There are many different kinds of transportation available to take. Pretty much everything I have heard of and then a few I had not heard of until coming here. Last week Monday we had a day where we used almost every kind of transportation available to us. Here is how our day went:
Monday Morning A is out the door to catch a train for 7am for his language class. He goes early on monday as our teammate T also has class that day so they have an early morning coffee before starting lessons for the day. We had been told a few weeks ago that there was a group for 4 girls coming from Canada and they had a 1 night layover here in the city before heading to their final destination the next day. The plan was that someone from our team was going to greet them at the airport and help them get to their hotel for the night and make sure their transportation to the airport was arranged for the next morning. Since A & T had class closer to the area of the city where the airport was it made sense for them to go after their class. However, the kids and I had been feeling sort of housebound and we thought we would come along for the adventure and so there was another female with the group since it was all girls.
The kids and I packed up and headed out. First we have to navigate down 4 flights of a winding staircase to get out our building. I carried both kids and the stroller (just a small umbrella stroller) and had the backpack on all the way to the bottom. Then I put one child in the carrier, one in the stroller and the backpack on and headed for the train station- abut a 2 minute walk. There I have to go down one flight of stairs and through a tunnel way and then up a flight of stairs to get to the other side of the tracks for the direction of the train I was taking. Thankfully people here are always willing to help when you have kids so someone carried the stroller for me all the way to the train platform while child #1 walked and # 2 was attached to me so it wasnt to bad. We had about a 20 minute train ride to the stop we got off on and made our way down an escalator where A & T were at the bottom waiting. Then we all hopped on a city bus (thankfully we had seats available) and took a ride across the city-another 20 minutes or so. Then we got off at one of the stations and made our way to the other side of the highway over a pedestrian bridge. Then we were in the subway station. We got on a subway and headed to the airport-another 20 minute ride or so. Then we made our way to the arrival gate where we successfully met the girls and got them on their shuttle for their hotel. We had to take a taxi to the hotel as there was not enough room on the hotel shuttle. Once we got to the hotel and they were checked in we took them for supper. We got on a bus-a different kind than the first bus-more of a city bus -so a bit smaller. We had to transfer to a tram (kind of like an electric street car) and then we had arrived! After spending some time eating and walking around we headed home by tram. As we were waiting to catch the bus back to the hotel we decided to head home and let T bring them back as it was getting late and the kids needed to get home. From the location in the city we were at it was easiest for us to take the ferry. So we got on the ferry which we transfers to the train on the other side and the train then brings us right to our stop-2 minutes from home.
That was our day of travel. Train-metrobus-subway-taxi-citybus-tram-tram-ferry-train. I think the only thing we did not travel on was a plane and a mini-bus.
Would we consider getting a car here? It would be easier in some ways but more costly-we paid less than $10 each for all the transportation (kids travel free). It is also faster to take the public transit as traffic is horrific in this city. We mostly enjoy the transportation. The kids love it and its a good way to meet people and practice our language skills. We also see more of the city than we would otherwise. Although I have to say, I do miss packing up our car , strapping up our kids and going from A to B. I miss car seats. In taxi's we dont use them so its always a challenge to get them to sit still and not open the doors while we drive. Most of the time there is no seatbelts so I cant strap them in. I have the small child in the carrier but its still a pain. We avoid taxi's if we can. The other methods are easier as you can stand up and the kids like sitting on the seats as its more open I think.
Anyways, just another thing we are adjusting to here.
This was just another day here for us.
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