If there is one constant thing in all of travel, it was transport that got you there. As exciting as destinations can be, I’ve always found the journey to be of surprising interest as it is these tedious moments that make up a large portion of life. Waiting rooms and the like are glorious platforms upon which experience can create itself, and often these moments are so minor and commonplace that they are missed.
Humans are exceedingly unhappy with having to wait for things. As the quality of life and its limited span are two values of most, the act of simply doing nothing is a bother, and it is through bother that people become interesting to observe. Irritated and impatient, the qualities of existing in the first world are revealed, and how terribly trivial they often are. Recently I caught a flight at 5am after a party, and drunk and exhausted attempted to sleep on the brief one-hour journey. However due to the cheapness of the fare I found myself on a poorly constructed craft, causing the extending of legs to aggravate the businessman in the seat ahead of me. People are so easily annoyed on transport; I recall a time I slept on an overnight bus and woke up to find that I was kicking the girl beside me. She was actually very reasonable and allowed me to kick her in silence, which sort of reflects my own attitude on transport as rather selfish.
In this case, I can refer to myself as a prime example of the terrible habits that form when human selfishness rears its ugly head in the event of forced proximity. This event is loathed by all; particularly the elderly, and on an inner-city bus one can observe the old as they constantly move seats to get away from everybody else. Then there’s always that moment when someone gets on the bus and there are no seats without a fellow commuter to sit beside, and that moment of contempt can always be seen on their face. I like to think my joy in traveling alone reveals an opposite emotion on my own face, however I am aware that my face frequents a mood of general disgust – laughably never the true case, but an unfortunate flaw in my biology.
I am always saddened to board the train and see countless heads pointed downward to their phones. Phones are so big and full of things nowadays, but so are places of waiting. Watching people wait is the most fun you can have in travel, and always the most overlooked. For them, as is the journey, and upon arriving they ask themselves: "How did I end up here?"
