I write this post on my macbook, hoping that I live to post it online. If you are reading this post on my blog, I obviously lived to tell the tale. I am currently sitting on a bus on the top of the hill where I work. Marburg is a city of hills and by hills, I mean mini mountains. The hills here are as steep (or steeper) than the alps, just not as tall. Taking the 7 minute bus ride from my dorm, which is already 40% of the way up the hill, to the building where I work, on the top of the hill, causes my ears to pop twice. The hill is called the Lahnberge and its the center of science and medicine in my little town.
When I came into work this morning, the sky was sunny, but snow started falling intermittantly. The snow continued to fall, but the streets were warmed by the sun, so the snow melted. As the sun set, the snow started to fall more heavily and the temperature started to drop. When I left to catch the bus around 9pm, the snow was not only sticking to the road, but covering it. From the time I walked out of the building at 8:58pm, the road went from black to solid white. The effect was quite lovely and I stood mesmorized, thinking about how I could describe the enchanting snowfall to my blog readers.
The bus arrives and I board. We make the first stop, the university clinic, and start the short trip (4 minutes) down the hill to my dorm. Like I said, the hills around Marburg are quite steep and the bus ride even in the best of weather sometimes feels like a children's roller coaster as we fly down the road. But the bus driver notices a problem as we start to pull away from the clinic, into the roundabout. Everytime he tries to brake, the bus slides 3-4 inches. This happens even when he moves the bus from a stop and hits the brakes as soon as the bus moves. While testing the brakes, the bus driver effectively moves us from inside the roundabout to halfway into the two lane road. He then decides (probably wisely), that he will not proceed down the hill to studentendorf. He radios the bus terminal and says (Ich stehe heir, Ich warte). Which means, I will stay* here, I will wait. I didn't catch what we were waiting for. (*stehen directly translates as "stand" and bleiben means "stay" but I guess the German bus driver has heard English speakers butcher the German language enough that he says stehen instead of bleiben)
That radio conversation happened 25 minutes ago. I am still on the bus. We haven't moved. The bus driver got out and walked for a bit. but the bus hasn't budged. I guess we are waiting for morning. :-/
However, while I have your attention, I should note that my German has progressed to the point where I can even understand a bus driver speaking 10 feet away from me. That's pretty cool. In fact, I understand a lot more German than I ever dreamed I would. I conversed entirely in German for 4 hours on Friday night and I regularly speak German to my lab mates. Pretty cool I think. Anyways, I digress.
30 minutes have passed....still nothing....I guess I will save this blog entry until the bus actual does something. .....
40 minutes have passed...the bus driver decided to conserve energy and turned the engine off. The heat is still on though...
1 hour later...the bus driver is "dancing" in front of the bus..actually...he is kicking snow around. I wish he would close the door, my toes are freezing. Now he is walking around the bus. Maybe a Chinese fire drill?
65 minutes later...I located the heater so my toes are starting to warm up...still no sign of whatever we are waiting for.. I have passed the time by writing this post and finishing a Daily German podcast....now I move to thesis writing? Four people just left the bus, probably to call a taxi....I may join them soon.
75 minutes later, the AST service showed up and offered to take people to the southern part of town. I live in the northern part, its faster for me to walk home from here than from that part of town.
80 minutes later...we were just told that the bus isn't budging and they ordered three mini AST buses. They arrive in 10 minutes. ...yeah I get to go home!
95 minutes later...I walked in the door...made some warm tea and slipped on my fuzzy slippers (thanks Lala!) We talked to the bus driver, turns out that the Marburg buses don't run if the roads are slick, its too dangerous. In a really interesting twist, I learned how tall Marburg hills really are. At the Lahnberge on the top of the hill, it was snowing heavily while near the bottom of the hill (my dorm) there is no snow at all. Gotta love the weather.
Now that I am home, I guess I should feel lucky for
1) a bus driver who knew to check his brakes before heading down the hill
2) the chance to live a in a town where a 7 minute bus ride is the difference from a mild winter storm and a foggy evening
3) A fully charged macbook, loaded with podcasts and things to do. I probably would not have made it through this ordeal without crying had I not been distracted for so long.
I am posting the only picture I was able to take tonight. In this photo you see two AST mini buses preparing to take the remaining people down the hill. In the back, you can barely see the bus sitting in the roundabout. The dude with the backpack is a Russian who catches the bus nearly every weeknight from the University Clinic. I have never talked to him, but he seems nice.
