GERMANY - Munich (2004)

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Munich: 8.06.2004

Today we were travelling throughout and would be reaching Muscat tomorrow morning at 9.30 am.

.Since our flight to Vienna was at 1.00 pm, we had fitted in a couple of appointments starting at 8.30 am. We checked out at 8.00 am, grabbed our taxi and interpreter and were on the road.

.Munich was also a gift from God, but one which we knew about already. There was an 8-hour stopover at Munich and obviously, with our Schengen visa still valid, we would be able to go out and see the place.

.We were becoming quite expert at visiting a city in a couple of hours on the fly! We dumped our luggage in the cloakroom, caught a bus to the city centre and started looking around for City Hall, from where sightseeing buses are supposed to leave.

.The city was quite a distance from the airport (around 40 km) and the traffic heavy. The countryside was very beautiful. Miles and miles of green fields full of crop, with clusters of red-and-white houses belonging to the farmers. Seen from the air, the land is a collection of green rectangles that look like they have been combed!
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At the City Hall, just opposite the Metro Station where we were dropped, we could see two open-top double-decker buses standing. Departure time was just 5 mins away. By the time we settled down on top with our headphones and tuned in to the English commentary, we were off..

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.Munich is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, and historically and culturally very rich. Full of beautiful old buildings – too many to absorb fully in the one-hour tour. We saw the walls and gates of the old Munich city and the headquarters of Gestapo, as well as the building where Axis conferences used to take place in WWII. Like the other cities that we saw, Munich is also very green with 2-3 big parks.......

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Beer is a favourite drink for Germans, so much so that there are two ‘Beer Gardens’ in Munich – open areas set in a park with lots of restaurants serving a large variety (apparently 39) of them, as well as food! There is a beer festival season as well. We celebrated our visit to the Beer City by having a draft beer during a quick lunch later on!

.The other notable fact from the commentary was the large number of festivals that the people here have conjured up. Except during the dark winter months, which are set aside for Christmas I suppose, there are 4-5 more festivals on cultural lines that draw tourists from the world over..

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.It was evident that summer had arrived. It was only 4.00 pm but most offices had closed already and people were out in the streets in summer dresses, enjoying the sunlight, that will continue shining till 9.00 pm. Bare bodied men in shorts were playing football in the parks while their wives lay sunbathing at the sidelines. People were generally in a happy mood, not willing to stay indoor at all. While on the bus, we saw a big fountain near one of the Old City gates, where people were generally standing around and getting wet, fully dressed.......

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We had a lunch of pasta at a pavement cafeteria and wandered around a bit, including a very big supermarket by the name ‘Kaufhoff’. Quite easy to pass time – watching people on the streets and sitting jostling each other cheerfully at open cafes was enough.......

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We caught the same bus back to the airport and spent a couple of hours in the lounge, completing our reports (real dedicated characters, we)
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Thus went the trip this time ……

LINK TO MUNICH ALBUM

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SLOVAKIA - Bratislava (2004)

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Bratislava: 5.06.2004

When we arrived yesterday at 5.00 pm and checked into Hotel Forum, we were already primed to hear the bad news, which was totally confirmed by the time it was 7.00 pm when we had a chance to share views and opinions with the receptionist. The Slovaks were VERY VERY SERIOUS about not working on Saturday mornings!

.This was totally unacceptable to us. If we were here, they jolly well had to work. The receptionist was first compassionate, then incensed, then resigned, then pleading as we continued unabated our request for an interpreter tomorrow morning bang at 9.00 am. Of course, the interpreter should be able to drive us around and charge us very little. “Could any of your friends oblige?” . After some eighteen “No”s (Rashid somehow has a hearing problem with the “No” sound), a nineteenth request today morning produced a guy with a red Corolla in tip-top condition and an English with a broken condition.......

