11 - For Butter or For Wurst (Witten)

Enns, AUSTRIA to Witten, GERMANY - 19 august 2002

I journeyed from Enns to Linz and onwards to Bochum in Germany by train.

Sheesh… The price for transportation in Western Europe was really shocking. My 4-day-3-night train ride from Irkutsk to Moscow in Russia cost me around US$80. But this 9-hour train ride from Enns to Bochum was a whooping US$130.

And why Bochum? I have an email friend who lives in nearby Witten whom I have been in contact for five years or so. He recently invited me to his wedding which I could not attend. So, I decided to visit him and his wife during my RTW. After all, this was the closest I would get to Europe in a long while.

However, my first impression of him was rather unpleasant. I know, I am being such a horrible person now. Here was someone who let me stay at his place for free and I was being critical. But hear me out, bitte…

Names had been changed to protect the guilty. He shall henceforth be known as… Patrick.

During our dinner, Patrick’s conversation was full of slaggings and slammings of all nationalities surrounding his country and countrymen not from his region were also not spared. Words in capital letters were done with an especially nasty sneer.

“Oh… THAT is SO TYPical… those ENGlish!”

“Well, what do you expect from those CHEEse-ROLLers? That’s why THEY are the DUTch and WE are the GERmans…”

“Argh!! They are the EAST GERmans, you see…”

“Oh, that is SO BAVARian!!”

“Austrians? We never think about them…”

Feeling a little awkward about it all, I went to bed wondering what the rest of my stay here with them would be like.



Hagen, GERMANY - 20 august 2002

Today, Patrick took me to an outdoor museum in Hagen showcasing the traditional crafts of the Ruhr river region. The crafts mainly made use of water-wheel technology and river power to cast iron into chains, axles, scythes, nails, etc… The old traditional black-and-white timber houses had been taken down and rebuilt at this site so as to show how and ‘where’ the original crafts were made. It was a rather interesting open-air museum.

The morning when we left, I had observed Patrick fill up two litres of iced tea in his bottles. Then, after he prepared a sandwich, he put everything back into the refrigerator and cupboard. He stood staring at me. Finally, he asked, “Aren’t you preparing anything for lunch?”

“Er… Oh. There is no chance for lunch there?”

“No.” he replied.

Oh. OK. I started dragging everything out from the fridge and cupboard again to make my own sandwich. I thought it was strange. He could have suggested it earlier before he chucked everything back in. And to think he prepared only for himself.

Then, I wondered about the two litres of iced tea. When Alex and I went visiting around Enns, our drinks were always for sharing, without question.

“Er… you prepared two litres of iced tea…” I queried.

“What’s wrong? It’s hot today. I’m a big guy…”

“OK…” So, that was for him only. Guess that was the way it was going to be.

I still had half a litre of syrup from Alex and decided not to waste it. Later, when I finished it, I asked Patrick for some iced tea and did not think much about it.

However, when we got back that evening, he told his wife in a smirking way, “Trisha LAUGHED at me this morning when she saw me preparing two litres of iced tea. And then, what happened later at the museum??? She HAD TO ASK me for some drinks… Hahaha…”

What the???



Bochum, GERMANY - 21 august 2002

The region of Ruhr had a coal-mining history. In fact, many places around here are now a little unstable (they might collapse anytime) due to past coal-mining activities. Coal-mining had now spread further north of this region.

We went to a coal-mining museum and it was thoroughly fascinating. Most tourists visited art or history museums in Europe, but an industry museum important to the local region was equally interesting too, I thought. I learnt a lot on this visit because Patrick is an engineer and he was perfect in explaining to me how the mechanics of shafts, tunnels, drilling, whatever, worked and the evolution of the various designs.

Insult for today, you ask? Well, Patrick brought me to a local kiosk in Bochum selling the original curry-wurst – that is sausage in curry sauce. There is even a song about it by a folk singer. Gosh, it was delicious. I bought another one when I was done.

