The Cheaper, The Better.

When I first came to London, I took the train from Heathrow airport to Russell Square...I t was my first time in an underground...the first of a long series of times coming...

I was completely unaware about what an Oyster was and so, for a month or so, I just used to buy tickets every time I had to take the train, spending a huge amount o money I could have spent in more worthy things like: food, clothes and beer.

I think that for all that month long, with the money I spent in tickets, I have been paying the whole salary of a Tube driver, but I was lucky that one day, a security man at the station, made this expensive nightmare finish, shaking a brochure about the Oyster right in front of my big, sparkling eyes, with such a hypnotizing waving that I couldn't not to get one, immediately!



Transports here in London are all pretty expensive, especially the Tube tickets, which can last you no more than 24 hours, but there is a secret not to spend £££ in them, and this secret I am going to share with you is....the Oyster card!

Even if your stay in London is no longer than a few days, getting an Oyster is the cheapest and easier way to travel through the Tube and buses.
Oyster cards are available in each tube station and they cost just 3£ that you can get back when you return the card to the ticket office.

There are several types of Oyster: Pay As You Go, students and ordinary season cards (monthly, weekly and daily); however, I would suggest one of the season cards or the daily one as, once you top up your Oyster, you can travel as much as you want for all the period you have paid for.


For students +18 in London things are even much easier as, providing the name of the University the study at, they can get an Oyster in which is displayed their picture and full name.With this student Oyster every time they top up, they get a 30% discount.

Oyster cards can ruin other magnetic objects if kept too closely to them, but don't worry because Transport of London look after you any time, that's why when you get your Oyster at the tickets office, they also give you a nice, free, Oyster plastic folder!

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?

My gym at Russell Square Station

Some time ago, me and my friend M. were seriously planning to sign up for a gym....seriously!as the summer is never too far and there is the "bikini test" to pass.
The reason why our good purpose failed is that, ignoring the high percentage of laziness which obstructed us in finding a good gym,we don't have enough money to pay a good gym for the long period we need it to get fit!
London Underground Service is the solution!

Arriving at Russell Square station on the Piccadilly line,the lifts to the ground floor are always overcrowded,full of tourists and those kind of huge space ships which are called prams that actually should have their own lift.
Imagine you,being in a hurry, getting at the lifts finding that probably you will not even reach the famous "closing doors" in less than one hour...the only other way is the stair case,175 steps.



The poster says: "Take the stairs only in case of emergency" but you take them anyway, at your own risk.

After 15 minutes you get at the ground floor, sweat, tired, out of breath but glad that you survived such a hard test and that, taking all those 175 bloody steps, you might burnt off a huge amount of calories and fats!!!!!!

So,thank you London Underground for providing such a good, effective and cheap gym service, all included in the oyster card price!