The Great Train Debacle | Day 27

The alarm went off at 7 and I needed to get someone from the Eurail to help me secure this ticket. I opened the computer and went on to the Eurail site and tried to get the ticket again. Still no luck as it gave me the error message. In my email was a response from them saying try these steps to in case of getting an error message. I tried everyone including restarting the computer, clearing the cache, and trying on another browser but still no luck. I opened their chat box and got someone to chat with. I explained the situation that I had to check out in a couple of hours and needed a ticket. They gave me the same steps as the email and I tried explaining that that didn’t work. She then said let me try and see if I can book it. That took a few minutes but when she came back she said that she was able to run a mock purchase and was able to get a ticket. So I tried AGAIN with no success. Next, she said well you will have to go to the station and use the kiosk or ticket window to get a ticket. I said, “I don’t mean to be a bother but is there any way you can just book the ticket for me?” The response was, “I’m sorry sir we unfortunately cannot book tickets for passengers and you will have to go to the station.” All of this back and forth led me to about 8:45am and there wasn’t much hope of catching the 9:15 train. The next train was at 11am so I started to gather my things and would head to the station. 

I checked out of the hotel and walked my bags to the metro station, boarded the train, and was off to the Copenhagen Central Station. The train arrived on the lowest level and I rode the escalators up to the top floor where I found the ticket office. There was a line of course and they have the same “pull a number” system as the last ticket office I was in. My number got pulled and I explained the situation and could the gentleman please help me with a ticket. He punched the trip details in to his computer and said “unfortunately the 11:15 train is all sold out so will have to take a later one.” Not the info I wanted to hear. I inquired when the next one was and he informed me that it was at 3:30pm. He then said that that was the only train available for today and there were no 1st class seats available. I told him that I had no other option and would like to buy those tickets. He plugged it all in and produced a 2nd class for the first train and then a 1st class seat for the second train. It wasn’t ideal but at least I had a seat. The train would finally arrive in Berlin at 10:30pm unlike the 9:15 I wanted to be on that would have gotten in at 4:15. I inquired if there was a place to store luggage while I waited the 5 hours. He told me to go around the corner and take the elevator down to the lowest level and I would find one. I shlepped my luggage down the elevator and found a room that was filled with different sized lockers. I walked all the way through the room and no locker seemed to be big enough to fit my largest roller bag. There was a window with an employee so I approached that and asked if there were any larger lockers. He told me that they could check my bags and would be an addition $1 per bag to do that. I gladly accepted and gave them my two roller bags. He said they were open till 1am so be sure to come back by then lol. Myself and my backpack set off to find some food close to the station and begin the wait. 

I walked three blocks up and three blocks left and found myself a sandwich shop. It was small but was a bit busy and was called Smagsloget. They had a large deli counter will different kinds of meats and they were hand making all of the sandwiches. They had a club sandwich on the menu and that is my go to for sure. I approached the counter and ordered my sandwich with a water and when I went to pay the man behind the counter said I just paid after when I was finished. That caught me off guard a bit and I am an honest person but I wonder how many people sit outside and then just walk off. While I waited for my sandwich I had to call Capital One to discuss this cash advance that I had accidentally done on the cruise ship. I got the last seat outside and started that call. That call was one of the most infuriating calls of my life. Long story short is that when I split those aces back on the cruise ship I did it with my card not thinking about it and it got charged as a cash advance. I was calling because I wanted to pay off that advance in order not to incur any interest as cash advances charge those per day after you make that advance. The person told me that I couldn’t specifically pay that off but I could pay the statement balance right now and it would clear. Well my due date for the balance isn’t for another month and I would rather not pay all of that off right this moment. However, finally I said ok let’s just go ahead and pay that off. Well he looked in to it and said, “well you can’t right now because there are pending charges. Once the pending charges have posted and there are no more pending charges then you can pay off the balance.” I told him, “my guy there will always be pending charges. I am traveling and I am using the card exclusively to get the miles so there will always be pending charges.” He told me he was sorry but unless there are no more pending charges there is nothing I can do. I then said I would like to speak to a manager but naturally it wasn’t normal operating hours so there was no manager to speak to. Somewhere along this hour conversation my sandwich had arrived and was waiting to be eaten. Not getting any help from the Capital One person I hung up and just ate my sandwich. I was aggravated so ate about half of it. It was really good and would have liked to have enjoyed it a bit more but oh well. I paid and headed back to the train station to type away on the computer. 

