Crazy Busses

My dream. Eitan pushes his stroller, I push nothing.

Jerusalem is a very hilly city, and my days are spent pushing around 25 pound baby and what feels like 50 more pounds of stuff between the diaper bag hanging on it and the basket underneath, so from time to time, we take the bus. Begrudgingly. 

Let me be clear, I have no problem with public transportation. I love it. Public transportation enabled me to push off getting my driver's license until I was 22, and I even with Eitan, no big deal, we were taking the metro out and about when he was even three weeks old. I however, do not like taking buses in Jerusalem. I like the fact that they have messages based on the season (for Chanuka, as you might remember, and apparently also for other chagim)  I'm not afraid of terrorism, I'm not afraid of getting lost (Nina put some app on my phone of bus maps. Iphone comes in handy yet again), it's not about Eitan, he flippin' loves the bus. He sometimes sits on my lap and points to everyone and everyone and smiles and gets lots of attention. Even from people outside at stops where he bangs on the windows and gets them to smile. 

The thing is, they just are so annoying, that unless I'm so tired and have so much stuff, we generally try to avoid them.  

What's annoying you may ask? Well, even if not, I'll tell you. Each bus, and each bus driver is their own island of laws, there's no consistency whatsoever. Some drive soooo slowly, and others drive so crazy fast that even standing holding on to the locked stroller, we're all thrown around. The buses have no schedule, I mean, there's an official SCHEDULE, but sometimes we'll wait 25 minutes for one bus that's supposed to come every 10 minutes, and 3 of the same will drive by all together. Madness. 

These however, are all things I can kind of deal with. What puts me over the edge however, is that in this city, apparently there's a rule that allows bus drivers to charge parents with strollers. That's right people, the bus driver can charge me for two rides for my stroller. And the inconsistencies are abound. Some don't at all. Some do always. Some tell me they'll only charge me if I keep it open, but if I fold it up, they won't. This makes no sense. The stroller takes up more space on the bus folded in an aisle, then in a corner open. And it's safer, I think, way safer, to have Eitan buckled into something then just on my lap willy nilly. 

Ami told me, one of our first weeks here that a woman got on the bus with a baby in a stroller, picked up the baby, handed it to him, proceeded to fold up her stroller (I'm guessing as not to be charged), and just as casually picked her baby back up. Nina tells me this happens all the time. Women get on in the back (strollers don't fit in the front entrance), give their baby to someone that looks (kind of) normal, take care of their business, go up to pay, and then reclaim their children. Let's just say, I don't do that. Sometimes, someone offers to take my card and go up and pay for me. Other times, I take Eitan with me, and sometimes, the bus is so crowded, and the driver is going so crazy, that I just never make it up to the front to pay at all. Which makes me feel better about all of the times I'm charged double. 

I would like to point out, that the people on the buses (minus the mean drivers) are wonderful. They help me get my stroller on the bus, help me get it off, smile and talk to Eitan, let him poke them. Of course, the occasionally tell me he's cold, or warm, or needs air (if I have a blanket draped over the stroller when he's sleeping) but what else is new, they're Israeli. 

Anyways, that's my story with buses. But the real kicker, that they charge for strollers, but offer free wifi. It's just weird. Who needs wifi on a intra-city bus? And why not charge for that and let my freaking stroller ride for free?