That evening, he told his wife, “Trisha will not be able to have dinner tonight. She was SO GREEDY she ate TWO curry-wursts!! Hahahaa…”

Yeah yeah yeah… whatever… I had started to develop a layer of thicker skin by today.



Köln, GERMANY - 22 august 2002

To be very frank, I was a little relieved I headed out to Köln by myself today, without Patrick.

I mean, I was sure he did not mean those insults personally. He simply had to report to his wife whatever ‘interesting’ event that happened that day and I figured that was his way of enlivening things up with a little joke. Still, it was done in front of me, and they were in rather bad taste. But, what could I do? I was staying at his place. I had to be nice.

I thought, without him around today, there would be no chance for an insult but no…

I had taken a train that ended at a stop earlier than what was stated on the board. I could not understand why the train stopped. I was told to take a bus to Essen. As I could not understand German, I thought I needed a bus-ticket for the bus to Essen. I spent about 1 puzzling hour wandering around, trying to find out information and looking for a ticket dispenser or whatever before I realised my train ticket allowed me free access to the bus.

In the end, I figured perhaps the train stopped prematurely because of rail-works and passengers were transported to the next available train station for onward travel.

So, the whole journey home took me 3 hours and I arrived at 9:30pm or so.

“Trisha was SO STUPID. She could have taken this train to XXX and then, changed to YYY. But, instead she…”

Yadda yadda yadda.



Hattingen, GERMANY - 23 august 2002

By now, I was very wary of the things I did or said. I was just not a happy-camper anymore.

We got into the car after visiting the Steelworks Museum in Hattingen. Patrick spotted the open window at my side. He asked me if I had left the window open before we went into the museum or if I had just wound it down. I replied, “Of course, I just wound it down. I did not leave it open earlier. I’m not stupid.”

“Why not? You’re Chinese.”

Argh! Will this never end?

By dinner, due to something which I could not even remember now, he concluded with a flourish, “Well. This is ALL TRIsha’s Fault… like EVERYthing ELSe”.

When I heard this last one, I felt really hurt. I was very tempted to ask him if he wanted me to leave. I took a deep breath but said nothing. This was what I could not understand. He took leave from work and took great pride in showing me around and explaining things in details to me. Yet, I got slagged everyday. I fought within myself to remain silent. I still had one more night to go, I told myself.



Iserlohn & Altena, GERMANY - 24 august 2002

It was my birthday today. Surprisingly, Patrick and his wife remembered it and got me a cake and even gave me a video of ‘Monty Python and the Holy Grail’. I was really thankful I did not confront him about his remarks yesterday. It would have been made today terribly awkward. Frankly, I was now really touched by their sweet gestures. Yeah, they are nice people. They just had weird ways of treating their guests.

He treated me for the entrance fees of Dechenhohle cave in Iserlohn and Brug Altena. While not world-famous, the cave and the medieval castle were really very interesting in their own ways. I enjoyed them very much. And I am happy to report, there was no insult today.



Witten, GERMANY to Beverwijk, NETHERLANDS - 25 august 2002

Due to a misjudge of distance, I had to travel to Frankfurt to fly to Amsterdam, Netherlands. This would go down as one of the most stupid decisions I made. Witten is probably closer to Amsterdam by train, than it is to Frankfurt.

When I got my RTW tickets, I had assumed that being in Germany, I could travel to Frankfurt easily and fly to Amsterdam. The cost of flying FRA-AMS would already be included in the price.

But now, looking at the map, I realised I was wrong. Yet due to some complications, my travel agent suggested against cancelling the ticket.

So, I travelled 3½ hours to Frankfurt, waited 4 hours at the airport and took 1 hour to fly to Amsterdam. I could have reached Amsterdam in 2½ hours’ time this morning.

Anyway, I was greeted with a wide smile by Maria at the airport, a friend I made in my trip to Southern Africa in 1998. It was wonderful to see her again and now she has a 2-year-old son and is pregnant with another.