Well, on my first train ride in Germany I rode the ICE (said "e say a", but it stands for the English words "Inter-City Express). On the ICE my ticket got checked to make sure I wasn't riding illegally. However, now that I am in Freiburg, I use the Streetcars, and since there is such heavy use, tickets are basically nevered checked.
Anyway, today I was riding the streetcar back from my language class. I sat down and in came a group of mid-40's men who looked like they worked in construction or some other job that required a little bit of manual labor or getting dirty (that is, they weren't in $1000 suits). So, they sit down around me and start talking. One of them had a really thick Bayern (Bavarian) accent (he was speaking regular Hochdeutsch, but with a thick accent). I find the accent rather soothing, so I kinda started to drift off.
Finally it came to their stop, and they stand up to get off. I am kinda out of it at this point. I hear a voice say something about a ticket (in German). Then I hear the voice say it again, and louder. Then I look up and there is one of the workers, looking at me very angerly, and he is holding a VAG (transportation authority) identification card in his hand. So, I fumble around for my wallet, open it up, and there is last month's ticket. He gives me a dirty look, but I quickly flip my wallet to show this months ticket. Disappointed, he left me alone and got off.
Now, that was a boring story and all, but I have a question. Why were there 6 VAG workers on one street car doing nothing but chatting with each other? They were on for a good 20 minutes. There were 6 of them, and they only checked one ticket: mine. In 20 minutes, they could have checked hundreds of tickets. The fine for not having a ticket is 40 Euros (about $50). That's a good amount of money. I think they just figured I was such a sure bet that they didn't bother checking anyone else. Come on, I'm just some stupid punk college kid. I don't look responsible and I look old enough to no longer have my parents looking out for me.
So, what's my point? I guess my point is that descrimination is good, because it could have saved these guys a lot of time. If 1 in 100 travels without a ticket, there's no point in asking 100 people if you can ask 1. But I had a ticket, so maybe my point is that descrimination is bad.
Or maybe I don't have a point. Maybe the VAG worker was just really intemidating and I feel like ranting about it.
Who knows.
~Mole (I should start calling myself Mole. Notice that o is one key to the right of i, and l is one key to the right of k).
Archived comments:
Anna:
The topic title is Creeping train people. Were the creepy train people creeping? lol Must be slightly disconcerting to have German guys yelling at you. Then again, my image of a German guy is someone like Arnold Schwarzenegger (sp?). I should come visit you in Germany so I can get that stereotype out of my head (and yes, I do know he's Austrian). Also so I can get yelled at by creeping German people.
PS. Mole....never thought of that...very interesting...I'll have to start calling you that. Whenever I think of moles, I think of chemistry, and then I think of Mr. Comeau (my BHS chem teacher), and then I start laughing.
Katherine:
Hah! At least you're not in Russia (I've been reading about the train misadventures and adventures of a Johnny alum in Russia lately; truly harrowing.)
If this were America, could you sue for discrimation based on young foreign punk status? Oh wait, if you were in America you wouldn't be foriegn. Ignore me, it's late and I have a cold.
mikepn:
Ha, ha. Yes, the title was a misspelling, along with my name. Lazy hands. So, instead of admiting to misspellings, yes the train people were creeping and my name is Mole.
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