When I came into work this morning, the sky was sunny, but snow started falling intermittantly. The snow continued to fall, but the streets were warmed by the sun, so the snow melted. As the sun set, the snow started to fall more heavily and the temperature started to drop. When I left to catch the bus around 9pm, the snow was not only sticking to the road, but covering it. From the time I walked out of the building at 8:58pm, the road went from black to solid white. The effect was quite lovely and I stood mesmorized, thinking about how I could describe the enchanting snowfall to my blog readers.
The bus arrives and I board. We make the first stop, the university clinic, and start the short trip (4 minutes) down the hill to my dorm. Like I said, the hills around Marburg are quite steep and the bus ride even in the best of weather sometimes feels like a children's roller coaster as we fly down the road. But the bus driver notices a problem as we start to pull away from the clinic, into the roundabout. Everytime he tries to brake, the bus slides 3-4 inches. This happens even when he moves the bus from a stop and hits the brakes as soon as the bus moves. While testing the brakes, the bus driver effectively moves us from inside the roundabout to halfway into the two lane road. He then decides (probably wisely), that he will not proceed down the hill to studentendorf. He radios the bus terminal and says (Ich stehe heir, Ich warte). Which means, I will stay* here, I will wait. I didn't catch what we were waiting for. (*stehen directly translates as "stand" and bleiben means "stay" but I guess the German bus driver has heard English speakers butcher the German language enough that he says stehen instead of bleiben)
That radio conversation happened 25 minutes ago. I am still on the bus. We haven't moved. The bus driver got out and walked for a bit. but the bus hasn't budged. I guess we are waiting for morning. :-/
However, while I have your attention, I should note that my German has progressed to the point where I can even understand a bus driver speaking 10 feet away from me. That's pretty cool. In fact, I understand a lot more German than I ever dreamed I would. I conversed entirely in German for 4 hours on Friday night and I regularly speak German to my lab mates. Pretty cool I think. Anyways, I digress.
30 minutes have passed....still nothing....I guess I will save this blog entry until the bus actual does something. .....
40 minutes have passed...the bus driver decided to conserve energy and turned the engine off. The heat is still on though...
1 hour later...the bus driver is "dancing" in front of the bus..actually...he is kicking snow around. I wish he would close the door, my toes are freezing. Now he is walking around the bus. Maybe a Chinese fire drill?
65 minutes later...I located the heater so my toes are starting to warm up...still no sign of whatever we are waiting for.. I have passed the time by writing this post and finishing a Daily German podcast....now I move to thesis writing? Four people just left the bus, probably to call a taxi....I may join them soon.
75 minutes later, the AST service showed up and offered to take people to the southern part of town. I live in the northern part, its faster for me to walk home from here than from that part of town.
80 minutes later...we were just told that the bus isn't budging and they ordered three mini AST buses. They arrive in 10 minutes. ...yeah I get to go home!
95 minutes later...I walked in the door...made some warm tea and slipped on my fuzzy slippers (thanks Lala!) We talked to the bus driver, turns out that the Marburg buses don't run if the roads are slick, its too dangerous. In a really interesting twist, I learned how tall Marburg hills really are. At the Lahnberge on the top of the hill, it was snowing heavily while near the bottom of the hill (my dorm) there is no snow at all. Gotta love the weather.
Now that I am home, I guess I should feel lucky for
1) a bus driver who knew to check his brakes before heading down the hill
2) the chance to live a in a town where a 7 minute bus ride is the difference from a mild winter storm and a foggy evening
3) A fully charged macbook, loaded with podcasts and things to do. I probably would not have made it through this ordeal without crying had I not been distracted for so long.
I am posting the only picture I was able to take tonight. In this photo you see two AST mini buses preparing to take the remaining people down the hill. In the back, you can barely see the bus sitting in the roundabout. The dude with the backpack is a Russian who catches the bus nearly every weeknight from the University Clinic. I have never talked to him, but he seems nice.
3 comments:
HAHAH. oh, marburg. back in the states, where i live with my parents, we are at the top of a hill, but theres a smaller one before it. my father and i HAVE, in fact, had to sit in a dead end street in the car to wait for a plow to go by in order to drive up the hills to our house.
there's also a stoplight at the bottom. genius.
glad to hear you made it back in one piece!
Glad to hear the bus driver was careful! We used to live at the top of a steep hill in Sweden, and getting up the hill in winter without having to wait for the snowplough was a major decision factor in car purchases. They sand (rather than salt) for traction, and it's nice in that if you get ice like that, it's usually ice with sand bumps frozen into it, it never gets super slick. Maybe the Germans need more sand.
Yikes! I used to wonder about just such a scenario when we were in Marburg this summer. Glad it turned out okay, though.
Maybe you can rent a snowmobile for the winter?
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