Reading buses
Planning my trip proves to be a nightmare! No, not getting from the UK to Portugal, I have exchanged my flight voucher and should be all clear to fly with EasyJet from Gatwick to Faro on the 9th. Accommodation in Faro is also no problem as the camping place is on a local busroute from the airport. From there, it is an easy two weeks trundling through Portugal by local bus or rail. The country is small, services are frequent, I’m flexible. Bliss.
Not from Stirling to London, either. I’ll hop on the bus or train to Glasgow and stroll over to the megabus stop just across from either station. Easy.
No, but trying to get from London to Reading (where John is staying in a B&B, having started his new job) without paying a King’s Ransom is a nightmare. If I take the tube to Paddington and the frequent commuter train, which will get me there in 25 minutes, I will have to pay more than twice as much as my fare from Glasgow to London. The National Express Coach leaves Victoria three hours after my arrival and gets to Reading after midnight. The local buses are a muddle. It makes me wish I had brought a bicycle — it is easier to cycle there!
I have literally spent hours Googling this because I wanted to know about commuter buses; John and I could have stayed with our mates who live a stone-throw from King’s Cross. But there don’t seem to be any! All the links on this site seem to avoid either London or Reading or only run occasionally. I can’t understand it as Reading considers itself to be a part of London (going by the prices for renting a flat, at least) — but I suppose the Thatcherite w*****rs who live there all drive 4 wheel BMWs to work or take the train. What a contrast to Oxford! When I was working there I have been known to hop on a London bus overnight for a laugh. They were also laughingly cheap. And Oxford is further from London than Reading.
I begin to think that my home-to-be is seriously uncool. It doesen’t help that I know that corner of little England. It really is full of bankers and it will cost 2/3 of John’s take-home pay just to rent some scruffy old digs there.
I have never been to Reading itself, but I kind of hoped the university would be a saving grace — and it has the Reading Festival. But so what? We have T in the Park (and I have never been) and there is a university in Stirling as well. No, if I had a choice, I’d rather live in Liverpool or Manchester. But we don’t, and John has promised that we can move on once he has a foot on the corporate ladder. I am working on him to get a job in Brisbane where apparently you can watch whales from a café on the rocks.
Tags: Travels on my Doorstep, Tag Index
Denni