In the company of strangers

These days it's not often that I travel around on public transport thanks to me currently being cycle obsessed. Yesterday though, I had the pleasure of making my way around London on the snaking Tfl system of buses and tubes and honestly I can say that it was indeed a pleasure.

Usually trudging around central London during rush hour is a nightmare, but thanks to the confidence and sociability of two strangers they made my journey an interesting and heart-warming one because they were willing to to be chatty after what could have ended in short, abrupt interactions. Now, I'm not one of these people that tars all Londoners with the same anti-social brush; I've lived in London long enough now to know that if you smile, or nod a 'hello' at someone it's not often that they'll completely ignore you. It may only be a grunt or nod back in acknowledgment, but it's there. I'm not overly surprised at having a chat with these people on the tube and bus, what shocked me was how open and comfortable they felt talking to me.

The first was a young woman - probably also 20-something - in a bright green curly wig and tiara.

Instant thought = nutter.

She looked lost though as she tried to decipher whether she was on the right branch of the District Line; this is a confusion I usually find myself faced with on the DL, so felt her angst. Offering to help her with my handy map I was met with a bit of a frosty, "What? Eh?" and for a split second I thought 'Shit, talking to the crack head in the green wig probably wasn't a good idea, no matter how kind your intentions Rose!'

Turns out she wasn't a crack head and actually really nice (although a bit quirky) and for the next four tube stops we discussed everything from eating etiquette on the tube, whether hummus was pretentious, her friends wasted art studio and that she was wearing a green wig and tiara because she didn't have a bag to put it in and hadn't washed her hair in over a day. Natural answer then is to obviously wear it and solve all the problems in one go. So not a nutter at all; she was just being practical.

My second convo was completely at the other end of the spectrum and came about after a crazy man on the back of the bus started banging around and getting angry, dropping the C bomb all over the place. I'm not completely sure what spurred his anger, but it may have been because he dozed off (think he was high) and missed his stop. He then somehow thought this was the drivers fault so stomped his feet around a lot. Proper London nutter really.

Anyway, it was after this 'chap' got off the bus that I exchanged a glance and sigh of relief with an older, Asian gentleman also on the bus. "Glad he's got off," I said with a smile and comically roll of the eyes.

"Ahh that's nothing, he's just a bit strange. I've been in this city long enough to know there's stranger," he told me and it was from there I knew there was no going back and a convo had been struck up.

It was quite endearing as I basically just sat and listened and was happy to let him talk to me. He told me about when he arrived in London at 18 from a worse place - I didn't dare pry more and ask where or what - that he'd managed to get a job in London but after one day in Hastings got a job up there as a chef and liked it so much decided to move there. He went on to tell me about where he'd worked, the people he'd come across, the tough times with money and housing he'd had when younger and how now he's ended up in London again but would like to move back to Wales where it would be a bit quieter for him.

When I had to ring the bell for my stop he looked truly disappointed that our chat was coming to an end. It's so easy to forget sometimes that there are people in this massive metropolis that ironically have no one to talk to. That they're a bit lonely and they just want to offload, even if it is to a stranger. I find it really endearing and I hope that I have many more journeys when I get to enjoy the company of strangers.

RoseC