This SBAN subway system is a tince different than NY or London or any other city I've ever been. You buy the ticket from wherever (shop, machine, etc), validate it at a totally different machine on the platform and then no one ever checks it. Until today.
I was stopped on the train on my way to class by an undercover SBAN cop. First, this idea in itself, a plain clothes ticket catcher, is hilarious to me. Anyway, he asks in German for my ticket, which gladly I understand and show him. Then he gets red in the face and starts yelling at me. I try to asking questions which I will know the answers to, but it is pointless because the man doesn't know a lick of my Ger'lish. Another passenger steps up and serves as a translator and tells me that this guy wants me off the train immediately because my ticket isn't validated. I said to tell him "I just made this train and, fine, I'm a stupid American, but I am not getting off ". So we eventually agreed I would get it stamped when I change trains in two stops. So dude leaves, but the whole train's delayed. Sitting through the next two stops with the morning mob of angry Germans was not something I would like to experience again.
In hindsight, a turnstile would solve this whole problem!
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