day#9

Good morning Germany. I am up at 5:45 and ready for an easy day of treatment before my trip to France. I ate an apple so I wouldn’t have to take my medicine on an empty stomach. 6:45 and I rode to the klinik for my 7:00 hyperthermia appointment. “Good morning Buzzard” I thought to myself as she got me all setup on the hyperthermia table. I brought my Ipad with me today so, I read the book “Way of the peaceful warrior” This is a good read; I got lost in it.

 When my appointment had ended, I went to breakfast. I had scrambled eggs today, along with my bread and jam. Doug, the man from Australia wasn’t at breakfast. This was weird because, he either is there when I get there, or there are remains from his meal there. Richard asked me if I had seen him, I said that I had not. I went upstairs to get a footbath, and while this was going on I heard Richard ask the nurses if they had seen Doug.  He said that he heard a crash sound above his room earlier that morning. This bothered me because while I was getting my hyperthermia, I heard a nurse call button alarm, and the buzzard came into where I was, but her response time was like two minutes and it wasn’t even me. This got me thinking that Doug might have fallen and rang his emergency button, and had no response.

I didn’t hear anything else on Doug, so I went on with my treatments. I had my andulating massage. It felt so good that I fell asleep almost instantly. I woke up when the massage stopped, and jumped onto the biomat before anyone else could. The klinik was really packed today, a lot of outpatients. When my biomat was over, I was hoping that I could get the magnetic field treatment. There were about five people in front of me. About an hour and a half wait! I said, “Screw it” and left the klinik.

I got back to the hotel, and went up to my room so I could lie around for a while before my trip. I watched some Modern Family while I packed for my trip to France. The maids at the klinik did some of my laundry for me. This was nice to have nice clean clothing to pick from. I packed up my backpack, and made sure that I got all my batteries charged. Around 1:30 I went into the bathroom and decided that the facial hair had to go again. I had clippers this time so, I clipped the goatee and then straightened it up. This is a must for me every couple of months, otherwise my beard and mustache get all sorts of scraggly and annoying. After I shaved, I took a shower.

Shower done, and now its time to finish the last minute checklist, and throw on my traveling clothes. I left the hotel and went to get something to eat on the train. When I rode out of the parking lot, Angela was walking with her mom. I asked her if she heard anything about Doug.  She said that, she heard he fell, but that was it. I really hope that he is ok. She said that she as well didn’t spend a lot of time at the klinik today, because of how busy it was. I needed to get on my way to the train station so, I said goodbye and rode off.

I got to the train station at 3:00; my train was at 3:11. I sat at the bench and watched the school kids coming in packs to get back to their hometowns. The train was right on time, and I got right in. Next stop was Rosenheim, and then I would switch to the Munich train. I got on the Munich train and when I arrived at Munich, I had ten minutes to get to the train for Stuttgart. I had to run so I could make it to the train on time. I got in the very back and the seats were really comfortable, with fold down tray tables. I was thinking that this was a very nice change from the normal trains. When the ticket master came around, I found out that I was actually sitting in a first class seat and that is why they were so nice. I got the boot, and had to go find a seat in the 2^nd class. There were no seats, so I sat on the floor by one of the exits. It wasn’t that bad, I had my headphones on and I was enjoying the ride.

The train came to a much slower speed, and there were lots of announcements on the loudspeaker. Of course they were in German, so I was unable to understand. Soon the doorway was getting crowded with people and I asked if anyone spoke English. One guy said he did and let me know what was going on. Apparently, one of the windows got broken, so they were only allowed to go at the lowest speed. They were arranging trains to take all the passengers. The man told me to follow him; he was going where I needed to go. I followed him to a packed train, and we got turned around, they told us that the other train was fine to continue the trip, so we ran back to the original train we were on. It would not be a train trip for me without a whole lot of mix up.

As the train made its way to the next destination, I started to wonder if I would make my next connecting train. This was a special train, not an hour on the hour train. The ticket master came through and I asked. She told me that I would have been better off taking that train that the old man led me too. FUCK!! I was supposed to get into Strasbourg at 8:11, now I’m going to get there at 12:00 a.m. I’m really annoyed that this nice and easy trip is turning into a fiasco, but that’s life right. I strapped a big smile on my face, and kept on moving forward. I’ll make it eventually, right? The next transfer was going to be at Stuttgart. I was told to go to information when I got there.

We arrived in Stuttgart 45 minutes late. I went to the information counter and there was a line of about thirty people. I got in line behind a woman and then people started piling up behind us. The line was slow moving, and this guy was slowly trying to cut his way in front of me. I was not going to have that, but I let him believe that he was going to get away with it. Right when we got to the entrance, I shimmied my way back in front of him and he laughed, then almost simultaneously, some lady cut in front of me. I was like “are you serious?” She looked at me and said, “I’ve been in front of you the whole time.” I assured her that she was wrong but let her go anyways. People are so lame when it comes to lines. Senses of entitlement drive me crazy. I wish I could taze people some times.

When I got to the counter, the lady told me that the next train didn’t leave for another fifty minutes and I would have three transfers before I reached my destination, at midnight. Ok, let the fun begin. I went to a little sandwich shop and got something to eat, and then I walked down to the platform where my train would be taking off. I finished my sandwich, and continued to wait for the train. The train finally got here and I was back on the tracks towards France. No problems on this train, straightforward.

Arrived at next transfer without any issues, I then proceeded to the next transfer. Then when this train ride was over, I was ready for my final transfer to Strasbourg. When I followed the signs to the platform, it was kind of creepy. It was all-dark and there was a long path. It all looked a bit sketchy to me, but I followed the path and it brought me to this lonely platform. There were about seven people standing there, and they were all looking a bit exhausted. I had a twenty-minute wait before the train was going to come. I was excited though because this is the last transfer in my long day of traveling, and transfers. The train arrived and I got on. The trip took about a half hour, I called Chantal, to let her know that I was close and to come pick me up from the train station.

When I got to Strasbourg, I walked out to the front of the station to wait for my ride. Strasbourg is way bigger then I thought it was. There was a lot of action going on, on the streets too. I started to get a little worried that I got off at the wrong train station. I called Andre and he said I was at the right place, just then I saw Chantal, Antonin, and Sandra. They were all excited to see me, and I was really happy to see them.  We got in the car, and Antonin was driving. In Europe, the kids have to wait until they are eighteen to drive. He is a little new at big city driving and we ended up taking the scenic route. I thought it was funny, the last time I saw this kid, he was almost fourteen and driving me around on a golf cart.

We made it to the house around 12:40 a.m. and Chantal offered me some white asparagus, fresh from the farmers market. I also had some, prociutto, and ham with a baguette. The food was delicious. We sat and talked until 2:30, and then we all decided to go to bed and continue in the morning. I wanted to get my blog out so here it is. Another wonderful adventure for me. I love you all, Lucas