A bit of frustration, but still a great day - 1

 There was just so much to write about yesterday, that I decided to make it a 2-part blogpost. So more to come tomorrow!

Last Christmas I gave my ex (who was still my boyfriend back then) a day out for the two of us. It was a ticket with which we could go from one town to another by a classic ferry and then go to another town by a steam tram. This ticket was usable until the 21^st of August, so we decided we would go somewhere in the summer, because such a day out is nicer with good weather.

A month later we broke up… Of course we didn’t feel like taking this tour for a while, as we were pretty heartbroken. We were able to see each other in real life, but to take that tour that was originally meant as a great date for the two of us? No, that was too painful.

Later we were more comfortable with it, but we just couldn’t plan this day in. Whenever I had time, he didn’t, and whenever he had time, I didn’t. We were getting very close to the ending date of this ticket!

Luckily we managed to plan this day in after all. Yesterday was the day it was going to happen. It didn’t start out all too great. The evening before that day I was very nervous and couldn’t calm down until I had all the information I needed. (Time tables, maps of the cities we were going to see, etc.) This seems like a lot of unnecessary planning, worrying too much and being a control freak, but that’s not it. Remember: It’s only since a year ago that I started being comfortable with travelling by public transport. Now it wasn’t ‘normal’ public transport either, so I couldn’t use my smartphone to get to the right information. This added to the stress level. Luckily I found all the right information in the end and I printed it all out.

When I arrived at the place where the boat was docked, I wondered where I had to hand in my coupon to get our official tickets. I expected a ticket boot there, but there was none. Since my ex wasn’t there yet, I couldn’t ask him what he thought we should do. I looked around and saw a tourist office which said ‘tickets’ on the side. Thinking this was probably the right place, I went inside.

There was a line from the desk until the door, so I had to wait a while. I was so happy that I left my house early! When it was finally my turn, I got a bit anxious, but I pushed myself to ask whether I could get my tickets here. I couldn’t, it turned out I just had to show the coupon on the boat. Then I said I heard the lady in front of me speak about the bakery museum and that I was thinking of going there too and that I wanted to buy two tickets. The lady at the desk said it was better if I bought it at the museum. I asked: “So, that means I can’t buy it here?” To which she answered: “Well you can and you would get a discount, but I would advise you to buy it there.” I got so confused, that I had trouble processing it. The lady looked at me with a look on her face that seemed to say “Sooo… Do you need anything else then?” I couldn’t process this confusing conversation on time, so I simply said “Okay, thank you,” and I walked off. I have no idea if I just missed some sort of discount.

So far for my Asperger being in the way of my day, because from here on out my day was just amazing! My ex arrived and we hugged and boarded the boat. We had some trouble with ordering a dish, as 75% of the menu appeared to be not available, but besides that everything went great. We really enjoyed the journey and spent some time on deck, enjoying the wind and the incredible views.

When we arrived at the town we were headed to, the first thing we saw was a steam train which was preparing for leaving. My ex is a public transport enthusiast in general, but he especially loves trains. I have always loved steam trains. So this was a perfect scene for us to arrive to. We spent some time walking around the steam train, simply marvelling at the sight of it and taking pictures.

Sorry for the terrible quality picture. My 1 and a half year old smartphone didn't like the bright weather. This was the locomotive that drove the steam train. It was still disconnected at that moment.

 

In this town we took out a lot of time, by having planned to take the last steam train to the last town. We checked our ticket, which said we could use it for a free ride with a classical bus to a few museums and other tourist things. We didn’t care for any of these things, but have planned for a bakery museum which wasn’t included in the ticket. After some thinking we decided to still take the classic bus just because we wanted to ride a classic bus, and to simply ride out the whole round-trip.