Here's some advice for anyone who plans on traveling by train to and from Germany via Deutsche Bahn in Winter : PLEASE DON'T!
J and i spent a total of eight hours traveling [including waiting time] for our trains yesterday. We were either freezing our arses off waiting for delayed trains or sitting in an overcrowded cabin.
On the last leg of the journey the dumb arse train conductor was so inconsiderate that he left all the doors open for a whole twenty minutes in minus degrees Celsius temperatures. So J made his way up the front of the train to tap on the train conductor's glass door to ask if he could shut the doors and turn up the heat.
Anyway, one would think we were traveling from one end of the country to the other. We weren't.
By car it would take about an hour an half but since many people were warned beforehand to be very careful on the highways as some parts were/are iced over, we opted to take the train.
The estimated time [including one change over] would have taken about two hours and twenty-three minutes but due to many other trains breaking down and tracks having technical glitches and not functioning, schedules were interrupted.
But the funniest part was, we only spent one hour at our destination before we had to rush back to the train station to get back home.
What originally was meant to be a two hours and fifty-one minutes journey back, ended up being just over four and a half hours.
Waiting on an exposed platform for a train at night that first said it was going to be 20 minutes late but ended up being nearly 45 minutes late can be really uncomfortable. However, for a normal situation when the temperature is decent, i can imagine it could be an inconvenience but when you're standing there and you can't feel your toes or fingers, it can be damn right irritating.
We get to the station where we're supposed to change trains and realise we're half an hour too late. Our train is not there. Lucky for us another regional train passes through there every hour.
So J wanders off to look for the loo.
And as usual, the second J leaves me alone, some random guy starts talking to me. I did my best to answer him in German and i even used grammatically correct sentences.
Was that his attempt to chat me up? Maybe.
I didn't get his name but if my tired brain serves me correctly he was relatively good-looking, perhaps in his late 20s and had a friendly persona.
Had i been single and he spoke English, who knows what could have happened.
I'm joking. Nothing would have happened except maybe a nice conversation just to occupy some time.
So J returns just in time as my learnt German vocabulary was about to run out and before i began stuttering. But by the looks of it, i don't think J was too impressed with the other guy standing so close to me. Of course i introduced J straight away as my boyfriend and i could tell the other guy looked slightly disappointed.
One could immediately see a change in his body language.
Oh well.
Forty-five minutes later the train arrives.
And delirium is starting to kick in.
As time ticked on and all the food we had brought along with us was consumed, we had no choice but be creative when it came to entertainment. That teaches me a lesson, never doubt whether or not i should bring along my iPod and headphones. One never knows when you might really need it.
So our journey started at 3:38 PM and by the time we arrived in Köln we were delayed by only half an hour. Which meant we arrived at our destination at 6:35 PM. Our train back was at 7:57 PM but due to so many delays we finally reached the end of our journey at 12:30 AM. Most of which were spent in the freezing cold by the way.
But i'm not complaining.
At least we weren't in the fast train that broke down half way between stations and in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, that would have totally sucked!
We were lucky it didn't snow the whole of yesterday because i'm sure that would have made it a whole lot worse. Apparently, the weatherman predicts more snow for the next three days and i just heard on the radio, they're planning on shutting down a few airports.
Last night there was a full moon. Maybe she's partly to blame for the chaos.
After walking for what felt like the longest five minutes in my life to get to the park house, i checked the thermometer and it was a frosty minus 15˚Celsius!
No wonder i couldn't feel my face.
At 1:30 AM we were in bed and i passed out the second my head hit the pillow. Five hours later our alarm clocks were screaming for us to get ready for work and cease the day.
RAWR!!!
J and i spent a total of eight hours traveling [including waiting time] for our trains yesterday. We were either freezing our arses off waiting for delayed trains or sitting in an overcrowded cabin.
On the last leg of the journey the dumb arse train conductor was so inconsiderate that he left all the doors open for a whole twenty minutes in minus degrees Celsius temperatures. So J made his way up the front of the train to tap on the train conductor's glass door to ask if he could shut the doors and turn up the heat.
Anyway, one would think we were traveling from one end of the country to the other. We weren't.
By car it would take about an hour an half but since many people were warned beforehand to be very careful on the highways as some parts were/are iced over, we opted to take the train.
The estimated time [including one change over] would have taken about two hours and twenty-three minutes but due to many other trains breaking down and tracks having technical glitches and not functioning, schedules were interrupted.
But the funniest part was, we only spent one hour at our destination before we had to rush back to the train station to get back home.
What originally was meant to be a two hours and fifty-one minutes journey back, ended up being just over four and a half hours.
Waiting on an exposed platform for a train at night that first said it was going to be 20 minutes late but ended up being nearly 45 minutes late can be really uncomfortable. However, for a normal situation when the temperature is decent, i can imagine it could be an inconvenience but when you're standing there and you can't feel your toes or fingers, it can be damn right irritating.
We get to the station where we're supposed to change trains and realise we're half an hour too late. Our train is not there. Lucky for us another regional train passes through there every hour.
So J wanders off to look for the loo.
And as usual, the second J leaves me alone, some random guy starts talking to me. I did my best to answer him in German and i even used grammatically correct sentences.
Was that his attempt to chat me up? Maybe.
I didn't get his name but if my tired brain serves me correctly he was relatively good-looking, perhaps in his late 20s and had a friendly persona.
Had i been single and he spoke English, who knows what could have happened.
I'm joking. Nothing would have happened except maybe a nice conversation just to occupy some time.
So J returns just in time as my learnt German vocabulary was about to run out and before i began stuttering. But by the looks of it, i don't think J was too impressed with the other guy standing so close to me. Of course i introduced J straight away as my boyfriend and i could tell the other guy looked slightly disappointed.
One could immediately see a change in his body language.
Oh well.
Forty-five minutes later the train arrives.
And delirium is starting to kick in.
As time ticked on and all the food we had brought along with us was consumed, we had no choice but be creative when it came to entertainment. That teaches me a lesson, never doubt whether or not i should bring along my iPod and headphones. One never knows when you might really need it.
So our journey started at 3:38 PM and by the time we arrived in Köln we were delayed by only half an hour. Which meant we arrived at our destination at 6:35 PM. Our train back was at 7:57 PM but due to so many delays we finally reached the end of our journey at 12:30 AM. Most of which were spent in the freezing cold by the way.
But i'm not complaining.
At least we weren't in the fast train that broke down half way between stations and in the middle of nowhere. Seriously, that would have totally sucked!
We were lucky it didn't snow the whole of yesterday because i'm sure that would have made it a whole lot worse. Apparently, the weatherman predicts more snow for the next three days and i just heard on the radio, they're planning on shutting down a few airports.
Last night there was a full moon. Maybe she's partly to blame for the chaos.
After walking for what felt like the longest five minutes in my life to get to the park house, i checked the thermometer and it was a frosty minus 15˚Celsius!
No wonder i couldn't feel my face.
At 1:30 AM we were in bed and i passed out the second my head hit the pillow. Five hours later our alarm clocks were screaming for us to get ready for work and cease the day.
RAWR!!!
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