My "Getting Back Home" Adventure, aka. the 400€ Cab Ride story

Yesterday's "Wordless Wednesday" post was only a hint. Today I want to tell you the whole story! You guys might remember I went on a little vacation to Trier last week, to visit family and friends. I had an awesome time up there, and I will definitely share some more about my hikes on here.

I went there Tuesday, and I had a train ticket to go back home to Fürth that Sunday. Since you can't be sure the "Deutsche Bahn" train company is always on time, I was checking my app while waiting on the first train in Trier. Shocker: I would have to change trains in a city called Koblenz, but the ICE train I was supposed to take to Nuremberg appeared as "Cancelled".

I called my brother, so he could look up some more info about this. FYI: Since I wanted to go to the basketball game of my all time fave German team "TBB Trier", I booked a train ticket for a pretty late train. It was supposed to leave Trier at 7:13pm, I would have had 10 minutes to change trains in Koblenz to take the ICE train to Nuremberg at 8:48pm. So, this didn't happen.

The first train arrived on time. What a surprise! But I got more and more bad news. The ICE train broke (that's what they wrote on the internet). So they had to get another one to replace it. This replacement train left 70 mins late.
AND: Instead of going to Nuremberg, this freaking replacement train would only go to Frankfurt.
Means: I would be stuck in Frankfurt over night.

After arriving in Koblenz, the lady at the Information gave me 2 choices:

1. going back to Trier for free and stay another night with my family
2. going to Frankfurt, stay at a hotel for the night, and go home the next day

Since the "Deutsche Bahn" has to pay if your train is late, plus they have to pay a hotel room if you are stuck, I called my favorite hotel in Frankfurt to book a room for that night. I was REALLY pissed since I wanted to get home and watch the Pro Bowl. I was tired. I missed M.

The stupid train really arrived in Koblenz 70 minutes late. I was at the track all the time. Cold, freezing cold... Ugh.

All of a sudden there was an announcement: All passengers who were supposed to go to Nuremberg should go to the service center at the train station in Frankfurt as soon as we arrive. I was already sure I would be stuck until the next day, so I thought they might just want to give us some vouchers for food and stuff.
But: man was I wrong!

We arrived in Frankfurt, and a group of 20 people made their way to the service center. It seemed as if they were already expecting us: There were more people there with headsets, yelling. It all really felt like a bazaar in the middle east.
It turned out the guys with the head sets where working for taxi companies. As soon as they heard one of the main connections was cancelled, they went buck wild and tried to get all the passengers. Since there was a cab going to Nuremberg, and I REALLY wanted to go home, I decided to join them. We went outside in the pouring rain, put our luggage in the cab, and started out little adventure.

I said it was raining in Frankfurt. As soon as we left the city limits, the rain turned into snow. HEAVY snow. You guys in the states would call it a Blizzard. Winter Storm. Apokalypse. The Autobahn was full of snow, stranded trucks, Police cars, accidents... It was pure horror! We didn't see one snowplow on the whole trip! And the Autobahn A3 is definitely one of the main highways in Germany. It's ridiculous!!!

Our cab driver was a real trooper. He kept driving... Even though we slipped. It was freaking dangerous! Usually the ride would be about 2 hours. It took us almost 4 hours. I arrived at home at 3:30am Monday morning.

The whole trip came up to around 400€ (around $550). I have never seen 3 digits on a taximeter before!!

Since we had a voucher, we didn't have to pay. And instead of kicking us out of the cab at the main train station in Nuremberg, the cab driver brought each and every one of us home!

I was still so nervous, I couldn't go to sleep right away. Since my phone battery died during this trip, I plugged the charger, and skyped M to let him know I made it safe. He was relieved! Why is it that cellphone batteries always die when you need your phone the most???

To sum it up: This trip was one of the scariest things I have experienced so far. I had stomach cramps cause I was so stressed and scared. I kept praying to God. I asked him to get us all home safe.

God bless this cab driver. Seriously!

And I have learned my lesson:
Next time I will definitely just enjoy a night at a hotel instead of risking my life only to sleep in my own bed!

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Join "A Lovely Blog Hop"! // I'm your Co-Host this week :)

Welcome to A Lovely Blog Hop, where each Thursday we have the grand opportunity to meet and connect with lovely new bloggers, such as myself! Now you have something to do and somewhere to go on Thursdays!

 Enjoy!

Rules:

1. Follow your host and any co-hosts (if it applies).

I am Rekita @ Her&Nicole and I am the first linky. 

