Took the “Orange” Line for the first time this morning… I can’t believe I lost my bearings…. Every Morning for the last 3 months I have always taken the “Green” Line from Lionel-Groulx Metro Station, which I take one stop to get to off at the Atwater station. This Morning however, I stopped by the Couch-Tard (Mac’s Milk for you Ontarians) to grab a pack of smokes and a few drinks for work… I saw the metro arrive and quickly hopped on without thinking.
Something didn’t seem right, the seats were wrong, they were black instead of blue, the side walls were orange instead of grey… I had my headphones on so I didn’t hear the next stop announcement so it didn’t really all click in till I arrived at the Georges-Vanier Metro Station. I was a bit shocked, I knew something was wrong, but how on earth could I have taken the wrong metro… At first I thought I had taken the “Green” Line in the wrong direction, so I crossed over and hopped on the return line, realizing that I had in fact taken the “Orange” line… When I exited Couche-Tard I took the wrong side and ended up (without realizing it) taking the wrong line altogether.
I finally got back to Lionel-Groulx and got my head straight, took the escalator to the right platform and hoped on the correct line. What an experience. To some, I am sure it would be nothing, but to someone from has lived his whole life in cities and towns with shitty bus service and no subway system, the Metro is something quite amazing.
I will explorer Georges-Vanier Metro stop further during my “Explorer the Metro” Project I have planned for this summer. I just wasn’t expecting to see it so early… it feels almost like a spoiler having seen what it looks like.
Hopefully this is my last time taking the wrong line.