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Volume CXXXII, Number 20 |
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Re-routed to Ringsted
ALISON L. MCCONNELL
ORIENT STAFF
Today finds me in Ringsted, and I'm sure that naturally begs the question, "Where is Ringsted, and what is it like?" the answer; a random country town in western Denmark that is subzero and smells like absolute crap. And when I say crap, I mean actual CRAP. I am freezing because Sonia-my dearest abroad buddy-and I are here, and my precious coat is currently speeding to points further west in this lovely country.
Next question: Why am I in awful, crap-smelling Ringsted? The answer to that is a bit more complex, but I will try to piece it together now.
After a night of clubbing in Copenhagen (which entailed us, ill-prepared in T-shirts and jeans getting rather drunk and witnessing a stabbing-yes, a stabbing), we made the ingenious decision to take a short "nap" before catching our 7:00 am train. when we woke, we immediately wondered why it was so light outside and why we felt so refreshed...I am sure you can see where this is going, we missed our train. By a lot.
We made it to the station in time for our next train at noon...only to miss THAT one too. Drunken sleepy incoherence cannot explain this one; we were extremely hungry and wanted to get rid of our soon-to-be-useless Danish kroner. We were buying food when our train pulled away from the station.
The best part is yet to come, though. We rushed out to the platform and, seeing a train pulling in, assumed ours was running a bit late (NB: European trains are NEVER late. Never.) We hopped on and were speeding along within minutes.
It wasn't until the conductor came by to check our tickets that we discovered our error: we were on the wrong train entirely, whizzing westward rather than southward toward Hamburg as planned. The nice man informs us that we will have to get off the train very soon.
This is where the coat loss comes in-our stress about screwing ourselves over by missing not one but TWO trains today led me to neglect my raincoat in the overhead storage area. Lovely. Good thing I did that, since it's 80 degrees and sunny here in western Denmark...Oh wait, it is FREEZING and smells like crap. Must have been confused there.
Sonia's take on our surroundings: "People just don't seem very happy here...I don't think I've seen a single person smiling yet!" (Trust me, you wouldn't either if you lived in Ringsted.)
Thus we are here with another four hours until we can escape this wonderful place. We must take care not to miss this train or get distracted by food products again (particularly our new weakness, Ritter Sport chocolate with coconut).
While we feel like complete morons after today's mishaps, we're laughing about it now (the stench may be responsible for that) and are hoping that the rest of our three-week central European journey will go a tad smoother. Until next time, "skol" (cheers) from Ringsted...
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