip. I don't know if he was off his meds or what, but it was an unnerving experience when you're 14.

The Walking Dad
Dec 31, 2012
One day I got on the bus and sat next to a grizzled black guy in his mid 50s. We got to talking about the neighborhoods we were riding through and how they had changed. We banter a bit about how the neighborhood up the hill from downtown is a bit rougher than it used to be, white flight and all that.

I noticed he had a cane with a golden orb at the end. It was almost a scepter really. He looks at me and says "Now don't get freaked out but I wanna show you something". He then twists the top of his cane and swiftly pulls out a 4 foot long sword. He gives me this look like "Yeah it's cool and you know it."

I say "drat dude, do you always carry that with you?" and he says "Yeah, I collect canes, I got dozens of em. Never know when you might need a cane."

He deftly slides the blade back in, and says it's his turn to get off.

Guildenstern Mother
Mar 31, 2010

Why walk when you can ride?
I met a Grand Druid on the bus a few years ago. Like robes, beard, wizard staff, the whole nine yards. He noticed that I had on a rune necklace, and started telling me about the rune I was wearing, the runes that made up my names, and ended it with an incredibly historically inaccurate lecture on Irish druidic culture. Even by Eugene, Oregon standards it was a bit odd.

Cornwind Evil
Dec 14, 2004


The undisputed world champion of wrestling effortposting

WanderingMinstrel I posted:

I met a Grand Druid on the bus a few years ago. Like robes, beard, wizard staff, the whole nine yards. He noticed that I had on a rune necklace, and started telling me about the rune I was wearing, the runes that made up my names, and ended it with an incredibly historically inaccurate lecture on Irish druidic culture. Even by Eugene, Oregon standards it was a bit odd.

Reminds me of being on the Toronto streetcar several months back (I...think I was going to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier) and several people in INCREDIBLY elaborate Star Wars cosplay got on. As far as I know, there was no con of any sort going on in that area or at all, so I wondered why they were so dressed up.

Cymbal Monkey
Apr 16, 2009

Lift Your Little Paws Like Antennas to Heaven!
I was on a train going from Stockholm to Abisko, which should have taken about 7 hours. I'm pretty decent at sleeping on trains but the person next to me informed me that she absolutely could not, so I asked her to jab me in the ribs when we got there because I was going to pass out. I woke up and assumed it'd only been six hours, but then I learned that I'd been asleep for 10 hours. The woman next to me didn't forget to wake me, we just hadn't gotten there. 4 hours later, a voice came over the PA and Swedish happened. I then asked this lady to explain what he said and she informed me that the train wasn't going to make it to Abisko and they'd hired coaches for us.


The worst thing that's happened to me though was easter weekend this year. I was getting on a train to go from London to Brussels. I got there about an hour early just in case anything went wrong getting there. I'm used to waiting, it was fine. Well then I learned there was a two hour delay because someone killed themselves by jumping on the high speed line in France. Whatever, three hours, fine. An hour later, someone in England had killed themselves the same way. So we've got two closed tracks. To make matters worse, half the chunnel was closed for maintenance. They were instructing us to queue based on what time we were supposed to have boarded, but then five hours after my train was supposed to have left, they said everyone just get in the queue and they'd just load up trains as they came in. This queue, I've never seen anything like it. London St Pancras is a very long station, it takes several minutes to walk from one side to the other. This queue wrapped up and down the station four times before going out the door. I got in the queue about midway through that and queued for seven hours. It was loving miserable. I got he last train of the night, and there were still hundreds of people in the queue. gently caress Easter travel.

kinmik
Jul 17, 2011

Dog, what are you doing? Get away from there.
You don't even have thumbs.
blackswordca's stories reminded me of my own incident related to air travel.

I was flying to Japan to live for the first time away from home so I was super jumped up and nervous. Fortunately, there was another American going my way, transferring from Haneda to Narita, so I struck up an easy conversation with him, which helped to immensely calm my nerves. I remember him mostly because he was lugging a whole VW bug door with him, wrapped up in foam and cardboard. He told me it was hard to find this particular model part in Japan and that he had picked it up while on business in Hawaii. The guys who were loading our luggage into the bus were bewildered to find a dude standing at the curb with a car part, and laughed a little. We parted ways when we got to the airport, but I'll never forget you, hardcore VW fan.

redreader
Nov 2, 2009

I am the coolest person ever with my pirate chalice. Seriously.

