Get used to hearing those words. You’ll hear it EVERY time you sit on an U-Bahn or S-Bahn. For those with limited German, those two words mean “Board Please”. Pretty soon you’ll get so used to it that you’ll feel like something’s missing if you don’t hear it. When my friends and I went to London all we heard was “Mind the Gap”, which is WAY less cool than Einsteigen Bitte! Not only that, some of the trains never even came; the Tube (that’s the name of the London system) is really old, and at one point, the lights went out while we were all on the train. So needless to say, when we got back to Berlin, we were so HAPPY to finally hear the ever-familiar “Einsteigen Bitte!”. You gotta hand it to the Germans, they definitely know how to run their transportation system. It works like clockwork and can get me to anywhere in the city at any time, day or night. You’ll end up using it ALL THE TIME and you won’t even realize how amazing it is until it’s gone. One day during Winter quarter, all the U-Bahn drivers went on strike so NONE of the trains were running and the city went into complete chaos. Nobody could get to work, none of us could get to school; people couldn’t get anywhere--- it was just crappy. Anyhow, the point is, German trains are the best in Europe, so enjoy the short time you have to use it before you have to go back to Stanford and are forever stuck with the “wonderful” CalTrain.
P.S. To those who are interested, drinking on the U-Bahn is allowed. This little tidbit comes in handy when you're taking your long ride from your homestays on the west over to the east (where most of the nightlife is)...Prepartying on the U-Bahn made for great fun and stories :)
No comments:
Post a Comment