Leave me a comment so I will know who to follow back.
 

Your Co-Hosts:

Brittany from

Where My Soul Belongs

Anni from

Grapefruit Princess

Josie from

Straight No Chase

2. Link it!

Link up your blog or anything else you find lovely. Share your family, fashion, food, crafts, or anything that you love this week. Please, please, please, share the love and include a link back to this blog hop.

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This is a blog hop after all, so hop around! Visit other blogs and say Hi!

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Grab the button and place it somewhere in your blog. Preferably in your blog post. 

This is to help us promote this blog hop, believe me, the more the merrier! Or post the link somewhere in your blog. 

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6. The most important rule of them all, HAVE FUN BLOG HOPPING!

Random Thoughts on a Random Thursday

Hello there!

It's Thursday! Almost Friday, means: The well-deserved weekend is close! Hallelujah! Any fun plans?

Lately I have so much on my mind but I find it hard to put it in words. Do you know that feeling?
I will just list two of the things and try to let you look in to the maze of my thoughts:

1// Love grows!

M is away for 32 days now. Yes, I am counting ;o)! I miss him a lot, every day. But I love our hours and hours of Skype dates, when we talk and talk or even watch "The Amazing Race" together! By the way: He picked the doctor twins (baaaaad choice since they are out of the race already ;oD and I pickd the couple from SoCal (it's a bad sign that I don't remember their names yet).
The good part about having a long-distance-relationship for a few weeks is, that you really start missing your better half. Yes, even the stinky socks. The butterflies in my belly are multiplying and multiplying. I love him more and more, and I can't wait to visit Arkansas very very soon. by the way: Any bloggers around Texarkana/Camden, well, Arkansas and Texas round here reading? Let me know if you wanna meet up!

 

2// I can't stand hardliners. No matter which group they belong to!

I made the "mistake" to put a prayer request on one of the cards in my church. Why I call it a mistake?
I wrote down that I am suffering from a bad episode of depression right now and that I would be happy if my fellow church members would pray for me. No mistake so far.
But: One of the people from the intercessory prayer group tagged me in a picture-post about depression on Facebook, so now everyone on HER friendlist could see and read about my current suffering.
And then there came along some teenage hardline christians. And no, I don't mean that in a good way. So those little smartbutts battling each other about who is more saved by Christ and who is more blessed and why - not knowing ANYTHING about my disease, my life, and the long story of suffering I've been through so far, started smartbutting around about I should just stop taking my medication and put my depression into God's hands. Ummmm. Ok.
No! It is REALLY dangerous to just go ahead and throw away 3 different medications. I have tried to stop taking any meds for a couple of months, and then I fell deep... Really deep into a major episode of the worst case depressions ever.
FYI: I suffer from "endogenous depression" that hits you out of nowhere. No reason, no weather, nothing happens... It just appears and drowns you. That makes it so hard to handle, cause if you know something has happened and you are in risk of having another episode, you can do something about it, work against it!
I am christian. I LOVE God. I know prayers DO move mountains. I put my life in God's hands - but I also know when it is a good choice to trust in God's creations, aka human beings, who researched forever, being the best doctors you could wish for! And yes, medicine as well.
I wish I could share some of these stupid replies from Facebook on here. But I won't. Why spread the stupidity...?

I guess as long as there are people who think they can "pray the gay away", I understand other people being sceptical about me and other people being religious. But trust me: I have a God-given common sense. God gave me a brain to use it. And some people should try it, too.

This fits the whole situation pretty well: My fave quote of "The Prodigal God" ...

"If, like the elder brother, you believe that God ought to bless you and help you because you have worked so hard to obey him and be a good person, then Jesus may be your helper, your example, even your inspiration, but he is not your Savior. You are serving as your own Savior."

Three Good Things / Link Up!

Hello!

Jess over at IROCKSOWHAT.com is hosting this great link-up, called "Three Good Things".
I love the idea and that`s why I join it!

Especially since M is leaving for at least 2 or 3 months this Sunday, I am holding on to the little things in my daily life, that make me happy.

Today it is:

• It's sunny and bright outside for the first time in WEEKS! Oh dear sun, how I've missed you!

• Mr. Slow Cooker is preparing a wonderful dinner for M and myself while I type this! Chicken Stroganoff it is! Yay! Winner, winner, chicken dinner!

• 3) Today is the last day I have to go to the laundromat. My new washing machine is moving in Monday! Woooooohoooo!!

Have a great day, and don`t forget to count your blessings!

xoxo
Anni