[Statutory Warning] Viewer discretion is strictly advised.
This is a lengthy, boring blog, with pathetic style of story-telling, mingled with horrible sense of humor, along with the art of shamelessly projecting the plot revolving around myself. This could only be digested by friends who are tolerating me since last 30 years, or at least who think that its been 30 years ;-).
So, if you are not the intended viewer, do close your browser immediately and spend your time in doing something sensible.
This is a lengthy, boring blog, with pathetic style of story-telling, mingled with horrible sense of humor, along with the art of shamelessly projecting the plot revolving around myself. This could only be digested by friends who are tolerating me since last 30 years, or at least who think that its been 30 years ;-).
So, if you are not the intended viewer, do close your browser immediately and spend your time in doing something sensible.
**************************************
Okay... so, let me start with the ticket booking itself. When I booked
the tickets and informed my friends (or should I say colleagues??) that I am
going to Zurich... the obvious question was-- for how long? I said:
6:30hrs!! I was mocked that I am traveling 24+ hours just for staying 6
hours... but those who know me know it very well that it is not unusual
for me to do such so-called irrational or illogical things.
Coming back to where we started-- Trip to Switzerland (Zurich - Interlaken - Swiss Alps - JungFrau)
So, my starting point was Erlangen and journey was starting at 1:21AM. Quite obviously I did not sleep, and called up a taxi for Erlangen station. Although it was not very far (just 1.6 KMs) from my hotel (Hotel Kral) but I just thought of playing safer as it was pretty late in the night. Alright, I started at 12:30AM and was happy to see the taxi right outside the hotel, well on the time... but sooner that happiness went for a toss, as soon as I saw a not-so-comfortable driver, who was a Z-Black Kallu-mama. His first question was -- do you have cash!!! Without sugar-coating the words I should honestly say that -- Meri bilkul phat gayi!!! I had heard not-that-great things about these people, so played a little safe, I told him that yes, I have 10 Euros which should be sufficient for taking me to the station. Luckily my phone rang-- he said, take the phone-- I answered the phone saying-- Ya, I have already boarded and am reaching station in 5 minutes. The truth is-- that was not an incoming call-- it was my alarm, and I pretended that I have lots of friends coming with me :-) Ultimately I reached safely Erlangen station-- Thank God!!
It was 12:40 when I reached the platform, needless to say that very-very few people were visible there (I deliberately used the word "visible", because I am not sure of how many invisible souls have been haunting around... hooooooooooo, scary, please come back to the topic). Okay, so at 12:44 came a train to Nuremberg, that's where I had to go, but I had a ticket of 1:21. Standing at the platform, just outside the door of the bogie, I was a little confused, to-go or not-to-go, that stupid train did not wait for me to decide and went... how rude!! anyway, I let that go without any regret, and waited for my train at 1:21. By now goods trains started passing the platform and I kept waiting... it was 1:40... and it was pretty unusual that a train in Germany is so bloody late. There's a display board that shows, which one is the next train on a particular platform and what's the time... it went blank. I sensed that something is wrong... I checked complete arrival-departure chart of Erlangen and I could not find a train at 1:21. I realized there's some issue for sure... I checked my ticket again... and found out that there's no platform written against that timings-- secondly, it says BUS REV!!! This means, this 1:21 was the bus to Nuremberg and not a train. For sure I knew that I am in a mess... but still knew that situation is still under control as the train from Nuremberg was at 5:10AM. I went outside the railway platform/station... and I realized I was the only person visible (yes again that - Visible theory).
I checked with a taxi driver... a typical dadi-ji... she knew nothing in English... just pointed me to somewhere, it was bloody dark, 2AM aur meri akeli jaan. I checked with some passengers-- no clue; checked with bus drivers-- of no use. I was not willing to trust any stranger for dropping me at Nuremberg, imagining what could happen to a good looking young man at 2 O'clock in the night... so ultimately I called the Herzo cab agency, Bayz Taxi, for taxi from Erlangen to Nuremberg, and Khalid thankfully picked the phone and said that he'll take 25 minutes to reach here... and I was more than happy to wait for that long.
