Dan discovers Google Maps (The way Germans are)

Hello,
Today I took the day off to spend with God. I had a lot rattling around in my head and one of the best ways I clear out all the distractions is through exercise. I'd earlier scouted out a swimming pool two S-Bahn stops North of here, and I thought laps would be a great way to clear my head. I went online and made sure they were open on Sundays (something that, in Germany, is very important to do. It saves you a long trip home disappointed...usually). Surprisingly, the swimming pool IS open Sundays. I got up early and went all the way up to Lankwitz so I could swim. I arrived at the parking lot and was assaulted by an elderly German woman shouting something in German. The only word I could recognize at first was "STREIK!" Well, I didn't need to hear a whole lot more, but figured I'd make sure so i walked closer. I'm happy to say my German kicked in and I was able to understand the rest of what she was saying. Apparently the German Bathhouse worker's Association or something like that were on strike today and there would be no swimming for me today. I went up to the building and saw the nice little note explaining "we are on strike today. See you later. Thank you for your understanding." GERMANS! They are so arbitrarily rule bound! When there are no cars coming for 3 kms, and I cross the street, you could swear I punted a newborne, but when it comes to cleaning up after their dogs ("Only a Berlin problem" Germans swear) it seems I can't walk that same 3 kms to the nearest car without stepping in 4 different kinds of dog shit. (For my offended christian friends, it's "dog poop" until you step in it and have it all in the grooves of the sole of your shoe for the next week, and then it's "dog shit"). On one hand, Germans take certain breaks from the rules as "the way it is" and see anyone who has a problem with the switch up as a "tourist". On the other hand, when being shown a short film in a business presentation, we are informed that we are about to watch "a 2 minute 18 second film about..." If the train just doesn't come for an extra 20 minutes due to an unknown issue, it's the emporor's new clothes to point it out, but heaven forbid the DVD player tack on an extra second, making it an entirely different, 2 minute and NINETEEN second film! It's a weird mix of ruleboundidity (hey Will) and rule breaking...hood. This is the same with the strike. In America, it seems like the strikers would simply not show up that day, or maybe be around the building with signs. Here, it almost seemed like a scheduled inconvenience. "Thank you, come again soon" sorta thing. Now this politeness did NOT save me the long trip home disappointed (thus the "usually" mentioned above), because the strikers neglected to post this small detail on their website, of which I posted a photo. Regimented, orderly, and wrong.

So I went home disappointed and decided to go running. My goal was to follow the s25 tracks south to Lichtefelde Sued, and possibly even Teltow Stadt. Unfortunately I didn't realize that CelsiusstraBe curves, and so when I came to the end of Celsius, and had to go either right or left, I figured taking a left would keep me parallel with the rail line. Since CelsiusstraBe had taken a curve, this was actually taking me East away from the rail. You can see this on the map. The green is my run along Celsius, and the squiggled is the curve I was unaware of. The blue is the route that I thought the train was taking, and I thought I was running right next to it. The next hour was me trying to make my way "West" to cross the path of the train. The other blue line is where I thought the line must be, after continuing "Westward" along my route and not crossing or even seeing the tracks. This whole time I thought i was headed South and slightly West, I was really heading Very East and slightly south. Curse you stupid 90 degrees of directional error! So anyway, you can see the route I took, all movements South representative of me attempting to make my way West, thinking that the road right after CelsiusstraBe (the beginning of red on the map) was really roughly parallel with the s25 line (blue). Man was I wrong. I'd passed Lichtefeld Sued long ago and wound up kilometers away from Teltow. Exercise: check. Navigation: fail.