Ladies and gentelmen, place your bets

Thursday, October 02, 2014
Amsterdam, Noord-Holland, Netherlands
Any time I take the train -- like the subway, I feel as if there is a giant roulette wheel before me. 

Sure, I can read a metro map with the best of 'em. And yes, my foolish follies are often a result of impatience. But I still can't seem to shake the downright dumb situations I sometimes find myself in on the train.

Today's adventure was because I relied on habit rather than knowledge. I had had a long day at work and was anxoius to get home. As I was coming down the escalator to my track, I saw a train in place and people starting to cram in -- I had to be one of them!

Almost the moment I sat down I noticed that not everybody on the platform had rushed the train as I had. In fact, there were a lot of people still standing on the platform. 

Hmmmmm. 

Then I recalled that in my eagerness to board, I never actually looked at a train sign. I essentially had no idea where I was going, only that it was heading in the same direction and on the same track as the typical Amsterdam Central train. Oh well, I'll figure it out. 

I did figure it out, and Amsterdam Central was not on the destination list. I was at least savvy enough to know which station I needed to get off at so that I could connect back to the train I had actually intended. So, at Sloterdijk I exit the train with a few other folks. I stopped for 30-seconds (to take a video for a work project) and then, literally, I was the only person on the platform. It was like everybody just disappeared. And since I already had my camera out, I went ahead and took a picture looking left. Looking right. And looking perplexed.

 

 
 
So, I found a station map and sure enough this was the right station to connect with trains for where I needed to go. I had ridden by this station everyday for the past week and remembered it being a bustling, large station. I reasoned the other train must just be coming to a different platform. 

I look at the train arrival screen and see that I need platform 8. Cool. I was on platform 11, that should be easy. I walk downstairs. There are no other platforms. I mean it seriously was just a door, an entry turnstile and then stairs up to the platform I had been on. Had I maybe ridden by a different Sloterdijk and stopped at the wrong one? The Dutch do seem to like to reuse names. 

I hiked back up the stairs, looked at the screen again, furrowed my brow and returned downstairs. This time I noticed a sign saying platforms 1-10 were "150 meters" ahead. So, I walk outside and find the station that I had been passing each day. 

Very busy. Very congested. And the train at platform 8 was very delayed. Argh. 

Again I check the omnipotent screen and see there is a train going to the Central Station arriving in 4 minutes to platform 3 and in 6 minutes to platform 5. I return to the bustling station and look feverishly around for either platform. I finally see the sign for 5 -- and as confused as you are now with these numbers fluttering in your head, was the same for me. "Wait, wait, was I supposed to be at platform 6 in 5 minutes?" Anyway, I was at the right platform at the right time.

I could watch the screen and see that the platform 8 train was still delayed -- ha! good job. And the train on platform 3 had securely departed -- okay, I guess I could have made it to that one. Shoot, I hope this here train doesn't suddenly become delayed. 

Ugh, how do the people on Amazing Race do it? Not the eating raw meat or the physical challenges or even the annoying ex-husband partner... but the potential for delays. If I knew that what stood between me and $1,000,000 was a travel delay, I would go batty. No. I would go to jail. I would be that person you read about on the Yahoo! entertainment blurbs.

Maybe that aggravation is simply the "low" to the gambler's "high" and I just trade in a different currency than most casinos. The currency of time. Oh. Yeah, and control. I'm sure that has nothing to do with it. ;)

But ultimately I made it home, well to my temporary home while I'm in Amsterdam. So all is well. And I got a (hopefully) entertaining story to share with my blog peeps.

Comments

catherine
2014-10-03

Would love to watch you on The Amazing Race!!

2025-02-16

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank