Guten Tag, was the first word in German which I heard when I landed to Munich after a continuous 8 hour long flight from Delhi.
Well before proceeding ahead, lets get in to flash back for a while,the day when my boss informed me and my colleague that we have to fly to Munich for a Business trip we both were stunned at that time and we were not able to believe what we heard at that time.Ohhh mannn…..yes….we are going to client site…finally we got the opportunity….humara number bhi aa gya…we both were very excited as this trip was our first trip outside India.We both were used to saw snaps of our friends on orkut who are onsite and who used to post their snaps every week,we both used to discuss with each other that “yaar hum kab jayenge…humara number kab aayega“.
I don’t know why,suddenly whole atmosphere around us got changed as soon as people around us come to know that we are going to Germany.We both were busy in filing visa forms and completing all visa formalities,planning of what to take what not to take there,scheduling dates and times for shoppings and arranging other stuff.Along with us other people around us,our relatives,parents,cousines all were excited.We used to get phone calls every day from friends and relatives,all asking same thing “Dude,whats going on? when you are flying”.I was able to feel excitement in their voice and they were able to feel excitement in my voice.Finally the day arrived and we were at IGI Airport,Delhi and left India for Munich.
(Flash Back over…)
Guten Tag, said a taxi driver when we came out of Munich airport.This was the first German word which i heard that day.Taxi driver was saying some thing in German and we were not able to understand what he was trying to say although he was not able to understand what we were trying to say in English.A man who was passing us came to know that we both were not able to communicate and he came for help.He acted like a translator to both of us and helped us to get to the Hotel by explaining hotel address to Taxi driver in German language.Well hear I saw how help full Germans are.When our taxi arrived,it was Mercedes and we were looking at each other and thinking in our minds that we are going to sit in a Merc….wow….we never imagined that we will get a chance to sit in a Merc.When we were on Freeway the speedometer was over 120 kmph, we came to know that it was an normal speed there,in India our speedometer ends at 180 kmph if I am not wrong.
Well, we reached our hotel and checked in.Next day we went to office by train,that day we came to know the system of trains there.Whole Munich city is divided into 16 rings,there are Bus,trams,surface trains (called as S-Bahnn) and under ground trains (called as U-Bahnn) which are used as public transport.With a single ticket you can travel in any of these public transport.There are also various schemes available for the tickets like you can have a partner ticket in which 5 persons are allowed on a single ticket for a single day.Such partner tickets are available for various rings like for 16 rings which covers whole Munich city you have to pay 16 Euros and you can roam in the city for a whole day.There system also have weekly passes for certain rings like we used to take a weekly pass for 3 rings on the cost of 13.8 Euros.Advantage of having such kind of weekly pass is that you can travel up to three rings at any time in any public transport.There is a central railway station from where you can get trains for going outside Munich.Central railway station is called as Hauptbahnnhoff, Haupt – Central,Bahnn– Train/railway,hoff-station.
As we started work in office we came to know the work culture of Germans,there is a rule by German government that no one is allowed to stay back at office more than 10 hours in a day, a person is not allowed to work more than 10 hours in a day.When we were at office some times we used to exceed this limit,next day our manager came and asked us to leave office at 6:30 pm at any cost if we are coming to office at 9 pm.People there at office used to do only work i.e. in 8 official working hours they just do only work no gossiping or friend visiting in that time,work means work.They believe on a mantra, work hard, party harder and they follow this mantra too.On weekends people used to go for outing.They took their children and go for tracking or bicycling,they spend whole day out.If there is a sunny day than they all go to near by river bank and take sun bath whole day,they take beers,food with them and cook food on a barbecue near river bank and enjoy whole day there.Generally sunny days are only for 15-20 days in a whole year so they do not want to miss sunny days.Germany’s temperature remains between 10 – 25 degrees in Summer and below 3 degrees during Winter season and it rains there very frequently through out the year so we used to check whether forecast before going out.
German people are very fond of music, we saw many people in trains and buses who have just put on their head phones and listening music.People there just don’t care about others i.e. they don’t care what other person is doing,they are involved with themselves.This thing we have observed when we were in trains and buses, we saw many peoples either reading novels,listening music or simply siting with closed eyes.We saw many musicians there who used to play music in night for free at Marienplatz city center.People used to listen them by gathering around them and they also used to give them some money if they liked there music.Many peoples can be seen playing Guitars and pianos and entertaining peoples.German culture is very different,people there used to do things what they want to do but by not breaking any law or rule.If a person have to express his/her feeling towards other person than they will do it right there, they will never think where they are and on which place they are.For example: We saw many couples there kissing each other in trains,trams,buses or on a station.Couple do not include only boy friends or girl friends but it includes young guys and gals,husband and wives,old man and woman.This is there way to express how much they care about each other.Well I must say that German girls are really beautiful and very fashionable.I have never seen such beautiful girls.
German people are very open and friendly.We made some German and Slovakian friends there.I remember a day when we were going in a train and we were talking to each other.One German lady was listening our conversation and she was not able to stop herself and she asked us “I am sorry to interrupt you but in which language we you are talking”.Actually she knows about India and she have been to India some years back so she started talking to us.She told us that “this is Germany,so just chill”.She also told us some interesting things like on the escalators every body should stand at right side,left side is kept for those who have to rush or those who don’t want to stand at escalators.There they have rule of keep right as in India we have rule of keep left.On the roads also we need to walk on right side instead of left side.
There is a separation in the footpath also i.e. one lane is for cycles and other for pedestrians.There people use bicycles most as they are very health conscious.We found many peoples doing cycling and running at any point of time.It seems like every body has fixed his target that he/she has to do this much bicycling or running.They used to do it to stay fit and healthy.Normally private vehicle level is like First vehicle – bicycle, second vehicle – Car.Few people used to have bikes there.
I am not very well aware about the food culture of Germans as I don’t eat non-veg food so I used to cook my food myself in the Hotel.But I saw that people used to have pizzas with red wine or beer or some kind of meat every time.They used to eat chickens,lambs,beef,pork and other things.Well there is an very old Beergarten in Munich,Beer garten means beer garden where you will get beer.Beer is the cheapest drink there,no body drinks plain water there if they want to than they will add soda in it.There is an very old beer center named as Hofbräuhaus which is serving beers from 1800.There you can get 1 liter beer in a big mug for 7 Euros.If you really like wines and beers than Munich is the right place for you.You can get wines there at a cost of 2 Euros – 10 Euros.
In Germany, young generation is less as compared to old peoples, in our office there were no young peoples as like us.We used to say Young generation there as smoking generation because we found many youngsters smoking all the time specially girls.Girls used to smoke a lot there.During our business trip, we worked a lot and enjoyed a lot.We were out on every weekend to see many things in Munich.We went Garmisch which is outside Munich.From Garmisch we went to Alps valley which is at the highest peek of Germany.There were lots of snow and we enjoyed a lot there.I had a very good time and experience there moreover I can say that I have a life time there.
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