Planes and Trains

Travel itinery for the past few days was as follows:

Melbourne- Abu Dhabi 14hrs

Abu Dhabi- Frankfurt 6hrs

Frankfurt- Oldenburg 4hrs

That’s 24hrs of travel with transit times in between. Either I was lucky, or I planned well, because the longest time I had to wait was 2 hrs. Once at the airport in Abu Dhabi (where once I’d found the gate for my next flight I lay on the cool tiles reading) and now at Frankfurt (where I’m sitting in a McCafe writing this). I know what you’re thinking. How could I fly across the world and end up in a McCafé?! Well it’s a bit of the familiar in a very unfamiliar place (plus they have soy milk, whereas another café I tried didn’t). I’d forgotten what it was like to be in a foreign country- especially one where I don’t know the language. I find myself eaves-dropping on conversations. Anything I can’t immediately understand, I ignore. When I hear English, a little spark goes off in my chest as I recognise the words and the meaning behind them. It sounds strange, but I'm in a place when the most German I know is bits and pieces that I can pick up due to my limited knowledge of Dutch. It’s a strange feeling knowing that people are talking about everyday things and it sounds like a mash of sounds that could never be deciphered. Language intrigues me.

Anyway, back to the travel. Last time I flew to Europe I slept a lot. This time I hardly slept. I think it’s because I’m older and find the seats harder on my body, especially my back. I know it sounds like I’m and old woman, and I know I’m not, but the fact is, I’m not 18 anymore! Getting comfortable was hard, but the whole experience was made better by Etihad. Individual screens with a plethora of movies, tv shows, music, games and news. A constant stream of food and drinks. Kind hostesses who bring extra blankets so you don’t freeze to death mid-flight. All of these things made my air travel quite comfortable, despite my sore back and my frequent need to go to the toilet.

So now I know what you’re thinking again…if I’m currently writing this from Frankfurt, then how about the train aspect of my journey? I haven’t taken the train to Oldenburg yet. Seeing as thought I can’t seem to connect to the internet to actually post this, I’m doing this in two sections. My next section will be either tonight or tomorrow, depending on how tired I am when I arrive at Julia’s place. By the way, that’s what’s in Oldenburg. It’s a random town in the North-West of Germany. A friend, who is more like a sister, lives and studies there, and I couldn’t come to Germany and not visit! I haven’t seen her in almost 6 years, so 2 days/3 nights won’t really cut it, but at least it’s a start.

So I went with the ‘tomorrow’ option. Yesterday’s train travel was not as easy as I had hoped. It wasn’t bad, but I was totally exhausted. The trip was also made more difficult by the last minute change in the leaving platform, as well as the added stop to change trains in Bremen (feel free to use Google maps to help locate these towns if you're interested). The first couple of hours were pretty good though, as I talked to a really nice German girl that helped me out with some information about the train. I'll call her V, as that's what her name starts with, but I've forgotten the rest. She's writing a thesis about religion and the way that it is intertwined with culture. Was great to have a friendly face and to find out a bit about her life and such.

Getting off that last train and finding Julia waiting for me on the platform was the best feeling. Seeing her after so long was coupled with the fact that I hadn't seen anyone I knew for over 2 days. This made me quite emotional (I think the exhaustion also had something to do with it!) Anyway, talking about exhaustion, it's time for me to head to bed. Hopefully tonight I won't keep Julia awake with my snoring!