Today was a bad day. Several things happened that threw me off my game, and I ended up googling my old company to see if they’re still hiring. (They’re not, btw.) Some days are like this, I told myself while sitting on the tram. Not every day can be perfect. Some days you’ll let yourself get too hungry and start worrying too much about money. (Which you can’t earn until you get your visa, which you’re still waiting on.)
Today was also a good day. My roommate gave me some of her lunch, which was delicious. I had exact change when I went to buy chocolate. I got my insurance card, and finished reading Othello. I actually understood Othello and have coherent arguments that I want to make about it tomorrow. I realized that I’m doing what I want to be doing, and although the prospect of the future is daunting, I will figure it out.
Flying with Condor was quite the adventure. I, like many of you, like it when my airline stays operational and isn’t in danger of going out of business mid-flight. With the demise of Thomas Cook, however, that was a possibility for me as I flew to Germany. Thomas Cook was a British travel agency that was the parent company to several others, including the German airline Condor. It declared bankruptcy about a week before I was due to fly with Condor, which made me quite worried. In the end, the German government bailed out the airline because it’s actually profitable, so I was able to fly from Seattle to Frankfurt on September 30th.
My first flight of the day was from Dallas to Seattle. This was not logical at all, but ended up costing me about $2000 less than a flight that started off in the correct direction would have. I got to the SeaTac Airport in plenty of time to eat some delicious Qdoba before boarding the flight. I sat in 29K, a window seat, which was so lucky! I was able to sleep a bit with my head against the window, which saved me from complete exhaustion the next day.
Flying economy isn’t
a ton of fun anywhere. (I’ve only flown economy, but business class
looks like it would be more
pleasant, but worse of the
environment.) This was pretty
much in line with my other international flight experiences. The
flight crew were all very polite and generally
seemed like people who were
grateful to still have jobs.
One thing that struck me about the flight was the strange safety video. It featured a variety of celebrity impersonators, including a Native American person who sat next to a cowboy. I’m pretty sure this was a Winnetou reference (which is still rough), but if you didn’t have that context it would be even more strange. If that wasn’t enough, they played the video twice (once in German with English subtitles, once in English with German subtitles) in order to really get the point across.
The
plane still had a ton of awkward Thomas Cook branding. Our water cups
and blankets just said Thomas Cook, and the plane’s livery also had
a small Thomas Cook logo on
it in addition to the Condor branding.
I know I can’t expect them to change everything overnight, but I
though it was odd that so little of this was Condor branded to
start with.
The flight had a
pretty rough landing. The girl in front of me was actually sick from
it, and I felt awful by the time we touched down. We ended up at a
remote stand, which I’d never experienced at Frankfurt before. We
had to take a bus to the terminal, then wait in line for immigration.
The immigration officers were giving everyone else the third degree,
but I walked up and said “Ich mache mein Masterstudium an der TU”
and was admitted without further questions. It’s always interesting
to see the racism in immigration controls because this wasn’t the
first time that my status as a white American woman has helped me
slide through immigration in record time.
Overall, the most adventurous part of my journey with Condor was the booking process. Everything from boarding to landing was carried out with typical German efficiency. I prefer Lufthansa and Icelandair to Condor, but I’ll always fly with the airline that has the best prices and is still operating at the time of my flight.
Good morning from
Germany! It’s a rather loose usage of the word morning as
the local time here is 3:10 am. I’m jetlagged, but I’m so
happy to be here. So happy, in fact, that I didn’t mind any of the
ten thousand ridiculous things that have happened to me since I left
my parents’ house for the airport. I’m going to write a separate
post about my experience with a post-Thomas Cook Condor flight
because the Deutsche Bahn was in fine form
yesterday. This post has it
all: faceplanting, sheep, the federal police force, and someone
crying in the rain.
After
my long flight from Seattle to Frankfurt, I found myself in the
airport train station. By this point in my travels, I knew rather
than felt I was tired. I was mostly dazed, and annoyed at myself for
bringing two suitcases, which proved difficult to navigate through
the train station. My first obstacle was a platform that didn’t
have an elevator down to the tracks due
to construction, so I had to
put both suitcases on the escalator. It was terrifying because I’m
already frightened of escalators under the best of circumstances.
But I did it, and I was feeling pretty good about myself when the
S-Bahn to the main train station came. I got on board quite
ungracefully and held on until we got to the main station.
