First day in Germany

28th april 2008

I knew last night’s partying a day before leaving was going to prove me costly.
My god this is one day that I will always remember as one where I was not yet packed tons of work and left and everything was going wrong.
Finally by gods grace and my own belief that sooner or later our worst fears are put to rest and 10 yrs down the line we look bac at how im mature we were when we panicked in a crunch situation.
Atlast I reached my second home , IGI airport.
As usual I was greeted by the long queues .My colleagues had already reached , making me late, a fact which I hate the most and makes me feel guilty like I have committed a crime.
It was not until I finally boarded the aircraft that I realized the nightmare was finally over and the trip had begun, to Germany.
Germany at one point of time used to be my fav soccer team for no reason what so ever.JLT-Just like that.The routing was via vienna, a really sad airport, though not very bad just sad so no reason.
This was my first visit to Europe so was special in a way.
Since I was the tour accountant I always was on my toes, as it is I am bad at maintaining accounts
And on top of that I forget very soon, a trait my old college room mates know very well.
So I bought this small pocket diary for my help and carried it with me all time.
We were headed to dusseldorf a small german city .You may have heard of it if you remember the story of William tell from our school gulmohar English reader of class IV OR V.
We were 3 right now and 3 more of my colleagues were joining two days later.
So this was a unique visit.We had booked an apartment for all 6.
The city was standard Europe /America.
Mostly wooden houses and green conifer trees and since we were in the beginning of summer and end of winter weather was pleasant ..though at nights it was supposed to get colder.
We found our apartment , was a regular house with a garden and at the end of the road.
I found the town very slow and easy paced.
But this was going to be the centr of our activity for the next 6 days.
The owner was a german lady and we had 2 rooms in the basement and one on the first floor.
So from there after offloading the luggage we headed to the exhibition center.
This event was the largest event in the wire and cable industry and we were hoping to meet every on e we know across the world.So was a very important event.
The first day was very tiring as the entire day was spent in arranging the booth.
By evening we were exhausted.We were joined soon by some more colleagues from India
Who were co exhibiting with us.
The exhibition center was the biggest one by any standards that I had seen.
It had its own train station, so u can imagine the size.
As the evening approached we decided to go out for dinner.
The only place was downtown also called as Alstad.
It was full of pubs , bars and many restaurants, coming here I felt the city was not so dead afterall.
We finally settled for some Lebanese food after scouting several restaurants .
Lebanese has some great vegetarian food ,.How I can forget Amy’s place the cute little lbanese restaurant near my home in buffalo where I also celebrated my 24th birthday.
Well so after a not so eventful first day we headed home.

21st may 2008,Melbourne

Well last day in Melbourne.
Last day at kings gate hotel.
Another good bye.
Another farewell..though no one to really say good bye, but some times
Even non living things get attached to me..or rather I get attached to them.
After all I was with them for a full 2 days!
The TV,the room,the shower,etc etc…
No breakfast buffet meant that I would have to my breakfast in the taxi…I guess I forgot to mention
So with another indian student taxi driver, who was perhaps as new in Melbourne as I was as ,I headed off for my final meeting in Melbourne.
Chomping off on an apple and some iced coffee milk I reached the outskirts of Melbourne.
In the middle of an industrial area I found the factory where I was supposed to go.
A most unique thing about Australia is that you don’t have receptionist to greet you.
You walk in , you find a telephone with the extension list and you call the one you have come to meet.In the entire company there were not more than 10 people working!!
The director of the company got his own lunch, and after eating not only washed his own dish but mine as well.Can you ever imagine an MD in India doing that !!!
Well it was an interesting meeting as it turned out that my counterpart was a PhD!! Atleast 50 yrs old.So all I did for the next one hr was to listen to all highly research oriented terms which
Went over my head and I was left with no option but stand guard against the barrage of technical questions.It was like 300 spartans against the Persian army !!
So the meeting or rather the examination same to an end.
My next destination was Sydney.But my flight was at 9 pm and there were a good 8 hrs to go still.
Anyhow I bid farewell to my hosts and left.
Luckily they put me on the 3 pm flight and by 5 pm I was hovering over Sydney.
As I landed on Sydney I was greeted by cold weather and I boarded a taxi for my apartment.
But his time it was a chinese guy for the driver.
I reached the apartments only to find my colleagues yet to come , so I had to wait .
The best part of the entire trip was about to come.
The apt was on the 53rd floor!! With a balcony…
The feeling when cold air whizzes past ur air so high up and with all the lights of the city
Just below you is phenomenal and something I wont forget for a long time.