Learning Lessons - A LONG Story

These weary feet got up on the wrong side of the bed today! I had good intentions of trying to squeeze in seeing a couple more sights before I went to the train station at 10:00. But, my head wasn't on straight. I walked about 15 minutes towards the Fish Market, stopped to look at my map in my book, decided that since I was passing the Basilica with Michaelangelo's only statue that was ever exported out of Italy, I was going to pop in and see it on my way to the Fish Market. Along the way I discovered a) I left the memory card for my camera in my laptop back at the B&B, b) the Basilica wasn't open yet, c) when I thought I was looking at the sacristy with Jesus' blood, I wasn't even in the right altar! Dumb American. I DID ask the gentleman working in the church when I went in, and he pointed to the altar in front of me. But in looking at the book to see the map, I just happened to read and find out I had been in the wrong place. So, what did I do? I made all the wrong decisions. I decided that I could make it back to the hotel for the memory card (for the Michaelangelo and the Fish Market), but ended up taking a long way back. By the time I got back to the hotel, I felt like I needed another shower. I was drenched....and not from rain! I did some soul-searching and decided I just couldn't push my luck about getting back, getting checked out, and getting to the train station in time. I decided all of those sights would be there if I ever came back to Brugge....What I should've done was just taken pictures with my eyes and not worried about my camera.

But, I got to the train station almost an hour early and checked the platform number and just went and sat there. And waited. And waited. And waited. My train never came. So, I checked the train schedule and took the next train to Brussels...20 minutes later, putting me in at Brussels just late enough to miss my connection for which I had paid for a reservation. I made my way to the Travel Centre, since there were no kiosks to look up my own schedules, and waited in line for 30+ minutes to speak with someone. I toyed with the idea of just jumping on an ICE or Thalys train since I had a Eurailpass (and that's the way you USED to do it), but had read somewhere that if you get on one of the high speed trains without a reservation, you'll have to pay on the train, and usually for much more. So, I decided to follow protocol, and the man at the desk was very arrogant. He told me my train HAD arrived in Brugge on time, and I had just missed it. And he told me the ONLY train that could get me to Kaiserslautern was a Thalys train and I'd have to pay 40 euro for the reservation because all the eurailpass seats were taken. I told him that I didn't understand why I paid so much for a Eurailpass if I wasn't allowed a seat. He told me it wasn't his system. I asked wasn't there another train because I knew there were all sorts of trains/routes going to Kaiserslautern on that day. (I had printed out a page, which I left at home since I had my reservation, which had about 15 different choices.) He conveniently finds "one other train" that would take me to Luxembourg, then I would have to take a bus to Saarbrucken...but oh wait, that bus requires a reservation and he can't make the reservation. So I will have to make my own reservation in Luxembourg. Then once I get to Saarbrucken, I can get on another train to take me to Kaiserslautern. At that point I was frustrated, angry, and just ready to get on any train. I said that was the one I was going to take.

When I got to my platform, I heard a woman speaking to another gentleman, telling him, "Twice I asked him which platform. Twice he told me 21. Does this look like 21? No, this is 13." When I heard her say that, I told her that I had missed my train in Bruge because I went to the platform that was posted, and the train went to another platform. She said, "Yes, and they probably announced the change in Flemish, French, or German. They won't speak English. They are so arrogant in Belgium." (She was from Leiden, Netherlands. She told me that both the Dutch and the Belgians had their noses in the air. She also said that the train systems in both countries used to be really good, but about 8 years ago they started going downhill and they are a mess now. She confirmed what the priest I had spoken with in Brugge had said - the train system is a disaster in Belgium.) I started thinking about it, and she was right. The Belgian train stations were the only train stations I had been in that didn't make announcements in multiple languages. And right there in Brussels, the capital, all the announcements, schedules, etc. were only in French! A city as large and international as Brussels, didn't, no, correction, WOULDN'T put anything in any other language. I thought about all the Spanish and Italian visitors I saw in Brugge, and knew that they were relying on English to be spoken as well! .........Well, anyway, we commiserated together and then I helped her with her luggage to get on the train. We talked on the way to Luxembourg, where she was going to see her son. She spoke with the conductor and then told me I needed to go to the Information desk in Luxembourg because she KNEW there were other trains and I shouldn't take a bus.

So, that's what I did, and there was a train (albeit a regional one) that would take me to Trier where I would arrive at a north platform and I needed to change to a south platform to go to Kaiserslautern. No problem! So, as I hear Trier announced, I look out my window, see Trier Nord and Sud (south) and I get off. No sooner I get off, the train pulls out of the station, I look around, and my heart sinks. I saw Nord and Sud all right, but it was the wrong station. It was the Nord station and I needed the Hauptbahnhof (main station)! I silently freaked. I took my luggage, went down the stairs, and instead of seeing a building, there was the street! Besides cars, I saw one young man getting on his bike and I asked for his help. He knew English, told me I was at the wrong station, I asked how I could get to the right station, and he said, "Well, let's look at the train schedule." It just so happened, there was another train coming in five minutes that would take me to the next station. I breathed a HUGE sigh of relief, thanked this young man profusely, then headed upstairs with my luggage right away. The train was rolling into the station as I got to the platform! I jumped on and it pulled out. (That's something about trains; you better be there when they say they are going, because they don't wait.) So, that's the saga of my train ride today. It took me 4 hours longer than it should've, I lost my reservation, I learned about the arrogant Belgians and their infamously bad train systems, I learned to read station signs carefully, and I learned that I better carry train schedules with me...... but I got home in one piece and not one tear shed! Somewhere during the day I told myself that I had just better roll with the punches, and if worse came to worse, I had a Eurailpass and would just ride regional trains until I got home! I've also learned in life to look for silver linings in the clouds. The silver linings today were meeting the delightful former music teacher and performer from the Nederlands whose mother was from Czechoslovakia and father was from Austria, and having to ride the regional train from Trier because it traveled parallel to the Rhine River which was much more beautiful than the routes taken earlier. So, all's well that ends well!