To give Wayne the opportunity to do something with his tablet and internet connection, we went to the bicycle café one last time. However, since every app he wanted to use required two-factor authentication, he decided to buy a mobile phone in Gülüstan (Russkiy Bazar), where we had bought chocolate. But even there he couldn’t do anything, as foreign SIM cards don’t work in Turkmenistan.
He will try to get everything he can sorted out during his next stop in Jeddah and then hopes to have it repaired in Egypt.
We drove to the airport, said goodbye to Gulsan, said “Sagbul” (thank you) a few more, but last times, and went to the gates to say our goodbyes to each other. Both flights were scheduled to depart at 1:10 p.m., but only Wayne’s flight was on time. The planes are large (ten seats in a row) but almost empty. The passengers mostly looked Turkmen.
In Frankfurt, I was one of the few Europeans who could use an additional, automated gate, collect my backpack, and depart. I wanted to visit Negin in Bonn. (Negin is the daughter of Arash, whom I wanted to visit in Shiraz, but for whom I wasn’t allowed to enter Iran.) Then I saw a sign that said “To the train stations” (there were apparently several). I wasn’t prepared for this, as I knew there was a train station right at the airport. So I asked at the information desk.
The man said I’d have to take a shuttle, since it was 3 km and the stop was right in front of the airport.
But I could only find a bus to the South Station. Negin had offered to reserve the train tickets, and the situation was a bit confusing for both of us. At least she figured out that I could take the train from the South Station to Bonn, because the bus driver had told me I’d have to change trains at the South Station to get to the main station and then on to Bonn. But I didn’t want to do that, since the bus was already stuck in traffic and I didn’t want to miss a train – trains are unreliable enough as it is.
So she organized my ticket and I went to the South Station.
I took a train earlier from “South” to “main” that was anyway late too, and I almost certainly would have missed my connecting train at the main station, at least if the train to Bonn had been on time (which it wasn’t – 15 minutes late).
And now came the “strange” part: The first stop of the train from Frankfurt, main station to Bonn was:
the airport!
So I had paid €6.60 for a bus that took me 40 minutes away from the airport, then I had the train from the south to the main station and came back to the airport?!
And I don’t know exactly where I had made the crucial mistake that led to this completely unnecessary detour.
But I can’t even say that it’s further evidence that I should stop traveling, because even though it shows that I’m overwhelmed by a train journey from Frankfurt to Bonn, this is still within my own expectations of commuting in the future.
But back to the past, or rather, the present:
The journey is over, the actual trip is finished, goodbye, world!
