Lost in Germany? No Big Deal!

The trip to visit Aunt Trina in Germany might not have been the easiest trip ever, but fear not! I made it :)

It started out with the train from Chalais to Bordeaux being cancelled. As this was step one in the journey, it put a bit of a hiccup in the endeavor. Fortunately, Barbara is AMAZING and drove us to Bordeaux. (I was going to travel with Rochelle to Bordeaux before we separated) it was an hour and a half drive and I still can't thank Barbara enough for saving the trip! YOU ARE GREAT, BARBARA! Anywho, it went smoothly for a while after that.

Though, I don't think Cassandra is a common name in France... 

So all went well into Germany, until Meinheim when I transferred trains to Heidelberg. Now at this point, I am under the impression that Trina wants me to go to Weinheim. (Unbeknownst to me, there are 2 emails explaining that it's easier to go straight through to Heidelberg, go to Heidelberg, respond to this email, for gods sake go to Heidelberg, etc). I'm a bit apprehensive since I don't speak German, but the trains are usually easy. So I hop on my train. Unfortunately, those train maps are like labyrinths! So I find an English speaking German and I point at Weinheim on the map. He tells me at which station to get off. No problem! Except...this is the station at which I get off:

It's deserted. Only two platforms, no help desk, and in the middle of nowhere. There's no wifi so I can't email Trina. So I climb the stairs to the street and look blankly at signs for a bit, pondering the meanings of the fun words on the signs, then I return to the platform and stare at the map some more. Finally a group of teens swoop by and buy tickets at a machine. I wait until they're done and ask a girl if she speaks English. She does and becomes my new buddy! She helps me find the train to Weinheim and buy my ticket. Just FYI, she said the map is confusing to her and she's from Germany. Not that I'm defending myself or anything...

Lost! Somewhere that has an 'w' in it's name (hint, it's NOT Weinheim)

So I make it to Weinheim. Probably later than planned, but who knows! At this point it's about 10pm. It's pretty empty here, too. But there were some people. No car with Trina though! So I looked around for a bit, checked if there was wifi. No. Pay phone? Yes! But after ten minutes, I realize it's out of order. It takes pressing random buttons for a while for it to say out of order in English...There was a restaurant across the street, but no wifi there either. Non English speaking girl was the only one around besides taxi drivers, so I asked to use her phone. The number to Trina's friend did not work... So finally, I pull up the email Trina sent a while back with Judy's address and hopped in the taxi! I was there in five minutes :)

All makes for a good story and it's not so bad compared to getting swarmed by bees! So I'm safe and sound in Germany, excited to see what memories I'll make tomorrow!