Advertisement
Published: August 7th 2010
This is exciting! I'm blogging on a boat in the middle of the Baltic Sea on my dear little iPhone. It will be a long laborious process as I'm not so quick with fidgety little on-screen keyboard. But I'm comfortable, happy and fully recovered from a rather nightmarish journey yesterday.
I spent a lovely easy day in Berlin, a pathetic attempt at tourism by walking round the Reichstag and through the Brandenburg Tor then after a falafel and beer in a Turkish place I walked through the Holocaust memorial, which I think would have been a thought provoking and moving experience if it hadn't been for several family's worth of children charging through. Then I went to the Tiergarten with my uke at the ready. Lay down and slept only to be woken by a smattering of rain drops. I headed for Pottsdamerplatz and the cover of the Sony Centre. Devoid of atmosphere it's a souless place, no longer modern and a while to go until it reaches a retro status. However it was useful shelter.
I had about three hours before I needed to go to the Hautbahnhof for my train so I took up the recommendations of
My cabin on the ferry to Helsinki
My bed was the one with the ukulele on itsome ukulele friends and visited Leleland, a ukulele shop famed for it's wall of ukes. It was indeed impressive, the shopkeeper patiently let me take various ukes and try them. I wasn't out to buy but it was nice to have some ukechat in Berlin. I made my way back to the station a mere hour and a half early for my train. I was particularly excited about going on an ICE train as although I've done many train journeys around Europe I'd never done an ICE train before.
Sadly it wasn't to be. And so now I have to tell you the tragic tale of how I managed to miss a train in spite of being on the correct platform at the right time. A minute before the train was due there was a long announcement in German featuring the word Rostock. I suspected a delay but had no idea and so checked with a lady ending nearby. She confirmed my suspicions - it would be a 20 minute delay. Patiently I waited, there were more announcements and then the display board changed and I took this to mean that another train was coming before the delayed Rostock
The ship's lounge
This was the first morning and one of the guys staring out to sea was already drinking beer... train. So I didn't get on the next train that arrived. I really should have asked, but I swear the announcement made no mention of Rostock, or the display board. The train left and I carried on waiting for some time until I had an uncomfortable suspicion that I'd screwed up. The Rostock train was no longer on the departures board. Anguished by the feeling I'd been duped out of my ICE train by devilish announcers (though admitting to myself that it might have been my over confidence in thinking I had any kind of a grasp of the German language that let me down). I made my way to the DB office where I had to queue behind a group of smelly men one of whom couldn't help noticing had very ripped jeans which revealed his zebra-stripe tattooed buttocks. I supposed the rips must have been caused by a passing lion on the prowl for a titbits of zebra.
Back to my woeful tale, which is about to get worse. When I finally got to the desk I was in that slightly distraught state but trying to put a brave face on it. I said to the ticket
The funnel
Please notice my spelling! salesperson 'I think my train disappeared' and handed over my ticket. He looked confused and checked on his list of trains and said 'the train definitely left from platform 7 20 minutes late.' I told him I was there but the train must have been in disguise. He looked at me with genuine pity and ask me if I knew what an ICE train looked like. I finally admitted I'd been an idiot. Gosh I had. The next train wasn't for another 2 hours and was a crappy uppy-downy regional train. No ICE. Even worse my mistake cost me €30. With a heavy heart, feeling hopelessly foolish I left the office and went in search of a refuge. As I took the escalator I suddenly felt that I was missing an item of baggage. Only my bloody ukulele. I'd left it on the cunning-ledge-to-leave-things-on-absent-mindedly at the ticket desk. I sprang back down the escalator like a zebra having it's arse whipped by the claw of a peckish lion. I steamed into the office and it was right there where I left it. I picked it up and clutched it to my chest. The ticket salesperson looked at me with even
more genuine pity crossed with a new understanding of things.
The joy of recovering my uke was only temporary. The crappy regional train really was crappy. It smelled of crap, ran late and contained a frightening drunk man who kept lurching up and down the carriage shouting. The fact I couldn't understand what he was shouting brought little comfort. I was tired, stressed feeling like an idiot and now I also felt threatened too. I used my backpack as a barricade and put my hood over my face. Then I thought I'd check my ticket for the boarding time. I hadn't been concerned about catching the ferry as it didn't leave till 2am and I'd allowed so much time that even a three hour delay wouldn't have mattered. But in the small print of the ticket it said that foot passengers must board by 12 in order to get the bus from the terminal to the ship. That gave me 20 minutes to go from train to boat and I had no idea how far that would be. At the station all the other passengers disappeared off in cars or to their beds. I ran up to a kebab
man and asked him where the boats were, thinking he might wave oh just over there across the road. In fact he looked worried and said you need a taxi. I waited and shortly one came - I noticed another couple nearby and asked them if they were heading for the harbour too, they were so we shared a cab. The driver obviously sensed the urgency of the matter and hurtled along the roads like the afore mentioned zebra. It was that horrible feeling of those roads going on forever and having no idea where I was. I was glad there was the couple with me. They were Russian. The taxi driver dropped us at a porter cabin but I was told it was the wrong one and so I had to walk through this massive trailer park. It was midnight there was little lighting and the only time I'd seen these sorts of scenarios before was in thriller/horror/murder films. I scuttled as fast as my tired legs could carry me until I got to the office. It was a minute before midnight- I'd done it. The ferry woman was unimpressed. 'Check in finished an hour ago, I will have
to call a colleague but you have to wait outside at least 20 minutes if he does come to collect you'. 5 minutes later I was joined by the Russians looking a bit hangdog too, I'd guessed they'd had the same dressing down. On inspecting my ticket I saw that I hadn't got it wrong it said midnight. I took it to the ferry woman to bring a little justice to this godforsaken harbour. I pointed it out to her and she just said ah but that's old! Not a smidgen of apology for having been misinformed. However I felt the moral victor. Shame on you, rude ferrywoman!
Then a lovely smiling man turned up and said brightly that he had transport for us and gave me a key. I was rather worried he thought I was going to drive. When I saw the transport I was very worried - a massive old pickup truck. I gave him back the key and he piled us and our luggage into the cabin and drove us onto the ship, only just making it up the steep ramp...
Then, thank goodness, my trials were over. At 1am I sat in the bluely neon lit lounge with a vodka cocktail and slowly debriefed and regrouped, rediscovered my sense of humour and thought really things could have been so much worse and if I couldn't take the odd setback or grumpy ferry woman well I should just take an aeroplane and be done with it.
So now here I am on the Superfast Ferry and I'm loving it. The cabin is quiet and comfortable with an excellent shower. One of the girls sharing is lovely, called Viola from Sardinia. We had a great chat this morning and I'm hoping we might enjoy a drink or two tonight. What I like about the lounge was that there were a lot of groups playing cards or dominoes quietly. That seemed rather nice. To escape the constant europop I've been out on deck- blustery but warm and now sunny. Lunch was a horrible waste of €17 but the tea was ok.
I'm off to get my uke for some on deck entertainment...
Advertisement
Tot: 0.244s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 10; qc: 44; dbt: 0.0546s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
arch
non-member comment
Roaming in the gloamng...
That was an interesting read and a good laugh over my Monday morning cuppa tea. Watch those data roaming charges when using your iPhone outside your home network. They're a killer!