The time now is 1am in Amsterdam. I’m sitting in bed, piano ballads playing, typing away on my tablet, definitely not a pleasant typing experience. This is a result of insomnia thanks to a combination of evening coffee nap and an overnight train from Munich last night.
It has been a little two months since I arrived in Europe and the past week has been spent travelling around different cities. It may not have been a very long trip , however I have observed significant differences in areas such as culture, behavior of people as well as the feel of the city. Given this rare burst of unexpected mental clarity, allow me to share 3 stories of my personal experience revolving around the central theme of kind souls.
STORY 1 : Public Transport
On a particularly cold earning morning in Vienna, Austria, I make my way to the U Bahn (metro) intending to head towards the Royal palace. Guided by the all powerful Google Maps, I expected a smooth journey as the step by step information provided by Maps was rather fool proof and if used appropriately, almost impossible to get lost. Unless of course the section of maps is outdated or that the local train is under maintenance and maps is unaware, which I unfortunately experienced in Munich.
Alright back to the story. Upon entering the station I saw two flights of stairs on my left and right respectively. Each one leads to a different direction and hilariously enough, Google maps merely stated the destination station without stating which direction I should be heading towards. Hence I turned to the gigantic train map on the wall and started reading my finger around the tiny limes, trying to make sense of the messy web. That was when I heard a voice from behind me asking “where are you headed?”
I turned around to see a smiling middle aged woman. I replied her and she immediately pointed me in the right direction before merrily going on her way. That all happened within ten seconds of me reaching the u bahn map! This was the morning rush hour, most people would be rushing about, yet this kind soul was willing to stop, approach me, a complete stranger and provide assistance. Honestly I felt touched and thankful, for god knows how long I would have took to figure it out by myself. The next example took place in Munich. As stated earlier, a section of the metro was down for maintenance causing major disruptions to our travel plans as that particular stretch connects many important stations together.
My friends and I subsequently spent a good amount of time trying to find alternative routes to reach out destination. The transportation system in Munich is quite complicated, with numerous train tracks sprawled across the entire central station. To make matters worse, the information board displaying train departures was inaccurate and misleading, showing ghost trains which did not exist. Unfortunately me and my friends fell for it and ended up running around the central station over and over, even boarding a train only to realise at the last minute that it was the wrong train. I shudder to think where I would end up if we failed to exit the train before it pulled out of the station.
Fast forward a little, we finally found the correct train, however this route requires 2 transfers to get around the closed section of the metro. We were not alone in this plight, for many commuters were likewise forced to take this journey and as a result, the train was packed like sardines. It was late in the evening and everyone was trying to rush home and so they tried their best to squeeze onto the train. Hence I ended up being squeezed from the train door right to the middle of the train. I was then separated from my friends, one of which found a seat beside a n elderly local while another boarded a separate cabin. One stop later we managed to alight and was once again faced with the task of locating the next train.
The star of this segment turned out to be the elderly lady who Sat beside my friend. She was friendly enough to strike up a conversation and even offered to bring us to the correct train track as she could take that train home too. And so we followed her to track 8 which was the usual track the train should pull up in. Once on the platform , we saw the TV screen displaying a message in German which made no sense to us. The lady explained to us that the train has been diverted to another track and once again we were rushing to another track. Upon reaching the new track, we saw the sign did reflect S6 which was the train we wanted to take, except there was no expected arrival time. And so we played the waiting game.
The rest of the story is irrelevant however just to avoid a cliffhanger, we did find out way eventually. This is the second example of how in two different cities, locals were willing to voluntarily assist tourists in need. This is a heartwarming, perhaps enough to argue that our society is not as cold and distant as thought.
To be continued…