Unraveling

It was a lovely Sunday, but the results of the European parliamentary elections are shocking. Putin will be delighted about the gains of the right wing parties he has been bribing supporting all along.

I’m really unhappy about the political shift to the right. 

On top of that, my holiday plans for this summer are unraveling, too. 

Both my mother’s carers will leave for holidays soon. First Frau G in ten days, and then E, whose replacement will be another unknown woman. This means that I need to be here as backup, and can’t travel until September. I have just a week (starting on Tuesday) for my annual hiking holiday; extremely early in the season. The weather forecast is looking pretty bad at the moment, so I’m probably going to read a lot…

After I booked the train ticket, I read a local news website and found out that, due to repairs on the tracks, my train to Frankfurt won’t be running. So I will need to leave home earlier than planned, and use another train which will take a rather roundabout route to Frankfurt.

Today, my Deutsche Bahn (German railways) app alerted me to the fact that my train from Frankfurt to Basel has been canceled. I now have to start even earlier, take a train to Mannheim from Frankfurt, and then change again - but there’s still no guarantee that I’ll get to Basel in time for my connection. If not, I’ll be delayed there for another hour, and the total travel time will extend to eleven hours, with six changes.

I thought about going by car instead, but a long drive on my own would be stressful, too. So I will still be traveling by train and practicing my “Ommm”.