The pissed-off American and the Bavarian with only one leg

[jessybxx]

As you may or may not have read on my Twitter, today I travelled to Essen (which, sadly, is in the opposite direction from my uni so I had to leave my place an hour early to have enough time) to buy a soap at the local Lush store which happens to be located inside the main station. The shop was bursting with customers which, despite it being the season shocked me because during the rest of the year, people are positively petrified at the smell and sight and hardly venture inside at all. Seeing the three Lush people completely overwhelmed, I quickly grabbed a piece of Snow Cake (it's an Xmas pressie for a friend who is totally obsessed with the smell of my Smitten hand cream, so I guess a soap with the same scent should hit the mark, no? ^^), paid and left.
Half of the trains to Düsseldorf was either cancelled or late but I somehow managed to stand at the beginning of the line when one of them arrived at the platform.
Now, I know that Brits are really good at queuing, but I have to admit we Germans are pretty much hopeless. We push and shove and generally act as if we were fighting for our dear lives when all that's at stake is a seat in a train. Keep this in mind while I go on with my tale.
So, I was one of the first people at the door and while we were waiting for the people who were getting out at Essen to shuffle outside, some people still fought their way inside early. Now, even I have to admit that I sometimes do this if I get the chance, but of course it should be considered standard practice to let the others get out before you rush inside. While I had finally made it inside and was trying to get away from the door to let the other people in, I suddenly heard a voice from behind me.
It came from back at the platform, pretty much at the back of the cluster of people that had formed in front of the door and was apparently more than a little agitated. What I heard was something along the lines of
"Relax, people. It's just gonna take a couple of minutes" and yes, that guy was very clearly American. I guess he was rather amazed at the force of the fighting for the best place to stand but the way he almost yelled over the crowd was a bit baffling, especially because I doubt he was really understood by a lot of them.
With the help of some ludicrous miracle, I managed to grab what seemed like the only remaining free seat, so I sat down, holding my backpack with my precious Shizu (My Eee PC) on my lap and still grinning due to the American guy's comments. A few moments later, said guy shuffled past me, mumbling to himself in a voice that was still much too loud not to be overheard. And this time, I can retype his exact words since they made me crack up so much they were basically burned into my brain, accent and all.
"Germans. Fuckin' animals."
Thanks, friend. Couldn't have said it any better.
During the ride to Düsseldorf, there was this old guy sitting across from me. The poor man only had one leg but that's not the point here.
Turns out, he was in the wrong train because the one he was supposed to use - guess what? - was cancelled.
Eventually, he fished his cellphone (I don't think I've ever seen someone this old use one) out of his pocket and called someone. I have no idea who that was but after he had finished talking (or, more accurately, positively screaming into the poor thing) everyone around him knew just about anything else about him. By that, I don't just mean the fact that he was obviously Bavarian, which his thick accent revealed within two seconds. He was also on his way to some place near Kaiserslautern to attend a funeral (>_<) which was to take place at 2:15 PM and had gotten up ridiculously early (either before 6 or 5, I think he wasn't exactly sure himself) that day to make it.
Bizarre, just bizarre. I don't know what it is that makes people forget they're not alone the instant they have a phone pressed to their ear, but this was a rather severe case, especially considering the gentleman's age.

Sometimes, I hate having to commute to uni for three to four hours each day. Today wasn't quite that bad because there's always something interesting or at least unusual to pick up, provided you're as observant as me ;)



Sorry for going on so much, but I felt like writing. Weird, huh? XD