mei on Nostr: trip back from #39c3 is going... well. plan is: four REs in Germany, cross the border ...

trip back from #39c3 is going... well.

plan is: four REs in Germany, cross the border in Szczecin, take a PKP IC night connection to where we need to go.

the german portion goes flawlessly. "well, that went smoothly", we think, discounting the possibility that anything could go wrong in the one train that remains.

we board the train and find our wagon. "wasn't there supposed to be compartments?"

turns out the wagon type is different from timetable. most people's reservations don't correspond to any seats. the wagon actually present has a lot of the space filled with bike racks and vending machines, so the capacity is much smaller than planned.

every travel party boarding carries out the same conversation again: "wait, where are our seats"

we can hear train staff responding to irate passengers: "please give me a moment, I only joined one stop ago. I'm trying to figure out seating for everyone but it's gonna take some time"

turns out, there is an extra spare wagon with noone booked in it. so, just tell the people without seats to go there, right?

wrong.

the train is composed of two parts, and is scheduled to split in Poznań to continue to two different destinations. the extra capacity is not in the right part for this to work.

so, they go to the wagon at the centre of the train, and reinterpret_cast it from one destination to another. they announce: "everyone going to Warsaw please move to car number [whatever] at the end of the train, it's all empty so you'll be able to find seats. this car will actually be going to Przemyśl"

then they go to the wagon without enough seats, and tell everyone without matching seat reservations to move to car [whatever2].

you know, once everyone whose seat didn't exist has already figured something out.

so the train goes back into chaos for a good bit. but the Hilbert Hotel maneuver is carried out successfully, and eventually we arrive in Poznań.

they begin the shunting by splitting our train in two. this happens just as one of the passengers wants to go to the other section, because that's where her family is.

we start explaining to the elderly confused passenger what exactly is going down, and that once they finish the shunting, she's gonna need to go back to the other platform.

the staff announces: "anybody else going to Warsaw or the like? this is the part that goes to Przemyśl! I don't wanna hear any crying later!". a couple more people realize "oh shit, i'm in the wrong part of the train".

everyone starts speaking up: "i'm going to Kraków, am I in the right part of the train?" "yes, you're in the right one" "what about Rzeszów?" "what about Wrocław?"

before we left Poznań, the train staff could be seen discussing with a passenger on the platform. I don't know what they talked about, but it involved shrugging in rapid succession.

maybe I should start carrying emergency popcorn on my train trips...