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By the way, yesterday we had dinner at (hold your breath) Krishna, practically the only Indian restaurant in town. I tell you, Europeans give too much respect to limits set by other people. For example, it was 10.00 pm yesterday when we stood in front of the concierge and discovered this oasis, but the concierge would not even call up the place just because the ad in the paper said 11.00 – 22.00 hrs and it was already 10.00 pm! She was so indignant that we had to call another receptionist, who agreed to take up this daunting task of calling up Krishna, just in case they agreed to oblige us. We could make out that she was thoroughly uncomfortable about making such an ‘unreasonable’ request. She called up, listened and, smiling broadly at us, said that Krishna was reserved today for a private party and could at best manage a parcel, if we came right then. I told you Rashid sometimes develops hearing problems. He grabbed the phone and took off in Hindi and since we seemed to be practically starving for Krishna’s cooking, they agreed to serve us food, whatever the time!
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This was happening yesterday night, mind you, the same night we arrived from Vienna. We met the chef in the restaurant (from Delhi) and found the tail-end of the party still there (some Indian embassy official’s son’s party) and were seated in a corner table as personal friends of the chef! At the time, we still did not have an interpreter for next morning, and seeing a waiter speaking decent English, immediately tried to conscript him! Unfortunately, he was not free.

.We had come in at 10.30 pm for a quick meal and left finally at midnight. The last one hour was spent in a tête-à-tête with the owner, Sri Sanjay Rai from Gazipur, UP. They had lived earlier in Prague and now in Bratislava for 18 years and was (as told by Raju the chef) stinking rich! His main business was airline catering for the Birmingham flight that flew to Delhi via Bratislava 3 times a week. Recently, he became a Slovakian passport holder, because although “dil hai Hindustani”, the travel hassles for Indians in Europe were otherwise too much.

.He was quite up-to-date in all current affairs in India and found great pleasure in holding forth his opinions on various economic and political issues of India, past and present, regional and national, Congress or BJP (strong BJP critic) in a typical UP-style accent. A very interesting man to talk to. In fact, he must have found us to be very discerning listeners and scintillating conversationalists from Dubai, who held such interesting views, mainly because we had stuck to an occasional “Really!” and “Surely not!”. Great listeners always get a good reputation, although not necessarily a good night’s sleep!

.And now on to today. Our morning business foray was not too productive, as expected, since, practically speaking, the doorman had been left in charge of the offices and showrooms. We perforce had to give up by 12.00 noon and call it a day.
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After some internet work, we went for lunch into the Old Town, which is similar to the Old Towns we had seen in Tallinn and in Warsaw. In size, it would be similar to that of Tallinn. The same red-roofed houses, the same type of towers turned into museums, the central square with lots of food joints and performers and an air of general jollity in contrast to the silent and sombre cobbled alleyways, darkened by the eves almost touching overhead..

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.Before venturing forth, we had been asking the receptionist as to what to see in Bratislava and how to see it. Were there any group tours? “No”. Any city tour coaches? “No”. Any guides? “Yes, at $200 per hour”, or something ridiculous like that. How do we see the place? “Well, for the Old Town, you can take the train from St. Franciscan Square”. And along came a map, which wasn’t very helpful as we saw no traintracks near the Square. Anyway, we had our pizzas for lunch, wandered into Michael’s Tower and climbed up for a nice view. Then we decided to go looking for the mysterious ‘train’. After some cul-de-sacs, we hit the Square-with-an-air-of-jollity, emptied our pockets on souvenirs and stood staring at the ‘train’, which was one motorised cart pulling another! It was one of the silliest things for an adult to ride in. I bought a few key-chains to ride the shock.......

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Bratislava has a population of only 500,000. “Samall place, Slovakia”, as our new friend Sri Sanjay Rai was fond of saying. Apart from the Old Town, which is surrounded by the central business district, there is not much to the place. Nice and peaceful to live in, of course, with commuting easy and all amenities measuring up to European levels.
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Tonight, we again invaded Krishna, again after 10.00 pm, flustering our receptionist and doorman. Sri Sanjay Rai met us right at the ‘paying-the-bill’ stage and we got stuck for another half-an-hour.
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Tomorrow is a proper no-choice holiday. Wouldn’t have minded a working day, actually. Anyway, we’ll find some sightseeing to do, maybe out of town. Our hotel is singularly uninformed in such matters!

