Well, on Monday night the forecast for Tuesday looked promising. I messaged with a local friend about coming along and Tuesday morning we set out. We got through the first leg of our journey only to find that it was cold and starting to sprinkle. Grrrr. So, we postponed for Wednesday instead and vowed to set out earlier in the day as well.
Wednesday morning, sun is shining, we get to our subway stop in plenty of time for the train we need. I bought the necessary "extension tickets" we'd need for our journey as well as we'd be heading out of the zones we paid for with our monthly pass. Subway pulls up, we hop on. We get to our first stop where we need to then catch a "regional train". I have no idea where the regional train platforms are and we only had 4 minutes to find it. And, to make it slightly more stressful: this train only comes every 60 minutes! But, things are pretty well marked and we find it no problem. In fact, the train comes about 5 minutes late so we're just fine. The regional trains are so nice. Double decker so of course we went up top.
After a half an hour ride, we get to our stop out in the middle of nowhere. The final leg of our journey includes getting on a bus at this point (that also only comes every hour) for the 5 minute ride to the strawberry farm. We climb some stairs and cross a pedestrian bridge over the 4 or so sets of tracks out there and back down the others. We're looking for bus #662 and there it is! 662! Waiting for us. We get on with all of the other people who just got off the train with us.
So there we are, riding it a few stops. And it's longer than the 5 minutes it "should" take. So, when most everyone disembarks at a "Designer Outlet" mall, we get off too. I need to look at things again. Could we be heading in the wrong direction on the 662? Even though the stupid 662 only comes every hour, we get off.
And that's when I discover that after 36 years of life and a bachelor's degree: I cannot read a bus schedule.
I thought it would have some sort of order. Like, that here's this stop you're at, in bold perhaps or maybe at the top? A "You Are Here" would be too much. And then I assumed it would have the times that the bus comes to this stop, right? (It does.) And then maybe after that I'd expect to see a list of which stops it will hit in order and what time it will hit them. But that's not how bus schedules work, apparently. So, I text Jason a pic. After 41 years of life and a master's degree, he can't figure it out either. But, he's gonna try to help. So he's needing a bit of backstory and he's looking online at things but, because we're so far out, the public transportation site doesn't have a lot of info. And it's not mapped out there either. So I'm feeling pressed for time like, "it's going to be at this stop in 8 minutes and then it won't come again for another hour" and he tells me to get on the [whatever o'clock] bus and 17 minutes later you'll get to the stop you need". And I'm like, "Duh! But WHICH DIRECTION???" He doesn't know. "Direction or the end of route is not indicated." So that was of absolutely no help. So, I plug it in on Bing Maps and see that the farm appears to be south east-ish of where I was standing. So we decide to get back on in the direction we had originally been going because the road on that side heads south east.
It comes after a very long wait (where the kids were climbing on top of the bus stop shelter or finding bugs to entertain themselves) and we hop on. Of course the driver speaks no English (which is fine, we're in Germany, I don't expect him to) but I also speak no German. I'm trying to figure out how to communicate my question but he's motioning that he's got a schedule to keep here and so we sit down. The bus is heading to "Wustermark" and the strawberry farm is called "Karl's in Wustermark" for crying out loud so I'm feeling decent about my decision to go that direction. And a list of the upcoming stops comes up on a screen. 3 at a time. Stop after stop passes and I never see ours. And then I realize that we're nearing the end of the line. Lovely. So, the driver is knocking on his glass at me as we are the only people on this bus. And he asks me "Wustermark"? And I say, "Ja". And then he assumes I must be trying to go to the Wustermark Bahnhof (train station) which his bus does not go there. The 663 does and he seems thinks I got on the 662 by mistake but really wanting the 663. So, thinking he is being nice, he drops us off on some random curb beyond the "end of the line" and we get off. In the MIDDLE. OF. NOWHERE.
I had previously been thinking "okay, we'll get off at the stop, cross the street, and wait for the bus going back in that direction" even if it takes another hour. But, since he "helpfully" dropped us off at a non-stop I have NO CLUE where a bus stop in any direction on any route even is. We're in the 'burbs. There are houses (adorable little ones) with yards and such but no stores. No "main thoroughfares". Nada.
Crap.
Get this, though: I have mentioned on Facebook how I am always stopped for directions, right? Well, a woman pulls her car to the curb and gets out and asks me for directions! Ha! Even lost I must look like I know what I'm doing! I was putting on a front for the kids, though, because I totally felt like crying at that point. But thanks to how confident I was trying to make myself seem to the kids (I guess), it made that lady in her car think I knew what I was doing. Ha! I explained to her that we were VERY LOST ourselves and "Viel Glück!" (good luck!). Easton looks nervous like he's thinking we may never get home again and I'm just like, "We'll figure it out guys" and praising them for being such troopers because they totally were/are. So, I pull out my Bing Maps on my phone and start heading towards what looks like a main drag. I can see there are dead ends (cul de sacs) and such everywhere so we are 'stair-stepping' our way through this random neighborhood looking to get to a main road and hoping to eventually see a bus stop sign.
Finally we find one! And there is a playground there! I send the kids happily running to the playground while I look at the bus stop sign to see if I can even figure out when it might come. Before I can even do that, however, a 662 is heading my way! I shout to the kids to come back quickly because I can see that this 662 is heading in the right direction. It's going to stop back where I started this journey (where the regional train stopped) but hey, that's better than nothing! I was thanking God right then and there for that bus.
I told the kids I was sorry it was taking so long but we were going to get there and that, when we did, I would buy them whatever treat they wanted to have. Sweet Easton told me, "You don't have to." Melt my heart. I know they were hot and tired and probably starving. Love those three!!!!
