The Englishman Abroad – Public Transport
San Francisco is a city blessed with a comprehensive, well integrated public transport system which is apparently sometimes capable of driving the unfamiliar insane. I know it's just one of those things, and the natives can manage it without a second thought. And actually, on previous visits I've been able to do so myself, but on Wednesday night I had an interlude of utter confusion while trying to get to The Isotope (SF's best comic shop, bar none, tell them I sent you). The last few times I've been there it's been before heading out to the airport to catch the red-eye to New York, so I've tended to have bags, and therefore taken a cab, but I live here now, so no bags.
The local transport website had said that the most straightforward way to get there from the office was by MUNI train
- the station is a minute's walk from the office, and having got there I joined the queue (excuse me, the line) at the ticket desks. But no - when I got to the front of the line, I learned that this was was only for season tickets and the like. Single trips, "just pay at the window by the gate".
At the gate, I tried to put my cash through the slot at the base of the window, but the woman inside the booth pointed behind me and said something mostly unintelligible about 'ticket machines'.
So I turned round and went to the ticket machines behind me, which were all for the BART (Bay Area Rapid Transit - a completely different train system - told you it was comprehensive around these parts). I wandered around for a bit, trying to work out where I was going wrong, but to no avail, and I was suddenly struck by that male/tourist/English (delete as you think) thing of not wanting to ask for help.
So I went back up to street level and got a bus.
Next week, things will be different. And if by chance they're not, you'll never hear about it...