Travel 3

I was in Germany for two cold and chilly weeks. I was highly excited when i landed there and when my local guide picked me up from the station, even though i was shivering, i could hardly realize that. We talked and slowly  made our way to my accommodation. It took one hour, but it took us that long because i was a weekend. We met my landlady, a charming lady, and they both talked and my guide later on translated the things to me. By the way, my guide is a student of the professor i was visiting. He was very helpful throughout my stay in Germany. My room was amazing, much more than i had expected and quite cheap. The landlords were such nice people, both spoke alright English and made me feel more than welcome. They ordered me to stay at their place the next time i go to Germany.

Coming back to the weather, it was chilly, wet and chilly and more wet. There were just couple of sunny days in Germany, but i loved the place. It was absolutely amazing. I was in the city of Dortmund. One might have heard about Borussia Dortmund! it is the local football club. This club has a mad mad following. I managed to attend a game there, what an atmosphere! The game was a nil-nil draw but the atmosphere in the stadium was nothing less than spectacular. The fans were simply right behind the team, jumping, shouting and waving and clapping. Truly Signal Iduna Park has one of the best atmosphere in Europe, I heard that a lot of times but realized it was nothing less than the truth. Just amazing.

During the two weekends I toured the cities of Dortmund, Dusseldorf and Koln. These cities, like most of the other European cities, have not moved for centuries. The city centre has remained and this means the historical places are around the city. This makes tourism easier. I did not have much time for tourism but managed to see the cities by just walking around. Koln especially was so beautiful.

Then i travelled to Vienna. What a city! Pity i had to spend three days in the conference? I would not have had any problem if i had to spend all my days in the conference. The university was nothing like a university. It is a palace. A palace where one hears the echoes of some heavy historical footsteps. Footsteps of Schrodinger, Doppler, Kant, Freud, Boltzmann to name a few. Another important reason being the free-lunch!!! The one problem was the weather, very chilly.
And I am very tired with all I had to do in this trip. If it was just tourism I might have endured, but the stress of the conference and the work in Germany and what i expect when I reach Sydney tires me out. Add to this some bad news from Chennai. I had bad headache last night. I decided to not travel anywhere in Vienna today. Instead I went to the Albertina exhibition. They have paintings of Renoir, Monet, Manet, Picasso, Von Gogh, etc. It was nice to see their work.

But i am resting tonight, because I have a very long travel to Sydney tomorrow.

International audience!!

I signed up for google analytics some months ago to see how much my blog is read. It gave some interesting stats.

1. Total number of visitors: 325

2. Unique visitors: 220

3. 325 visits came from 18 countries (AMAZING! international appeal).

4. Number of pages viewed: 525

5. Average time on site: 1:16 mins.

Some of these visits have been through google search. Some of the keywords that lead to my blog are

1. sensible one liners

2. raghav gandalf mahatma speaks

3.one liners on smartness

4. raghav anduril gandalf

5."sydney carton"

6.'through my eyes ...ideal india'

7.+changing face of tamil film industry raghav

8.answer machine greetings lotr

9.arshavin

10.canon hg 10 club

Also I forgot to mention the list of countries of visitors.

1.India

2.Australia

3.United States

4.Netherlands

5.Germany

6.United Kingdom

7.Singapore

8.Canada

9.Belgium

10.Malaysia

11.Greece

12.Malta

13.South Africa

14.Pakistan

15.Brazil

16.Palestinian Territories

17.Spain

18.Japan

With my growing international appeal I should be nominated for next year’s nobel peace prize. “Why not?” Many seem to be asking the same question.

Many

I did many things in the last two weeks in Germany,

I have many things to say about my two weeks in Germany,

I got many things to do in Germany after two weeks,

and many things have happened in these two weeks.

But I am not going to tell them all because it would take many days to complete.

There are many things in my head, but sadly (and rightly so) not many people would be ready to listen to them all.

Many of these things I have seen in these two weeks would have been experienced by many people in many different situations, but did any one of them experience all these things in the same circumstance as mine?

I do not think they would have, and I am sure many people would agree with me on that.

I think that is the case with all the people. Each person experiences many things that many others too do but the circumstances and ordering of the many events differ in many ways. This makes what each person experiences unique.

This is one of the many beautiful things about life.

(PS after all this I have finally remembered what I wanted to write about. Watch out for the next blog!)

Travel part 2

I landed in Dusseldorf, Germany last evening. I was greeted by a small mess-free airport. It was a pleasant experience till I walked out of the aero-bridge.

The passport check was right in front of the aero-bridge. I, ofcourse, had a valid visa – which I showed to the officer behind the glass. He asked me the purpose of visit – and I told him sincerely. He then asked for any documents I had. Ah, I knew he would ask me that and I had specially printed out the documentation and had it with me in my folder. I pulled out the folder from my bag and looked for it.

“Where is it? I clearly remembered keeping it in the folder along with the documents for insurance and ticket quote and itinerary". The officer was more interested now. I gave him a smile and said, “It is right here, just a second.” In a heavily accented English, he said “OK”. I was ruffling through the papers and then I suddenly realized I was right. I did keep the document along with the insurance papers and travel quote and itinerary. But that was more than a month ago when I had applied for the visa. I had collected these documents and given it to the embassy. Ah, yes. I looked up at the officer and gave a stupid smile, “I don’t seem to have it here” , but I have it in my laptop and I could show it in 5 minutes.” I am not sure what the officer thought, may be that I am so stupid and could be of no harm to Germany or that I have a genuine and legitimate reason to be there and just forgot my document. He wanted to know if I was loaded with enough money – which I was and I showed him. And he let me go – a fine fellow.

I then walked out and picked up my luggage and took the train to Dortmund. There I was met by a friend who took me to my accommodation. The room was beautiful, much much more than what I had expected. This morning I met the professor and she was friendly and we had a brief discussion. Then I met Shyamal, a friend from my Bachelors degree, and it was good to see him after 4 years. Thats all upto now. I am planning to visit Berlin this or next weekend. It should be fun.

Later for Later for later.