Games are running, and so are trains

20:15


Thoughts on transportation
In the last 19 days or so, I didn't spend more than three consecutive nights in one location, for half of that time not even in one country. So I travelled a lot. One gets to think a lot about travelling in that time. I've been on planes, trains, ferries and cars.

Berlin, Friday on the eve of the opening game
As there is no answer from my media consultant company as to if I was chosen for an internship, I decide to go to Hamburg again. Lisa is coming from Sweden, so I can join here for some distance, taking me to Bochum. Even better: I can stay at Sanna's! What's cheapest to go from Berlin to Hamburg? Car sharing, or "Mitfahrgelegenheit" it is. Beats the busses, which are already half of the price of trains for those almost 300 km.
Who would be so uninterested to depart at Berlin at 16:00, knowing that the drive will take a little less than three hours? That is, with the opening game of the ever present football world cup, Germany vs. Costa Rica, starting at 18:00. Women, of course. I am sharing a rented car ("no climate condition, I am sorry") on possibly the hottest day in Germany this year so far, about 25-28 degrees Celsius. We discuss the surprisingly high amount of german flags displayed, with Germany being Germany after all. The past, the guilt, the non-nationalism. While I thought everyone would have agreed that it is strange and out-of place, one girl thought the opposite- it would be strange if there would be none. But there is a shitload of them, hanging from balconys and even more prominent. being stuck in car windows.
Of course I didn't mention that I took a flag on that road trip through Scandinavia, putting it up almost every time we crossed a border. It 's different if your not home, right?

Köln, today
Having that powerbook ready to use is really convenient, that is if the battery is loaded. Same goes for that nice and shiny Ipod. Most modern trains offer the possibility of a power outlet to charge your mobile entertainer. In Finland, the trains I used had sockets when there was a table as well, with special signs to tell you so. In Germany, the ICEs are different. The more modern ones have sockets everywhere, between the seats in most cars. The older ones have them at the tables for four people as well, and the even older ones don't seem to have one at all.
So that girl that was sitting opposite me on that four person seat earlier on must have thought that I was a perv while I was looking for a socket under the table. Yet I couldn't even tell what she was wearing, skirt or pants. Odd things result from "computing anywhere".

Bad Kreuznach, train station
Kaiserslautern - Berlin is a distance of over 900kms, yet it only takes 05:53 h to get there with one of our fabulous ICE trains. Expensive, but nice.
Bochum - Kaiserslautern, on the other hand, is only a distance of 400km. But it will take you 04:49, that is FOUR HOURS and FOURTY NINE MINUTES for less than half the distances. That is even worse in a time - distance ratio than driving from Oslo to Bergen. Or from Bergen to Kristiansand. And on these drives, you get to see some of Sandinavia's finest scenery. The finest, for what I've seen on that 4800 km me and my brother drove through it.
So how come my destination for today takes that long? Kaiserslautern, one of the famous hosts of the Football World Cup, is located in the middle of nowhere, it is virtually unimportant for Germany and the World. Trains drive around my former home town, not through.