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:
- going back to Trier for free and stay another night with my family
- 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!!
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!
