Good news everyone!

[dreadlord]

Come to Cologne, then you can drink tea with Z-Man, Pre and me

No, let's meet somewhere else, Cologne is not in the centre of Germany at all and people talk with a strange dialect there.

get used to DB

If you're talking about the Bahn, I know how difficult that is...

German people are not used to the Bahn either, you can't get used to these delays.

... build up confidence dealing with people in another language where I don't really speak German and they don't really speak English.

They don't speak english although they work in a company with American origins? That's strange.

I needed to get internet ordered and installed (that took time!)

That's strange, too, according to the advertisement it only takes a day.

[epsy]

Earth people are not used to trains either, you can't get used to these delays.

FTFY ;)

[Tank Program]

More accurately I should say get used to DB and VVS, and the strange interaction between the two regarding what tickets you need when and for how many zones. All I can say is I'm thankful that the ticket machines have that little English flag on the bottom of the screen. But I love train travel - it's my favourite public transport by far. Followed by tram. Followed by subway. See a pattern?

In order to find the best location to meet, we'll need everyone's starting point and then we can put it into an optimization algorithm, using the DB website to minimize the travel time for all. Or just sort of guess on a map.

The company I'm working at is a German company, but the people I work with there speak English - that's not really the issue. It's the other hours of the day when you encounter Joe Average - or really his German cousin. Places like the super market, bakery, train station, and street corner all have people that you end up talking to on occasion for some reason, and that's scary to me even when I know they'll speak English. (I also hate making phone calls to people I don't know for the same reason.)

I've got DSL here and as near as I can tell that's notorious for having slow hook up times here. I do have tide over internet access on my phone, but there's a 200MB monthly limit on that, so it's pretty much for e-mail and checking train schedules. It took time also to figure out where I could order the internet. I had to actually go into central Stuttgart for that. Luckily the dude at the store spoke English. (Needed to hit Stuttgart as I needed an ISP offering less than a 2 year contract.)

[Word]

But isn't Cologne the place where Armagetron was born? Cologne is holy!

German people are not used to the Bahn either, you can't get used to these delays.

not just the delays but also the hundreds of special ways to get a discount (or the opposite), and I once even had to pay additional money because I was sitting in the wrong compartment (first class instead of second, because it was the only free seat in the train and I could neither move forward nor backward - so I just sat there and forgot to go to the second class when it got a bit emptier so that you could actually walk around, and then all of a sudden the ****** ticket inspector rushed in). I complained and got some money back, but still...gah. And their moronic loudspeaker announcements that aren't understandable even if the volume is turned loud enough, even worse if they're wrong and don't even know how to pronounce the stations they reach several times every day. Oh yeah, and sitting near a DB toilet or a window you can't close isn't always a great experience either. The ticket machines never work, which you'll only find out after you've already spent 10 minutes to reach the page where you're asked to pay. By then, you've usually missed your train. I find that the most ridiculous thing about DB is that if you own one of their special cards (BC25/BC50, I got a 25) you're allowed to tell other passengers without such a card to give you their seat. I've never seen anyone doing that, and I've used their trains quite a lot during the last year. At least I haven't witnessed a crash yet.
I don't even complain about the heat in the summer/the lack of functioning heatings in the winter.

[Z-Man]

Born it was in Heidelberg. Raised in Cologne, though.

Don't forget their web presence. Don't you dare use your browser's back button. And when it was time to book our trip to my parents for Easter, it only informed me ON THE LAST STEP after selecting the trains and all that the service was down for maintenance.

[Word]

Oh and now that you say it, I left out their PR and their long history of scandals. The precedessor of their current chairman got infamous when he blamed the delays on too many suiciders occupying the tracks. Z-Man, I don't know whether you like Ephraim Kishon but DB people always remind me of the main character from the Blaumilch Canal story...

[Z-Man]

he blamed the delays on too many suiciders occupying the tracks.

To be fair, many of the larger delays are really caused by that.

Nope, don't know that movie.

[Word]

Never saw the movie either but the short story it's based on is great (if you ever have some time to kill).

[dreadlord]

he blamed the delays on too many suiciders occupying the tracks.

To be fair, many of the larger delays are really caused by that.

Yeah, and by the way people could just choose a different way to committ suicide, because guards who are involved in such an accident might suffer from psychological damages as a cause.

In order to find the best location to meet, we'll need everyone's starting point and then we can put it into an optimization algorithm, using the DB website to minimize the travel time for all. Or just sort of guess on a map.

My starting point would be Hanover, however a date in July would fit perfectly for me because I'm going to write my final exams soon.

[Phytotron]

I find that the most ridiculous thing about DB is that if you own one of their special cards you're allowed to tell other passengers without such a card to give you their seat.

Then slug'em and toss'em out the window?

[kyle]

is it our april fools this year that tank is back?

(i somehow missed this topic before posting )

Merged in.

[Tank Program]

I'm planning to be back.

[Z-Man]

special cards (BC25/BC50, I got a 25) you're allowed to tell other passengers without such a card to give you their seat.

Waitwhat? I never heard such a thing. Where is that written down? How are you supposed to convince the one you're chasing away you're allowed to do that if it's not written on the card itself? (It isn't)

[Word]

Yeah, but it's true. I forgot where I read it but it was in one of their papers. I read it twice to make sure it wasn't about reservation.