This last weekend I took the German Train system to go visit some friends near Frankfurt. Deutsch Bahn, its called. I had an overall good experience using it, but I still carry some general bad luck when it comes to things like this. Especially when traveling by myself. I wanted to remember a few things about the train ride though; the people, the scenery (of course, I forgot my camera...which isn't exactly working anyway). When I bought my ticket, I went for the cheapest possible. Which means I had 4-5 transfers rather than just a straight shot. I kind of regret that decision because one, your trip becomes
a lot longer than if you were to drive, and two, the possibility of messing things up increases a ton. Luckily, I've been on my own enough in these situations to stay calm and figure it out. Even if I'm in a different country and don't speak the language. Alone. And without a cell phone. It becomes an adventure and makes for some great memories, like these:
-Conductors are pretty awesome! They have stamps and whistles. They remind me of flight attendants, minus the plastered smile that most flight attendants where on their faces. I really liked the first one I had. She was an angel! After stamping my ticket (and taking a seat next to me to chat for a little bit) she even found me when I got off at my stop and made sure I knew what platform I needed to get onto next. I had 3 minutes to get to the next train and somehow made it.
-The next transfer, this
really cute red-haired gran and her toddler grandson sat with me. He kept making peeks at me. They offered me some pretty sweet alphabet, chocolate-covered grahm crackers. Me and the little tott were both trying to figure out what German words started with each letter we pulled out of the bag. Oh, and his shirt had a teddy bear on it. When you pressed the bear, it squeaked.
Awesome.
-The next train broke down. But I didn't care. We stopped along the Rhein River. Which is seriously, sooooooooo gorgeous! All these dorfs are right against the river, with the cutest homes, cities, and the farming on the hillsides were impressive. On the other side of the river was the mountains. Every few minutes you would see a castle on top of one of the mountain hills. The lady I sat buy was older with blond hair. She spoke some English and told me how much she regretted not moving to London when she was my age to learn some more English. Oh, and because of the inconvenience of making us miss our next train connections, they gave out free beer. Gotta love Germany!
-When we finally got off the train, this older guy told me he overheard my conversation. He was German, but lives in America too right now (in Georgia). Kind of weird, that he was sitting a few rows back and listened in, but according to Katherine, I usually talk loud.
-The next person I met was this really cute teenager with her Grandmother. It must have been Grandparents Day or something. By her sense of style, we could have been friends. She didn't speak great English. But enough to understand my hand actions and help me figure out what to do since I missed my train. And her Gran let me use her cell to tell Aileen that I was going to be late. Such nice folks.
-On the train car I was next on, these 3 older German men, climbed on with their saxophone, base, and guitar and sang a song about "linda". It was so good! Everyone was smiling in the car.
Overall, my first train ride was very entertaining. I really enjoyed getting to know some random Germans. I came home yesterday on the train again..missed 2 transfers so my plans changed a bit. And I went to a couple of cities that wasn't originally in my itinerary. But gratefully, I made it back home to Waldfeucht in one piece!
