So, here is a weird thing about me and Oldenburg. We don't get along. Honestly, if I had to count all the times I have been lost, this post would have contain at least 100,000 words. To try to make it a little compact and readable, I decided to write down only top 5 worst times I have been lost in Oldenburg. Hopefully this post doesn't seem to depressing to the reader. That is not my intention, although I can say for sure that it has been painful a lot of times. Nevertheless, all of those times alone, and usually in the dark, made me a stronger person (who now not afraid of darkness or being alone).5. Bus number 302
You would think that seeing the same bus stopping in front of your dorm would mean that if you take the same bus elsewhere, it would take you home. But NO!
So, there are two buses that stop at JJW: 308 and 302. After some shopping and walking around I went to the Central Station bus stop and waited for either of those buses. After freezing for 15 minutes, I sat on the bus 302 that I see coming to JJW bus stop twice an hour every day.
The ride was not smooth. I got really carsick and couldn't wait to get home.
After 40 minutes of riding the bus, I found out that I was the only person in the bus who didn't get out, and I thought to myself, that I was not that far from JJW, because it is usually the last stop of 308 bus. Little did I know that I was almost out of Oldenburg.
Luckily I still remembered some German when the bus driver started talking to me. He asked me when I was going to get out of the bus, and I said JJW, to which he smiled and said "you are on the wrong bus".
I thought I shouldn't panic (although I really wanted to). I was not alone. At least there was a middle-aged-bus driver with me... in the middle of nowhere... alone... in the dark... so, if I scream, nobody would come to help. OMG! I shouldn't have watched "Criminal Minds" before going out. Time to panic!! Aaaaaaaaa!!
The driver had to wait for about 15 minutes at the last stop, and then go back to the city center (reminding that it was 40 minutes away). He started smoking. And then talked to me with their weirdest german accent. He said that he has been an immigrant for 10 years in Germany. He was from Serbia, where his family still lives. He said that he liked Germany, even though he wants to go back to Serbia, to his kids and his wife. Then he started showing me the pictures of his family. He asked me how old I was, and then said that his son is 3 years older than me. He was very cute in the picture with his new BMW.
Then he started asking me lots of questions, like what I was studying, how long was I staying in Germany, etc. My answers were 35% German, 35% English and 30% Russian. It was an interesting combination, taking into account that I was, in fact, able to answer all the questions.
Then we started moving, and 40 minutes later I was where all this nightmare began. I had to wait another 20 minutes in the bus stop for 308 and 30 minutes later I got home, extremely carsick, tired and stressed, but my flatmates made me laugh about it, and said that they had the same experience with the same bus as well.
4. Trying to get to the doctor
Please read more about it here, as I wrote about it previously.
3. Alexanderstrasse: there and back
Please read about it here
2. Missing the last train from Leer
Remember I put all the cute pictures of me in Den Haag in Holland where I went to visit my friend? You don't know how the story ended.
As you know, I am not very good at finding places, let them be hospitals, buildings, roads... not even god-damn bus stops. My trip to Holland was great. I did not miss any trains, it was smooth and comfortable, and I thought to myself "hmm, I am getting better at this". I wasn't :/
I had to change 4 trains to get to Oldenburg from the Hague. 3 of them were perfect. I got there on time, I got on the right trains, sat in front of the windows, read and listened to some music. It was nice. BUT when I got to Leer, a small town near Oldenburg, I couldn't find the train to Oldenburg, and when I realised that in the whole train station there were only two trains, one of which got me there, and the other one that was supposed to take me to Oldenburg, the other train left...
Note, that was the last train to Oldenburg that day. In fact, it was the last train of the day. The other one was supposed to come at 4:05 am, I it was barely 9 pm then.
I was screwed.
I had to time to think or plan something. I just approached the first person I saw (a cute tall dutch guy) and asked him:
- Hi! Do you speak English
- Yes.
- Great! So, awkward question. I missed my last train to Oldenburg and I have no idea what to do. I can't stay at the train station for another 7-8 hours and I was wondering, since I have never been in this kind of disastrous situation, if you could advise me what to do? I am completely lost.
-Oh, ok. Well, you can try to go to a hostel.
While talking to this guy, I remembered that I had to meet one of the Armenians in Oldenburg, and I texted him to let him know that I was not coming, because I was stock in God-damn Leer.
Hearing my conversation with this Dutch guy, another man approached us (and I was quickly trying to find a hostel on my phone) and politely asked what was going on. I told him the whole thing and he said that he would take me to a hostel if I tell him the address in Leer. On the other side, the cute Dutch guy offered me to go back to Groningen with him, stay in his house for the night, and catch the next train in the morning. In the meantime, the Armenian who I texted told me to come to another city, which is closer to Oldenburg and he would come pick me up.
And there I was: lost again. I didn't know what to do.
It's tough to make decisions, especially when the thing you want to do is the unsafest one: going back to Groningen. So, I told the handsome Dutch guy, that it was extremely nice of him to offer that, but I couldn't (damn it, safety and security trainings!) and he left with the last train.
