Bombing The Tube

I know it's stupid, especially from someone who now has been living in London for more than 6 months, but today I was coming out from the Tube and, having some rubbish to throw, I asked myself, and my friend M. as well, why there are no bins in the stations?!

M. looked at me, actually stared at me, saying: "it's because of terrorist bomb attacks, did not you know that?!"

I have never linked the lack of bins in the Tube to terrorist attacks, it was pretty obvious to me and I felt so stupid.

Anyway, I remember about the bomb attack in the Tube on 7 July 2005.
I was 16 years old and I remember my friend G., who was on holiday in London, calling me saying that there was a suicide bomber in the Tube and that she escaped for miracle, just because she missed that train.

I was really shocked, but I was living that event from the point of view someone who was out of the UK, a kind of "untouched" viewer.



Three bombs exploded within fifty seconds of each other on three London Underground trains. It was 8.50 a.m. and as usual, the Tube was busy and full of passengers.

The first bomb exploded on a eastbound Circle line sub-surface train between Liverpool Street and Aldgate.

The second bomb exploded on the second carriage of a westbound Circle line sub-surface train between Edgware Road and Paddington.

The third bomb was on a southbound Piccadilly line deep- level train between King's Cross St. Pancras and Russell Square; the zone where I live now, the stations I most go to.



I remember now when I was just arrived in London and the first thing my mother told me was: "be careful when you take the underground!!!...you never know what those damn terrorists are going to do!"
I just replayed:" yes, yes mum...ah, ah...yes, yes..I will... byeeee" listening at half of what she was saying to me, as usual.
My mum, as any other mum, has always been annoyingly anxious, especially since I am here in London, but now, thinking about her words, even if I thought I would have never said that, she was right.

Do You Believe In Magic?...I Do!

I was at King's Cross St. Pancras today, like almost every day actually, to change for the Hammersmith and City line as the plan of the day was to go visit my friend O. at Barbican.

That is pretty usual, I mean, me taking the Hammersith and City to go my friend's accommodation, but the unusual thing is that I was 20 minutes earlier, maybe that was itself a magic sign.

Anyway, I had spare time to have fun in the fantastic and hilarious King's Cross station when I just realized that, taking the escalator from the Tube station and going towards the old King's Cross rail station, I got to the famous Platform 9 3/4 that Harry Potter uses to go to Hogwarts!

I know it sounds pretty childish from a 21 years old, but, come on, who does not love Harry Potter and anything related to it!?
I was so excited for that, as I have watched all the films and I have read all the J. K. Rowling's books, I looked like a 6 years child with those big, curious eyes and with my camera tightly held in my hands.

The moment was magic and I asked a girl who was passing (looking at me like if I was a strange, little freak) to take pictures of me near the trolley, to immortalize that glorious moment and send them all to my jealous sister in Italy.

Oh, what if I had to jump in a wall with a trolley and have that magic journey to go to school....i would love going to school so much.....do they have journalism at Hogwarts?

This morning I went to King's Cross St. Pancras to take the Piccadilly line towards Holloway road where my University is.

Taking the Tube is always the same, boring daily torture, going this order:

1: being squeezed in the lift with that annoying "STAND CLEAR OF THE CLOSING DOORS", which goes on for ages till there is no more oxygen in the lift and people give up, waiting for the next one.

2: getting, or at least trying, to get to the platform before the train you need to take leaves, doing a slalom between those tricky people who stand stuck in the middle of the stairs, talking about the weather and stuff, making you arrive at the platform just 20 seconds after the doors have been closed!

This is pretty annoying, and the worst thing is that it happens every single day, but today, something new, an unexpected event made my day in the Tube.



I was standing at the platform waiting for the train, staring at random advertisements, still half asleep, when suddenly the scream of an apparently terrified woman helped in waking up, definitely.

At first I thought: "ah, freak people...never mind", but then, when two huge rats passed close to my feet, I screamed as well. That is that kind of emotions that you don't want to feel early in the morning at the beginning of a very stressful day, it doesn't help you at all!

That was the first time I have ever seen a rat so clearly and closely, but apparently, is something I need to get used to as London Underground is populated by those huge rodents.
You see, many people think that the Tube is boring and depressing, but actually, there are some exiting emotions, like this one, that only the London Underground can offer.

Certainly the Tube is not the cleanest place in London and the fact that it suits rats so well makes people think that there might be something unhealthy and unsanitary.

I have a question now, a big doubt: if rats are well known as inhabitants of the Underground along the network and sometimes also take the trains through it, shall they have their Oyster card or are they generously funded by Transport of London?