The story is quite simple and goes like this. I had a plane to catch fromDortmund,Germanyto my home town inRomania. Nothing complicated, right? Wrong
So here are the facts:
– we get up at 7.30 am with my girlfriend at her place inMaastricht(theNetherlands)
– we take the bus to the main bus and train station inMaastricht(first bus)
– I say goodbye, hugs and kisses, be back in 12 days and all that J and I take the bus fromMaastrichttoAachen(second bus) at exactly 9.01 am
– I am on the bus, it is already 10.13 am and we are still not at the train station when the driver tells me…”Oppss…This bus does not stop at the station”. “What??? It always did before. I have a train to catch to Koln and thenDortmund”. Nope…
– so he puts me off at a secondary train station, I get on the 2 min train to the central station and on the train I realize two crucial things: I lost my other train and I lost my wallet
– I get of at Aachen Central (Hbf) to discover that I have one passport on me and the pre-booked train and plane tickets, but no wallet and money on me
– so I go to the information centre and bag them to let me use the ticket on the next one as I will miss my flight, I lost my wallet, the only ID I have is a passport, and I don’t have any money, credit, debit or whatever card
– the lady in typical German office worker style raises her shoulders: “So what should I do about it? U booked it, you didn’t catch it. Bad luck!” So I raise my voice, I start yelling at her, she is on the verge of calling the police and I say u go “F…ck yourself” and a couple of more epithets
– so here I am, 10.30 am. I lost my train, I will lose my plane and lost my wallet. I call up my girlfriend who had an interview at 13 am for a job. I tell her to go wait for the bus to come back, as I most probably lost it on it, when trying to get off in a hurry.
– so she rushes by foot 30 min overMaastricht, waits 25 min. for the buses to come back. She searches 2 buses and finds the wallet
– sn the meantime I am looking at the last option I could use to get to theDortmundAirport, a train that leaves at 11.39 am. My girlfriend found the wallet at 11.15 am in a different country.
– so I call up my parents, and tell them not to wait for me.
– my girlfriend gets a cab, pays 50 euros for the guy to come down toAachen. In the meantime I am bargaining on the phone with her taxi driver to take me toDortmundstraight. How much in total? 280 euros from Maastricht-Aachen-Dortmund and he can take me there in 2 hours. So we settled for 250 euros.
– the rain starts poring, at 11.55 am my girl friend arrives with the taxi, I get the wallet, take out 300 euros from my bank card, kiss her in a hurry and take the taxi
– I give the guy 250 euros as negotiated on the phone. He takes it. My girlfriend sends me a message that she already gave him 50, so we start quarreling and I told him that 250 was the price for both trips. He conceded. So I took back 50.
– we are 40 km from the airport when we reach a 7 km long traffic jam (sorry AutoBahn, but you are not as good as people say you are)
– in the meantime the rain is poring down, it starts hailing as well. I say to myself, why the hell is this all happening to me?
– the minutes go buy, the check-in will close soon. Finally the cars start moving. We were stuck for 25 min.
– With 80 km/h on the renownedGerman Highwaywe finally get to the airport
– More than 2 nerve wrecking hours and 200 km after, I reach the airport at 2.35 pm, just 5 min. before the check-in closed.
– So now I am here back home and waiting to celebrate my brother’s birthday.
The price you pay to see your family once in 6 months doesn’t have limits. The thank you I owe to my girlfriend right now is limitless. Without her I couldn’t have done this. And because of me she had to postpone a job interview (student assistant at a prestigious institute). Unfortunately I got even more disgusted of the rigidity of the German system (no offence to my German friends), but in such a situation, when I already had a ticket bought, but I missed the train and I didn’t have any money or wallet on me, I would’ve expected at least some understanding from the system. To my girlfriend J Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Εφχαριστω!
Maastricht-Aachen-Dortmund-Cluj-Napoca/Kolozsvár 25 June 2011
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