Today was my first foray into the great wide world on my own, navigating the public transport system.
Armed with Google Maps and an app called {Moovit}, I dropped Aaron at school and made my way to the central bus stop. All aboard the 150 to {Lod} and 25 minutes and ₪8.40 later I was at my destination. I did have a moment of panic when the bus deviated slightly but it basically cut out a 5 minute portion of the route and hooked up to the road just before my stop.
I finished what I needed to do and consulting Moovit and Google Maps, I figured out I needed to catch the 150 back to Modi’in. Except when I got to the place where the bus stop was supposed to be (according to BOTH maps) there was nothing there. Not a bus shelter or even just a sign post with the bus number on it.
Scratching my head, I took a short walk to the corner of the road and saw a bus shelter a little further down to the right (on the road that the bus had detoured on). I walked over and looked for the marker saying the 150 stopped there and didn’t see anything. After walking back up the road to the nonexistent bus stop I decided to check the apps again and found another bus stop a little further up the road (on the part of the route that had been cut off because of the earlier detour). That stop had the number 150 on it as well as a route map with the 150 bus listed. Moovit and Google Maps agreed that this was the stop. I waited for the bus. And waited. The wind kicked up. And I waited some more. It started to rain. The bus was officially 15 minutes late. I walked back to the nonexistent bus stop. It was raining but I couldn’t even use my umbrella because the wind was so fierce it popped the umbrella inside out!
As a last ditch effort I decided to go back to the bus stop on the detour road and just double check. It still didn’t list the 150 bus so I started to walk past it and then… angels sang, the sun came out (ok not really but it did stop raining) and I saw a route map, INSIDE the bus shelter, that had the 150 listed! I waited 15 minutes and the bus arrived!
There are 2 morals to this story.
- We shouldn’t trust technology 100%, its not infallible. The bus stop was there, just 150m down the road and around the corner.
- Open your eyes, look properly, don’t take everything at face value.
Oh well, it was an adventure. It took me almost 3 times as long to get home as it should have but hey, I made it. All on my own!