''The horrible EU'' A dash of irony.

I am back from a very beautiful and amazing wedding. I will be making a post about it and all of my trip to France for you to read about very, very soon. But I have something else on my heart. Something I want to share with you first. And that something is the most unlucky thing that happened to me on the trip. My return home.

You can get from Wuerzburg to Rennes in around 12 hours by taking two trains and a bus. Flying is a similar issue but it does not provide you with comfortable legroom, free wifi, and phone chargers. My trip home was 20 hours long. Almost the double of the norm. And all of it because everything, our rented car, bus, and train presented us with issues. How often does that happen? That every transport you use goes against you?

I look back at the recent day laughing now but on it, from the 21st to the 22nd of August, I was miserable.

So, why the title? Because EU is quite great to lie in on a travelers viewpoint. Open borders, no passport control, cheap trains going through multiple countries. Cheap flights. Even though Ryanair is trying to change it now with their baggage adjustments and all that. Most people speak English at least on a basic level. And people are actually nice if you are lost but polite. Even the stigma that the French will ignore you if you do not speak French has changed a little bit. They still do not always know or want to speak English but the people are nice if you are respectful.

So, in this fairyland, I felt miserable for one whole day. And that is why EU is horrible now. :D One drop of oil spoiled my honey pot. Not really but I think this is a funny experience that is worth sharing. Especially for those of you who hate bugging people just like I do.

I came back from the trip with the notion that sometimes you just have to ask. They are only human and most of the times, there will be someone willing to help you. And, because of this trip, my trust in humanity has been restored a little bit and my faith in us wanting to help each other is also affected.

Part I. The car.

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I, Jonas, and @KubbyElizabeth rented a car together. It was a cute and powerful little beast that ate so little petrol that we were all impressed. In the end, on 650 km we spent 56 euros for petrol. That is very cheap. We also were driving with it all the holidays and had no issue with the car. If you do have one, there is roadside assistance included in the package at https://www.rentacar.fr/en/.

This is the car we rented. Yes, it had the promotional stickers on it and it was therefore cheaper. Also, the extra mileage is 0.19 cents on a km or 19 euros for 100 km. I could not be happier about this car rental.

So. Where is the catch? Nowhere. Everything was splendid until the very last day when our little car, driven by Jonas, bruised another car. Yeah. I was very happy that we had had an amazing holiday with no issues but here we go and do it on the last day. And it is not surprising because Jonas does this kind of thing more often than you would think. It is very hard for him to concentrate and it gets him in trouble sometimes.

Well, we were obviously insured but we will have to pay for a new paintwork on the other car(our little car had no damage whatsoever). The agency was very understanding about this, too as they are allowed to take up to 900 euros in the case of us damaging another car but they are making sure we only have to pay for the paintwork which we are told will amount to around 300 euros. Jonas is covering that when Kubby sends us the bill as she had already left and it was Jonas who was driving on this day. The person at the rental place was great(We took the car from Rennes Gare). He spoke good English and was very patient with us.

So, that is the first unfortunate event in one day.

Part II. The bus.

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At this point, I was just calming down from my heart jumping out of my chest. I get huge rushes of adrenaline whenever something bad happens. It is dreadful, especially since adrenalin paralyzes my thinking. It is not something I enjoy but I was starting to regain my spirit and the red in my cheeks quite fast. We went to the bus station and we made it to the bus only because it was late. But I had known it would be delayed as I had received an email. It was half-an-hour late. Instead of 12.20, it was scheduled for 12.50. And everything went well and good. The bus arrived 10 minutes before the scheduled departure and we all got in after showing our tickets.

This is when the trouble started. The bus was full. In fact, there were too many people and it seemed that everyone had a ticket. The bus driver counted us and refused to leave. He only spoke in French and I was at a loss. A fellow passenger explained that something was wrong with the passenger count. So, for the next 40 minutes, we stayed glued at the bus stop.

The funny thing is that I had mis-checked my times and initially thought that we would have some time for walking around Paris. It turned not only that we did not but also that we would be racing time to get to that train that would bring us back to Germany. I found it out in time and was ready for this as there was potentially still plenty of time. But the bus driver didn't get the memo.

What turned out to be an issue was the way the bus driver checked our tickets. He looked at them and just let us on the bus. He was standing outside the vehicle and others could sneak past him easily. So, two guys without tickets did. They had put their bags in the hold and walked on the bus like nobodies business. And only when we were all thrown out of the bus and our tickets were checked again did they grab their bags and run.

We missed our train because of this. And the humorous thing is that even though the bus departed 40 minutes late, we still stopped midway, which is understandable. But the stop was 45 minutes! Everyone was back after half an hour but we left at the told time. And because the driver did not speak English, we could not share our problem with him.

We arrived at the train station 3 minutes after our train had departed.

Part III. The last train.

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It turned out that ours was the last Deutsche Bahn train of the day. We were informed that the next train would come the day after. Our options, however, were to ask the train master of a different company (French trains) to let us on their train. We were informed that it was highly unlikely that we would get on that train and that we would probably have to buy new tickets that cost around 250 euros (per person).

At this point me and Jonas were both discouraged, angry, and tired already. I had tiny to no hope for ever getting home. I had already accepted my faith an becoming a homeless French train station inhabitant. Well, maybe it was not so horrible but you get the point...

We waited for the next train that was actually three connection trains instead of the one we would have taken originally. The conductors did not give us much hope as they seemed to listen to us and just move on. But Jonas has a different nature from mine. I try not to bug people. Jonas, on the other hand, asked the second conductor after the first one basically blew us off. This time he was insistent but polite. I had told him not to be rude(he was angry) as they did not owe us anything. Remember, this was a different company.

This time we were let on the train stop and brought to the Train Manager. My hopes were still close to none as, again, different company. The train manager was a pleasant and amazingly nice woman who just listened to our story till half-way and told us to get on the train. I could not believe our luck after all the burns throughout the day. I thanked the woman profoundly even though she was just wishing to move on and we took our three extra trains happily.

Part IV. The pick-up. The conclusion.

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The trains are not where the story ends. We were supposed to be picked up but as our schedule changed and we arrived in Frankfurt in the middle of the night. Jonas father could not pick us up in Frankfurt and we took the morning train home. This was the least of the issues we encountered. I waited happily, for that morning train. Knowing that I was almost home.

We left our home in France at 10.30 AM on the 21st of August. We arrived home at 7 AM on the 22nd. I learned some new life lessons and observed more of our human nature. How people were kind to us when we could communicate with them. How my eyes were opened. How I and Jonas were bad at our relationship and it is time to move on. We were annoyed and pissed with each other most of that day and it just made me feel stronger about us going our separate ways.

This trip opened my eyes to many things. Love, how you should only settle when it is real. And even though people give up far too easily these days, I think we tried way too hard. But were are both on good terms.

So, life has a funny way of showing us our way and fate is very hard to ignore unless you want to go contrary to it.
Have a great day. Today, tomorrow, and forever!
Linda.