Ohh, by the time taxi comes, let me tell you something about Herzo and Bayz. Herzogenaurach or in short Herzo is a small town next to Erlangen in the state of Bavaria. Most of the offices of adidas are based out of Herzo. Bayz Taxi is a cab agency run by Akram; most of the time we call him up for cab from Office to Hotel and he (along with couple of other drivers) is a good friend now. Khalid, who received my phone, is one of his drivers, he is basically from Iraq.
Okay, back to main story. I didn't have to wait too long, at 2:10 someone came searching for Hiraaj (yes, some of them pronounce Siraj as Hiraaj) ... he was Osman, another driver from Bayz. Khalid asked him taking me to Nuremberg. Yeaaaaa, this ended the era of anxiety and insecurity. In about half an hour's time he dropped me to Nuremberg, pretty conveniently. Thank God!!
Phew... ultimately reached Nuremberg station before 3AM. I checked with one of the shopkeepers for waiting room but he said no; not sure if he understood what I asked for :-). I went to first floor, couple of chairs were laid out and people were waiting, watching and sleeping there. I tried sleeping setting the alarm for 4:50AM, but before that I thought of doing a dry-run whether I'll be able to realize if my cell is ringing or not-- and quite obviously I decided not to sleep as alarm was hardly audible.
So, this so-called waiting space was just outside a pub / club, where a lot of young crowd was moving around-- obviously very much drunk... Let me confess shamelessly that quite a few girls were feast for eyes... and some of them were just unbearable-- sometimes because of their pathetic dressing sense and sometimes due to awful colorful hairdo / wierdo, whatever you call it... and I had no option but to watch people moving around the places. Anyway, cutting it short-- very different experience. Ultimately I boarded Munich train from Nuremberg without any issues. Later-on I caught Zurich train from Munich... and I realized what a beautiful country Switzerland is.
I reached Zurich at 11:46AM... almost on the time, barely two minutes late. Anand (ex Boss; now much like an elder brother) played a perfect host, came to Zurich railway station to pick me up. Without wasting any time we drove down to Interlaken. I was told that, from India whoever comes to Zurich / Switzerland definitely visits Interlaken... so I thought why should I be an exception.
Coming back to where we started-- Trip to Switzerland (Zurich - Interlaken - Swiss Alps - JungFrau)
So, my starting point was Erlangen and journey was starting at 1:21AM. Quite obviously I did not sleep, and called up a taxi for Erlangen station. Although it was not very far (just 1.6 KMs) from my hotel (Hotel Kral) but I just thought of playing safer as it was pretty late in the night. Alright, I started at 12:30AM and was happy to see the taxi right outside the hotel, well on the time... but sooner that happiness went for a toss, as soon as I saw a not-so-comfortable driver, who was a Z-Black Kallu-mama. His first question was -- do you have cash!!! Without sugar-coating the words I should honestly say that -- Meri bilkul phat gayi!!! I had heard not-that-great things about these people, so played a little safe, I told him that yes, I have 10 Euros which should be sufficient for taking me to the station. Luckily my phone rang-- he said, take the phone-- I answered the phone saying-- Ya, I have already boarded and am reaching station in 5 minutes. The truth is-- that was not an incoming call-- it was my alarm, and I pretended that I have lots of friends coming with me :-) Ultimately I reached safely Erlangen station-- Thank God!!
It was 12:40 when I reached the platform, needless to say that very-very few people were visible there (I deliberately used the word "visible", because I am not sure of how many invisible souls have been haunting around... hooooooooooo, scary, please come back to the topic). Okay, so at 12:44 came a train to Nuremberg, that's where I had to go, but I had a ticket of 1:21. Standing at the platform, just outside the door of the bogie, I was a little confused, to-go or not-to-go, that stupid train did not wait for me to decide and went... how rude!! anyway, I let that go without any regret, and waited for my train at 1:21. By now goods trains started passing the platform and I kept waiting... it was 1:40... and it was pretty unusual that a train in Germany is so bloody late. There's a display board that shows, which one is the next train on a particular platform and what's the time... it went blank. I sensed that something is wrong... I checked complete arrival-departure chart of Erlangen and I could not find a train at 1:21. I realized there's some issue for sure... I checked my ticket again... and found out that there's no platform written against that timings-- secondly, it says BUS REV!!! This means, this 1:21 was the bus to Nuremberg and not a train. For sure I knew that I am in a mess... but still knew that situation is still under control as the train from Nuremberg was at 5:10AM. I went outside the railway platform/station... and I realized I was the only person visible (yes again that - Visible theory).
