Community bus

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I went into town today to visit a series of galleries that have on a joint photo exhibition. I travelled in and home on the No.9 bus which is one of the two minibus routes that run around the city.

Both of the minibuses never fail to provide an entertaining ride. Being minibuses everyone is close together so, obviously, people are going to chat - Spaniards do. The driver can't help but get mixed up with the passengers either, not that they ever seem to mind, and in fact the driver is often the lynch pin for the whole conversation. It's impossible to remain anonymous on the No.9 so much so that people even speak to me.

Today a woman who got on at Corte Inglés said she was only riding a couple of stops - she'd only got on because her shopping was heavy. Then she recognised the driver, Pedro, and decided she'd ride the whole of the circular route to catch up on his news.

On the way home the driver had the radio on in the background. When a song came on he liked he turned up the volume so we could all hear. He told us who the artist was in case we didn't know.

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