Yesterday went from being good to being fraught to being hopeful again…
Got my first class seat on the train from Lyon,I’m all sorts of posh me,train was packed but my seat was a single window seat upstairs on a double decker and wouldn’t you know it there was a massive storm for the entire trip to Mulhouse Ville where me & half the train changed for Basel…
I saw that it only took half hour to Basel & the trains were regular so hung around for some food.I‘ll be dammed if I’m paying upwards of €9 for a sarnie if I don’t have to…didn’t hang around in Basel either as would have been tempted for a pint and had to take out a payday loan…
So got to Freiburg easily,had a coffee and downloaded the Freiburg local transport app( incongruously called VAG) but they wouldn’t let me buy tickets as it kept rejecting my bank approved thingy.Said my credit check was bad,kept trying but same everytime.Bugger.Turns out they were being complete and utter vages…had to break my rule about taxis again,driver tried for €40 and I got him down by another ten and at the end the metre read €29-85…
Have you ever been in a taxi with no idea where you’re going but it doesn’t feel right and you start to think “organ trafficking “? Yea that went through my mind…luckily I was wrong but man I was miles out of Freiburg.
Hotel is fine and the staff very helpful when I asked about how far the centre was I was told an hour walk.Bloody hell! There’s one bus stop outside but after checking it they’re one an hour and go nowhere near the centre.My app still said I was as poor as a church mouse…I am fine with getting the tickets I need either via machine or via phone but don’t have the confidence to engage with the driver in German “ nah mate I don’t want the terminus,I want the stop by Poundland next to the vape shop”
So started walking but must have taken a wrong turn and for two hours( I was walking slowly) it was one huge industrial estate.It was worse than going to Reading…by this time I was thinking I’d made a huge mistake and couldn’t take three days of this…There was one isolated pub next to an abandoned rail line(never a good sign) I looked in,let’s just say the vibe was American Werewolf in London mixed with Clueless tourist getting mugged in Trainspotting.I didn’t have a drink…
Eventually I must have double tracked on myself and walked into a Tabak bar where five old time locals were happily drinking,smoking and playing that dice game old time Germans play.They were fine…by this stage I was seriously thinking of taking the hit,checking out of the hotel and getting closer to the centre as I really felt I was isolated.The prices were very high though.I checked out Baden Baden,the prices were even higher,thought about pissing off to Stuttgart but I’m there on monday anyway.Bollocks…shame as I’d always wanted to see Freiburg and it looked like I was not going to despite being here…I’ll check out the VAG app once you never know.Yay! Turns out I’m now a responsible enough adult to purchase a three day ticket for €24…
Couldn’t be bothered finding anything else so went back to the hotel as it turns out I was on the same road but a lot further up…took the same road this morning,walked a hundred metres past the Tabak bar and bugger me there’s a tram straight into town!
So now I’m in a cafe surrounded by tourists,Freiburg fans and Werder Bremen fans and I’m so happy I didn’t check out of the hotel last night…
See you all tomorrow!
1 comment:
Yes, I've had days like that - way over the wrong side of Paris from my hotel in July when I found out that all public transport had stopped at 9pm, for example...
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