Dinosaur Gum
Last time I flew, we were 45 mins from SFO and we heard the old 'is anyone on board a doctor?' then later "has anyone on board got a diabetes blood sugar testing kit?"

The lady next to me (who got diabetes during pregnancy and it never went away) had one. A few minutes later an extremely good looking fit tall dude (the doctor of course, like a cast member of a tv show) came and collected it. When he gave it back to her she said 'what the gently caress, this person's blood sugar is at 0. How is that even possible?'. When we landed they were carted off the plane first in true emergency style, hooray!

Grape Juice Vampire
Aug 1, 2009
Another Vegas story I just remembered. We were on the bus late at night and a guy got on with a ton of bags. When he turned around to get off at his stop, we saw that he was wearing his pants backwards with the fly open to reveal his naked rear end. Just kinda weird.

Inudeku
Jul 13, 2008
Me and my 8 months pregnant wife were on the Chicago blue line and an elderly gentleman gave his seat up for her. After we got off we both thought it would have been funny if I tool the seat instead

KodiakRS
Jul 11, 2012

:stonk:
Keeping up the theme of airplane stories: I'm a pilot for an airline here in the U.S. A few years ago I was operating a flight when a passenger had a suspected heart attack. The flight attendants did the whole "doctor on board?" thing and attached an AED to the passenger. Sure enough, the AED detected cardiac arrest. As soon as we announced that we were diverting to an unscheduled stop in Memphis to get the man medical care the passengers went bezerk.

They started shouting at the flight attendants:

"You can't land in Memphis! We're supposed to go to Chicago!"

"How late is this going to make us?"

"Am I still going to be able to make my connection?"

"Can't he just hold it?"

Eventually we had to make another PA saying that a man was literally dying on the floor of the galley and that the flight attendants were too busy trying to keep him alive to give a gently caress about when passengers got where they were going.

When we landed we told all the passengers to stay in their seats until the paramedics could get the guy off the airplane. Sure enough, as soon as the wheels stopped a few of the first class passengers immediately popped out of their seats and started crowding to door. Even as one of the flight attendants was yelling at him to sit back down a man stepped over what was quite possibly now a corpse in order to be the first one off the plane.

Sometimes I hate humanity.

TunaSpleen
Jan 27, 2007

How do I say, "You're the grossest thing ever" without offending you?
Grimey Drawer

Cornwind Evil posted:

Reminds me of being on the Toronto streetcar several months back (I...think I was going to see Captain America: The Winter Soldier) and several people in INCREDIBLY elaborate Star Wars cosplay got on. As far as I know, there was no con of any sort going on in that area or at all, so I wondered why they were so dressed up.

They might have been members of the 501st Legion. It's a club for hardcore Star Wars cosplayers, mostly Stormtroopers.

KodiakRS posted:

Sometimes I hate humanity.

Stepping over possible corpses during the commute is pretty normal here in Chicago if you look at our crime and homeless statistics.

Hydrolith
Oct 30, 2009
I was on a bus a while back and overheard some guy having a conversation with the bus driver. They were discussing how poo poo Melbourne's new public transit smartcard is, and how much it cost (literally $1.5 billion, and it barely worked for the first few months it was installed). So then, the driver comments that he would have just made public transit free, instead. The other guy is absolutely mystified.

"You mean, you'd drive the bus for free?"
"No, I mean instead of spending so much money on Myki they could just make it free instead"
"But... how would you get paid?"

This went back and forth until I got off the bus. The guy just could not understand how the bus drivers would get paid if buses were free, no matter how many different ways the driver explained it.

Tiggum
Oct 24, 2007

Your life and your quest end here.


Hydrolith posted:

They were discussing how poo poo Melbourne's new public transit smartcard is, and how much it cost (literally $1.5 billion, and it barely worked for the first few months it was installed).

First few months? It barely works now. And it turns out that the fines for fare evasion are basically unenforceable. You can plead guilty and still not pay.

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Hydrolith
Oct 30, 2009

Tiggum posted:

First few months? It barely works now. And it turns out that the fines for fare evasion are basically unenforceable. You can plead guilty and still not pay.

Well, they've been mostly fine for me. Still, that's goddamn hilarious. The whole "pay $75 on the spot or a bigger fine if you go to court" is just disgusting, too.

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