The pieces of Germany

Note: this blog entry was written in parts in different days.

...On the flight…

I’m currently on my way to office. This breaks the record of my furthest travel to office. 13 hours of flight to a place with 7 hours of time difference. I’m excited and thrilled, but my nervousness covers everything up.

This is my first time travelling to a place so far, with zero knowledge about the language, plus… alone. Earlier, it’s always with either family or friends… the feeling is so different when you know there are no people you can turn to

When I reached airport and checked in, I was told that the flight was delayed for 15 minutes. After I boarded the aircraft, I have to wait for another hour before it finally pulled off.

This is now 5am CET, and the PA mentioned that we’re landing in another hour. Sitting beside me is a guy who just… sits.. without watching a tv or reading or anything. I hope he wasn’t annoyed with the number of time I go out and in from his seat. I picked the upper deck, windows seat, which is a pretty great seat. All the business class is fully occupied, surprisingly.


A breakfast, accompanied by Jennifer Aniston’s Love Happens

The food and entertainment is OK. But the toiletries somehow still one step behind the Economy class of SQ. They don’t have mouth refresher! Hehe… and yeah, I was watching Love Happens, before all in sudden it goes to error screen and refuses to resume the movie… that’s when I decided to take this notebook out.

Okay, time to shutdown as the crew already tells us to do so…

...At the office…

I touched down Frankfurt at around 6am. After wandering around for one hour and half, I took a taxi to office. I reached there before 8am. I was surprised that my card actually works just fine to access the building! When I reached the office, my director is the first one to great me. I can’t believe when he said that he reached office at 6am everyday!

More surprises come within the next hour… I figure that the coffee is not free… I figure that there is no pantry… and guess what… we have to pay for the water! 50 cents for half a liter of water! In Singapore we have hot cold water, milo tea coffee, snack sugar cream, and we were still complaining. Haha…

I wasn’t really awake for the rest of the time… pretty soon, the time was showing 5pm, and my director is hushing me to go back to office… so I did. My direct boss was teasing and saying that I’m taking half day leave. Haha… yeah…

Eschborn Office, the center for IT

...In the hotel room…

Guess what is the first thing I checked once I reached hotel room. Internet! I checked the wireless – nothing. Then I saw the perfectly winded internet cable… and soon I have bad feeling. Free stuff never comes in nice packaging. And my feeling is right. It’s 8 Euro for an hour! Or 22 Euro for a whole day. Gosh expensive!!! How could 5 stars hotel does this… I was staying in 3 stars hotel in Taiwan and they have free internet everyway. Germany is too expensive!

The stingy 5-star hotel room

I found a lot of funny things in the hotel… It provides well packed shoe mitt but no shower cap. Forty something channels but no internet (hump!!), two bath tabs but no tooth brush (lucky I have one from plane), and lastly.. coffee maker but no water boiler! What an experience… I drink from the tab. I don’t care. I’m too lazy to find a supermarket…

Talking about supermarket, I walked around the hotel… and can’t really find a supermarket yet. I wandered around… but 8pm is pretty dark there with very less people around. Have to admit that I’m scared somehow to walk alone. Finally, I quickly grab a mac Donald meal for dinner and two pieces of bread for breakfast before making my way back to hotel. There were beggars around showing me a piece of note written in German. No idea what is written there.

Back to office, I was pretty hungry and ate my dinner… but surprisingly, I can’t finish my burger! The size is twice from the normal burger. I left it for the time being… Now is 21.30 CET, 4.30 SGT. I will sleep in another half an hour. I can’t stop sneezing and coughing. Hope I will be fine…

...During the dinner...

Second day has passed and I’m surviving. Thanks! Office is good…. Team members are great… but somehow I just have this habit of feeling tensed up in front of new people, and this time is without exception.

I went back to hotel at around 7, and then went for a dinner with my boss at 7.40. We went to a Thai Restaurant named Rama V, which serves a decent Thai food with skyscraper price. I ate a lot and now feeling way to full to sleep. Guess I will finish the final two episodes of Cougar Town before going to sleep. There are quite a number of meetings tomorrow, starting from 8am till night!

...In the Pub...

Since the day I meet some pals, people has been telling me about Living XXL. I finally got a chance to go there on Wednesday. I’m very concerned with my own drinking limit, but can’t say no when people asking me to take a shot before anything else. Anything after that was quite.... I don’t know, I can’t remember.

Living XXL - banker's favourite pub / club / anything

The only thing I remember was that the entrance cost 7 euro… which already included the buffet from 6 to 8pm. After 8pm, all the buffet tables are tidy up, and the party starts! It was an awesome place. But I left not so long after 8 as another dinner appointment is coming up.

Koh Samui - Yet another expensive Thai Restaurant

...In the Restaurant...

It was Thursday and I can hardly focus on the nice dinner in front of me as my mind kept going back to office. I have created some mess, and have no chance to clean them all up because the appointment is up for a team dinner. The place is very classic, and the waiters are top notch. I had pork knuckle, but not sure if I have mistakenly order something else.


German Pork Knuckle in Japanese Garden Style

I reached home at around 10 and try to connect to office. But alas, the internet connection is not working :( In the guilty and tense mood, I hardly sleep at night…

...At the Shopping District...

On Friday, my big boss left after lunch… and my boss left at around 3. Soon enough, I wasn’t in the mood to work anymore. After saying bye to the remaining team member, I wander around at one of the shopping areas. The weather was 5 degree at that time. After few pics and two bag of groceries shopping, I went back to hotel. Things were just too tough with high heels.

The good thing I found at that area is my beloved KFC :) In rush I have ordered some burger instead of the chicken pieces :( After dinner and packing, I check out from hotel at around 7.30… Next stop, Berlin!

Hauptwatche, the place where I found KFC

...At Berlin...

Awesome day :) My friend and her family are kind beyond imagination. In Berlin I had great history lesson, great food, great sightseeing (for both afternoon and evening view). And guess what, I saw snow for the very first time! Real snow! :)

One of the nice buildings in Berlin... (Alright! I admit I can't remember the name)

...And at the end… Berlin to Frankfurt to Singapore...

The flight from Berlin to Frankfurt was delayed for an hour. I touched back Frankfurt at 6.30pm… then went to hotel, claimed my bag, repacked my stuff, and took a taxi to airport again. After check in at around 8, I spent my time at lounge till 10.30. I managed to have a refreshing shower at the lounge before jumping to the 13 hours flight. Things are OK. I reached back Singapore half conscious. Now is almost 3AM SG, and I still don’t feel like sleeping. It’s only 8pm in Germany afterall. I know that I’m going to have hard time in office tomorrow.

The Qantas Lounge @ Frankfurt Airport

End of Ad-hoc trip,

ED