25 Oct 2010

German lesson nr 1: Umlaut!


Just realised that I havent had the time to tell you all about my last experience. It starts like this: "Hey, I´m Linn and I want to go to a seminar in a city that starts with an "M" and ends with "nster". And if you think that seems easy, you don´t know my name.... No... really! You have no ide how wrong you are!

(Ok, det er litt flaut. Og ganske morsomt. / Ok, it is a little bit embarrasing. And a pretty funny.) 

Oktober the 15.th, 2010: I put myself into a lovely train in Berlin, around 10.30 in the morning, Friday the 15´th. At this point, not aware of that I am about to spend the whole day in a train, now I was pretty happy, having just bougth myself a nice can of fresh fruit, and was really looking forward to a relaxing journey to the city that starts with an "M" and ends with "nster". I love taking the train.

A quick stop in a place called "Steindal", and then further to "Uelzen", change here again, and then, wola! I would be in Munster. Altogether, with the changing of trains and waitingtime, the whole journey would take me about tree hours. Sweat! I would arrive at 13.38, just with enough time to be there for the tree ´o clock seminar starting hour. Wondeful. But the history wanted it differently... You know, its amazing to me that two little "dotts" can make sooooooo much difference. You know, "in Norway, we don´t have that!" Yeah..., I´m talking about umlaut. You know, those two "dotts" above the "u"(and also above the "a" and the "o" in german), that makes the whole big difference? Don´t even think about thinkin that those two "dotts", are not important! You know, you are temted to think, "it´s just the Deutsche Bahn (The German Train company) that hasn´t got the "dotts" on the online-booking", right? "So it´s fine". No! It´s not fine! Believe me.

So, I wanted (without knowing that I wanted that) to go to Münster. How could I know that Munster is not the same! I told you, dear reader, that I wanted to go to a city that starts with an "M" and ends with "nster".... Nedless to say, I ended up in Munster (of course), and I was supposed to be in Münster. And, even funnier, it was not intill I was acctually THERE AND THEN, in Munster, that I realized:"Hey...something is not right..." "It´s supposed to be a Hauptbahnhof" (a main train station, which are normally bigger because the place have more of them...). "This is just a very smal station, in the middle of nowhere..."

Ok, so Linn goes on. In the search for a bus nr 10, because thats what it says on the "How to get there" note, that I am going to take the bus nr. 10 to the place for the seminar. "Oh, and luckily, there is a bus stop!" "....but... where is bus nr 10??" "It doesn´t have one. Number 271? Hm?" (No, still not getting it... )

Then I ask a friendly woman in a little kiosk. "Hey, is there a bus number 10 around here?"
Friendly "no-nodding" with her head in responce. "But it says here that I am going to take the bus nr 10.. see?""Your in the wrong Munster. This is Munster. It says here you are going to Münster". "WHAAAAAATTTTTTTTT???????????. Ther´s two Muünsters!??"
Yeah... Now I got it...

So... I had no other choice. I had to buy this ticket:


From Munster, to Münster. Thats just hillarious really...(funny for everyone else but me).

And I don´t know... I have a strange feeling, those things only happend to me... I was a little bit surprised, I admit that, standing there at the train station, just thinking "What?? Is this actually happening!"



Here is where I went: (I got almost to Hamburg! And then down to the west again.) 


Vis større kart
(I didn´t go to Hamburg, as this map says, but Google map want that. I went with train to Uelzen, then Munster, then to Bremen, and then Münster.)

I had to wait, one and a half hour, for the next train to Bremen. Then change there again, and then, go to Münster.

So, insted of laying down on the train platform and cry my tears out, I started talking to a guy in the train station. He helpt me so that I could buy the correct ticket to Münster (from Munster, can be confusing...) 

After som other misunderstandings, I finaly got on the train to Bremen. Oh, yeah, not to forget, that the next train further to Münster from Bremen was late. 40 minutes. Did I say that I love taking the train?

What did I learn?
"Yes, the little things does matter!" (Especially in Germany)

(We only have one similar example that I can think of in Norway, and that is Kristiansund og Kristiansand. But then it says Kristiansand S (which means in the south) and Kristiansund N (which means in the north), so that you can see the difference better. Or did the ticket say something about west and..."something" else maybee...*kremt*. Anyway! I had to learn this "catchword" anyway, so why not learn it this way....50 EUR poorer...)

5 comments:

Johan said...

Nice story :)

Linn said...

Hehe... funny how the little things can make so much difference. :) Thanks for leaving a comment!

Unknown said...

if it makes you feel better, I can't pronounce umlaut at all :-/

RonRon said...

You left out the part where I came down to Münster station rescued you :p

Linn said...

True true Roy, that was nice of you :) Then, of course, I was already in Münster, but with my luck you can count on that I would have taken the wrong bus to the hostel otherwise! What do you think would have happend to me if you (Roy) didn´t came? Feel free to use the imagination...