Germany Trip - 12/August/2006

Day - 1: 12/August/2006
This is the day i felt the meaning of every second.
I need to catch train to Frankfurt from Brussels Nord Station. The departure time was 6:33 AM. I slept only at 2:30AM after packing important things needed for travel setting the alarm in my mobile phone to 4:30 AM. Two hours i needed because i still need to press some of my clothes and to do a complete packing. The inner alarm indeed woke me up at 4:00AM but the laziness devil made me to feel sleep thinking that i will wake up at 4:30 when alarm rings. But it did not happen. The alarm should of course has rung but i have shut it off. Consequence? I woke up at 6:10AM. With just 23 minutes left to board the train, i rushed and brushed my teeth just to avoid bad breathe and took some unpressed clothes, dumped in bag and left. Until then my plan was to catch a metro and go to the station which will hardly take 10 minutes. So i still thought there is a possibility to make it.
I left home at 6:20 AM and reached metro station at 6:23 AM just to see the metro train has gone to the next station less than a minute before. I am a strong believer of "God gives more oppurtunities any time". I thought still there is a chance to make it. I did not give up. I came to the main road and looked for a taxi. But alas i dont know where the taxi stand is. I went to a person who was standing close to me and asked "Do you know where the taxi stand is". He replied in french which i could figure out as "Sorry i dont know". I had nothing to say other than "Merci beacoup". And now it was almost 6:28 AM.
Now god gives his helping hand in the form of a taxi which came via the road i was standing. I stopped and told him my requirements clearly. "I need to go to Nord station within 4 minutes. Is it possible?". He replied - No problem. Thinking how he could manage i just got in and he flied. God again made my path clear by showing no red signs in the road. Finally by travelling around 100kmph he dropped me at Nord Station at exactly 6:32 AM. There was exact change with me so i had no problem in settling the amount for taxi.
Now still i need to find out which platform the train is in within a minute and board the train. When i reached the square - where the details of departure/arrival trains are displayed i saw my train was in platform # 3 which was close to where i was standing. I ran to the platform and jumped into the compartment. I turned back just to know how early in terms of seconds before 6:33 AM. The comparment doors were already closed.

Actual Destination: I have planned my trip such that i will go to stuggart where my friends live and stay with them and roam around. My train reached frankfurt at around 10 AM. My next train to stuggart was at 10:20 AM and i came to know that it will reach at 12:00 AM. The train did as what it supposed to do. My friends there were waiting for me from 11 AM and finally we exchanged our "formal" salutations. There was another small challenge awaiting for us. There was a festival at a place close to singen and my friends were actually planning to spend the whole night there. The train to that place was at 2:30 PM. But since i was not fully ready (not shave, not had bath, not had food etc) i need to go to my friends place get ready and come back to the same station before 2:30PM. From here i will address my two friends as follows.

• Friend #1 - ICC Member One.
  
• Friend #2 - Mams.
  

Mams place was at a place called "favoritepark" which will take 20 min travel from Haufbahnhof station. Here i have to explain something about german metro train system. To put in a simple way.

• Hbf - Haufbahnhof - Any main station will be called with this name. Example Frankfurt Hbf.
  
• S Bahn - Stadschnellbahn - Sub urban metro trains.
  
• U Bahn - Untergrundbahn - Underground metro trains.
  

The difference between S Bahn and U Bahn is that the former will connect stations which are atleast some 3-5 Kms away but the latter will connect more closer stations. Now by taking S bahn (S4 i guess towards marbach) we reached mams place at around 1 PM. The next train from favoritepark to haufbahnhof was at 1:32 so i was asked to finish all my "activities" soon. Indeed were were able to manage to catch the train from favoritepark to haufbahnhof and from there to singen. While travelling we saw people enjoying their life by having tins of beer preparing themselves for the festival. Both Mams and ICC got tempted after looking those tins of beer and planned to buy once we reach the place.

