Banana Peel

I ate a banana in the car on the way to the train station this morning. Once the fruit was gone, I was, of course, left with the peel. My first thought was of Mario exclaiming "hehe" gleefully as he plants banana peels on the racetrack on Mario Kart. My next thought (as any sane person's would be) was of finding a trash can. I parked on the fourth deck of the parking garage and couldn't seem to find one anywhere. Maybe I missed it. Maybe there aren't any in the parking garage. In any case, the lack of trash cans got me thinking about the London Underground system and an interesting experience I had thereon.

In 2005, my sister Kelly joined me on a repositioning cruise (Ships stay in one place generally for an entire season. Then they "reposition" to a new region. Repositioning cruises are generally very fun and involve many sea days, which are very relaxing!) from Fort Lauderdale to Copenhagen. One of the stops we made along the way was in Southampton, England. From the Southampton port, we walked to the nearby train station and rode the train into old London towne.

It was a very eventful day, packed with fun people, crazy experiences and loads of time riding trains. After taking the distance train from Southampton, we left the Waterloo station and proceeded to traipse around London by foot, not really knowing anything about the bus or tube systems.

Waterloo station, exterior

Kelly was attacked by the train. Seriously. 

A compartment cover came open and walloped her on the head.

By the time we needed to head back to Southampton we were knackered! We'd walked miles our feet were done. So we asked a nice, local shop boy what the best way to get to "the train station" was. He asked us "which train station" and the question pretty much dumbfounded us. There was more than one main train station??? The boy just laughed at us as we pulled out our tube map and decided that we had most definitely come into Waterloo station. Destination figured, he directed us to the nearest Tube station and instructed us on the proper line to take and zip, zip, we were on our way across London very quickly (not on foot!).

Once in the tube stations, we wanted to get rid of the trash we'd begun accumulating (water bottles, empty Godiva chocolatier bags, etc...) but we couldn't seem to find a "rubbish bin" anywhere! None in the tube station, none along the walkways in the tube stations and none in the main artery station, Waterloo. We were dumbfounded and a bit frustrated by this. We finally spotted a bin in a McDonalds and popped in to add our trash to the already overflowing rubbish bin. While we were waiting for our train back to Southampton we managed to ask a local why there weren't any bins anywhere in the station. He gave us that "Oh, you're Americans" look - a look comprised of pity, annoyance and resigned acceptance and replied "There aren't any bins in any stations because of the IRA bombings." He thought that was a sufficient answer, but instead of understanding, we gave him a fresh dumbfounded look and he, being a very proper and polite Englishman, continued "The Irish terrorist group. They hid bombs in the bins." The most recent of those attacks had been in 1991. But they'd been attacking since the 1800's.

Ah. Wow. We were a bit put off by this whole thing. It was all a bit surreal for two young Americans to take in. Terrorism had only truly come to us four years prior on 9/11, and even then we weren't directly affected by it. It was a sobering revelation to see a lifestyle that incorporated terrorist behavior as not only "having happened to us," but "will probably happen again." And so, not really having any other option, we did what the locals did. We were terrified by the idea of it and yet had to push on, move forward, carry our rubbish with us and take our train home.

Less than a week later, on board our ship on a sea day, we tuned in to the BBC, one of the few satellite television channels we received, to find that the tube stations, including the Piccadilly line (which we had ridden) had been bombed. What can one do in a situation like that? We were grateful to be safe. We were shocked and suspended in disbelief. We had walked those hallways, perhaps ridden trains with some of the people who had been killed in the blasts only days before. What are the words to express the feelings that come of something like that?

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 I found a garbage can this morning and placed my banana peel in it. I was haunted by the memory of a tragedy and grateful to live in a place still blanketed in the innocence that comes from having never experienced the effects of terrorism. I was also left with the lingering thought: I pray it never happens here.