There are lots of things to write about but I don’t have much time so I will only list down the important ones.

• My colleagues from India who are accompanying me have a tough time with the lunch served in the office even though vegetarisch (i.e. vegetarian) main course is served. But I like the food here and have totally no problem at all. So all of them complain about the food and all I can do is sit and sympathize with them even though I enjoy the food.

• We didn’t do much over the weekend. The only noteworthy place we visited was Heidelberg. It’s a beautiful city. It looks like a typical European city one sees on those postcards. Mannheim, my host city, on the other hand, is very modern. We basically just went to two of the biggest attractions in Heidelberg, the castle (Schloss) and the main street (HauptStrasse). The place was full with tourists even though all the shops were closed cos it was a Sunday (which seemed a little strange). I mean, why would they not want all the business from the tourists? I have uploaded lots of pictures of the place as well as few others of Mannheim (More pictures will come soon). So go take a look at my “Trip to Germany” set on flickr. There are some 50 photos right now.

The first pic you see right here are of the view of the city from the castle.

The second pic is of one of the walls of the castle.

• We passed through an area outside Mannheim called Kafertal Wald where there was a huge US army base. The place was full of Americans, American military vehicles and most of all, American flags. There was a Wal-Mart nearby as well. It was weird.

• The weather here right now is just like the weather in Bangalore. Complete with the wind and unexpected rains. So its very comfortable for me.

• As you might have noticed, I have picked up quite a few German words. Not sentences, just few common words and names of places. It can be helpful at times even though most people here do understand English. I haven’t faced any major language problem yet. Lets hope things stay that way.

Its just been two days since I landed at the Frankfurt Airport and I think I’m already used to the routine here. Things have been great so far. People had really scared me before coming here that its too hot and it was hot when I reached but it started raining on Sunday evening and the weather has been pleasant since then. I have not taken too many pictures yet either.

This is the first time I’m visiting a foreign country but what’s weird is that I don’t feel like I’m in a foreign place at all. I feel like I feel when I visit any Indian city for the first time. This in spite of the fact that Germans are all around me. Is that weird or normal? Whatever!

I have seen quite a few new things here though. Graffiti being one of them, pin drop silence on the streets being another and most surprising of all, cars stopping for the pedestrians to cross the road. Plus it was a li’l difficult to adjust to the fact that it gets dark only after 9:30 pm.

I know this isn’t a long post but I wrote it using a German keyboard which, I tell you, is not easy to use.

I’ve always liked the idea of business travel cos one basically gets to visit new places without applying for leaves. Now it’s time to find out what it’s actually like cos I have finally got an opportunity to travel for work. And it’s a long trip. I’ll be gone for almost a month. I hope to see lots of new places, meet new people, and takes lots of pictures. Basically, have fun (besides working, of course). Right now, last minute preparations are on and I am yet to start packing. But I have whole of tomorrow for that so I am not really worried. I’ll try to write a post as often as possible and try to post pictures too.

I think that delaying my long impending post on the “mystery” weekend trip would be wrong so here it is.

Last Friday, we were told that we’d be leaving “towards” Mysore by train on Saturday afternoon. This was the first time I was going out of Bangalore by train so I was excited cos I love watching cities from a train. Plus trains are much more comfortable and enjoyable than buses.

But before all this, we all were sent a mail informing us that all of us had been divided into four teams and we all had to participate in a theme-based group dance event. So rehearsals began on Thursday. As you all probably know by now, I hate dancing but am open to choreographed dancing so I happily joined the rehearsals. Now, it sometimes bothers my colleagues (especially Lucio) and me that all of us are divided into teams every time we go out which makes everything competitive and takes the fun away but the truth is that I’ve been on three company outings so far and I’ve always had lots of fun. The reason lies in the fact that I’m extremely over competitive and had it not been for the sake of winning an event, I would have never even talked to half the people on the trip. So I kind of, secretly, like it.

So anyhow, we even had to come early on Saturday for the dance rehearsals. I had to dance on one Punjabi and one Kannada song. Ya, we were going for the clichéd ‘Unity in Diversity’ theme. The train journey was okay. We had one full coach to ourselves and Bangalore did not look too good from the train. Also, there was lots of noise pollution because of numerous people singing at the top of their voices and calling it playing Antakshari. We reached Mysore on time and were directed to exit the station though a side gate and then made to board a bus after some wait. Oh, and Mysore looked much better from the train.

The bus ride lasted for about 20 minutes and we soon found ourselves outside a water-cum-theme park. My first thought was “They brought us so far for this!” but since we were already there, I decided to let it go. The first event after we rested for 15 minutes was Treasure Hunt and since it was already dark and we were new to the place, it was difficult. Our team found five of the eight clues. After everybody was tired after running in the dark, we were told that e had to come back in 20 minutes for the dance competition. My team again did great. I forgot one step in the dance routine but since everybody used to follow me, they all did what I did and so a tragedy was averted.

After the dance competition, dinner and drinks were served and dance floor was thrown open for everyone. This meant that it was my turn to sit and watch all the drunken people make fools of themselves.

The next day in the morning, there was a tug of war in the pool. And guess what, my team won!! But before everyone woke up, Lucio and I went for a walk and I took two snaps with my phone cam. (Not having a digicam sucks!)

The first picture is of few birds sleeping on the pathway:

The second picture is of a fising scene from an embossed mural (if you know a better term, let me know) on the wall:

After that, everyone was free to try out all the slides. The most fun was to make a colleague go on a particular slide she was afraid of. Then we moved to wave pool and spent some time there. After that everyone was invited to the pool for free for all dancing and I thought that fun was over for me. But then something miraculous happened. One of the teams had hired a professional choreographer and then had brought her along on the trip so she was asked to stand out of the pool and give us some great steps and we just had to follow her. A godsend. So I danced to all the latest songs.

After all that, we ate lunch, went on the remaining rides and then we left for the station. We were booked on a passenger train this time and it stopped at almost every station. And then it stopped at a station for 45 minutes because of the supernatural house that Lucio wanted for himself. We finally reached Bangalore more than an hour late.

The aftereffects of the trip were that my body was badly aching on Monday and I am severely suntanned even now.

So what do you think of this “mystery” weekend outing. Not bad, huh?

Update: I forgot to tell you all that my team won the whole thing. We would soon be going out for a victory lunch.

Varun tagged me and the rule of the tag is:

If u were to see 5 countries (your home country excluded) and then never get to see anything else, which countries would these be?

For me, it would have to be:

1. France – Italy – Germany – Luxembourg – Greece (EU is almost one country, right?)
2. South Korea
3. Russia
4. Canada
5. Israel

I tag all my regular readers. No compulsion, as always.