Take a Ride

Wednesday was Jerusalem Day. Wednesday evening I tried to get to church by bus. Some streets were closed off for parades, so the buses had to take different routes.  (The route changes are published on the bus website, but I don't think the drivers or the passengers take much note of them.)
When my bus took an unexpected turn to get around the parade area, I decided I had better get off as soon as possible--but the driver didn't stop--he just kept going and going. So I waited it out, thinking he would probably eventually circle around closer to my destination. If worse came to worse, I could get off the bus and take a taxi. Meanwhile a grouchy-looking man was yelling what seemed to be complaints at the driver, but then he went up and had a friendly conversation with him. By that time several of the passengers were asking where we were going and some of them were trying to tell the driver where to turn. I don't know if he took their advice or not. At one point he turned right onto a street that was bumper-to-bumper, so he backed out of it and turned left instead. Eventually we came to a stop, not because the driver was interested in stopping, but because several passengers insisted on it.
I got on another bus and asked if it would take me to the train, and the driver gave me the barest nod, so I got on  hoping that it really would. Whenever we stopped to pick up more passengers, they were all asking where the bus was going and can we get there from here, which implied they were being forced to take whatever bus they could get, instead of their usual bus, or they wouldn't have been asking so many questions. (Not tourists, either, but Jerusalemites, several of whom I recognized from the other end of town.) We passed several crowded bustops where people were trying to stop any bus they could get, but most of the buses just passed them up. When we finally reached the train area, a police car was blocking the road, so what does the bus driver do? He starts honking at the policeman, over and over. The policeman wouldn't give in, so the bus driver took another unexpected turn, and again the passengers had to demand to be let out. Those who wanted the train were disappointed because the train had shut down.
I got off about three blocks from my destination. I was almost an hour late, but I could only laugh. In other large cities, I would be very anxious going through unfamiliar neighborhoods, and shocked by people honking at the police, but this is Jerusalem. I'm glad I didn't take a taxi, because they will charge double on special occasions, or more if they can get away with it. Come to think of it, one of those buses was a free ride, because the meter wasn't working.