Bratislava: 6.06.2004

Sunday, Sunday ……

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We got up late, breakfasted and …… worked! Finished off some reports and mailed them to HO. I think the hotel staff is rather sympathetic about two business travellers stuck over the weekend, so they charged nothing for PC and internet use.

.We had lunch at a Chinese restaurant inside the Old Town. For spending the next couple of hours, we had a choice. We could either walk and climb up to the Bratislava castle overlooking the Old Town, or we could drive 30 km to a palace outside the city. We decided to walk up to the castle.

.We are both so unfit! Just a 20 min walk, slightly uphill, saw our legs and back aching. But the view of the city spread out below, the Danube flowing peacefully, carrying four bridges across, was enough to bring our breath back. There were two groups, one Chinese and one European, also doing the rounds. We did not go into the rooms which were now museums, but just wandered around the beautiful grounds, enjoying the panoramic view of the city. I once again wished I had brought my video camera..

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.The way out was through stairs that wound between small houses. Difficult, I’m sure, having to park 20 metres down! We emerged at the end of the Old Town and walked back through the crowds enjoying a sunny afternoon after a few days of gloom.
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Seeing the groups of tourists, we were discussing how easy it has now become for the EU members to travel to these 25 countries. In fact, when we had halted at the Austria-Slovakia border, we had seen one cyclist dismount and produce his passport from the thigh-pocket of his three-quarters for getting in! But at the final count, I don’t think I could actually settle down in any of these places. The feeling of belongingness, of ‘home’, is simply not there anywhere apart from India.

.We were quite tired, so took some rest in the evening in our rooms. Tomorrow is pretty critical workwise, as it is our last working day on this tour. Car and interpreter have been lined up 9.30 am onwards.

.We have a particular grouse in European places like this, in that all the restaurants close so EARLY! We are ready to go out for dinner only by 10.00 pm and by then, most restaurants were closed for the night. Tonight was no exception. Luckily, we were not particularly hungry and on the advice of the receptionist Susan (who will be our interpreter tomorrow), we repaired to a nearby fast-food (or ready-food) joint.

.The place actually had a lot of variety, from pizza to a lot of meaty-gravy preparations that could be taken with rice or bread. But veg was very weakly stocked and I ended up with one plateful of corn-and-carrots and another plate of roast potatoes. Both equally insipid!

Bratislava: 7.06.2004

Today would be a busy day for us. We had 7-8 visits lined up with the taxi and interpreter reporting at 9.30 am at a coffee shop close to the hotel.

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Susan, like Alex in Minsk, was the receptionist on night duty who decided to sacrifice sleep for a day in favour of a fistful of dollars. Hotel receptionists make very good interpreters as their English is very good and manner pleasant, leaving an overall good impression.

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We worked straight through to 3.00 pm and wrapped up early, firstly because Susan had to lay off and get ready for the night shift starting again at 6.00 pm, and also because we had run through the prospects for the day. We had arranged to meet two more prospects tomorrow morning before leaving for the airport at 11.00 am..

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.We finished our daily reporting in the next one hour. We have become sort of favoured guests here. Although we used the internet regularly, we were not charged a single kroner. Today the girl in the Business Centre was different and was trying to bill us at RO 3.000 per hour, but some strategic admiration from Rashid regarding her good English helped to change her mind.
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Talking of expense, toady’s interpretation and taxi cost us at the rate of 850 kroners (RO 9/-) per hour! Both insisted they were giving us whopping discounts, seeing that we were ‘pore old businesspeople’ from ‘pore old Dubai’, who had already wasted so much money staying in Bratislava over the weekend!
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As I said earlier, Brat is a small town. I think it became named a capital before it was properly ready. It is located on the western border, which is unusual for a capital and I am sure that the other big towns in middle and east Slovakia consider Brat to be a sycophant of Vienna, just 50 km away. Brat is also tied to the apron-strings of Prague in many ways, since we found that at least in business, many Brat companies were totally under the control of their mother companies in Prague.

