Festival of Food and Drink

Britishism of the week: timetable - meaning schedule like for buses or classes, but we are going to focus on buses.

Challenge of the week: learning how to read bus timetables correctly.

The international student welcome week ended on Friday. We don't have much going on at the moment so I decided to go to this Food and Drink Festival at Clumber Park.  There is this really handy tourism office in the market square that I've been in a couple times to ask for information. I was able to get a bus schedule there and a man told me what bus to take and what stop to get off on. 

The market square

I invited the girls but they were moving into their apartments and/or had other activities. I decided to go alone to get out of the house. It was a little over an hour by bus and then the man told me I would have about 3/4 mile walk. The bus ride was pleasant; I got to see a lot of small villages through the countryside. We arrived and I started walking... And kept walking and walking and walking. It literally took an hour to walk to the festival from the bus stop. On my walk this man, who was also going to the festival, started walking with me and talking. He writes a food blog and was going to the festival to meet a well-known butcher and also review the event.

The entrance to Clumber Park, this was approximately the 3/4 mile mark

I meandered through the festival, had a falafel, a crepe, bought some fudge, and finished with a pimms and lemonade, which is a traditionally English cocktail. It was an absolutely beautiful afternoon so I sat and enjoyed some of the live music that was playing also.

The bar where I purchased my pimms and lemonade

I ran into my new acquaintance, Phil the blogger, again. According to my timetable the next bus came at 4:38 pm, so we left in enough time to make the hour trek back to the bus stop. Upon arrival at the bus stop I learned that I had read the bus timetable incorrectly. I had read the timetable that was coming from Nottingham, not going back to it. The next bus actually wasn't scheduled for over another hour. So Phil and I strategized a plan to get on the next bus heading north. There was only one stop left on the route anyway, a town called Worksop, and then it should head back to Nottingham. That bus was 10 minutes late. In that 10 minutes I had every opportunity to become overwhelmed with anxiety... I have no cell phone, I am in the middle of the woods, I can't read the damn bus schedule correctly, I've already walked probably 6 miles to the festival and back, and the nearest town is probably 10 miles away. Well finally that bus heading north showed up. We got on and went to Worksop. The next bus back to Nottingham wasn't for another 45 minutes. We contemplated walking to the train station, but not knowing if that would be fruitful Phil and I opted for a coffee and to wait for the bus. Finally, at 5:40 pm, we were headed back to Nottingham. We arrived home shortly before 7 pm, and parted ways.

I enjoyed my afternoon out, but I sincerely need to learn these bus timetables or I'm going to find myself in several more stressful situations. As happy as I am to use public transportation and not have the chore of owning a car any more, it's quite the transition. I'm so used to driving wherever I want, whenever I want, and leaving whenever I want. As I've run into trouble a couple times this week (though less stressful than the wilderness trip) I am now planning on doing a practice run for my route to school this week before classes start on the 30th.