I had to travel
from Eindhoven to Italy for a job interview. That doesn't sound that difficult
but for me it was quite a struggle. The time the interview got scheduled and
the airport I needed to get to allowed only for one flight out of Amsterdam
that leaves at 7:20 am. Of course there are no trains that would get me there
from Eindhoven in time so I planned to travel to the airport the day before. I
left work around 5:30 pm only to learn at the train station that all
connections via den Bosch (a city) were cancelled as a train was stuck in the
station. They didn't know when it would get solved so I tried to travel via
Tilburg. Once I arrived there I've learned the problems were way bigger. Almost
all trains where late. Anyways there was a connection via den Haag. That train
got postponed... postponed some more... and even more. By the time it arrived
the track from den Haag to the Amsterdam Airport was blocked because a lightning
struck something. (My Dutch wasn't good enough to figure out the details.)
Now the train
system claimed the route via den Bosch was open again. Only problem being that
the train I got on didn't want to move... why? Lightning struck that track as well.
Now they started to cancel trains... after some more waiting the den Haag
connection was open again (according to their App). So I took the next train to
den Haag just to realize they have closed the track to the airport again.
I was getting a
little frustrated but not as frustrated as another guy who was throwing his
luggage all over the place. When he saw that I had a phone on which I tried to
figure out how to continue my journey he approached me asking for my phone. I
have to admit that he didn't look very trustworthy to me, hence I said
"no". He asked again. I repeated my answer. So he decided the best
course of action was to just punch me in the face. That kinda proved my point
of not trusting him but I guess he didn't see the irony in that.
While I was still
trying to recover from the hit (dude was twice my size) he asked whether he
could use my phone now. That made me grab my luggage and walk away... at
slightly increased pace. Next thing he yells at me that I should call the
police. Funny thing... the police was already on their way because they saw
what happened. So I had to talk to them for a while.
After getting a
giant frozen dumpling at the next supermarket (no ice available anywhere) I
tried to continue the journey. Once again I found a connection but 10 minutes
before the train was supposed to arrive the App told me the connection is not
feasible anymore. So I decided to ask someone at the information counter. He
claimed the connection was feasible... although when looking at his App it also
told him the train won't go. Well... I trusted the expert. The train went from
den Haag HS to den Haag central... and then back to den Haag HS. I realized
that this won't help me so I got of that train.
Long story short:
The next connection did work so I arrived at the airport around 23:30. That
only allowed me 4h of sleep. I think I looked pretty bad during the
interview... way to make a good first impression.
