It wouldn’t take too many mountain reps for Sisyphus to realise he is being pranked by the gods. Knowledge of his eternal fate matures into acceptance and becomes a source of joy. Maybe?
Ah, Megabus is both a beautiful and a hellish thing. Back in 2012, I was broke & living in Yorkshire while dating someone in Barcelona - and the 37 hour Megabus from Leeds to Barcelona Nord (via the Eurotunnel & Paris) for £25 was both a joyous thing and an infernal trap for my soul, because never have I felt so close to being a character in a Beckett play than sitting on buses solidly for over a day and a half. I did it three times, and every time, I was so grateful to it, and also it utterly wrecked me for at least a week. (My partner did it once, and 12 hours into it, she vowed never again. This is probably the correct reaction.)
Megabus don't run that route anymore. I can sort of understand why, even if I grieve for the lost adventure of it...
Haha! I've not done that journey in a Megabus, but I have done it in a Mini. Savage! I'm mystifyingly drawn to the idea of catching the bus that goes between Birmingham and Pakistan. Now THAT'S a bus ride....
Incredible stuff - thanks for sharing. I love stories about the repetition-until-epic of the mundane. Like taking a succession of buses or documenting your sneezes: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p062pzsv
Me too! I recently learned about the Boring Conference (https://conwayhall.org.uk/event/the-boring-conference-2/) in Ian Leslie's book on curiosity and it tickled my love of storytelling that digs into unromantic things until they're rendered amazing - and maybe it also confirmed exactly how British I am. I really hope it makes a comeback - it seems COVID knocked the 2020 event on the head at the last minute...
Ah, Megabus is both a beautiful and a hellish thing. Back in 2012, I was broke & living in Yorkshire while dating someone in Barcelona - and the 37 hour Megabus from Leeds to Barcelona Nord (via the Eurotunnel & Paris) for £25 was both a joyous thing and an infernal trap for my soul, because never have I felt so close to being a character in a Beckett play than sitting on buses solidly for over a day and a half. I did it three times, and every time, I was so grateful to it, and also it utterly wrecked me for at least a week. (My partner did it once, and 12 hours into it, she vowed never again. This is probably the correct reaction.)
Megabus don't run that route anymore. I can sort of understand why, even if I grieve for the lost adventure of it...
Haha! I've not done that journey in a Megabus, but I have done it in a Mini. Savage! I'm mystifyingly drawn to the idea of catching the bus that goes between Birmingham and Pakistan. Now THAT'S a bus ride....
Oh blimey. That's a book idea, if ever there was one. Or a Twitter bus odyssey: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-london-58297172
And reminds me of my friend Andrew taking a series of buses to the tip of South America, to get the ship to Antarctica: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/article/trip-essay-traveler
DO IT. It could be simultanously the best and worst thing you've ever done...
Incredible stuff - thanks for sharing. I love stories about the repetition-until-epic of the mundane. Like taking a succession of buses or documenting your sneezes: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p062pzsv
Sadly, it looks like the Birmingham-Mirpur service never got off the ground (bad choice of idiom for a bus service, but you know what I mean!): https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-birmingham-22285575
Me too! I recently learned about the Boring Conference (https://conwayhall.org.uk/event/the-boring-conference-2/) in Ian Leslie's book on curiosity and it tickled my love of storytelling that digs into unromantic things until they're rendered amazing - and maybe it also confirmed exactly how British I am. I really hope it makes a comeback - it seems COVID knocked the 2020 event on the head at the last minute...