Train

Right now I’m on the train to Berlin. I heard a rumour that there was wireless internet available on the ICE trains, but Lucinda doesn’t seem to think so :P. I probably have to sign up for it somehow or pay for it or something, but I have no idea how to go about that. Instead I shall just type this up as a draft to pass the time and post it when I get to the hostel, which I know definitely has free wireless :) This will probably be a long entry, simply because I’ve been sitting on this train for two hours, and there’s another three and a half to go.

On Thursday morning Karin, the coordinator of the course I’m doing here in Stuttgart, was pacing up and down the halls and poking her head into all the classrooms. It seems this year we’re an exceptionally quiet, responsible bunch, and Karin was very surprised and elated to see most of the Australians in class on time the day after Australia Day. As far as I know only a few were missing in action, and an American had woken up in some miscellaneous train station with a twisted ankle and no memory of how he had gotten there. He still made it to class, although there are photos circulating on facebook of him sleeping on some desks.

OMG EPIC SNOW! The whole train ride so far has been through picturesque countryside, but no snow whatsoever. It’s actually been really beautiful, once we hit Frankfurt the skies cleared and the sun was shining for a little bit. It’s setting now, so it’s that really pretty dusk time. I haven’t seen the sun in over a week, it’s amazing what a difference it makes to your mood. Anyway, we just passed a few fields covered in snow, but now we’re in a tunnel :P

I woke up this morning to the world covered in a light dusting of snow. It’s really magical, because you can’t hear it like you can hear rain. The world just changes overnight. Of course the first thing that happens in the morning is that people walk along the sidewalk sprinkling salt to melt it all. Of course the traffic on the road melts all that snow, because there wasn’t very much. There’s some sort of rule that if it snows overnight, you have to be up and have the path in front of your house cleared by 7am. This is why everyone hates snow :P if you don’t clean your bit of path and someone slips over, then you’re liable. I’m not sure what the rules are for flats, because I’ve never been up early enough to notice anyone shovelling our footpath, and I’ve never noticed Marina do it either.

Today we went on an excursion into the city with a sheet of questions that we had to find out the answers to by asking German people. I was paired with Josie and we were very proud of ourselves for introducing ourselves as students and asking a girl in a shop some questions, which she answered completely in German and we mostly understood. Usually if we talk to someone and they figure we don’t speak much German, they just switch to English. Although the guy in our kebap shop recognises us and lets us muddle through our orders in German, which he clarifies in German and only switches to English if he needs to. Even if he already knows what we want he’ll patiently let us get it all out :)

I almost didn’t get on the train today. When I got to the platform with fifteen minutes to spare after getting my eurail pass validated there was no train, just a bunch of people with suitcases on the platform. Our train rocked up at the time it was scheduled to depart, but boarding is something like boarding a plane. It takes ages with people dragging their luggage, then putting it up on the overhead racks and finding their seats. The door I was waiting at closed with about three of us still outside, so we were like HOLY SHIT, but a conductor person was holding another door open for us. The train took off with us all still trying to find our seats. I’m not sure about the rules on trains, but I was told I needed to book a seat reservation for a small fee in addition to my actual ticket. I did, but it seems that not everyone does. There were all these people sitting around the entrances and between cars on their luggage, and I had to eject someone from my seat. It seems that if you don’t reserve a seat, you just sit somewhere and hope no one has reserved that particular seat :P I dunno if eventually everyone hanging out in the entrances got to sit, but a ton of people got off at the first stop anyway.

There’s a food place somewhere on board as well. Every now and then they make some sort of announcement about food and a restaurant, but I can’t understand enough to know exactly what he’s saying. People keep walking past with boxes of something that could possibly be some sort of burger. I can’t be bothered investigating, I’ve brought along a stash of chocolate. I ate a late lunch anyway and always intended to get some dinner when I get to Berlin. Train food is probably ridiculously overpriced anyway.

EDIT: Now the announcements have stopped, but a Brezel girl is walking up and down :P There's also a guy with a trolley of softdrink. The guy sitting next to me got up and came back with a pint of beer :P

We’re going backwards. I’m not very happy about this. We were forwards all the way to Frankfurt, then we took off backwards *huff* I don’t like backwards. I’ve been better since I got here and found that there are more backwards seats than forwards ones on public transport, but I still feel slight motion sickness going backwards. Enough to just be a little uncomfortable. I put my book down because of it, but typing this isn’t really much better.

We saw the most ridiculous little doggy today in the city. It was teeny tiny and was wearing a little jumper that had straps that went around it’s back legs. Obviously it found it a bit uncomfortable, because it was waddling along with it’s back legs as far apart as possible. It was pretty hilarious, and the owner looked just like it somehow :P Here in Germany people love their dogs, so much so that they’re allowed on public transport and in shops. The first time I saw a dog in the supermarket all I could think of was Mister Nathan’s Kaylee and how much havoc she would wreak with her big head and tail :P Mind you, I haven’t seen a dog as big as Kaylee here. People only have space for little dogs.

EDIT:

I'm here! Holy crap I'm in Berlin! The Hauptbahnhof is way more hugerer than in Stuttgart, and there's actually little souvenir shops! I've been hunting down some tacky trinkets to bring home as presents, but obviously Stuttgart is too cool for overpriced tourist crap :P The hbf is like an airport, it's bigger than Perth airport, but then again, that's not very hard. My hotel is a lot fancier than the one in Frankfurt, and it's right outside the door of the hbf, talk about convenience! There's all sorts of food places in there, like a Dunkin' Donuts and Maccas and sushi and I passed an Italian cafe with a coffee machine that had about five group heads. I plan to go there tomorrow for breakfast to take a photo of their machine because I find things like that very exciting :P

I dumped my stuff in my room, claimed a bed and found that although there is no luggage or personal possessions in the room whatsoever, there are two beds claimed. I can't tell if the occupants left today or if they're staying tonight. All the beds were freshly made and stuff, so whatever. It's nearly 10pm now, I'm going to finish writing this then go up and maybe watch some tv before bed.

I totally copped out on any interesting food, and had Burger King for dinner. I totally ordered it all in German as well *chuffed*. I found a table and spread out my newly acquired collection of pamphlets to study them and decide what I'm going to do tomorrow. Then when I'd folded them all up and was getting ready to leave two guys at the table next to me started talking to me. I think he asked where I was going, so I said nowhere, I've just arrived. Or at least I tried to, but obviously something went wrong because he switched to English. We chatted for a bit about Australia and he told me it was very dangerous for me to be alone in Berlin and asked if I had a boyfriend. I said no, so he asked if I would be his girlfriend. I was like um.... no. It was very strange. He wasn't even attractive *huff* I am disappointed with these German boys.

Anyway, this entry is already pretty epic, so I shall leave it there. I intend to do lots of exciting things tomorrow and then post photos :)