Go west in Germany

Pictures!!

You really have to do two things to have a hassle free life in Germany. One, you have to like sausages and cold meats and the other is that you have to speak German.

5 days in Deutschland. Quite an experience… I landed in Germany and my first mission was to catch a cab to the hotel. When I walked out of the Hanover Airport I was greeted by string of off white taxis. Besides being not white, they were as German as they could be. All I saw were Mercs, BMWs, Audis and Volkswagens. The trip promised to be good with such a beginning.

And the good news continued as I traveled in to the city. To my heart’s content I could not spot a single Toyota that whole day. I did see two Honda’s and I guess I could let them be.

At the hotel, the concierge barely spoke broken English. But getting the key wasn’t that difficult. A lot jet lagged I decided to sleep for a while. I finally awoke 6 hours later and promptly decided to explore the small city of Hanover. The hotel was smack in centre of the city and that helped. I walked towards the station where all the activity seemed to happen.

Public transport in Germany was excellent. For a day ticket, you could use any of the trams, trains, subways and buses multiple times as long as you stayed in the zone (City). The bad part then is that it’s quite expensive to buy a car in Germany. Perhaps my biggest grudge against this land.

Plenty of food outlets made selection of a place to eat a difficult affair. I finally chose a place where I could see most people. Food was relatively cheap but coke was atrociously expensive. Oh well, the company was covering my costs so who cared. What was most noticeable was that the only water Germans drink is carbonated mineral water. I found that quite annoying and had several occasion where I had to sit down and connect with the waiter so that he could get me some still water. I never missed water as much. Talking about drinking water, using the restroom costs between 30 – 50 cents. For those with weak bladders, I recommend a carry along can.

The city of Hanover had a red line marked on the ground. All I did was follow the red line and that took me to all the tourist attractions and the good eating spots. I thus finished off the town the next day in about 5 hours.

Friday was the interview day. The interviews and the group tasks were exhausting and lunch including cheese crackers and cold meats were hardly appealing or filling. We did have a fine Italian dinner after wards that included two large bottles of fine still water.

I spent the Saturday in Berlin. And by far, that’s has been the strangest capital I have ever been to. One of my friends was well versed in German history and as we walked around the city she kept feeding us vital facts which helped us appreciate what few pieces of rubble meant. In the skyline of huge domes and artistic towers, you see a good proportion of cranes. You still see sections of the city being rebuilt after the war even now. The difference between the east and west is stunning even now. A wall broken but history remained.

Germany was very different place to visit and most contrasting too. It’s funny how I compare Germany with USA when I belong to India but such comparison is only natural. Germany is a cleaner, more efficient India where people don’t spend time being foolishly diplomatic like the Americans. The escalators and any power consuming equipment turned it self off when no one used it. Even the subway doors opened only if you pushed a button.

To me, Germany is a selective mixture of Indian and American traits with absolute German roots.

A country, in which, I traveled in a Mercedes at 200 km/hr and a country where I paid 30 cents to take a leak.