Day 1.75- The Punishment. As Alan makes his way through Europe, his friends commit the ultimate act of betrayal as they leave him stranded in a foreign city.

Previously on Alan’s European Adventures: after being up for over 24 hours on my drawn-out journey to meet my friends in Milan, I was slapped in the face with The Ultimate Betrayal. My so-called “friends” left me stranded in Milan all by myself with no plans for the night, and with no way of contacting them. But as it turns out, Karma really is a betch.     

After I walked up and down the platforms countless times, it was already 8:30 and I was sure that the train had already left. It is a good thing that I am always prepared, as I had predicted the possibility of my comrades’ betrayal and already had a hotel ready. I contacted Headquarters, (my mom), and told her to book the hotel.  Ten minutes later, I was at the hotel, took a shower, bought my train tickets for the next morning, and went to sleep.      

Meanwhile…after my friends betrayed and abandoned me, they had to sit through the 4-hour train ride from Milan to Zurich. At the beginning, they justified leaving me behind because they had already paid for the train tickets and the hostel we were supposed to stay at that night. But during the 4-hour train ride, the thought of me, their precious comrade, alone in a foreign country, began to eat away at their very souls. They regretted leaving me behind, and worried for my safety the whole ride.     

And here’s where Karma begins to rain down Her divine punishment. They arrived at the train station in Zurich at 12:30 A.M. The hostel was in Richterswil, which was a 30-minute train ride from Zurich, but the last train to Richterswil left at 12:20 and there was not another train until 5:00 A.M. So, they decided to stay outside of a shady McDonald’s because the station was closed and there was Wi-Fi. They finally called me around 2:30 A.M. to apologize and attempt to save their souls from damnation, but I was like “Yeah, I’m sleeping in my hotel. Uh-huh. OK, bye.”      

And now the Actual Punishment begins. At 3:00 A.M., some Swiss lady came and hosed them away from the McDonald’s shouting. They proceed to go back to the train station, which was still gated, to get away from the hose-lady. Then, of course, some weird guy named Torbin biked up to them and started bragging about the bike he just stole, and kept inviting them to stay at his place for the night. Then another guy showed up, either drunk out of his mind on drugs, and him and Torbin somehow got into an argument. They then proceed to get into a fistfight, so that happened.   

At 5:00 A.M. the train station opened and they get on a train to Richterswil. When they got there, Krishna led them in the opposite direction of the hostel, which was actually only 3 minutes from the train station. She apparently said, “Hey guys, I think that white building over there is our hostel,” because that was the only defining feature they had of the hostel. But almost all of the buildings in Richterswil are white. So they walked for 20 minutes in the opposite direction before hitting a dead end and walking back the way they came towards the hostel. And when they finally got to the hostel, they couldn’t check into their rooms because the front desk didn’t even open until 7:00 A.M. So, they waited until then and finally got into their rooms and showered and slept around 9:00 A.M. …And they had to wake up at noon to receive me at the train station in Richterswil to begin to make up for their betrayal.      

 Moral of the story: Karma’s a BETCH.