Volume 2, Day 24
It was a late night for me, but an even later night for R. I got up once at 4 am to use the restroom and noticed the hall light I had left on for him was still on. When I got up for good at 8 (which is sleeping in for me) it was off. Of course, I had the luxury of a lazy morning because my bus wouldn’t be until noon, while R had a standing appointment to go to a flea market at 10am. I wouldn’t have enough time to go and get back, so when he woke up and rushed out the door half asleep at 9:59 (because a car was waiting downstairs), we said a quick goodbye and I lazily packed up my stuff.
Knowing that the train station was full of goodies, I figured I’d head over that way a full hour before my scheduled bus time. That way, although the S-bahn would take a whopping 8 minutes to travel four stops, I could grab a snack to eat and still be waiting for my bus at its departure point a full 15 minutes early per instructions (though to be fair, I have yet to see a bus arrive more than 1 minute before the scheduled departure time).
I dragged my stuff around the corner to the Reeperbahn station, bought a ticket, and waited for the train. And waited. And waited. That’s funny, though there was a signboard indicating a train was only 1 minute away, the train never came. Then the signboard switches over to a “Police action — all trains canceled” notice. And the loudspeaker goes on a loop saying that some unauthorized people are on the tracks, be advised to take alternate transportation. Well, there really wasn’t much choice for alternate transportation. It’s not exactly like I was going to walk 2 km to a different staion (an U-bahn, maybe), but even worse was that I had purchased a ticket.
At one point I wandered upstairs from the platform to weigh my options and I overheard some young people talking to a station employee through the glass. No refunds for tickets. Tough luck. This is Europe. My blood pressure rises just to think of this shitty service attitude. I miss Japan.
I was plenty early for my bus, but the minutes ticked by. Do I take a taxi over there? No way. A taxi costs 12 euros, which is still more than the price I already paid for a bus ticket plus the price of a later bus. So, I waited. A train came. I looked at my watch, and the timing would work.
I flew out of the train station and hurried over to the ZOB, arriving exactly 15 minutes prior to the scheduled departure, then sat there sweating for 20 minutes because the Flixbus came late.
It wasn’t a long ride to Bremen and we were dropped off under what looks like an elevated highway near the train station. Fortunately, the independent hostel I booked in advance was not a far walk away, though it took me a minute to find. It is actually a guest house with a hotel and a hostel in separate, but essentially adjacent buildings. My first impression was that it was very nice, though I was a little taken aback when I was asked to pay.
Having booked it through Ctrip, I was under the impression I had prepaid, because that is usually the case (and sometimes the hostels make a mistake and try to charge you twice). My internet with its perfect timing decided to fail so after hesitating a minute while trying to load my booking record and double check, I just forked over the cash. When I finally logged onto the internet, I found that they had overcharged me by 2 euros. What thieves! Nevertheless, I’m so afraid of confrontation, I just let it slide.
I was pretty starving by that point, so I found a nearby Edeka to grab some sort of pastry to make do for a afternoon tea (coffee), and while I was there I grabbed a salad for dinner. I’m still struggling with my weight and always scheming about how to eat healthy. After my coffee break, in which I caught up on a bit more work on the computer, I decided to change into my exercise clothes and explore a bit of the city (by which I mean the Burgerpark).
A block north of the train station, there is a huge park that goes as far as the university (which would be rightly described as being in the suburbs). I took about an hour jog around on the gravel paths, enjoying the grass lawns, drooping trees, and sunny afternoon. Returning to the hostel, I suddenly remembered it was Saturday and that the shops would be closed tomorrow. Since this hostel had a spacious kitchen, I should take advantage of it and cook as much as possible. So, before even showering, I looked up an Aldi on the map and headed over to do some shopping.
Unfortunately, the Aldi was closed for rennovations or something like that, but it was on the north plaza of the train station and I learned that I could cut through the shopping mall like passageway of the train station. Several of the food vendors selling bratwurst, doner, pizza, ice cream looked both delicious and reasonably priced and I’m starting to realize just how little “authentic” German food I’ve eaten on this trip so far. I think 90% of my calories have been from supermarkets…not even specialty bakeries or sweets shops so much. Its a real pity, but necessary to real keep the costs down. But maybe, if/when I swing back through Germany and I am doing good on the daily spending average, I can relax the purse strings a little bit and eat more of this fast food.
I’m not a big fan of Edeka supermarkets, so I was delighted when I found an underground Rewe on the south plaza of the train station, two streets away from the hostel. I went a bit nuts with the shopping (per usual), grabbing a second salad, some antipasta mixes (olives and goat cheese) that were on sale, fresh tortellini, a loaf of sandwich bread, butter, jam, eggs, sliced cheese, tomato soup (can). Going with Italian, I can’t not drink a bit of wine, but I only “treated” myself with one Rittersport bar. I can’t trust myself with more junk food.
Later on, when I looked at the receipt, I noticed that the cashier ripped me off by about 2 euros. I got double charged for the butter and I was only given the 30% off discount on one of the olive packs. I specifically bought two because they were both on sale. Knowing how great German service is, I had to swallow my seething resentment at being robbed again. It’s funny how often I’ve wondered if the cashiers were doing some shady business on me. They usually try not to give you a receipt and you are so busy trying to put all your food in a bag quickly to really pay attention to what they are doing. There are thieves all over Germany, but they are the merchants and capitalists.
I took a shower and got cooking. After eating a large salad and half a package of tortellini (still two servings), I plugged a USB stick into the TV in the lounge and put on a movie. I had about five minutes left on the movie (which I had been fastidiously adjusting the volume so as not to disturb the one or two other people who were scrolling through their phones in the lounge), when the hostel staff kicked us out of the room.
The hostel has a rule that the kitchen and lounge are closed from 10pm to 7:30 am. Such a rule could be seen as reasonable if this was St Pauli or Friedrichshain, but it is a very quiet hostel with a handful of people sitting quietly in a room. The “neighbors” make more noise than any of the hostel guests. Most disturbing, however, is the fact that the showers are also in this section that is locked up. It is summer time and the sun hasn’t even set yet at 10 pm. Everywhere I’ve been, Germans who should otherwise being eating their dinner punctually at 7 pm are barely starting to cook at 9 or 10 pm. This rule is utter madness.
I retreated to my dorm (a spacious with six beds) to find two people snoring away in the dark. So, I was nowhere near ready to sleep, but I suddenly found myself with nowhere I could be. I started to get anxious about what is going to happen when I wake up at 5 or 6 am and can’t access hot water to make coffee. People might get murdered.
| Sbahn | 2.3 |
| Flixbus | 5.08 |
| Hostel (3 nights) + sheets | 65.52 |
| Edeka (croissant, salad, water) | 3.51 |
| Rewe groceries | 22.09 |
| Total: | 98.5 EUR (768.3 RMB) (USD 111.73) |
Running Total: 9611.6 RMB (USD 1397.77)
Daily Average: 400.5 RMB (USD 58.24)