There, I managed to trip and
fall on two other people while getting off as well as faceplanting
into my suitcases. Somehow this wasn’t embarrassing. (See: I was
exhausted and have very low standards for my experiences on German
trains.)
After
my glorious entry to the train station, things mostly went well.
Frankfurt has a pretty okay train station – nothing to Leipzig or
Munich, but it gets the job done! I
had a delicious Butterbrezel, which is a pretzel cut open and
slathered with about an eighth of an inch of butter all over. Then I
headed over to a platform that was lousy with people to wait on my
next train.
Unfortunately,
everyone in Frankfurt wanted to take the same train that I did. Once
it arrived, there weren’t any seats so I had to stand in the area
by the toilets and hold my suitcases in place so they didn’t roll
away. Luckily, this only lasted about 40 minutes because I was able
to grab an empty seat in Fulda. The train also stopped in Erfurt; I
really wanted to get off there for a visit! I didn’t realize how
much I miss that place until I started recognizing village names and
got excited to be home, but that’s not my home anymore.
I eventually ended up in Leipzig, but our train was delayed by about twenty minutes. It was one of those baffling late trains because we never sat still on the tracks; somehow we just ended up late in Leipzig. Naturally, our connecting train did not wait for us. Regional trains often wait for a larger train before departing, so the other people who wanted the RE6 were annoyed before we even left. For me, this wasn’t awful news because the Leipzig train station is huge, beautiful, and has a mall. I had the chance to grab an uninspiring McVegan from McDonald’s and my first German ice cream in 5 years! The McVegan is McDonald’s new veggie burger, which somehow tastes like a hot dog. It was very confusing for my mouth. The cookies ice cream, however, was much better. I also saw dm, a huge drugstore that I’m obsessed with, in the train station mall.
Finally, I was on my final train of the day! Only 1 hour of travel stood between me and the comfort of a hotel bed….or did it? I had my own compartment which looked like something out of Harry Potter. My suitcases were my only friends at this point. There was something nice about having all of my possessions in one place with me in that moment.
I
know what you’re thinking: Chelsea, this post is almost over and
you promised me sheep AND the federal police. What gives? Well, dear
reader, here you go. I could tell from the announcement that the
train ticket checker man (surely there is a job title for this? I am
very tired, please let me know.) was funny, and this was confirmed
when I told him that I wasn’t sure if my ticket was valid for this
portion of the trip but I had EUR 60 (the standard fine for traveling
ticketless) and he just laughed and said it was fine. So when he
made an announcement concerning some local sheep, I assumed that this
was either 1) a hallucination from lack of sleep or 2) another joke
from our fine Zugpersonel. Nope, it turns out that there really were
some dead sheep on the tracks ahead. I’m assuming another train hit
them. He also announced that we had to wait until the tracks were
clear and the federal police were done investigating.
It
would appear that this is actually an area where the federal police
would investigate, according to their website. They’re border
control, airport security, secret service, and also air and rail
security all in one. Or maybe the train staff member was joking about
that. Anyhow, they were efficient in their investigation so we were
back on the rails in about 20 minutes. (I thought it had been about
five minutes; I had been traveling so long at this point that time
had no meaning.)
Then I arrived at my destination, where it was pouring buckets and buckets of rain. I decided to just go for it because my hotel was about three blocks from the station, so by the time I got there I was drenched. At this point I started crying without meaning to because the rain was stinging my eyes and I couldn’t see anything through my glasses. But I successfully entered in the door code and got to my lovely room, where I slept for about four hours before waking up from jet leg.
All
in all, it wasn’t a great trip, but I didn’t realize that at the
time. I managed to have a good time because I was comparing it to the
last time I came to Germany, when I didn’t sleep on the plane at
all! Knowing exactly where I was going was also a plus. Although it
was merely annoying for me to have to navigate my suitcases on and
off of trains, it would be extremely frustrating for those who use
wheelchairs or other mobility aids. None of these trains were flush
with the platform, so you always had to lift you suitcase up some
stairs. I’m very grateful to all the kind Germans who helped me
negotiate the steps, even if they were only helping me because I was
in the way.
Here’s
to my first adventure with the Deutsche Bahn in five years! It was
everything a proper German train ride should be.
A Practical Pixie 