LINK TO SLOVAKIA ALBUM

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AUSTRIA - Vienna (2004)

Vienna: 4.06.2004

Yesterday was pure work -- nothing interesting.

And today was one long day, and very nice too.

.Sometimes things work out in funny ways. Rashid knew that Vienna was just an hour’s drive from Brat and had thought we can hop across on the Sunday we had at Brat. Actually, in retrospect, we could not have done that as our visa for Slovakia was only single-entry! Travelling through Vienna was the only way we could have seen Vienna!
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We had woken at 2.30 am to catch our 5.30 am flight to Vienna (No way we would have risked missing it). Reached Wien (the German name for Vienna) at 6.30 am. Even the tourist information counters were closed. Talking to taxi-drivers and studying the displayed sight-seeing info, we could make out that city sight-seeing tours would be leaving from the Opera House at city centre 9.30 am onwards.

.First, we dumped our luggage in the cloakroom. Second, we had a quick breakfast. Third, we caught a bus to city centre and walked for half-an-hour to the Opera House.

.We had been disappointed with the weather when we had landed as it was cloudy and the ground was thoroughly wet. But then it HAD stopped raining and enabled us to go around in peace, for which we finally became grateful.

.The bus dropped us at the city centre and we started looking for the Opera House. Nothing like a walk to get a feel of a city. Old and new architecture next to each other. Wide roads. Electric buses and trams (just love trams!). Lots of trees. Suddenly one small forest by the side of the road. A small lane on the central median for cyclists. People shaking sleep from their eyes at 9.00 am while walking briskly to office. Peak office times but thin crowds. Unlike Warsaw, people don’t walk much. They would rather take a bus, tram or underground. Whenever we asked for directions to the Opera House, we were encouraged to take the underground Red Line. “You want to WALK?” they’d ask and find real difficulty in giving walking directions. “Please walk for two stops”’ they’d say, “and turn right.”.

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At the Opera House, where a few guys were peddling city tour tickets on an empty sidewalk, we chose a tour that combined a few city visits with a cruise on the Danube. That, we thought, would be a better experience than seeing some historical buildings.

.We saw a fair bit of the city while driving through (couldn’t take many pics on the run, though). Narrow roads; cobbled streets; tram and bus brushing each other; cafes setting out tables and chairs; small cars; heavy traffic. Why heavy traffic? Because next week Thursday is a holiday (today is the preceding Friday). So? So a lot of people have taken the WEEK OFF! And are going out of town. So? So heavy preparatory shopping on Friday! I tell you, the Europeans are really serious about their leisure!

.On the inland part of the tour, we first went to see some buildings designed by a known architect and conceptual designer named Hundertwasser. His houses and streets had the hallmark of colourful walls, uneven shapes (he loved spirals and called straight lines “the devil’s tools”) and even trees on the roof! One such famed house (a low-cost housing actually, with people living there) was shown to us. Looked like a house out of a nursery rhyme! He had also designed a ‘garbage incinerating plants’ which is purple and gold and slanted windows, with a gold sphere set in the middle of a tall chimney! Quite freaky. He died four years ago, but not before designing a boat as well, on which later cruised on the Danube. Luckily no trees on the roof of that boat!.

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We went up a hill to see a panoramic view of the city, which was quite dim because of the weather. But though unfit for panoramic views, the weather was perfect for a climb up the hills of the northern woodlands, which we negotiated in order to reach the point. Lush, lush green; single-lane winding road, cobbled, going up; fog here and there; smell of conifers; air like ice cream; too beautiful for words. The Vienna Woods locality is three times the size of Vienna and in summer like now and in autumn when all the colours bloom, they are a favourite outing spot for family and for groups.......

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The hill we went up was originally quite far away from the original Vienna and was vineyard territory. There was small village (which we passed through) called Grinzing that specialised in wine-growing and pressing. In the midst of expanding urban Vienna, these village houses have not been disturbed and are quaint anachronisms in the midst of vehicle showrooms and opulent garden-houses.
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These garden-houses are generally a second property of those living in apartments in Vienna, a weekend getaway place where they can grow some vegetables in peace.