As I entered the train station I saw that there was a lounge on the second level. I decided to go up and see if my 1st class pass would let me sit. A very nice older woman was waiting just inside the front door and I asked if I could come in with my ticket and she said yes. I showed her my pass and headed for the chairs. It wasn’t all that crowded in there and about 5 people were scattered amongst the room. I had a few hours left until the train so took the time to go over photos and type. The lounge was nice and had free coffee and water along with wifi. I worked away and shot a few images of the station below. This station had the same type roof as another I had been in. It was a steel roof with class on the exterior. It was pretty impressive. Finally my train got posted and I headed to platform 5. The train pulled up and everyone threw their stuff on and found their seats. 2nd class was way different than 1st haha. This car didn’t have any air conditioning and the plugs didn’t work. This was going to be a long 4.5 hours. The family showed up and the mom who was going to sit next to me told me she had the window. I started to get up but then she said she would actually take the aisle so she could get to her kids in front of her easier. That worked for me. We left the station and about 15 minutes later the ticket collector came to scan tickets. When he got to me I showed him my ticket, and pass, and he looked at me saying “this is a 1st class pass.” I replied that I knew it was but I was told that there were not 1st class seats so here I sat. He responded saying, “there are a bunch of open 1st class seats if you wanted to relocate.” That sounded way better than the car with no air and no power. The lady next to me was kind enough to start standing up so I could scoot out. As I got out of my seat and started for my bag there was a guy one row behind and across the aisle from me. He had a black floral hat on and I recognized him immediately. He was one of the road crew for Metallica and so when he looked up I said, “ah I see you found your floral Hawaii hat. I didn’t see you wear it at the last set of shows.” He chuckled and told me it wasn’t from Hawaii but from Nashville. We started chatting and he is one of the lead carpenters for the tour. He used to work for Luke Combs for a few years and then got the call to hop on this tour. We chatted for a good 15 or 20 minutes and we exchanged numbers and at the next stop go have beers with some of the other crew. It was really cool meeting him and at least a potential new buddy to say hey too at the remaining stops. I

I walked the 5 cars to first class where they had the 6 seat cabins again. Most were occupied but I found one that didn’t have anyone in it. I opened the carriage door and plopped my stuff down. The air worked quite well in that cabin haha. For the next few hours, until we hit Hamburg, I went through photos and kept typing away. About 15 minutes before our stop I had to go back to the original car because I had left my main roller bag. I collected it and did that kind of awkward walk all the way back to the 1st class car. We were a few minutes late coming in to the station and more than a few of us had the connection to Berlin. Some were a bit more stressed about it than others but we had 10 minutes until that train departed. They conductor came out and said that our connection would be on platform 2 so when the doors opened there was a dash for the escalators. The platform was only 3 platforms away and the previous timed train was still there so didn’t need to hustle per say. I got to the platform and waited the 10 minutes until our train arrived. I found my cabin and one of the guys from 1st class on the previous train was in there as well. He looked to be my age or slightly younger, to which I found out later he was 29. I got my smaller roller up in the storage area but the bigger one is just to big so I tucked it in as close as possible to the side of the cabin I was on. I sat down and pulled out the computer but Tom and I started chatting. The train ride was only an hour and 45 minutes and we chatted for most of the way. He is a computer scientist and was at a conference in Copenhagen but returning home before his next trip to Amsterdam later in the week. He was super nice and had a great time chatting. As we pulled in to the station he offered to share his number with me in case I needed a couch to crash on. I appreciated the offer but I already had a place and was only there for 2 nights. We bid farewell and headed off the train toward the Uber pickup spot. The Uber was there in no time and it actually worked out perfectly because he was dropping someone else off right where I was standing. They got out and I got in. The driver certainly didn’t want to waste any time getting to our destination. We flew around the turns and sped between lights. We arrived at the hotel in what seemed like an instant. I offloaded my stuff and checked in to the hotel.

The lobby was nice and seemed very hip. They had a restaurant in the back which closed in 10 minutes so after checking in I hustled over. I caught the dude as he was packing up but he was serving pizzas so I asked if there was still time to order one. He replied that he could make one. I said awesome and ordered a salami and mushroom pizza. I dashed up to the room and dropped my luggage and head back downstairs. He made the pizza a bit different. He added the mushrooms first, cooked it, then add cold salami on top. Gotta say was pretty legit haha. Typically I like it cooked but this was pretty tasty. I partnered the pizza with a beer and destroyed it. Once I was finished I was wiped from the day so retreated to my room and will start again tomorrow!