So I am currently sitting on a train back home to Braunschweig after an adventure filled weekend in Mainz! On a train that might I add I almost missed! But let me start at the beginning.
Friday morning I set out on a train to Wiesbaden to meet with my Au-pair program for the day, This meant a 4 hour train ride with one transfer along the way in Frankfurt. Along the way to the station my host father warned me that the Deutsche bahn has four conditions it cant handle , spring, summer, fall and winter and trains are often late during any and all of these seasons. As it turns out it is currently winter, which resulted in my train being 15 minutes late arriving in Frankfurt. This was challenge number one. Had my train arrived on time I would have only had 9 minutes to get to get to my connecting train. This meant by the time I arrived I was too late and that train had left.... Now my task was navigating and figuring out the next train in to Wiesbaden in one of the busiest train Stations in Germany.
Let me quickly explain what Frankfurt Main station looks like, the first level level has 24 tracks that primarily service long distance ICE and CE\ trains. Two levels under ground is where the regional S-bahn (subway type train) arrives and departs. From the first level one there are several entrances into the the lower tacks, but each one only goes to a 2-4 of the many underground stops. This meant reading AND understanding the day's train schedule, then locating the correct entrance and finding the correct track. Unfortunately I could do neither of those things. After twenty minutes of rushing around back and forth with no idea what to do or where I needed to go I learned, much like on my first bus adventure to Braunschweig how those things work. After of course missing two trains I could have taken to my destination. With my new train found and my shaken confidence sightly restored I set out to face challenge two... Arriving an hour later than the meeting time of my program in Wiesbaden.
A phone call to my agency informed me that my late arrival would mean I would have to take the bus alone from the main station in Wiesbaden to the skating rink where our group of Au-Pairs was to spend the early afternoon. Now in my grade 11 year I spent 3 months on an exchange in Mainz, which is right across the river from Wiesbaden and really not much further than going from the South shore to North shore back home in Kamloops, but I was only ever in Wiesbaden once, and I really had zero orientation there. With the instructions "You take bus number 4,7,12, 23, 24, or 47 to the stop called Kleinfeldchen. The ice rink address is 38 Hollerborn Straße." I set out on my way. Thankfully public transit here is pretty user friendly and taking a bus in an unknown area isn't too difficult since each stop has a name, is announced and displayed on a screen for all too see so getting to 'kleinfeldchen' wasn't too difficult. I stepped of the bus and looked in both directions, but no ice rink. So i walked to one end of the block to check what street it meet, not Hollerborn. I turned and walked to the other end, again not Hollerborn... I saved my self the stress and asked in the post office how to get there and as it turned out I just hadn't walked far enough down the side street as the rink was just around the corner.
When I arrived I met my group outside the rink just in time to catch the end of the little getting to know each other activities. We consisted of 11 Au-Pairs and 2 women from the agency. I am the only Canadian with my program, the other girls all come from Mongolia, China, Russia, Ukraine and Albania. Everyone is very nice and the multiple language barriers make our interactions quite interesting. We set out to skate, something I haven't done in years and as a result I am now sporting a lovely baseball sized bruise on my knee. However by some miracle it didn't take long to get steady on my feet again, thankfully. Many of the other girls had never skated before and apparently, being that I am Canadian I should be an expert on the ice (oh stereotypes eh?) and was quickly asked to try to help teach. Now that was an adventure all on its own, but I'll spare you the details! Part of our afternoon was later spent at the Christmas market in Wiesbaden where we exchanged small gifts and explored a little before setting on our way home, or in my case to Mainz.
My partner from the aforementioned exchange lives in Mainz and Saturday was her Birthday so it worked out to be the perfect weekend to visit! Crossing the river to Mainz was a wonderfully feeling since it is the only Germany city who's lay out I have a fair knowledge of since I only know a few blocks worth of Braunschweig so far. It was so nice to see familiar streets and buildings again!
Friday evening was spent enjoying a night on the town catching up, saturday preparing for the party my friend was hosting for her birthday, (I could write a whole post about just making the punch so I'll save the stories for another time) and the evening celebrating. I had a fantastic time and managed quite well to mingle in German, however that was a mentally exhausting process. When everything is loud and in German it becomes much harder to understand and requires a lot more energy. That brings us to Sunday, today, The morning was spent cleaning up from the night before and the afternoon a short trip through the Mainz christmas market. Of course this included a quick stop at the Mainz Cathedral, which so far is my favourite place in Germany, both for its beautiful architecture and the feeling of peacefulness inside that I can never seem to put into words.
Before I knew it, we were back at Mainz main station to catch my train back to Frankfurt. This is when I learned fire is also a problem for trains. About 3 stops after leaving we came to a halt a a station and were informed that there was a fire, thankfully not on our train, but somewhere in the station and we were unable to drive through until further notice. Knowing I had half an hour in Frankfurt this time I wasn't too worried about a short delay. As the minutes slipped by and a second announcement informed us they still didn't know how long we would be waiting the panic began. Thankfully just Moments later we began to move again and made it to Frankfurt with 10 minutes to catch my train! Thus concluding the adventure since this train is peaceful and about to arrive on time.
Once again thank you to everyone for taking the time to read about my silly adventures and for your love and support during my time away!
Love
Cedar
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