chase the light

Well, on the train today. Got up without a problem and headed over to Gare du Nord and got our Eurorail tickets in order. We upgraded to first class but for some reason my credit card was declined. Oh great. What now? After we got our tickets I thought I’d try and pull some cash out of the machine to check the card. Sure enough, won’t give me any money. Jill gave me her calling card to call my bank. Took me like 5 tries to get the numbers right to get through to my bank. Long story short my card had a hold put on it for fraud! Ha ha! I’m the one traveling around and they think it’s fraud charges. Anyway, they undid the ATM part so I’m able to pull some cash but I have to call them later to talk to the fraud department to lift the part on my Visa credit card. Oh joy. I guess it’s good in a way, but um… I called you two days ago and told you I was in Europe and to approve any of those charges!

We aren’t going to be able to get on the first train out so we have to wait until 10:55. Two hours. Could have slept in. Went across the street to the McDonalds where they have free internet. Uploaded a few photos to Flickr but didn’t have time to update the journal.

11:00am: Train is leaving.

12:15pm: The train left a few minutes late and we whisked our way through the countryside to Belgium. (Bau, you’re home country is still here. You we’re right!)

1:00pm: We’re now currently in Germany on our way to Cologne.

1:38pm: Call me naive, but when a German policeman walks up to your seat and says, “May I zee zoor passee port?” it’s kinda funny.

1:41pm: The rest of this entry will be written in German.

1:42pm: Ok, I don’t know German. Guten tag. Hallo. That’s all.

2:50pm: Arrived in Cologne and had about an hour wait before catching the train to Berlin. Just the food in the station looked amazing. I think it might be four days of eating wiener shaped foods.

3:55: Left Cologne, now on our way to Berlin. The guy in front of me is snoring something fierce. I think he’s snoring with a German accent. No really, I swear. Headphones on, lets see… A little Polyphonic Spree – Together We’re Heavy seems like good train music.

4:20pm: Looking out the window or a plane with music blasting has always been great.

4:30pm: Announcement: ???????????? Um, I dunno. It was in German.

4:32pm: Battery power’s at 30% maybe I’ll shut down for a bit. If something exciting happens I’ll fire it back up.

4:33pm: Stopping at Angdenhaanegnheimershvitz or something. Tried it phonetically but the sign was also too long to type in.

4:44: I can already tell I’ll be coming back to Germany someday. The countryside is beautiful although I have no idea where we are. Lots of signs with Bauhaus written of them. Also lots of German flags hanging from windows. World Cup fever.

5:53pm: Nothing interesting for the last hour. Stout German woman hawking “tea or coffee”.

5:56pm: Train soundtrack has been The Polyphonic Spree, The Flaming Lips, The Pogues and Neko Case right now. So many bands with “The” in them these days. It’s gettin’ old.

8:20pm: Arrived in Berlin. Had to figure out how to get from where we were to Alexanderplatz. Easy, two stops away. Got checked in and all is good.