I checked with a taxi driver... a typical dadi-ji... she knew nothing in English... just pointed me to somewhere, it was bloody dark, 2AM aur meri akeli jaan. I checked with some passengers-- no clue; checked with bus drivers-- of no use. I was not willing to trust any stranger for dropping me at Nuremberg, imagining what could happen to a good looking young man at 2 O'clock in the night... so ultimately I called the Herzo cab agency, Bayz Taxi, for taxi from Erlangen to Nuremberg, and Khalid thankfully picked the phone and said that he'll take 25 minutes to reach here... and I was more than happy to wait for that long.
Ohh, by the time taxi comes, let me tell you something about Herzo and Bayz. Herzogenaurach or in short Herzo is a small town next to Erlangen in the state of Bavaria. Most of the offices of adidas are based out of Herzo. Bayz Taxi is a cab agency run by Akram; most of the time we call him up for cab from Office to Hotel and he (along with couple of other drivers) is a good friend now. Khalid, who received my phone, is one of his drivers, he is basically from Iraq.
Okay, back to main story. I didn't have to wait too long, at 2:10 someone came searching for Hiraaj (yes, some of them pronounce Siraj as Hiraaj) ... he was Osman, another driver from Bayz. Khalid asked him taking me to Nuremberg. Yeaaaaa, this ended the era of anxiety and insecurity. In about half an hour's time he dropped me to Nuremberg, pretty conveniently. Thank God!!
Phew... ultimately reached Nuremberg station before 3AM. I checked with one of the shopkeepers for waiting room but he said no; not sure if he understood what I asked for :-). I went to first floor, couple of chairs were laid out and people were waiting, watching and sleeping there. I tried sleeping setting the alarm for 4:50AM, but before that I thought of doing a dry-run whether I'll be able to realize if my cell is ringing or not-- and quite obviously I decided not to sleep as alarm was hardly audible.
So, this so-called waiting space was just outside a pub / club, where a lot of young crowd was moving around-- obviously very much drunk... Let me confess shamelessly that quite a few girls were feast for eyes... and some of them were just unbearable-- sometimes because of their pathetic dressing sense and sometimes due to awful colorful hairdo / wierdo, whatever you call it... and I had no option but to watch people moving around the places. Anyway, cutting it short-- very different experience. Ultimately I boarded Munich train from Nuremberg without any issues. Later-on I caught Zurich train from Munich... and I realized what a beautiful country Switzerland is.
I reached Zurich at 11:46AM... almost on the time, barely two minutes late. Anand (ex Boss; now much like an elder brother) played a perfect host, came to Zurich railway station to pick me up. Without wasting any time we drove down to Interlaken. I was told that, from India whoever comes to Zurich / Switzerland definitely visits Interlaken... so I thought why should I be an exception.
While he was driving and was watching it... I
realized that the city was so clean, and beautiful... actually pixel
perfect, if I could call it. I definitely knew that the place we are
going to visit would obviously be beautiful but trust me that journey
towards those places was amazingly breathtaking.
We drove close to 200 KMs, through the mountains, and lakes and tunnels; saw amazingly different shades of trees and mountains and lakes, how clean and mesmerizing... I must say that the journey was, by no means, lesser enjoyable than the destination. Like a typical Indian and a normal human being... I also clicked some pics giving some funny poses :)
After taking couple of breaks-- for namaz and snacks, we reached Interlaken / Alps... supposed to be the favorite shooting location of late Yash Chopra.... but personally, I fell in love with JungFrau!! Wow, what a beauty it is. Let me shamelessly share the link of photos I have taken there to support my praises for the location: https://plus.google.com/
Anway, I offered Asar in the Alps.. by that time it was almost 4PM, and we decided to go back as my train to Munich was at 6:15PM from Zurich... and we were around 200KMs away from the city. Anand has always been a Formala-One racer... and I was very sure that we'll reach in time... the only potential risk was traffic jam at the entrance of Zurich city... cutting it short... while returning instead of taking snaps I preferred to have video recorded... and trust me it was a feast to the eyes.
