I haven't been here long enough to despise the public transit system like some people do. In fact, I think it's fairly good. Yeah, you have to go out of your way most of the time but it's a lot easier for a narrow island like Manhattan to get you there without having to backtrack (thanks for pointing that out, Randi). The U-bahn is pretty decent: The clocks are almost always accurate, there's not excessive litter and newspapers from careless passengers, and phones get reception! To ask for a train platform that doesn't smell like a homeless person and/or fecal matter is just unrealistic.
The times I've taken the train lately, it's almost like the BVG took notes from the MTA on how to muck up all the lines. Last week instead of a 30 minute commute it was over an hour. Tonight, I ended up on a packed shuttle bus. I have an exciting new toy so I wasn't bothered by the detour however I was concerned with missing my stop since I couldn't take my eyes off the sexy new HTC Desire in my hand.
When it came time for my stop, I wasn't able to pull the cord because I was holding a new baby in one hand and my giant suitcase that Melissa had borrowed in the other. Instead, I approached the back door and pushed my elbow into the button in all sorts of angles. I couldn't tell if the "STOP REQUESTED" light existed or was illuminated.
When my intersection came, the bus stopped but the door did not open. Did the driver not know I needed to get off? button push, button push, button push…eeepp i'm going to miss the stop and I have this suitcase and it's raining. So I used a little trick I learned on the 125th Street cross-town bus. I started yelling. "Back tür! Back tür" (Back is not german, tür means door) "offenen die back tür!" Everyone was staring at me because of the angle i was pushing the button with my elbow, the fact that i was yelling, and last but not least of all my olive colored pencil skirt with heels. A nice english speaking man came to my rescue, "we're at a stop light, the bus stop is up there."
At least when I yelled "tut mir leid" (I'm sorry!), the folks on the bus laughed.
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