The bicycle is back

Mostly because my monthly pass ran out, I decided that it's time to cycle again. There's no snow, no ice – no excuse anymore. It was pretty fun, but my precious "blue angel" definitively needs some lovin' after a long two months in the basement. As long as the lights work, I guess...

Frosted city

Yesterday we had no snow in Berlin – even if even Ireland had had its fair share by then. After nine in the evening it started and so it snowed all night. When I woke up today, it was bright and utterly white outside my window. It snowed all day long, until the late afternoon, and now we have an impressive layer of frosting over the whole city. Berlin is pretty again! Let's just wait and see how long the enthusiasm lasts :P

I had to abandon my bike for now and buy a monthly train ticket this morning. I invested in the 10am montly ticket and thanks to the S-bahn chaos apology from BVG, the €15 discount on it meant that it only cost €36! Now that's a bargain!

Happy travels!

I use public transport fairly little – as long as the weather permits I prefer to zoom around on my blue bicycle. I seem to be lucky to not even have noticed, but the S-bahn has had a lot troubles this year and as an apology BVG are turning our Einzelfahrscheins, one trip tickets, into day tickets for the weekends in November and December. The monthly passes are also 15 euro cheaper these two months. (Read about it here.)

Our friends from London were here for the weekend and told us that the trains in London have had problems, too, and because problems equal costs, they end up raising the ticket prices. BVG's action is much more to my liking!

Breaking the law, breaking the law...

I forgot to write about what happened to me on Monday. I was on my way to German class and was sooooo tired, soooo sick and a little late, too. When I was buying my U-bahn ticket, a teenage boy sitting next to the ticket machine asked me if I wouldn't buy a day ticket from him instead. I didn't really want to, and said I only needed a one-way ticket and he said I could have the day ticket for one euro. I examined it really closely, and the time stamp matched, and the ticket looked real. So I said ok. I got on the U-bahn and half-way there my cart got checked for tickets. I showed mine, and the inspector froze: "You haven't bought this at the BVG sales point?" he asked. No, I said. "This is a forgery, you will have to get off the train with us at the next stop". Ooooooh shit. So the guys tell me that they should call the police, that using a falsified ticket is very serious. I could be fined with €400. I was almost in tears, and totally speechless, I was so tired and shocked. I think they felt bad for me, the guy tried to stop me from crying and told me they were only going to fine me €40, but that I should never, ever buy a ticket from those kinds of hustlers again. I won't. I recommend that no one else does, either!