Lost again!Travel Trauma

 Trying to figure out public transport in Germany

I have written a few posts about being in Germany, but nowhere did I mention the ‘travel trauma’ I had to overcome while figuring out the public transport system. It may seem super logical, but when you hail from ‘Nopublictranspoteria’ is almost like trying to learn to read again. But I have been ‘re-educated’ and my flabbergasted moments turned into amusing anecdotes, and a ‘how not to’.😜

So there I was, a girl from a one-horse town in South Africa arriving in everything- runs- like -clockwork Germany. My first orientation was ‘how to use the number 7 bus’ and which 3 stops I should use. The same stop for leaving and arriving at the hostel, but, because of all the one-way streets my get off and get on bus stops in town were not at the same stop. That was straightforward enough. What could go wrong?

What happened to number 7?!

What could go wrong? A lot, as I experienced my first night. We walked to our collective bus stop, and one after another, everybody’s respective buses came and left with them on board. There was, however, no sign of the number 7 bus. Alone on the sidewalk, I decided that the best course of action will be to try and decipher the schedule. It was quite intimidating having never used timetables like those before.

A ton of bricks hit me when I figured out the schedule. Bus no 7 does not run after 7 pm!! 😱😱O my greatness! I just stood there not knowing what to do. I have no phone and no idea where I live and how to get there except with bus no 7. In my panic, I forgot every single German word I knew and defaulted to English. The old ladies I charged to thought I was a crazy person and stood in a tighter circle shaking their heads.

I should probably mention that it was winter and that darkness descends long before the no 7 bus stops driving. A problem in the dark really gets the neck hairs standing. Back as the crazy lost lady on the sidewalk, I decided that getting on any bus was better than freezing next to a bus stop. The plan was to ride until I found something familiar and go from there. The moment I saw something that I was acquainted with, I very happily got off. My bubble burst when I again asked for help. This time the guy actually backed away from me with his hands in the air continuously saying ‘no eengleesh, no eengleesh’.

When no bus appeared, I started walking in the direction that I thought the busses go. By this time I was wondering if I will survive the night outside. As if the dark coldness was not enough, it had started raining too!! It was freezing, dark and wet and I was hopelessly lost.

After plodding along for some time, I saw the yellow lights of a garage and made a beeline for it. The guy in there did not freak out when I asked for help. He told me to go to the stop a few meters down the road and wait for the number 1 bus and at which stop I then had to get off at. Very thankful I found the bus stop and waited. And waited. And then decided to go back to the garage. I told him that there was no bus. He graciously gave me his cell phone an I dug out the 2 numbers that I had. But as my luck is, no one answered.

During my dialling, an oldish lady came into the store and asked the guy what was wrong. He told her that I was lost. She came to me and asked if she could help me. I burst into my story of this being my first day and coming from South Africa and not knowing where to go.

The best things happened then. First, the lady said that she knew where I lived and that she would take me there in her car! I nearly cried with relief. And then she told me in perfect English that she was a teacher in Cape Town for many years and that she will be happy to help a South African. So, there I was in the dark of night in a stranger’s car (something that I will never do under normal circumstances) being happy as a clam. I have never been more thankful to a stranger ever. What a great end to this story.

Now that I have a bus, which road leads home?

When we all gathered the next morning, I told my hosts to please help me with another bus and bus stops and relayed the drama of the night before. No problem they said. Take the number one bus and get off at stop so and so they said. That what they said….

The new directions were : When you get off the bus, take the street that goes left, walk a few minutes and the hostel will be on your right. Great stuff. This bus has longer working hours. What could go wrong?

Again, a lot. On the way to the stop where I had to get off, we stopped at the bus stop opposite to the one near the garage, and I saw that I was waiting on the wrong side of the road the night before. So if I did get on the no 1 bus the previous night, I would have gone in the wrong direction and would have been more lost. Anyway, back to my new bus stop. As promised, there was the bus stop, but there were 3 roads going left starting from the bus stop.🤦‍♀️ Great! Again it was dark and I had to eeny meeny miny moe in the hopes of picking the correct street. I picked one and went for it. About 20 minutes later I was still walking….. into a wooded area. This can not be right.

Rewinding the story a little bit……After arrival, they told us how safe Tuebingen is and that you can walk around alone at night and nothing bad will happen. But when you come from a place where you have to have eyes in the back of your head, this does not feel possible.

So there I was, lost again, this time in some wooded area. I kept on thinking that I don’t think I am safe, despite being told so. In my head, I saw that I will be on the front page of the newspaper with a heading somewhat like ‘Robbed South African Student found dead in Tuebingen’. This thought made me turn around and run back to where I started. Winded I got to the bus stop and chose a new road that went left. It turned out to be the wrong one again! And I was running to the bus stop, again. The correct road was the last one. Is it not always?! In less than 5 minutes I was home.

And still, I had not figured it out

And yet the story does not end there. No! Why should I be so lucky?! The 3^rd night all the students went to one of the hostels to make dinner. We had a lovely meal and good company and then I had to go back to my place. But bus no 1 does not leave from that hostel. By this time I had a schedule for all the busses and worked out which bus stop I can use to get to where I needed to go. So after some research, I decided that the number 21 was the best option. This time I had a friend with. After I told him of my previous two nights’ ‘travel trauma’ he volunteered to help me find my way back home.

And then we were off. We knew which bus stop to find and all the stops in between. The bus came, and we got on. So what was the problem? The bus stops we stopped at, were not the stops on the bus plan. And before we knew it, we were at the main train station and the bus driver was kicking us out. What went wrong.?!

Well. Up until then, I did not do the most logical thinking. That means, that other than one-way streets, there are 2 bus stops with the same name for buses going in different directions. Two-way streets! Duh!! That was my lightbulb moment. I had finally figured out public transport!!💪 So we just waited at the bus stop until the driver started the bus up again and voila, a few minutes later I got off at my stop, right next to my place! No extra walking!

After those 3 nights, I can say that I am now confident in using German public transport. I did, however, the first chance that I got in the daytime, walk around town to get a lay of the land in case of whatever that I can find my way back by walking if I needed to. And I did need it one day as the bus drivers went on strike. Jip, that does also happen in first world counties.

Here is what getting lost has taught me.

Know which public transport stops are near you and which numbers of bus or tram stop there. The many one-way streets will see you trying to find the bus that goes back. You can either roam around in search of another stop or save some time trying to sweet talk a local into helping you.

On two-way streets, there will be 2 stops. Many times they are not directly across from each other. I have found one which was I think almost a 100m apart. The point of this is that transport goes 2 ways which for some or other reason did not register with me those first days. I was just frantically looking for the correct number bus. I think that being on the wrong side of the street, which is actually the correct side (We call left right and they call right right😜)  does also mess with your head. Anyway, my tip is this, go read the bus schedule and see if the side that you are on is the correct side for the stop that you want to reach. Don’t just get on any bus that has the correct number.

Believe it or not, but this was not my only weird experience with the public transport. These were just my misadventures with buses! Weird stuff happens on trains and trams too!Like trains splitting in 2??No jokes, that really happened. Follow the link to see my further misadventures.

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