The Bus
When I'm in Europe, I have no qualms whatsoever about riding public transportation. Most cities there have great public trans systems to and from the airport. My own city has only bus service, but I'd never used it until this past trip. I figured I had a lot of time, and I wanted to walk the talk, so to speak. I mean, I've been spouting about how wasteful our society is and how horrible evil people exploit our wastefulness for profit, so it was time to take another step to reduce my support of them.
As it turned out, I found the experience rather pleasant. From my apartment, I walked across the street to the bus stop. Waited about five minutes, and the bus showed up. I'd already planned my route using the online tool, so I knew that I needed to have $1.25 in exact change, and that I needed to get a transfer. A few minutes later, I got off downtown at the transfer stop. This was the only annoying part, as I did end up standing there doing nothing for almost 20 minutes. But eventually, the bus to the airport came along and off I went. After a few stops, it was a straight shot right to the terminal, arriving less than 20 minutes later.
Total time: 55 minutes. Total cost: $1.25. Feeling good about myself because I accomplished something without being a fat, lazy, wasteful American: priceless.
Compare this to a cab, which would have taken about 25 minutes and $35.00. Or parking my own car at the airport, which would have been at least $60.00 for the 5 days I was out of town. Or even having a friend drop me off, which would have required bothering them and burning more gas for their return trip. I mean, if it wasn't for the 20 minutes lost waiting for the transfer, there just wouldn't be any good reason not to use this option all the time. As it is, it's totally worth it. If I have time, I'm going to try to use the bus to the airport all the time.
