Thursday, January 8, 2009

A sensory trip like no other

So before we begin, I should tell you that I'll be talking about pee a lot in this post. It's not pleasant but it's damn funny...
Also you should know that the buses here DON'T SMELL. Usually.

I got out of my class tonight and had to make the difficult decision of getting on the 'slow' bus back home or perhaps waiting indefinitely for the fast one. At 9:45 pm you have to take what you can get, so I boarded said slow bus which turned out to be a huge mistake.
The whole bus smelled as if were doused in urine (think most Trimet buses). And there was no epicenter that I was able to detect. It smelled like someone had dumped a bucket of pee on every single seat.
Now, I got on this bus at the beginning of the route, and got off near the end, so I was able to witness several different coping methods.
In the beginning, it was just the odd cracked window, including mine. Didn't help much.
We got short-term relief from someone who brought some fast food onto the bus, but they got off after a few stops, leaving us once again to suffer. (can you believe that the fast food actually smelled good to me?!)
Then someone busted out the air freshener, which worked for a few minutes, but the pee would not let up.
The award for best effort, however, goes to the person who finally gave up and lit a stick of incense, which I'm sure is against all kinds of rules.
I know, I know, I got all weak and spoiled after being away from the Portland metro buses for this long, but man it was bad. It brings me back...

1 comment:

Claire said...

I guess my sense of smell is weakening with age; I never have been on a local bus with a urine smell. I have been next to some pretty ripe passengers, though!