I am fairly well traveled, but I still make lots of mistakes while traveling. Yesterday I even made a dry run for the Gatwick Express to make certain I knew how and how long to take the correct steps to get to my flight to Madrid from the center of London. However in my enthusiasm to cross my T's and dot my I's, I purchased a one way ticket yesterday to Victoria station to speed me on my way this early morning. That. Won't. Work. You can't do that on the London tube because the date is printed right on the ticket and the British transportation authority simply won't let you.
Luckily for me, there are actual humans working on the tube who will listen to a sad foreigner tale and allow one to pass even without the correct ticket. I encountered three such individuals on my way to Gatwick this morning, and all three of them endeared the UK to my heart. They were so helpful and ever so polite. Dear God in heaven, may Spain be the same! I have never been to Spain, and I don't speak Spanish (the only class in undergrad I ever failed - due to excessive absences), and I have a rental car to fetch, 200 kilometers to navigate, a hotel to find, and refugee project to observe, affiliates to test, and a birthday to celebrate. We all need helpful peeps along our path to assist us in our arrival, no matter how much we have traveled.
