Bus Abenteuer

I've mentioned before that I live in a midwestern city roughly the size of Heidelberg.  My ZDB coauthor and I met in said city when we were in each other's first grade class.  We are currently back in this city hoping for work or a seat at the university or something.  In the meantime we miss Germany.  A lot.  We've used some of the typical techniques, such as going to the local German restaurant for a beer (I paid $5.75 plus tip for a Warsteiner that would've cost 2,50 euro in Heidelberg).  The other day we decided we would try out our public transportation system.

Public transportation in Germany is fantastic.  Even in very small cities, there's usually some form of transport.  Cities in Germany also tend to be much more compact, making walking a feasible option.  Normally, bus stops in Germany have either a schedule posted or an electronic sign stating when the next bus/tram/train is coming.  This way, if you know you can walk to that location in less time than the bus will take to get to you, you can always leave.  Germans like to complain a lot about their train system, but as an American expat, I always felt I was getting the best of both worlds.  I could impress Germans by complaining about socially appropriate things while still being happy that I have a train to take at all.  Public transportation and bike access is so good in Germany, that my 22 year old Deutsche BFFin does not have a driver's license and does not want one.  From what I can gather, she is rather unusual in this matter, but the fact that she can accomplish this at all really says something.  She always seemed rather unimpressed by my reliance on cars in the US, but accepted my argument that she would understand if she ever came and saw the city I came from.  Other Germans don't necessarily accept this.

I began our bus adventure by looking up the times the bus ran.  The website for the transit was awful, but I was just happy they even had one.  However, I was disappointed to see the bus came only 45 minutes.  My friend and I decided to catch the 4:30pm bus from the community college near my own and ride it all the way downtown.  We arrive at the station which is full of 6-7 buses.  A voice comes onto the loudspeaker announcing that all buses (ALL OF THEM!) would be leaving now, so everyone needs to board their bus.  We wanted to wander around downtown, so we did not board a bus.  I made the terrible mistake of not looking up return bus times, so when we arrived at the downtown station, we learned that after 5:15pm the Night Buses begin.  In what world is 5:15pm nighttime?  People are barely getting off work at that time!  Unfortunately, there was no night bus that ran back to my house and the one bus that ran semi-close did not stop on the street we were on at "night".  To add to our confusion, none of the bus stops had posted schedules, so we did not know if the night bus would ever come.

Given this, we decided to walk from the station and see how far we could make it without calling for someone with a car to rescue us.  We saw some pretty interesting people on the streets, had a strange encounter with a terribly rude coworker at a chocolate shop and an hour & 1/2 later, we found ourselves at mooter's house.  I missed the bike riding and walking I did in Germany, so honestly that walk was fairly pleasant.

So to all the Germans that judge us for our car culture, I invite them to stay with me for a couple days to a week.  We will ride the buses and we will drive out to bufu to ride the train into Chicago and you will get a better understanding.  Don't hate us and our cars, hate the system!