Anyway, we get back to the "Elstal Bahnhof" and look around for another 662 that will be going in the other way. That's when I notice that there is only one bus stop. No matter which direction your bus is going, it's going to have to leave this parking lot so there is only one stop and you just get on whichever bus you need when it stops at that stop. This time, I am able to ask someone else waiting at the stop if I'm going to now be going in the right direction. She is going to the strawberry farm too so: YES. In 15 minutes when the bus comes we will be heading the right way!!!
Finally!
So, after leaving our flat at 10:15 that a.m. it is 1:45 p.m. when we finally get to the blasted Freizeitpark. First stop: the potties! I ask someone who works there and she points out a yellow line painted on the floor to follow. Ha ha ha. So we wind our way through this massive "barn" sort of area to the bathrooms, pay 30 cents each and pee and wash our hands. Then we go get ice cream. It's only €1 a scoop so I order my "zwei Schokolade" for the boys and "zwei Erdbeere" for me and Autumn. But he only gives me the two chocolate and ONE strawberry and then asks for €6. Oh, I get it: they gave me two scoops, not two cones. Blerg. Easton was like, "I thought you were going to get one too, Mom" and I was like, "I thought so too" but I had to save face. I went and bought myself some "Kuchen" (cake) instead.
And with our snacks we went back out front to the strawberry go round to wait for our friends we were supposed to meet.
Turns out our friends are inside the barn thing where we just were but she comes out to get us. Our 3 year old friend is asleep in her stroller after their similarly terrible journey. I send the kids to play in a gigantic indoor play structure which is so big and crowded I have no hope of keeping track of them so I just tell them to stick together and I'll be at this table. So we let Arundhati have a little nap and regale one another with the horror stories of how we eventually got there. :)
After awhile we head outside behind the big barn where all the fun stuff is. A small bounce pillow:
Arundhati is awake!
There is a gigantic potato sack slide. So fun! (Autumn is on my lap)
We did that 3 times. Well, me and my kids did. Then we played on a small playground for a few.
There was a tiny petting farm behind the playground so we headed over there for a bit.
Then we got hungry. I bought a plate of French fries for me and my kids to share. Our friends got some more "real" food. :) After the kids ate they went back into the indoor "Tobeland" and my friend and I walked around to see all the things they had for sale in there. She was on the hunt for a tea pot, I wanted strawberry beer. We may have stopped at the fruit wine sampling table more than once. ;)
There was lots more stuff to do there but with our very late arrival, well, we didn't get to it this trip. If the bus only arrives every hour, well, I'm sure it also only leaves every hour. We saw that it would come just after 5:00 and we wanted to give ourselves PLENTY of time to make sure we caught it. So we rounded up the kids, stopped by the loo again (that's what our friend from India says) and went to round up our purchases. I got a strawberry porter and some strawberry jam.
I'm not sure exactly what my friend bought, except I know she very sweetly bought lollipops for all the kids:
That's us waiting at the bus stop. Allllllllllllllll the other people were on the opposite side of the road from us. All of them. I thought they were probably on to something but that was the side the bus dropped us off on, surely it won't pick us up there. Surely.
Luckily when the bus came (on the other side, grrr!), some nice lady on that side shouted, "Elstal Bahnhof?!?" to us on the other side and when we said yes, she waved for us to come over. D'oh! I'm not usually so bad with directions. I've been like a public transportation rock star (most of the time) since arriving, what was the deal??? But then we realized that the bus made a U turn not far after picking us all up and we're certain it would have stopped for us on the other side of the road where it was SUPPOSED to be. We weren't totally stupid. We could read the 3 stops it would make and we were doing it right. It's just the other way was apparently right too. Whew.
I couldn't be wrong that many times in one day.
Or could I?
Our friend decided she would stick with us and so she, of course, rode the 662 back to the regional train station with us.
Then she got on the regional train with us.
I had a transport map so we were able to confirm, along with an app on her phone, the route she was supposed to take. She got off at the proper stop to catch a different train to her part of town and the kids and I rode a few more stops to get to the proper train for our part of town. Except then we decided we weren't going straight home. Jason was already there and we had planned to go out to dinner. So, we got off the regional train, took our "usual" subway, got off early to switch to a different line for one stop and then came above ground to catch a tram. Guess what: I got on that stupid tram going in the wrong direction AGAIN!!!! What is my deal?!?! We rode it one stop, but then we had a bunch of walking to do to catch it going the other way, finally got on where it was sooooo crowded and my kids had finally reached their max....except none of them was being whiney or naughty...they were being crazy! It was almost like they were drunk. They were so loud and giggling and extremely happy and falling all over themselves. Seriously. We got on and I told them, "Hold on to something" but two of the three of them fell on the floor/into strangers as the tram took off. They were being hysterical though. People all around us were laughing, actually, at how happy and hilarious my children were being with each other.
Our journey to our stop where we were meeting Jason wasn't too long but he heard us coming long before we got there. Then at the restaurant, Jason found two tiny tables inside (the place was really crowded) and I went to the counter to order our food. This was where the guy serving me got hummus on his fingers, licked it off, then used his hands to pull out and arrange the things for Jason's and my falafel platters, then he took my cash and gave me my change with his hands and went on serving the people in line behind me.
Welcome to GERM-any.
Seriously, I did this giant double take and looked around at the fellow patrons when I saw him lick his fingers and continue. No one else even flinched. Okay then.
And I ate it anyway. And I'm alive today to tell the tale. This very long tale.
I wanted to cry for you just reading this! I can't imagine the frustration that I would feel …and not sure even having the kids with me would keep my from crying (or snapping at them). Major props to you!
ReplyDelete