“Yes, I had this issue already within the last days several times. People approached me asking whether I am the 1.30 bus heading to Uelzen. But I am not. I am just the bus coming from Uelzen and driving home now”. The bus driver is very nice, but his kind attitude does not help to cheer up my mood a lot. It is the second change from five and already something goes wrong. My mission today? Travelling from Kiel zu Heidelberg with the 9-euro ticket, meaning: I am just allowed to use regional trains.
I started at Kiel main station at 11 pm and after changing at Hamburg main station, I continued my trip to Hamburg-Harbourg. And here I am. Sitting in the train hall and knowing that I still have to wait for 1 hour and 50 minutes, till the next bus will arrive. This vehicle was supposed to give me a lift to Uelzen at 1.30. But there was no bus. Derived from the answer from the bus driver, it seems that this bus is scheduled, but never arrives. Great! I plug in my mobile phone at the chair, which I found within the hall, set an alarm to 3.40 and try to sleep.
“I made an announcement!” I think I have never spoken to so many bus drivers in such a short time as I have within the last few hours. Now it is the bus driver who is actually driving to Uelzen – and even beyond which I now realize while talking to him. I missed the bus station where I should have exited due to the following – for me appearing – unfair reasons: Firstly, the bus arrived too late at Hamburg-Harbourg, so I thought that we even may arrive later than earlier at Uelzen. Secondly, I set my alarm 10 minutes prior to the given arriving time and thirdly: I even woke up automatically 5 minutes before my alarm started. My argumentation does not help at all. We are just about to leave the town “Uelzen” when I finally realize that the bus has already passed the train station. “I can let you out here. Maybe there will be some school buses coming”. I shrug my shoulder and sigh. In fact I do not have a lot of options. Here I am standing now, in a small town which I just call “Strawberry village” because there is a big plastic statue displaying a red strawberry with a smiling phase. I set my mind to tramping back to the main station, when the very first vehicle that passes me is in fact – a bus – with the letters “Central bus station Uelzen”.
“This is not a bus stop any more!” Again a talk with a bus driver. “The new station is around the corner”. I just reply that I am not a local and thank him a lot for picking me up nevertheless. Heaving learned from my mistakes, I now take a seat directly behind the bus driver so that I can even see his navigation screen. Finally at 6.30 I arrive in Uelzen. The beautiful architecture at the “Hundertwasser” train station makes it easier for me to keep awake for the next 40 minutes, to catch my train to Göttingen.
“We are currently having a delay of 20 minutes”. The female voice waking me up does not provide good news for me. With my current connection, I should arrive 5 minutes before my appointment in Heidelberg. It is the first time during my trip that I start panicking. How on earth should it be possible that I may miss my Falling Walls pitch after including a four and a half hour buffer time? The train catches up another five minutes but still – I miss my connection to Heidelberg by two minutes. What next? Strolling around at Frankfurt main station I am looking for any wifi connection – when my eyes suddenly spot a regional train to Mannheim. Mannheim is not Heidelberg, but it is close. Maybe the fastest… my brain has not finished thinking when my legs are already starting to run. While logging in at the wifi of the train, I congratulate myself. It was the right decision. Taking a connection from Mannheim, I should arrive at 4.44 pm at Heidelberg train station. Another ten minutes to the venue at the University of Heidelberg and I should make it.
It is 5.05 pm when the organizer at the welcoming desk finally hands over the “Speaker batch”. Originally I should have arrived at 12.45. Again I sigh. However, now it is not a sigh because I am annoyed, tired and desperate – but because I am relieved. During all the catastrophes that I experienced till arriving here, I have already thought that I would not arrive at all. But finally I am here, enjoying the afternoon and evening full of interesting scientific and innovative talks and exchanging with inspiring people at the Falling Walls. All of the torture has finally paid of and I am happy to receive all the different ideas and input regarding my platform ChargeHolidays from the jury as well as audience here in Heidelberg.