My lucky day

So as I've said before I have quite a lengthy train commute going on. It's about 50 minutes---never less than that but occasionally more when there are delays and whatnot. Instead of being like any other train system I've ever been on, a conducter comes through and you can't actually purchase your ticket on board. It's not even like Amtrak where it's more expensive. You don't have a ticket, you get slapped with a 600KR fine (aka $100). So a dude (or chick but not usually...and usually those chicks are pretty dude-looking if you know what I mean...but I digress) they'll open up the door to the car, say something important-sounding in Danish that involves the word "reise" which I think means ticket and then they look at everyone's ticket.

During the first week of orientation way back when we had survival Danish courses where we learned the phrases every new-to-a-language student learns like "My name is Olivia" "I am 21 years old" "I come from the USA" etc etc. What they really should have taught us was words that are used on public transportation.

There are about a million different ways to get around. There are S-togs (like a subway), Metro (because you know, one subway system just wasn't enough), regional trains (holleration the only way to get to Borup) and buses. Now within those, are separate lines--like there are 6 S-tog lines, I think and the regional trains run all over the place. For people that take things like S-tog and metro (IE all of my friends) generally speaking something comes every 10 minutes or so to pick them up, it's pretty reliable and the longest I've seen anyone have to wait was like 20 minutes.

Now here are some words I should have been taught during week one and then what DSB (the Septa of over here, and yes it's that inefficient and annoying) would want to tell you if they felt like employing helpful people :
aflyst=cancelled.

togskift Kobenhavn H=you gotta switch trains at Central Station which is basically like DC's Union Station but we're not going to tell you which of the 10 tracks you're going to have to run to in order to catch that train. SO run like hell up the escalators to the big board up in the main floor, navigate through crowds of people especially the ones with large quantities of luggage and figure out where you gotta be and get there ASAP because chances are that train is going to leave within 2 minutes

Re-Tog af Osterport hen til Kobenhavn H vil ikke opstille indtil 18:00=here's the deal, Olivia, regional trains arn't going to run between Osterport and Central Station until 6pm so you're going to have to get to Central Station and catch the train. Hopefully you make it on time, otherwise you're going to have to wait another hour.

This last one was my day today. I planned on taking the 5:02pm train out of Norreport to get home. I got there at about 4:55 to find that little gem waiting for me, so I hopped on an S-tog and got to Central Station in time to catch the train towards Slagelse with an anticipated stop in Borup. The early mornings are really beginning to catch up with me now, and so I basically get tired at like 3:30/4pm like clockwork. I got on the train and decided to take a little snooze like usual. I cozied up with my scarf-turned-pillow and fell asleep. I woke at one point when the conducter said the next station would be Hoje Taastrup and that's like 5 stops away. GOLDEN I thought. Wrong.

The next time I woke up was when the conducter announced over the PA system that the next stop was Ringsted. Ringsted is actually one stop past Borup. And Borup is actually the last stop that I can use my handy-dandy all-zones train pass. This zone situation makes absolutely no sense as they've just expected me to know that I can't go any further than Borup on my pass but that's for another story.

SO I get off at Ringsted and I'm ready to head back to Borup. I see that there's a train that will stop that leaves at 6:15, so I had to wait like 20 minutes. NBD: no big deal. Except there's that little problem of the train pass not working for the one stop. I had two options at this point: a) purchase a ticket to go the two zones from Ringsted to Borup or b) rock it like a rebel and head back to Borup sans extra ticket.

Natuarlly I opted for the latter. I mean, a girl's gotta live a little, RIGHT?! So I waited to get onto the train until I saw where the conducter was standing that way I could go in the exact opposite direction from him. I couldn't see him so I just jumped on. Of course I get on and BAM he's standing right there...so I bolt in the opposite direction. I go like 5 cars down thinking I'll be okay there. It's only like a 10 minute ride but it was just about the longest 10 minute ride ever. As I'm sitting there, like 2 minutes into my trek, I see the conducter walking down through the cars towards me. First word that comes into my head: "Rats!" At this point I'm thinking I've been caught, but I can't go down without a fight so I bank some tears up in case he tries to give me a ticket and prepare for the worst. Somehow the conducters are really good at remembering whose ticket they've already looked at if they walk through multiple times on the same train. So I decide to look busy and maybe he'll forget that he hasn't seen me yet. I see him coming and he walks into my car and he just keeps walking by me. WHAT!?!?!!!! YES. I didn't get carded. I still don't know how this happened. Someone was watching over me today. It would have been a hefty fine, probably, and one that most likely I wouldn't be able to get out of even with the Academy Award winning performance I was ready to provide.

Moral of the story, the next time I fall asleep on the train I'm going to set an alarm on my phone. Well I think that's probably all of the updates before my weekend trip to Berlin. We're leaving Friday afternoon at 4:15p and have a 7 hour bus ride to get there...and that includes a close to 2 hour ferry ride (the Dramamine is ready) and we plan on taking free tours, going to museums, hitting up a department store and we're planning on a pub crawl in there too. I don't get back till very late Monday night so I'll hopefully update and throw some pictures up by Wednesday. Hope all is well back in the states!
Love, Olivia