2 Tickets to Hanau
I walked up to the ticket agent window at the Frankfurt Airport Train Station. It was very late at night, few people lingered in the station. In my best college German I said, “Gutten abend. Meine Frau und ich have just arrived from California. We would like to take the train into Frankfurt to find a hotel room.”
The ticket agent looked at me through coke bottle lenses. He seemed to be processing my American student German that sounded like pouring gravel into a tin bucket. “Gutten abend. I am sorry to inform you that there are no available hotel rooms in Frankfurt.”
“Es gibt keine hotel rooms in all of Frankfurt?” I was incredulous. No rooms in a city of thousands of hotel rooms? “How could that be?”
The ticket agent again peered at me for a moment. He looked tired, like he was just getting ready to end his shift. Sally and I were certainly looking forward to ending our shift and sleeping off our long trip in the smoking tube in a nice hotel bed.
“Entschuldigen Sie,my apologies sir. There is an International Book Fair in Frankfurt. There are thousands of visitors. It appears that most of the Pakistani book enthusiasts are in Frankfurt.”
“Pakistan?”
“Yawohl.”
“Und thousenden Pakistanishes book enthusiasts have rented all the hotel rooms in Frankfurt?”
“Yawohl, und many others from different countries. The International Book Fair is a very large annual event in Frankfurt.”
“Mein Gott, do you have any suggestions on what we can do?”
“Yawohl, you may stay in the train station until morning. But I am sorry, you would have to stand up. There are rules against lying down on train station benches. I am sorry.”
Sally heard that, “I can’t stay in the train station. I’m pregnant. This station smells like sausages and it’s making me woozy.”
I repeated Sally’s comments to the agent in Deutch. He looked at Sally with concern. “Perhaps you could take the train the Hanau. It is about the same distance as Frankfurt city center. 30 kilometers. There are sure to be rooms available there.”
Sally nodded. I fumbled with my wallet. “Bitte, zwei bahntickets nach Hanau.”
Sal and I took up our positions sitting on a station bench near the track for the Hanau train. Not standing. We could sit if we didn’t stay there all night. Sally looked at me, “Sausages. Stand up in the train station. No rooms. SO FAR, SO BAD. I don’t think I will ever eat a sausage again.”
“Sorry babe, we’ll be out of here soon. 5 minutes until the train”. Continue reading “ROUND TRIP CHAPTER 4”