So, when the wife of the German men arrived, he kindly offered to take me to the nearest hostel, while the Armenian guy was telling me to get to the nearest city by a cab, which would be approximately 80-90 Euros (yeah, right...). Luckily, his wife was from Russia, and I told her about the opportunity of my friends coming and picking me up from the nearest city. I even called the Armenian guy, who gave the phone to the wife of his friend who was supposed to drive because the others were super drunk, who was also Russian, so they talked to each other, and 20 minutes later I was in front of the hospital, where we were supposed to meet.
On the way there, the nice Russian woman and I talked about our lives. She asked me what I was studying and she said that her children are my age and that they all studied in Germany, etc... We had a lovely conversation. She was super nice.
After thanking them for 5 minutes (I wanted to ask for her address to send her flowers or baked cookies, but I thought that it might be inappropriate) I sat in the car of my Armenian friends, who were, except for the driver, drunk as hell, and came to Oldenburg in 20 minutes. I was saved.
1. The time I wanted to play badminton
The reason why this story is number one is because it is ridiculous. As many of you know, I started playing badminton here in Oldenburg several times a week. I got so excited that I decided to try out the professional badminton club in Oldenburg.
Purely for my honest love towards badminton and no other reason whatsoever ( :D ) I asked the badminton coach at the University, who is a young half-Asian half German (I am only guessing) guy with a Spanish name, where the club was. He nicely put down the name of the club on a paper, and said that was the club is attends on regular basis.
Ok.
Knowing that the club has trainings on Tuesday and Friday from 7:30 till 10:00 pm, I looked up the address. It seemed a little far, but from what I had heard from my friends, indeed, it was supposed to be far. I wrote down the directions on the piece of paper with the help of Google Maps, which promised I would get there in 27 minutes from JJW on a bike. I left an hour early, just to be safe.
Going through almost every single dark street in Oldenburg, I got to the address I was going to in 1 hour and 25 minutes on the bike. I thought to myself that I was driving slow and I stopped once or twice to get directions. I was frustrated because I really was in the middle of nowhere, but at least I got the name of the club right. So I went inside, and saw that it was a bar. It was a sports bar, but a bar after all. There were two men drinking. I approached to them and asked if they had a badminton training there, to which, of course they replied: NO!
After contemplating for 15 minutes, like "but was in on Blahblahblah street? No, the other street, the Blah street, the finally wrote me down another address and said that the bus would come any time soon. I told them I was on a bike, to which they rounded their eyes with surprise: "Did you come all the way from Oldenburg?"
I was outside of Oldenburg... on my bike...
And I really really wanted to get there. It's all my pure love towards badminton, I swear.
Knowing the training would last for another 2 hours (and they promised I would get there in 10 minutes) I got on my bike, reached the Blah street they were talking about, and... are you ready?... instead of going right I went left, which took me even further out of Oldenburg.
After another 20 minutes it started raining. The streets were getting darker, till I finally found myself on a highway where there were no more houses, no more stores... nothing. Just few cars and a highway...
I was alright. I didn't panic. I knew that I had to be strong and besides, I was GOING to the badminton practice. I was not going to back up.
In another 5 minutes I realised that this was getting ridiculous. I was talking to myself like a crazy person, because I wanted company. I was asking myself questions, and answering them like it was completely normal. I felt normal, till I stopped to understand what street I was on. There I saw a woman, who was walking her dog. She saw me and asked me if I were lost.
I asked her if she spoke English and had a nice chat with her in my English-German dialect. And by nice I meant that I started crying because I didn't know where the fuck I was.
She was super nice to me. She asked me where I was going and tried to tell me directions. Then she realised that I was incapable of understanding anything she was saying and told me that she would take me there. We went to her house, where I met her daughter, who again, asked me where I was going. I looked at the watch. It was 9pm (note, I left home at 6:30). And then it occurred to me "What the fuck was I doing on this highway?" I had less than 15 days in Oldenburg left and instead of hanging out with my friends, writing a blog or doing homework, for crying out loud, I "went to play badminton". Was it worth it? Was he worth it? He wasn't worth all the trouble, really.
So, I told the nicest lady to just take me to Alexandersrtrasse (the farthest street from where I could get home with no trouble). I sat in her car. Her daughter also kept us company, cheering me and saying that it could happen to anyone. at 9:30 I got home, tired and exhausted.
My flatmates were in the kitchen having a nice dinner. I went inside and told them "Guys, promise you won't laugh". They were super excited and asked me a bunch of questions before I told them that I didn't make it to the badminton practice, like "How was it? Did you talk to him? What did he say? Is he gonna ask you out?"They laughed at me afterwards. But they were also very supportive. They said that at least I had an adventure for life.
I had nightmares after this "journey", because it was too dark for too long a time. But I survived.
The reason why this was THE WORST time I got lost is because I had a navigation on my phone the ENTIRE time I was on the way. I knew exactly where I was, I just didn't know how to get back.
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These were top 5 worst times when I couldn't find my way home. Honesty, I learned so much while being alone, sometimes scared, hungry and wet from the rain. And trust me, this is only the start. I can't wait to write the same post about Stavanger, Lisbon, Lyublyana and wherever the hell I will go next.
Wish me good luck.
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