Busted!!

I've posted about the Salzburg bus before and you may recall that there are plain clothes security people who routinely check for tickets. I've been checked twice. These checks occur at random hours of the day and you can't predict them. It's kind of like speed traps on the interstate except that at least with speed traps, you know the patrols are going to be out around the 15th of the month and at the end of the month. There's simply NO rhyme or reason to the bus ticket checks.
I purchased a monthly pass which burned me in the first place. I had to pay full adult price for it and not the student price because the Mozarteum does not consider us to be "real" students. Hey!! I eat ramen noodles!! that makes me a student!
Anyway, the last monatskarte that I bought was on October 3rd. Now, do I have to buy a new pass on the 1st of November (which was a national holiday... All Saints) or should I buy one on November 2nd (a Sunday and NOTHING is open), or is this one good until the time stamped on the 3rd of November? I was planning on buying a new ticket at the service point close to the Orff Institut and I figured that the bus was so crowded in the morning that I could at least ride over there in peace. Who's going to check on a crowded bus on a busy morning for tickets?

You know what's coming next......

Two guys got on the bus. They were young and looked enough like students. One of them even had an earring!! There was hardly anybody on the bus anymore. The Institut is not a hot spot in the scheme of things even though I really like it. So I got a little nervous when Earring Guy headed my way and said in perfectly comprehensible German "I need to see your ticket please." I understand a lot of German (good thing) but can't put a sentence together to save my soul. What's a girl to do?
Play dumb of course. I put on my blankest expression and said "huh?" He repeated the question and I said "What?" He heaved an exasperated sigh and said "teekett." Okay, so now I know his English is as good as my German. Even though my stop was rapidly coming up, I knew I didn't really have enough time to stall. I frittered around with my Obama travel mug and finally handed it to him and said "Hold this while I dig in my bag." At this point I knew he was ready to give up, but I dug anyway and produced the ticket. Rather than trying to explain to me that my ticket had expired he waved his hand and said "Okay."

It's a good thing I went to Mass last night. I'd better go again this weekend. And I DID buy a new pass, but I haven't validated it yet.......