Trinkwasser (Munich.1)

After Budapest, I met Stearns on a train platform in Vienna for our trip to Munich.

We had a couple of hours, so I think that we went to get lunch. Then we boarded our train to Munich. Stearns had bought the tickets ahead of time online (this is really why I travel with Stearns--she likes looking up flights and trains and buses and places to stay. I can't stand doing that). We knew that we were going to Munich, so we glanced at the train schedule and hopped on a train. We did this casually--we're experienced travelers and know how to find a train.

Alas, we are not. We got on the wrong train. Our train had a layover before getting to Munich (and, hence, was cheaper). The train we hopped on went straight there and was faster. We realized this about 10 minutes after the train started to move. We waited, sick to our stomachs for the conductor to come check our tickets and kick us off of the train.

The conductor arrived (after forever!). It was a man, which was a relief to me. He didn't care too much at all and punched our ticket. However, on these trains, the tickets are checked twice--once soon after you leave, and again a little bit before you arrive. Well, the second time it was a woman who checked our tickets. That made me quite nervous, and rightfully so. She started pitching a fit. Stearns' explanation wasn't all that helpful: "The man who checked our tickets before said it was okay."

This sent the ticket-checking woman into a rage: "Maybe this is okay in Austria, but this is not okay in Germany!" "You need to be on the exact train that your ticket is for! You need to be on the precisely right train next time!" She was mad. But when she said, "next time," I knew we were okay--next time we had to get on the right train. Next time is okay with me.

...

But I haven't yet told you about Trinkwasser: Stearns and I had a lot of trouble with German--neither of us knows a lick of it (I have some French; in Slovakia I stick with Slovaks; no one understands Hungarian, except, I think, the Finns). In the heat of our trip to Germany, however, we were entirely dependent on public fountains. We saw a sign saying, "Trinkwasser," which we hoped meant, "Drinking water."

So, we drank the water. It didn't kill us. So we stuck to that. At one fountain, on the grounds of the royal palace in Munich we saw the sign (pictured above), saying Trinkwasser. So, as usual, we filled up our water bottles (I even took a picture of Stearns filling up her water bottle, since the fountain was lovely and old). As I lifted the bottle to my lips, a man started running toward me, waving his arms to stop me--upon further inspection, the sign beside the fountain said, "Kein Trinkwasser." Kein, we learned that day, means something negative. Like "not" for "not drinking water" or "don't" for "don't drink this water." I'm not sure exactly, but I got the general idea.

Stearns had already drank some of the water. We waited nervously all day to see if she got ill. But, so far as we know she is okay. But if she gets some strange illness and House is treating her, this is the first thing that I will mention.