What a day!!!

Everything which could not have happened, happened today. Gosh. What an adventure it was.

But luckily, it turned out all alright.

Managed to reach Berlin after the crazy 3 hour wait between Venlo and Dusseldorf. On top of that, I missed the ICE link between Dusseldorf and Berlin when I arrived at Dusseldorf, because I had not validated my Eurail.

Bah.

But it was kinda fun. Travelling alone...on high speed trains...snoozing whilst the environment gets boring, or gaping in awe of the wonderful structures which you pass by, either the city or the countryside.

The ICE train journey was kinda interesting. Because I used the Eurail pass, I did not need to pay €94 for the train ride (that's the price in Germany train station, but in the Netherlands the journey from Eindhoven to Berlin was €81?! What a difference!)

I did not know whether I could eat in the train, even though there were drop-down tables (like airlines) in front of me, and recycle bins just behind my seat. In the end, I just took out my box of grapes, because they were practically odourless and it would be much easier to eat them without others realising I was eating (except the person next to me, of course!)

I've not said why I was delayed a pathetic 3 hours on the railways of Europe right?? It's like the first time I'm spending 3 hours on a train platform! OMG. Apparently the heavy rain overnight caused some problems for the railway between Venlo and Dusseldorf, so we had to take a bus from the Venlo train station to the nearest German train station to get to Dusseldorf.

And the most irritating thing was that I mistakenly thought that I had to get off the bus at one of the stops, and this Brit dude (with his group of friends) had to take over my seat. And looked at me nonchanlantly even though my bag was bigger than half his size. Gosh. In the end I was sitting in his original seat, the one in the middle, right at the back.

(On normal travels in SG I would think that's a pretty good seat actually. Haha. But just not with a huge bag la.)

The rest of the trip on the bus was spent in agony because I could not sit back and relax. Geez. And his group of friends were so noisy. But I guess that's the thing about big groups travelling together! U talk more and there's a lot of chatter going about.

After reaching this ulu place called Vernin (dunno where it is), the whole bus group realised that we had missed the ride of Dusseldorf by 3 minutes, and therefore, some of us opted to go to Dilsburg whereas the rest stayed to wait for the next train.

I was in the latter group, and what "wise" choice. We were forced to wait for almost 2 hours because the train kept getting postponed. Met 2 Indian travellers, both working in Netherlands, and an Indonesian retiree living in the Netherlands. Had a good chat, which was great! Some asian people at least, haha.

In the end, we left the dilapidated train station and were soon on the way to Dusseldorf, which I slept. Haha.

And of course, back to the ICE train...it was really a nice train! Damn. Fell in love with it. But expensive also. It's interior was splendid! Shall upload pictures when I reach Luzern instead. lol.

Met this PhD student from Austria, and she's really pretty, but we exchanged a couple of words on the train, and later when we were in the Berlin tourist information counter. Too bad, never got her contact.

So I was in Berlin, it was raining, and I was all geared up for the wet-weather. Was apprehensive about going over to the Berlin Internationl Youth Hostel in the first place as I did not have a booking, but I went ahead with it anyway, and got myself lost in the transportation network of buses! Geez. Luckily there were a couple of nice German guys who showed me the correct way and I was soon in the hostel, safe and sound.

And food! Who can forget about it! (shall upload later. haha) Was so hungry, and despite still having bread in my bag, I was really tempted for some warm food on a cold, windy day. So I made my way to the nearby restaurants/cafes and settled at the Kebab stall, which served me a plate of Kebab meat and rice, with salad. Went ahead to get a 0.33l coke and it cost me €6.20. OMG. But I was really satisfied after the warm meal, and the free soccer match showing there was a real deal.

Ok...time to rest and plan for the next few days...might update from Luzern! :)

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