.We came down the hill, past a couple of dimmer panoramic views, listening to Strauss’s “Vienna Woods”. Talking of Strauss, there are at least 20 ‘Beethoven Houses’ in Vienna, because apparently in the 35 years that he spent in the city, he changed houses 60 times!! One of his declared houses adjoin one in which Albert Einstein used to live, which was pointed out to us while going up the hill.

.The bus unloaded us at the jetty where our Hundertwasser boat was waiting. It was a 2-level floating restaurant. It looked like that, I’m sure, to the goras at least, because as soon as they were aboard, they attacked the tables, grabbed the menus and started ordering beer and wine and finger chips and caviar and what not! No enjoying the breeze, or the sights, or the waves slapping the hull. We went to the back rail, accompanied by a few goras with cameras, who did not seem too happy to be shouldering this camera-wielding responsibility instead of being under cover where the tinkle of glasses were threatening to drown the heavy throb of diesel engines.

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.This was Danube proper, not too blue, in fact distinctly muddy. Perhaps the weather had something to do with it. We passed churches and important-looking buildings like the Millenium Tower, the Unesco building, the ‘garbage burner’ again from close by, and so on. After a while, we left the Danube proper and entered the Danube Canal through a lock.

.The Danube Canal was originally a tributary of the Danube and it used to regularly flood its banks, like an incontinent child. The city authorities, after heavy soul-searching, decided to make the distributary into a controlled canal, and drop its water-level by around 4 metres. They managed this by introducing two lock gates at the mouth of the canal, in order to maintain the level-difference while allowing launches to pass through.
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We were finally released near St. Stephen’s Square, a huge church. We promptly ate a pizza, to start with. Then we walked down to the metro-station to catch a 16-min non-stop train to the airport (cost 9 Euro). The metro station is like a supermarket by itself! The train departure space has check-in counters (hand baggage only) for Austrian Airlines. Too good!.

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..At the airport, we enquired with the Bratislava bus counter and learnt that we had only 15 mins to wait! We collected our bags and waited for the bus. After the European Union, there is no visa requirement for EU-member citizens, although they have to carry their passport. So life is good for Slovaks! There was a Pakistani businessman (around 50) with a Slovak girl (around 25) who he introduced to us as his wife. She was going back to Bratislava while he was returning to Pakistan. The nature of the marriage seemed strange. A Bangladeshi luggage-handler who had sort of adopted us explained that such ‘wives’ were quite common here. “As Bahrain is to Saudi’” he quoth. “so is Bratislava to Vienna.”

.In one hour flat we were in Bratislava. Even the stamping of our passports took hardly any time. Road travel is actually quite easy in these European and semi-European parts. Very convenient.
.So ended our Vienna visit, a gift from God.

LINK TO AUSTRIA ALBUM

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BELARUS - Minsk (2004)

Minsk: 1.06.2004

This was a very peaceful journey (one hour flight) at a very peaceful time (11.15 am).
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Minsk, at first exposure, was cooler than Warsaw the way we had left it. Our customer Mr Boris had come to meet us at the airport and took us down a 40 km drive to Hotel Minsk at the centre of the city.

.Minsk is a 2 million city (Belarus country has a pop of 10 million), which is the same as Warsaw. But Minsk is far less crowded, with wider roads, less traffic and if possible, ever greater greenery! On the airport route, more than half the rolling meadows were actually covered with small yellow flowers – they looked wonderful, alternating yellow and green stretches. Forests of conifer trees lined the road, sometimes close by, sometimes beyond the fields, and the scent of juniper was in the air.
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After the business discussions were concluded at around 6.30 pm, Boris took us for a round of the city. The city had been very badly damaged by German invasion in WWII, but unlike Poland, they had not been able to restore historical buildings again. So most of the architecture is new and a few old buildings stand here and there, reminders of a history that has been written over..