Despite of traffic jam, we covered that distance in about 1:45 hours conveniently... I reached station at 5:45... I offered Maghrib at prayer hall which is located at one floor down at the railway station... right opposite to platform number 13.
Now the next potential risk... Zurich train was supposed to reach Munich at 22:45PM and Munich train was supposed to leave for Erlangen at 22:55PM... so just 10 minutes for getting down, changing the platform, searching for compartment and boarding... that is when the train is on the time. I checked with TTE and he confidently said... "we are on time"... and I went ahead with his confidence.
As expected, we reached Munich at 22:45PM and as soon as the train stopped, I ran for catching the train... what I see is one gentleman is stopping me... I didn't bother as I had to catch the train in any case. That guy chased me and said-- Don't run... this is Police -- "boss, apni tto phat gayi". I told him-- Do you want to see my passport or ticket? and I handed over both the docs to him... while he was looking at my passport, his colleague took my ticket and started walking away... I shouted at him.. as it was hardly 5 minutes remaining for the train to depart.. and that Einstein was going to check the platform number on display board :-) somehow I thanked him and snatched back my tickets and ran madly towards the train... and finally boarded it before the scheduled time... I was pretty tired but was extremely happy that I could spend my weekend in best possible manner. And moreover, this journey was a dream coming true for me!!!
This reminds me of Rajesh Khanna's famous lines from classic movie 'Anand':
"Zindagi lambi nahi, badi hona chahiye" similarly, "trip lambi nahi *badi* hona chahiye"
And, this trip was definitely big one!!!
Lots of Love,
Siraj ur Rehman Khan
November 5, 2012 -- 10:12PM
Erlangen, Germany
We drove close to 200 KMs, through the mountains, and lakes and tunnels; saw amazingly different shades of trees and mountains and lakes, how clean and mesmerizing... I must say that the journey was, by no means, lesser enjoyable than the destination. Like a typical Indian and a normal human being... I also clicked some pics giving some funny poses :)
After taking couple of breaks-- for namaz and snacks, we reached Interlaken / Alps... supposed to be the favorite shooting location of late Yash Chopra.... but personally, I fell in love with JungFrau!! Wow, what a beauty it is. Let me shamelessly share the link of photos I have taken there to support my praises for the location: https://plus.google.com/
Anway, I offered Asar in the Alps.. by that time it was almost 4PM, and we decided to go back as my train to Munich was at 6:15PM from Zurich... and we were around 200KMs away from the city. Anand has always been a Formala-One racer... and I was very sure that we'll reach in time... the only potential risk was traffic jam at the entrance of Zurich city... cutting it short... while returning instead of taking snaps I preferred to have video recorded... and trust me it was a feast to the eyes.
Despite of traffic jam, we covered that distance in about 1:45 hours conveniently... I reached station at 5:45... I offered Maghrib at prayer hall which is located at one floor down at the railway station... right opposite to platform number 13.
Now the next potential risk... Zurich train was supposed to reach Munich at 22:45PM and Munich train was supposed to leave for Erlangen at 22:55PM... so just 10 minutes for getting down, changing the platform, searching for compartment and boarding... that is when the train is on the time. I checked with TTE and he confidently said... "we are on time"... and I went ahead with his confidence.
As expected, we reached Munich at 22:45PM and as soon as the train stopped, I ran for catching the train... what I see is one gentleman is stopping me... I didn't bother as I had to catch the train in any case. That guy chased me and said-- Don't run... this is Police -- "boss, apni tto phat gayi". I told him-- Do you want to see my passport or ticket? and I handed over both the docs to him... while he was looking at my passport, his colleague took my ticket and started walking away... I shouted at him.. as it was hardly 5 minutes remaining for the train to depart.. and that Einstein was going to check the platform number on display board :-) somehow I thanked him and snatched back my tickets and ran madly towards the train... and finally boarded it before the scheduled time... I was pretty tired but was extremely happy that I could spend my weekend in best possible manner. And moreover, this journey was a dream coming true for me!!!
This reminds me of Rajesh Khanna's famous lines from classic movie 'Anand':
"Zindagi lambi nahi, badi hona chahiye" similarly, "trip lambi nahi *badi* hona chahiye"
And, this trip was definitely big one!!!
Lots of Love,
Siraj ur Rehman Khan
November 5, 2012 -- 10:12PM
Erlangen, Germany
