Good manners are not a subject that people like to discuss in travels. I must admit, that sometimes I’m really sensitive when on trains or airplanes, but sometimes you must be sensitive.
Good manners are growing to a significant need in society. This time I traveled from Munich to Marburg (an wonderful medieval town in Germany) and here I collected some rules to help you enjoy yourself with your neighbors.
Good manners were in my childhood part of a good education. The way you present yourself decide if people will accept you or not. For a social animal like humankind, this is crucial. Carrer, family, and friends will positively answer to you and your bonus is: You live better.
Good manners start by being responsible for your kids
Babies crying, in my opinion, are not a problem. I love kids, and all of them were babies someday (even me). Unfortunately, mothers turned to a problem. Now even worse than in the 80ies.
I assume, that my generation made an education mistake here. Protesting against the horrible methods from earlier generations, we accepted the liberal systems, disregarding their lack of field experience. We had to give more attention to the next generation.
On this train, I observed a young mother. This mother was involved in some Farmer game, while the poor boy in the cradle cried in all possible tones. After ten minutes I and my neighbor and I got some strange smell in the car.
Don’t eat smelly food, not just for good manners reasons
If food smells so bad, I don’t think this can be healthy at all.
“What a horrible smell?” I said.
“Do you think is this from the kid?” she suggested.
“No dear. The kid is alive, and this smell is from something else.” I answered, still scanning the environment.
She tipped on my arm and nodded to the side, and my eyes followed to the source of this infernal smell. An Asian lady had opened a sushi-box.
Really! Don’t eat smelly things on a train, bus or another closed place. We have more and more vegetarians and sincerely, it’s impossible not to get sick from suck odors, even if you are not vegetarian.
Your family, your problem
Somebody near to the distracted mother argued loudly, and she threw her phone device on the table and tried to mime a nice mother. This seemed to be scary, but I thought this was just the lack of experience of the young mother.
Another lady came near to the young girl and probably gave her a tip about the toddler’s problem. A short quarrel followed, and everybody tried to see through the window and ignore the moment. But we understood, who the lady was.
“Take care of your own problem, mother.” ‘Aha.’ I said to myself and kept admiring the fog outside.
Yes, you should ever express yourself, but if you have private problems, they should be kept private. Nobody wants to be part of a family feud.
Good manners about your talking on the phone
I decided to ask the Asian lady to move to the restaurant car or at least eat quicker, but I was interrupted by another lady that louder than the baby started to talk in her (I assume) new telephone.
“Yes, darling. I think Markus could share a room with Robert.” claimed the lady begging for attention.
“Who the hell is Markus and why is she playing Cupido?” I asked my neighbor.
“Probably her son. She speaks so loud, that the phone must be a new sensation or her son is the best from mama.” we laughed a lot and tried to don’t pay attention to that talk. But the lady asked for more attention.
The Asian lady decided to not eat the last piece of her sushi and brought all the foils, boxes, etc. back to the carrying bag. Still disgusted from the smell, I came to an idea.
“Hello, dear. I’m going to the toilette. I could bring this for you to the trashcan.” I pointed to the reminiscences of the victim of Japanese art.
“Thank you.” She smiled, and I rushed to the next car and delivered the package. I thought all the time about separating the trash in different cans. But I decided that this wasn’t possible or necessary for the moment.
Not just Big Brother is watching you
Victoriously, I sat back in my seat.
“I love Troja with Brad Pitt.” said my neighbor.
I needed some moments to remember the movie and catch the source of her comment.
The guy in the next row was looking at a movie on his tablet.
“This is not Troja. This is assassin’s creed.” I corrected.
When we arrived at the next station, the mother and daughter moved out with the poor toddler. He was still crying and the mother hearing new insults from the daughter.
This was far more interesting than “Assassin’s Creed”, I see.
“If I have a daughter like that, I think I would go crazy.” said a lady behind us.
“Markus is a very nice guy.” spoke the loud woman again. It seems that she lost the connection for some minutes. People around her didn’t seem to be very impressed with all the details from Markus to hear, but she wasn’t satisfied with the given attention.
She moved back and forward in her seat and pressed many times her hand over the skinny breast and noded many times with loud confirmations.
“Yes. I’m sure Markus will not discuss this…” continued the lady.
I sneaked a little in the video from my neighbor in the front row when the lady found an endpoint in her conversation.
“Who is Markus Lydia?” I think this was her name. Sincerely, she could have any name, I would rather forget.
“Markus Söder.” If you don’t know, he is the most important man in Bayern (or Bavaria). He is our minister-president. I’m not one of his voters, but if I were, at this moment I would drop my confidence. This lady spoke about so many details about his private life, that the word “Indiscretion” were almost flashing over her silly head.
I hope nobody believed her. This would be a shame for our state, but indiscretions are also something that I would consider to avoid.
Good Manners and patience at last
We arrived in Frankfurt am Main and I was relieved to flee from this infernal day. I though a lot of minutes about what I experienced.
Can you strike similarities between my experiences here and some of your train rides?
Feel free to let me know, which bad manners turned your uncommon day into a long, drawn-out inferno.
I hope you don’t think I’m too picky, but believe me, thirty years ago, this day could just happen in a Sci-Fi movie.
I’ll be back in Munich tomorrow and I hope to be able to enjoy some nice moments in Zum Augustiner.