I’m in Germany!

- Yes, you’re reading the title right. [This will also perhaps explain my silence for the past 1 month- I can safely blame it on the chaos before a trip]

For 2 months, or to be precise, for atleast 7 more weeks from now, I will be staying in Erlangen, Germany… which is geographically in the Middle Franconian region in Bavaria, Germany. I reached here a week ago. Its not a pleasure trip; I’ve come for work reasons entirely. Although, I will not be ignoring the pleasure aspect atleast on weekends ;).

Here’s my update:

Details of my trip: Air France flights from Bangalore to Paris, and then onward to Nuremberg (or Nürnberg). Travelling to here wasn’t all too pleasant - there was turbulence during both flights (esp. the second one, which was a tiny plane, and decidedly uncomfortable :(, although the flight attendent was very sweet), and my digestion system turned topsy-turvy, esp. since I have previously also demonstrated an uncanny ability to turn air-sick. Its taken me a week almost to get back to normal.

Lifestyle: I’m doing well. Living in a nice (in fact, luxurious) 2-room apartment, on Paul Gossen Strasse (that’s how its called, but in German it’s written as Paul-Gossen-Straße). I have company - one of my friends, is living in the same apartment bldg as me, so we’re together most of the time. There are also other Indians (with and without family) from office in nearby apartment complexes, so my first weekend was spent in visiting some of their homes, and feeling less homesick.

Weather: I’ve reached Germany on a not so nice time technically - its winter here and temperatures are varying from 0 to 5 to 10 degrees centigrade. However, it could have been worse - supposedly there’s much less cold here than there is usually at this time of the year. In a week, I was blessed with sightings of snow for only about an hour. There is rain though, and there is considerable wind, which is making the cold worse. I’m hoping I can see more of snow later. Of course, its important to have the right kind of clothes here. I’m decked from head to toe except when in the office and at home. So if you see someone looking like a tiny terrorist in Erlangen, you could think that it’s me :). Here is the pic which shows what I look like here - I’m showing off my black head-to-toe attire, including gloves, taken in my apartment:

Food: Not really much of an issue, since I’m comfortable with continental and the like, food. Had a couple of trips to the supermarket over the week, and loaded my fridge with goodies. Once in a while, my friend n I are cooking Indian food, so nothing much to miss. My only worry is the extra calories which I’m going to put on because of the cheesy, fatty stuff I eat over the week. Have to hit a gym soon.

General impressions about the place:

  

After getting over the initial feelings of “no place can beat India” :), I have started to appreciate the place for what it is. Erlangen is a picturesque place - I’m hoping to take pics and upload them soon. On the top are two pictures of the wonderful view from my apartment window.

Erlangen is spic n span; sometimes, I feel like I’m walking in a fairy tale setting - what with all the cottages, the stone pathways, the clock towers etc. Lots of pretty sights around, including the people. The areas surrounding my apartment are more businesslike, but the places around Siemens City (my office i.e. - Siemens AG takes up a substantial part of Erlangen, and its people, so I’m just using the phrase because there are just so many offices of Siemens around here that its almost like a city in itself) are very pretty and have an old-world charm.

People: Germans here are friendly, and strictly polite. The reason I say the latter is that you’ll get Good morning (Guten morgen), Good day (Guten Tag) etc, with a smile, from virtual strangers, sometimes on the road, sometimes in the supermarket, always in the elevator, and many times in the office. It’s almost like a rule. But beyond that, they are a little hesitant. I’ve been told that for socializing more, they would probably wait for an invite, and you would do good to follow the same. They are also less likely to go over-the-top or shake themselves loose in public (like Indians ;)), and going by protocol is important for many of them. So they may appear stiff/unfriendly sometimes. But the truth is far from that - so don’t go by initial impressions.

Infrastructure, and rules: Both of these bowled me over in the first week. The infrastructure here is very good - they have marked paths for cyclists on the road, and for walking in some places, and since there’s the population is small here, everything is well under control. There is no manic rush, no honking, yelling, no road-rage, and no crazy pedestrians waiting to jump in front of your car. There are signals for walking, and hence you must wait for the signal (even if there are no cars in the vicinity) - dashing on the road when you feel fit, is totally a no-no. The pedestrian has the upper hand here, so if you happen to be in the middle of the road, when the walk signal changes, you need not make a break for it. The cars will wait till you are safely on the other side of the road.

Travelling within the city: The bus transport system here in fantastic - very well laid out, lots of buses at all times. There are numbers for each buses - At each bus stop, there will be a map posted along with information about all the buses coming and going from that stop. The information for a bus is usually: the number of the bus, the stops it goes to, the timings for all the days of the week. There are usually buses, every 5 minutes in all the main stops. And they adhere to the time very well. At the max, you can expect a 2 min delay. A traveller like me would take a monthly pass (Mobi card) which I can get for 34.17 Euros, and with that I can get on any bus, and go anywhere within the city, any number of times. There are no conductors in the buses, so no one will ask you for your ticket, except after 8, when the driver of the bus will open only the door next to him for entry, and you have to show him your card. Within the bus, there is a digital display of the forthcoming stops. Also there is an announcement mechanism, where a nice female/mail voice in German, will tell you what the next stop is. If you want to get down at the next stop, you will have to press a button inside the bus (there are many of such buttons strategically placed on bars within the bus - so you will have easy access wherever you are sitting), and the digital display will then display “Wagen halt” next to the stop name, which will mean that the bus will stop there. Only one person needs to press the button of course - but don’t automatically assume that the bus will stop at all stops. You need to look for the “Wagen halt” on the display next to the stop name. If it is not displayed, press the button, and it will be. If it is already displayed, it probably means that someone else has pressed the button, and the bus will stop.

Whoa. What a load of details. I would have liked to write about entertainment and the like here, but will reserve it for future posts. Right now, this one almost sounds like parts of a German cultural training :). Anyway, this will do for the first set of my initial impressions here. More updates will be coming later hopefully, so for now, Guten Tag :)!