Australia Day
Happy Australia Day World!
Hope all you Aussies had a great day in the sun, and those of you in Sydney who went to the Big Day Out had a ball.
I celebrated here in the snow and cold by having a very frustrating afternoon at the offices of the BVG (the public transport company here in Berlin).
I use the trains here with a monthly ticket. Somehow I mixed up my tickets and took the wrong one out of wallet and left it at home. I'd been riding around for a week with the wrong ticket, got it checked twice on the bus when I got checked on the train and sure enough the guy spotted it was old. I of course was totally shocked and explained that I had my real ticket at home. But he must give me a ticket. However on the fine it says if you have a ticket you can go to their offices and they'll sort it out, but you have to pay 7 euros for being an idiot and leaving your ticket at home - fair cop!
Anyway, it wasn't so simple. Much more dramtic in fact. Basically I didn't understand what the guy at the ticket window wanted. I thought he said something he didn't so my explanation was making no sense to him. He gives up just as I realise what he wants, but he's already got someone who speaks a bit of English. This guys explains I must pay 40 euros and the fact that I have a months ticket means nothing. You can see where this is going, we are now having a slanging match in German where I'm saying that is unfair and he says he doesn't care just pay! I'm making up all sorts of stories now about just being here for 2 months and then he patronsises me by saying I should speak better German and if he was in Australia no one would speak German - which is true, and folks why is that true, because we English speakers have more economic power than anyone else!
So I storm out having achieved bugger all. Called Ela and got her to give it a try over the phone. She achieved exactly the same as me and copped a stream of abuse from the lady for her trouble also, I'm sure when you look up the word service in the dictionary here all it has is a question mark!
Now we'll give it to our lawyer and she can sort it out. We have lawyer insurance so it costs nothing for us to use a lawyer and if we lose we never have to pay, insurance covers it all. Now this part of Germany I love!!
So their was my day, not the greatest Australia Day I've ever had but eh, you can't win them all and I feel better having vented!
Peace out!
