Next stop - Winchester Bus Station

As a student living in Andover and studying in Winchester I have to commute - since I do not want to live in a student corridor or student apartment somewhere, I rather spend my spare time outside of the wonderful world of University with my boyfriend, family and friends. There are basically three ways for me to get to Winchester.

1) The easiest alternative would be by car, because I could decide when I would like to come and go and not wait around for different services to pick me up at different stations around Hampshire at different times. But, as a student I can not afford the luxury of an own car that needs to fed with petrol, needs to be insured, needs to have a parking space for the cold British nights and all the other lovely details that go with it. I would also need to park around the University somewhere, and as my dear friends have told me, this is a nightmare. So, naah, I don't think that car is an alternative for me.. And oh yeah, by the way, the main issue with a car is that people in this country freaks me out by driving on the wrong side of the road...

2) Then there are trains. This would be a very comfortable choice and convenient as I could use the time I travel to finish off the different tasks we get from University every week. Unfortunately there is no such thing as a fast direct train between Andover and Winchester so if I was to choose this option I would have to go via Basingstoke and wait around for quite some time before eventually arriving in Winchester. There is also the cost for it. Hugely expensive! Prices that I can not see any student able to afford.. Not if you want a decent life outside the train journeys anyway... So naah, no train for Maddie either...

3) I guess that leaves me with the lovely buses. (Notice the irony.) Stagecoach. Prices are alright, quite a few buses that leaves from both places each day - with exceptions from Sundays, when there are no buses whatsoever, and after 6pm when they obviously go to bed. At least it gets me to where I want to go, it picks me up and takes me back home again. But it is definitely not safe. As a Swede I am used to safe transport, whether it is on your own - in your own vehicle - or if it is with the transport society offers you. But here, bus drivers drive as if to break their own personal record for a specific journey. No seat belts are to be found even though a lot of the journeys include motor ways. Terrible seats where you can not rest your head against anything - don't want to think of what might happen if the bus crashes... People standing up, getting thrown around because of the speed and the care for the travellers some of the drivers seem to lack... I am very surprised there are not more accidents reported around the UK...

With this said though, I find it very relaxing to travel by bus - as long as I don't occupy my mind with above mentioned flaws. For the future, I do hope that Stagecoach manage to get some lights in the buses though so that us passengers can read a book or a newspaper even though darkness consumes all the light usually surrounding us...

Cheerios

Maddie