Back to Glasgow, and thanks to Sarge I was able to get a taxi from the train station to the coach station. It only cost £3.90 which shows how close it was. Yes, Limey had told me I could get a bus, but I was cold and wet and dispirited when I left Glasgow Central last year and I was no less so this time.
My trip home was different this year though.
I arrived at the coach station 55 minutes before the coach was due - my shortest lead time ever.
I went to where I thought the coach would pick up (confusing signs, no change there) and immediately spoke to a lass who was getting the same coach.
Okay - we could both relax.
30 minutes before the coach was due to leave, it pulled in at a different stand and shouted us across. This kind of punctuality AND courtesy is almost unheard of on coaches, which usually make you wait outside in the rain until the very second before they are due to leave, before telling you there is a problem with the brake-lights, or air-conditioning, or toilet and herd you back into the terminal, so that there is no longer any sense that those who were there first are first in the queue... I digress.
Same driving team as before. Lovely chaps.
And this time I was seated in the coveted front section.
Only six seats and therefore the first six bunks.
Once again I scored a bunk on the lowest level. Best berths. Result.
Not only that, the driver assured us we were the only FIVE in the section, so I immediately spread out on my double seat. Selfish witch.
The journey wasn't ideal.
Oh it was hot!
I got up at 02.00, feeling like I was being roasted in a coach bunk coffin. Got out to sit in the middle seated section (didn't want to make a meal of it with the drivers up front) and still sweated. Went back to bed just before 04.00. Crashed out and was disappointed to be woken before 06.00 because we were coming into London early.
But the five hours I slept were far more than I would have done on a normal coach, and although I was hot I never felt as wretched as I have on other coach journeys.
All in all I would recommend a coach sleeper service. If you are someone who likes to cocoon themself then all the better. Otherwise, get fit enough to sleep in a thong in public. Because although each bunk has curtains, they simply can't close to the extent that privacy is 100% guaranteed.
Last edited by Sundae; 12-25-2011 at 01:32 PM.
|