Dateline: 22:14 04 Sep 1996
Location: Duisburg Hbf 

Now that was eventful.  Here I sit, burping after a tasty bread/chocolate/juice meal (thank heaven for that 5 DM coin, even if I did get 1 DM and 20 zlotys back in exchange), but the train ride here was spent in the most amusing company of 4 techno-zippies going to Wien.  Communication was rather limited because they knew as much English as I know German (hint: that's bad) but merely the displays of paraphernalia put on by fellow #4, going solo, were fascinating.  Not only was he carrying a massive & gorgeous glass bong, but he was smuggling hash (hidden in cheese(!)) and 'shrooms (in the bathroom, if I dug correctly).  The other three were just gathered in a heap of hysterically giggling arms and legs.  Just Say No sure is working, eh?  I could even have sworn that, on the first stop after the (unpoliced) Dutch-German border, I saw a granny-type get off the train carrying a hemp plant at least a meter and a half tall.

Anyway, the exciting part came at 21:45 when I got off at Duisburg...  but as I sauntered past I spotted a Departures signs titled "Oberdoelen Hbf".  For a second I could hear my brain rattling -- click, click, click -- and then crystallizing into an action: "SHIT!"  As the whistle blew I ran to the train, wrested a door open and hauled myself in.  And then got off at the next stop, which was Duisburg.

Up next, Köbenhavn II, for all of one hour.  FORWARD EVER, BACKWARD NEVER!

The day's budget 
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