Wednesday, February 4, 2009

Hallo!


I am sorry that it has taken me this long to post. I got here 3 days ago and I don't have my own internet connection yet.

So my flights were fine; no major hiccups. 1 hour to Dallas, 3 hours in the airport, then 9 hours to Frankfurt. The last part wasn't much fun, as I didn't get much sleep. So I arrived in Germany with all my stuff (backpack, laptop bag, 2 big ol' suitcases) and somehow managed to drag it all the way from the airport to the Bahnhof Reisezentrum (train station ticket center). I got a ticket to the place where I'm staying, Marburg, and immediately ran down to the platform to find the train I needed to catch.

Now, I needed to catch 2 trains; one to the Frankfurt Hauptbahnhof (main train station) and another from there to the Marburg Hauptbahnhof. The first was more like a subway or metro train, and it was about 8AM at this point, so yeah. Rush hour. I barely manage to pull all my junk onto the train when it arrives, and by now there's standing room only. Somehow I end up in the very middle near the doors, and I have nothing to hold onto as the train starts and stops to move. Being tired + tons of bags + standing with little to balance me and the bags + being entirely surrounded by tons of silent Germans + not really knowing if you're on the right train = scary. I almost fell onto some old lady at one point. It was great.

I get off the train at the right place (of course I wasn't entirely sure at the time) and hightail it to the regional trains, as I have 10 minutes to catch the next train. I run to the platform indicated on the ticket and again drag my billions of bags up onto the train (there's no ramp or anything). Like many European trains, there's a section with enclosed rooms and a main section with more general seating. Once I've interrogated a confused-looking teenager about whether I am on the correct train in broken German, I shuffle sideways down the hallway by the enclosed rooms since my bags were too wide to roll through it. So I finally sit down to worry whether I'm on the right train for 30 minutes. The train manager dude comes by and checks my ticket and it seems I'm all in the clear, though the guy sitting next to me wasn't and an argument ensued across me.

So I'm finally done with the trains, which involves a lot more shuffling and bag dragging that I won't go into, and I make it to the Marburg Hauptbahnhof! Yay! And then I remember that I have no idea where to go. Oh. I look around for the friend of David who was going to meet me, and, of course, there is no one. The next fifteen minutes are spent trying to figure out how to use a German payphone, which includes, but is not limited to: how to put money in, whether it actually works at all, how to get the "1" key to work so I can dial the number correctly, which part of the number is the country code, which part of the number is the area code, and whether I need to dial either of these numbers. I end up asking some person at the Reisezentrum how to dial the number I have, and she explains that I don't need the area code, but I do need to dial a 0 first. Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

I finally get in touch David's friend Jess, and she tells me she's on her way and will meet me in about 20 minutes. There's a bakery and a newsstand that could potentially occupy my attention while I wait, but I'm so tired that I just sit on the front steps and stare out into the traffic. The first pictures I have from Germany are indeed from this vantage point, and I'll post those soon so you can see what I saw.



Anyway, that's my exciting travel story. In retrospect, it's kinda funny and awesome, but at the time it was pretty scary. I was pretty sure for a while that I was heading out into the German countryside to end up in some small town in the middle of nowhere where no one speaks English. But all's good.

So how is it here? I love it! (Oh yeah, quick note: David is my friend from LSU who has already been here in Germany for a semester. Right now he's out traveling and I'm staying in his room) David's friends are all really nice and helpful, and they've been showing me the ropes. I'm starting to find my way around more, and I got the bus system down pat. The buses here are super efficient and really easy to use. No car, no problem.

Things I have learned:
Apparently Texas is known for its pizza. In the frozen pizza section of the grocery store, there is Hawaiian, Texas, Salami, and Western pizza, just to name a few. I didn't buy any, of course, but it's funny.

Alcohol is incredibly cheap. Seriously. A 6 pack of awesome beer is 3.50€, which is $4.50. Yes. Even the hard liquor is cheap (around 6 to 10€).

Pfand. Whenever you buy bottles of pretty much anything, you're charged a few cents extra. However, if you bring the bottles back, you get the money back (and usually you just use it for your next purchase). It's a nice way to get people to recycle. Anyway, this is mostly for grocery stores, but there's a bar in the student dorms that also charges a Pfand. One girl I met says that she actually makes money when she drinks there because she collects all the bottles that other people leave around and returns them to get free drinks. Then she keeps all the extra bottles for next time. Thrifty!

That's about it for now. I'll try to get pictures up and more updates soon. :-)

No comments:

Post a Comment