This is a continuation of my 3 part story (read: Part 1). It has been over a month, school has been busy, the weather has turned really chilly and the specifics are starting to fade. As such, this story will be a relatively short one.
St Peter Tower
The location for this story is set in Munich, Germany. Beside the Rathaus (City Hall) lies the St Peter Tower, a “300 feet” (as claimed by another website, I have yet to fact check) tower which offers an amazing bird’s eye view of the city. Definitely a highly recommended tourist destination. After paying the entrance fee and entering the building, I was faced with this spiral staircase so cramped could fit at most 1.25x of my size. Meaning that the traffic was one direction at a time. Hence, before heading up, I silently prayed that no one was coming down or there would be a tough time getting to our respective destinations.
Luckily enough, I got past the spiral staircase in one piece. What’s next was slightly better, but still cramped nonetheless.
The stairs are constructed using wooden boards around the perimeter of the squarish walls. The width of the staircase allows for bi-directional travel. However, the stair landings are located at the corners of the walls and designed to be rather small, which naturally forms a bottleneck. As a result, it become a balancing game of politely giving way to others coming down versus the wrath of the crowd stuck behind you. The most logical trade-off would be for each direction of travel to take turns moving and optimize the traffic flow, which was what happened most of the time.
The Stairs
After the excruciating climb up the stairs, I finally reached the top of the tower. For the first time in a long time, I actually found myself perspiring, probably due to the ventilation, or lack thereof. Feeling pretty excited for the sights, I opened the door only to find that once again, the path was blocked by traffic. The top of the tower has two doors opposite each other and they lead to a pathway going around the tower. The problem with this was that without a proper recommended travel direction, people were inclined to go towards whichever way has the least people, kind of like how electricity flows along the path of least resistance. Coupled with the fact that the pathway was so cramped (expected?) that the opposing traffic was bound to collide somewhere and cause a massive jam.
What made matters worse was that it was sunset and there was a gathering crowd which refused to budge and just stood there. To be fair, the view was really stunning and was worth the whole precarious journey up and down the tower. I would love to post photos, but for now they lie unprocessed on my computer. (PS Flickr, under the new management has limited free accounts to 1000 photos from the previous cap of 1TB, which is a bummer as now I have to relocate my photos and somehow find a way to relink to the blog.)
EDIT: Photos have been added!
On the Tower
What is the problem then, you may ask. The time has just hit 5pm, and the tower has a bell which started to ring. A ringing bell on the top of a tower has a tendency to cause vibrations. The effects of the vibrations are best felt when one is atop the tower where it is furthest away from the stable foundations of the ground. When I say vibrations, the entire structure was literally shaking! I may have mild acrophobia and a distrust of old buildings whose integrity might be questionable, especially when it is not stationary. Being stuck in the jam meant that I was unable to get out of this situation and perhaps unconsciously, I began to grip the railings. Tightly. Thoughts of the building collapsing and me free falling onto the ground below began playing in my head. I could feel my heartbeat rising fast. All I wanted at that moment was to squeeze past everyone and dash down the tower towards the embrace and safety of solid ground.
Help?
This was when I heard a voice from behind me. “Are you alright? You look pale”. I turned around to see a woman and a few others looking rather concerned. I assured them I was fine in a feeble voice, but actually I didn’t feel particularly well. This may seem trivial, something not worth mentioning, but to me, I felt that this small act of kindness was significant. It doesn’t take much to check on a stranger looking uncomfortable, yet not everyone does it. Some people, myself included, most probably will keep to themselves. Unless of course, the poor bloke collapsed on the floor and started foaming on the mouth.
Which reminds of my first day in Sweden. I had my first metro ride, with my bulky luggage beside me. What I did not expect was the jerky acceleration and deceleration of the train and sudden brakings that occur during the journey. Any decent physics student would tell you that momentum of a moving object will cause it to continue moving in that direction. Which was what my luggage did, dragging me along with it. Awkward me crashed into a fellow commuter on the metro and caused a slight commotion. I immediately apologized, looking rather flustered. The stranger appeared amused and dismissed it with a smile. Genuine, in my humble opinion.
Judging from the frequent horror stories floating about social media, I could make a rough guess what the outcome would be if the same situation were to happen back home. Best case scenario, the same result and someone offers me a seat. Next, a scowl and an immediate 1 meter exclusion zone around me. Worst case scenario, I’m trending on social media titled “Annoying kid destroying toes on the train”. Sometimes I exaggerate.
In conclusion, I feel that the kind stranger atop the tower in Munich is worth learning from (speaking for myself). A small action, requiring almost no effort, could bring much needed relief to a kid who is anxiously wondering if that will be his last day on Planet Earth.