When I moved to Canada from the UK 18 years ago I thought it was weird that you could not purchase alcohol in the local supermarket or corner shop, it seemed silly having to use the LCBO. How my opinion has changed since then! On a recent trip to the UK we took a few days to connect with family and decided to book our train tickets ahead of time and reserve seats. This in a small way saved us from the terrors of drunken football fans, or people attending Hen and Stag parties who were running up and down the train with bottles of beer and wine and falling all over innocent people sitting down minding their own business.
I was born in the UK and I was shocked, I dread to think what visitors from other countries thought of this behavior. Before you start thinking I do not like a glass of wine or beer and I am a prude and boring, you are so wrong. I just know there is a time and place and impacting innocent people with drunken antics is really making the trains in the UK look bad!
On our journey home from our visit we could not, and I have no idea why, book our seats in the quiet section, so we were subjected to people returning from their night on the town, very loud people, with lots of wine bottles again and beer bottles. Alcohol is served in the buffet area of the train and underage people were sending their friends to purchase their drinks. Once again I am not against anyone having a good time, but spilling their drinks all over a train and yelling very loudly at 1.30 in the morning when all I wanted was to close my eyes was quite rude.
It got better, I was subjected to two young girls lying to their parents on their cell phones, very loudly, about the train breaking down and for this reason they were not going to be home that night, but told their parents not to worry. One of the girls parents told her they would meet her at a certain destination on the trains journey so that scuppered her plans. But no, it got worse would you believe!
As if by magic our train which was due in Paddington Station, or so we hoped, within 20 minutes stopped dead on the train tracks and all we could see was dark nothing. The conductor made an announcement a body had been on the tracks and the train had run over it. My first thought was it a drunken person who had fallen off the train or gotten off earlier to walk? I will never know.
The loud girls opposite yelped with joy and proceeded to buy another glass of wine and phone the parents to tell them they would be stuck for 2 hours now! Fortunately for us a new driver was found after the police had arrived and we were only an hour late. I have never been so happy to escape anywhere in my life and I hoped that if I saw the girls parents waiting for her I would let them know they were OK, quite safe and sound, if a little drunk and quite the liar. Sorry but the truth is the truth and they had no compassion for other passengers or the poor dead person the train track! Unfortunately I did not see anyone waiting and we continued to pick up our hire car and head to our hotel.
Thank you Ontario, Canada for the liquor license laws, for the safe journeys on trains and buses and walking along the street, I am proud of where I live, now and hope that the UK follows suit soon before other tourists are turned away by this behavior.
As always I welcome your comments, thanks:)
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