The Netherlands is experiencing a bit of a cold spell at the moment. We even have had some snow.
Actually I can’t remember the last time we had more then 20 cm of snow on one day.
The Dutch railway company has a lot of trouble coping. Two weeks before Christmas I had to take a day off because no trains were available to take me to the Rotterdam Alexander station. But even if had been able to reach the station, I doubt if I could have gotten the bus I need to reach my place of work.
The week before Christmas they had even more problems. During a period of two or three days they advised people to stay at home because it was very unlikely for them reached there destination.
But that didn’t matter much to me because I had taken two weeks off of work.
Today was the first day I went to work after the Christmas holiday. The railway company still had a little problem. They were suffering from a lack of carriages. So instead of 3 trains consisting of a total of 6 carriages every thirty minutes. All those people had to get into one carriage.
So you can imagine that it was a little bit crowded.
With a little luck I positioned myself at the entrance of the first class compartment. Usually I can’t sit there because I have an second class train ticked. But if the train is really crowded you never see a ticked controller. Since most people don’t take the chance and stand second class, it’s the least crowded bit of the train.
At the end of the first class compartment I had a whole meter to myself.
Coming up on Rotterdam Alexander station I realized that I better work myself to the door. Otherwise I would run the risk of being blocked by a stream of people entering the train while I was still trying to exit it.
So I asked a two men and a lady if I could pass them. Then I got to the really crowded part of the compartment. So before trying to pass those people I asked them if they were exiting at the next station. They were.
As I decide that I wouldn’t try the pass them the lady went into a fit. She started yelling “COULDN’T YOU HAVE WAITED UNTIL I LEFT THE TRAIN”. No, how could I have known that you were leaving at this station? “COULDN’T YOU HAVE TAKEN A SHOWER THIS MORNING?” What do say? Didn’t you take a shower?
By this time the whole compartment was paying attention and some people were laughing.
“SMELLY BASTARD. YOU SHOULD PRESS YOURSELF AGAINST YOUR GIRL FRIEND”. No I’d much rather press my body against yours.
Now most of the people in the compartment were laughing. With an other “SMELLY BASTARD” the lady simmered down.
A few minutes later the train reached the station.
Politely I waited for the lady to exit the compartment, but she didn’t. Turned out that she was trying to get a seat of one of the disembarking passengers.
So I wished her a good day. And after a last “SMELLY BASTARD” I left her.
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