Photo by thewronski

Helene shares her first solo Muni experience. Sometimes you gotta get it wrong to understand what it is you’re doing.

The summer of 2007: my first time alone on Muni. A family friend showed me how to take the 9X Bayshore Express (now 8X) to get downtown from her neighborhood. I arrived downtown safe and sound and proceeded to go about with my plans for the day.

After I finished my errands, I went back to Third Street and couldn’t find the bus stop to go back to the Portola District. Third Street and Kearny Street were both one-way, so I gave up and decided that taking the 9X towards Fisherman’s Wharf would surely take me back to my neighborhood eventually.

I rode the 9X all the way to the terminal near Pier 39. I stayed on the bus while the bus driver took his break. Some elderly passengers boarded at the terminal with me and then we were on our way. I felt relief knowing the bus was turning back around as we rode on back downtown through familiar territory and then onto the freeway.

While on the freeway, I pulled the bus cord because I thought my stop was coming up after the freeway. But we passed my exit and I began to panic. A man began yelling curses in Cantonese for no particular reason, which caused my nerves to become further and further frazzled. When we finally got off the freeway, I got off the bus and looked up: the bus had changed to 9BX for rush hour.

I didn’t know where I ended up, but I crossed the street to the adjacent bus shelter hoping I’d get home going this direction. Sure enough, the 9X was going inbound and I was able to recognize my stop this time to get back to my family friend’s house in one piece. It was a minor detour, but it certainly introduced me to Muni in an interesting way.

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