My verdict on Greyhound is that it is perfectly adequate if you are constrained by money more than time. It is worse in terms of comfort than driving my own car, but better in terms of not having to pay attention. It is worse than an airplane in terms of time, better in terms of cost for moderate distances, and better in terms of the logistics of boarding and luggage management. It is, imo, identical in terms of seat comfort except that so far it seems way more likely to have a near-empty bus for portions of the trip than a near-empty airplane. Greyhound does lose some points by not being as cool as flying and getting to see the tops of clouds + all the tiny ground people.
Bet it’s more miserable than a plane during the summer, though.
It continues to weird me out that nobody ever talks about the constant ear discomfort at altitude and horrible ear pain on descent when discussing the pros and cons of airplanes. Am I unusually sensitive to pressure changes? Is this only a problem on budget airlines?
A vehicle at ground level would have to try pretty hard to be more miserable than a plane. I *cried* last time I was on a descending plane, and I do not cry easily.
(I’m not sure how much pain my brother experiences *during* flight, but he *always* gets an ear infection after plane trips. Maybe there’s some genetic thing going on.)
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I’ve been on two-hour Greyhounds a couple times as part of Girl Guide trips, and they seemed okay. Probably would be even better now that I have a smartphone: last time I was on a Greyhound I brought no Internet-capable computers because I didn’t have any light enough to be worth lugging around the whole trip, so I didn’t get to use the Wi-Fi.
Since I am trying to make it so that my Tumblr conversations are fully readable without needing the notes available [link], here is a list of distinct branches that responded to me:
http://theaudientvoid.tumblr.com/post/181528215565/my-verdict-on-greyhound-is-that-it-is-perfectly (@gasmaskaesthetic, @dagny-hashtaggart (unpingable), @theaudientvoid)
http://judiciousimprecation.tumblr.com/post/181529320774/my-verdict-on-greyhound-is-that-it-is-perfectly (@judiciousimprecation)
https://cadmiumwanderer.tumblr.com/post/181529991193/my-verdict-on-greyhound-is-that-it-is-perfectly (@another-normal-anomaly, @cadmiumwanderer (unpingable))
http://jadagul.tumblr.com/post/181530605313/my-verdict-on-greyhound-is-that-it-is-perfectly (@jadagul)
https://humanfist.tumblr.com/post/181538993961/my-verdict-on-greyhound-is-that-it-is-perfectly (@humanfist)
And here, since they have no links of their own, are the replies:
@moral-autism: “Anecdote:I chew gum and drink water on planes and I’ve never had more than momentary minor discomfort due to pressure”
@akaltyn (unpingable): “I have literally never had any ear issues flying and I used to fly near weekly for work”
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Some context:
I don’t have all that much flying experience: I flew a few times around ages 5 – 7, then one round trip in 2015 (age 21). The initial 2015 flight had smaller peaks of pain but more discomfort at altitude: I think maybe my ears adjusted more on the return flight, but then had further to go to adjust *back*. I had a cold on the return flight†, but I don’t think I’d reached the sinus-problems stage yet.
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I haven’t tried gum and hadn’t heard of the special earplugs: I’ll have to bear those in mind if/when I ever go on a plane again.
@jadagul: My nose clogs easily, but with regular maintenance I can breathe through it fairly well. I would not be surprised if my nasal passages are unusually small: my ear canals definitely are.
@another-normal-anomaly: I had problems with earwax clogs as a kid, but around age 13 I grew out my fingernails so that I could use the pinkies as scoops, and since then have had no wax clogs even though I haven’t been as good at keeping my nails long enough over the past couple years.
@judiciousimprecation: If the thing you do that you can’t describe is what this other post calls “working the rumble muscle”, I *can* do that but it hurts a bit. Might be the lesser of two evils in a pinch.
I suppose this whole thing would explain why some airlines have entertainment systems with an audio component: previously I’d just assumed the airlines fancy enough to do that also had better pressurisation, so your ears were actually functional enough for movie watching. (I wasn’t *completely* deaf, and I could have short conversations and IIRC hear the announcement system, but I was in no condition to watch a movie.)
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†I had to get back home *somehow*, the tickets were already paid for, and I wore a surgical mask. (I also wore a surgical mask on the initial flight, which I suspect was the deciding factor in why I was only in the *early* stages of a cold by the time of the return flight: I bought myself an extra few days by contracting the neighbouring passenger’s cold indirectly through my foolishly mask-less family.) Still felt bad about it, though.
Tags:
#illness tw #reply via reblog #is the blue I see the same as the blue you see #the more you know