We reached the place - where the festival was happening at around 4:30PM. Now mams and ICC started looking for a shop where they can buy beer. We roamed in the streets but couldnt find anything. Finally we saw a man carrying crates of empty beer bottles towards a shop. We followed him and finally got the place. Now mams and ICC started picking up the neccessary items for their wonderful evening. They bought 18 bottles (330ml) of beer and all the neccessary side dish. Since i dont take alcoholic drinks they got me one orange juice. Occasionally mams smokes when he take drinks. So he bought one pack of Marlboro. So with all these items we started moving towards the festival place.

Just we are about to enter the festival place the security check was made and they did not allowed as as we carried weapons (beer bottles). So now mams and ICC had only one option. To finish all the beer bottles (all 18 bottles) within some few hours and then get in the festival place. So they started having beer sitting near the railway station stairs. ICC had little problem in opening the beer. So he requested mams to provide some training on that. Mams is a perfect gentleman and provided the teaching/knowledge transfer to that hungry ICC. ICC got trained and became a skilled beer bottle opener. One, Two bottles over. Now station guard watched us and asked us to get out of that place. So we moved to a new place carrying all those things again.

This time we moved to a place where so many people were having beer. Mams and ICC started their activity again. Mams judicially spent his cigars as he has to maintain them till the next day. After consumption of 4 bottles by them i realised that they were already in out of sense. I could realise mams talking something stupid and ICC shouting in deutch. ICC as many of you may not know, has changed his hair style. He is now looking like Leanardo Dicaprio. With his elegant hair style he was always saying "Lieber Kollege" (Dear colleague) towards all.

Mams Ideas & Experiences: It was know mams realised that he and his Kollege are in out of state/control and he said that if they go to WC and refresh they will be back in normal state so that they can continue with remaining beer. They went and came back but NOT refreshed. These two people now started off with their 5 the one. No problem. Now the 6 th one. Over. 7 the one. It was at this point mams dropped a beer bottle in the stairs (he tried to move but due to obvious reasons it slipped from his hands) which got spilled on the guy sitting below us. He said something which mams did not understand. By this time mams friend also arrived to that place and guessing the situation he simply handed over one beer bottle from us to that guy. He said "Danke" and left. Now ICC laughing at this situation was boasting that he was in a steady state. At this point we saw a family people from our native and as a mark for our tradition mams handed over one beer bottle to a family man in that gang. The family man accepted the same from mams. He also said that his wife has already bought some beer from him for tomorrows party that they are going to have. He said "You might be thinking what a family". I said to my mind "yes".

After these events mams slipped again the beer bottle but this time it did not break. But all the contents flown out and there was nothing left. If you have followed all the events properly you should realize that there should be only 3 bottles of beer left. Now ICC declared "I cannot have more....". Mams insisted "You can do it ICC. Just do it".

Confused ICC:
But ICC as usual got confused and did something other than what mams mentioned. He just called one guy who was walking towards the festival and handed over one beer bottle to him and said "Danke". Mams was in his heights of Anger. He scolded ICC. ICC did not care and took one more bottle. He is out of control and he went straightly to a gang of people having beer and started telling "Cheers" in deutch to everyone. But after telling cheers he did not drink. But he showed his attitude of being thankful to nature. Yes. He poured the contents on a tree. Mams was now blinking what to do now. He now the last bottle and finished without any problems.

Since now everything was over we got in the festival place. All along the place we carried ICC carefully as he has already started shouting "I love you" towards every one. Me now fully worried about these guys status and fear about how to carry them back to their place. The firework started. It was just amazing and i took video of that with the help of Mams friend advice. Mams and ICC did not see fireworks show as they were already flat. ICC slept in some stair close to a lake there itself. When i was back after the firework show after 1 hour or so mams and ICC were back to their normal form. All the contents were down after their small rest. Day one ends here as the time was already 12:00 AM Day 2 will be posted shortly. If you want snaps of mams and ICC status after fully drunk please mail me: thoppae.saravanan@gmail.com