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.Belarus (“White Russia” in Russian) has perhaps remained the most ‘Russian’ of the CIS countries. Although independent for long, the current President’s pro-Russia stand has ensured that Belarus remains in a trade deficit with Russia, dependent on Russia’s electricity and gas. While other CIS countries have relaxed their bureaucratic procedures, Belarus’s governmental procedures have remained as unfriendly as ever, preventing industrial development. Boris was lamenting that to achieve whatever growth he wanted, it would take him twice as long as in any European city!
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Meanwhile, he loved Minsk as a place. So did we. Wide open spaces, green parks, low traffic, electric trams and buses, cool but stylish people – a nice capital city. Very few people speak English; Russian is the official language here.
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We treated Boris to dinner and wanted to eat some Belarusian dishes. The restaurant, a very old one, called the ‘Rekovsky Brewer’, was originally a brewery and a pub and is now a very well-decorated restaurant. I had eggplants ‘au gratin’ with tomatoes and potato pancakes as garnish – excellent!.

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.Cost of living is reasonable here. Boris’s family of four, without extravagances like eating out etc, needs $250 per month in expenses. He said that 1994, however, he used to need only $50!

.Today my family is leaving for India by themselves. First time such a thing is happening, thanks to the delayed tour schedule. Feels odd, but seems to be under control.

Minsk: 2.06.2004

Our usual search for an interpreter ended with the hotel receptionist who was on night duty. He became free at 8.00 am and was immediately on duty in our room, calling up potential customers. Young chap of 25 or so, good-looking, speaks perfect drawling English. He was in Leicester in England for a couple of years as hotel receptionist, including a stint at an Indian restaurant called ‘Kaboolese’, or some such peculiar name (“Maybe a Bangladeshi word”, said Alex). Anyway, he was a very apt and enthusiastic addition to our team, pitching in with his battered Mercedeze. If we though Gregory’s Merc in Warsaw was old, we had another think coming! This one, unwashed, of unsound body (making lot of sound), rear suspensions gone, belching smoke, would have been an insult to an Ambassador! “Trifle old”, said Alex, without a hint of apology. “Plan to buy a Civic; a Celica is too expensive ….”. He was very sentimental that we stood him lunch at the ‘Taj’, the only Indian restaurant in town. The smell of chicken tikka, of which he had a bowlful, brought tears to his eyes – reminded of him of his England days..

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.Morning, before leaving the hotel at 11.00 am, we had a hiccup. It’s amazing how these things happen! On 4th, we were supposed to go to Bratislava via SVO (Moscow airport). We gave the tickets to the hotel travel agent and she calmly informed us that we needed ‘transit visa’ at SVO as a change of terminal was involved and we would be passing over Russian soil!

.All our market-visit plans went out of the rear window as we quickly rattled to the Russian embassy. There was a big queue waiting. After waiting for more than an hour, the embassy closed its gates at 1.00 pm. “Show’s over for today, folks! Tomorrow again, please ….”. So we went off for a well-deserved lunch at the Taj and Alex’s chicken tikka.

.In the meanwhile, we had out our home office on the job to find an alternative route. They came back with a super proposition. Fly to Vienna on 4th dawn (5.30 am), then travel to Bratislava by road or rail – just 50 km. This would give us a chance to see a bit of Vienna also. [Whatever happens, happens for the ____]
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We finished work by 6.00 pm. Wonderful. Could fiddle at the business centre for some time, relax for an hour and go for dinner at the Taj. The chef, a Delhiite, came up to meet us and was very happy to have Indian guests in whose food he could, at long last, be able to add some spices! “Idhar ka log bahut pheeka khate hain”, he lamented. “Aapke liye chatpata banataa hoon!”. But in spite of his best efforts, it was still not spicy! Maybe he has simply forgotten how.......

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Tomorrow we can afford to start work at 9.00 am, as Alex has already bought some Auto magazine at home and is sitting at a table circling ads of spares shops…..

LINK TO BELARUS ALBUM

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