A Brith moment in the bus

I went to the shopping center today to buy some gardening stuff. When I went down to the busstop, the bus was already there and I started running but the bus left. When it was already halfway back on the street the driver stopped, opened the door and let me in!
This is something quite unusual for Swiss bus drivers and so I did something quite unusual for Swiss bus passangers. I left the bus through the front door with a: "Thank you! Have a nice day!" And the driver smiled.

I'm quite used to buses, here in Switzerland and in the UK. And so I'm not able to overlook the differences.
Most Swiss bus drivers drive busses cause they have to work something. Not cause they like to drive passengers from A to B. Of course, there are some really nice ones - mostly eldery ones - who where helpful and friendly and so on. But most of them are grumpy and do not really care. In the UK it is the other way round which is great!
But it is not only a difference in the way the drivers are, the passengers are different too. When a Swiss bus is delayed - and delayed means more than one minutes late...! - everybody is complaining. When a bus is overfilled, people still put their bags on a free seat and try to use as much space as possible. Oh and try to teach Swiss bus passengers to queue to get into the bus...
When a bus in the UK is delayed there is just a comment like: "Well, most likely it is stuck in traffic." and everybody continues to read a newspaper. Sitting in a crowded bus is not half as annoying as it is here, as everybody takes care, people who stand make space for the ones who have to go off and everything is much more civilized than I'm used to.

It may sound all a bit too clichee-like and of course it is not always like this, but it is more or less my experience.

However, there is another reason why I love busses in the UK. Is is because of all the nice incidents... There are bus wheels on fire, missing bus drivers and engine problems. And nice people I met while waiting for a delayed bus. Oh and something else... Switzerland does not have any doubledeckers and there is nothing better than sitting upstairs in the front row!

Yours bus-loving P