If You Ever Ride a Bus With a Driver Named Nicko, RUN FOR DEAR LIFE AND HOPE YOU GET OUT ALIVE

During the England trip, our main mode of transportation was a "coach," or bus, as we Americans call them. Thursday night, we had just gotten out of a pub called The Plough, and we were ready to call it a night and get back to the hotel. When we climbed on our coach, little did we know that we were literally about to have a run in with death. Our tour guide, Andy, introduced us to our new Portuguese driver, Nicko. I swear, that day must have been his first day of driving. That, or he just didn't know London. First, Nicko turned the WRONG WAY down a one way street that ended with a sidewalk covered in bicycles that separated it from a major road. He tried turning around using one of the perpendicular one way streets that let out onto the one way street we were currently stuck on. He managed to wedge the coach perpendicular using that street after hitting about five or so cars and a bike and could've made it the rest of the way had he continued wedging, but he decided to TURN BACK THE WRONG WAY! After a few more failed attempts and many near misses with cars and bikes, Nicko got out and starting moving the bicycles on the bike racks as far as they would go. Then he preceded to DRIVE OVER THE SIDEWALK IN BETWEEN THE TWO BICYCLE RACKS. We barely fit, and I swear, we must have hit every single one of those bikes. While turning on the major road, he turned the WRONG WAY once again. I mean, yes, the British drive on the wrong side in our opinion, but I mean the legit wrong way as in if we were in America he would have been right. All these cars were zooming right at us and swerving around us since the British seem to take any road markings as SUGGESTIONS. Next, Nicko started backing up in order to get in the right side, but he wound up backing up into a light, so people in the back of the bus were taking selfies with a light stuck to the back window. After hitting a couple more lights and poles, poor Nicko finally managed to get out but somehow also managed to miss a light (seriously, it was the only on he didn't hit). Seriously, if you are riding on a coach or bus or whatever and you learn that the driver's name is Nicko, run for your life. Or walk. Either way, just get out of there or you'll never get to where you're supposed to be.

- Delanna

P.S. I feel really bad for Nicko. So many people were mean about what happened, and he did try to get us out quickly even though it really only made things worse.