"Glamorous Jobs complaint thread, chapter II:" Europe, where everything is on time and free, and other fairly tales. [View all]

I have had to break up my week due unexpected searing back pain that even my wonder pills from Brazil couldn't fix. Luckily, there is a decent orthopedist a 5 minute walk from my house, and he used some ultra-sound machine to see what was wrong, gave me two injections, and much of the pain disappeared. But over the course of a week, much of it came back, too. I saw him the 4th, the 10th, and have an appointment on the 17th. I may ask for another round, but at least I can move again. No thanks to European public transportation.

I had appointments all over Paris today (Wednesday), so I got up at 4:30 AM to get the 6:03 AM direct train from Düsseldorf Airport right to Paris. My wife (greater love hath no woman) got up with me, and drove me to the airport train station (20 minutes). She left to drive back home, and I took my baggage (I'll be away a few days) to the right platform. Then the sign lit up. My train was canceled. Not delayed, but canceled. They "apologized for the inconvenience" said a recorded announcement. No suggestions on how I should get to Paris in 4 hours, just "sorry." So, I grabbed a local train heading from the airport to Düsseldorf Hbf. (main station), which is only 8 minutes away, and luckily isn't checked too often for tickets. In Düsseldorf, I saw the ticket office--closed, of course. I know the emergency ticket routes, but I didn't know if they were delayed, too. The Germans don't like to inform passengers about delays until it's too late for them to do anything about it.

I bought on my phone a ticket from Düsseldorf to Brussels in Belgium. It left in 6 minutes, so that left 2 minutes to find a connection to Paris. I did find it--leaving at 10:13, arriving at 11:38. OK, not ideal, but I could get most of my stuff done before I had to leave in the evening. Soooo, I got to Brussels only to receive a notification that the onward train to Paris was delayed by almost another hour!!! Already, I've got my time cut by a quarter!! There WAS a 9:43 train to Paris (80 minutes super-fast), but it was sold out, of course. Ah, but I do speak French, and I know that the way to get a favor from an over-harassed conductor is to solidarize with his getting swamped with requests to find seats that aren't there. For his part, he asked what train was canceled. I said the first one of the morning. He asked me if I was willing to go second class, sitting on a cramped jumpseat in the corridor of a second class car. I said absolutely! So, he shuffled me in, cramped as hell, but I made it to Paris before noon. I put in for a refund of the canceled train, but had to pay close to double for all the new ones.

Plus, the weather is getting colder, rainier, and my patience for putting up with this crap just about every second day I travel (which is almost always) is starting to diminish.

Y'all had better hope not. If I call it quits, you may have to put up with even more posts from me. So, if any of you have any pull with the lazy ass "Eurocrats" who sit around their offices all day on ten hour coffee breaks instead of getting something--ANYTHING!--done, send them a note that there is unrest brewing in the rank and file. The Germans, as history has shown, tend not to raise a fuss, due to a longstanding tendency to respect authority (which didn't always turn out well, as we know). The French are more prone to find the right offices of the offending bureaucrats and toss heavy objects through the windows (best not to be near the window when that happens). Of course, my stupid American suggestion (end the coffee breaks, get the bureaucrats to start looking to fix the problem or be out of a job) is so radical, they ALL think I'm crazy.