Before today, I had never been in a train station. Laugh at me all you want, Germans, but my experience with public transportation is nonexistent. Aside from school and charter buses, I've been on a bus in the city probably 5 to 10 times. Even in Missoula, where public transportation is a huge step-up from Billings, I've lived on campus all three semesters, so I've never actually taken the bus. So this morning I had to make it from my WG in Potsdam to Leipzig--100 miles away. Thankfully, my Facebook German friend Franzi helped me research where exactly I needed to go: from the tram station right by my apartment building to the Potsdam Main Station to the Berlin Main Station and then the train to Leipzig. I even watched a "Navigating Berlin" video online about what type of ticket to buy (on April 1st, I'll be able to buy a pass for 6 months, and I won't have to worry about this). I made sure to buy an ABC ticket when I got on the tram because, as the video instructed, if you're traveling in Potsdam (or other outlying areas of Berlin) you're in the C zone.
I made it to the Potsdam Station and then hopped on the train to Berlin. It was quite a long ride, but I didn't mind because I got to see a lot of the city. I was about 1 minute away from the station when the Kontrolleur came around (the Kontrolleurs are inspectors on the trains who ask to see your ticket to make sure that you in fact have one and that you aren't a Schwarzfahrer [black rider]--someone who rides the train without paying. So I held up my ticket, but the Kontrolleur grabbed it and yelled, "Nee, diese Ticket passt nicht!" [No, this ticket doesn't work!]. He then told me to get off at the next stop. Luckily for me it was the Berlin Main Station--where I needed to catch my train in a matter of minutes. After I got off he started berating me, but I told him in English that I didn't understand him, hoping to get some sympathy for being a foreigner. I really wasn't trying to cheat anyone--I just bought the wrong type of ticket, I guess. Or maybe I needed to buy one at the train station. I'm still not sure. I kept saying that I was sorry and I thought that the ABC ticket was what I needed, but he just barked back, "Now it cost you 40 Euro!" I I didn't have that much cash on me, so I had to run down to the ATM to get money to pay him. I probably would have been more upset by the whole ordeal, but all I could think of was the train that was leaving to Leipzig anytime. I gave him his damn money, and I ran to the train.
So in short, it cost me as much money to get from Potsdam to Berlin as it's costing me to fly from Germany to Scotland. Aber so ist das Leben [Such is life]! I'm having an amazing time in Leipzig, which I'll recap later. It's too early in my trip abroad to sulk.
P.S. The first thing I did when I got on the train to Leipzig was frantically ask a female passenger where I can buy a ticket. She smiled and calmly said in German, "You can simply sit down, and someone will come around to collect your money." Phew.
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