Ende gut, alles gut

A German proverb that translates to ‘All is well that ends well’. My journey to Germany was on the contrary - everything was well until the END. Read on…

Feb 4, 2010
The day that was a mirage for the past 2 months; the day I was looking forward to put my 2 year old language course to good use… and the day I would break my 5 year romance with Madurai… the day finally dawned!

Farewells though one may have seen many, always are special when it’s you bidding the good bye. Parting from a work place that you have started to love over the years, will always be emotional. But things have to move on… I recollected a farewell note I wrote to one of my colleagues a few years back…

As time moves on...
So do we, chasing our dreams.
Through the journey, bonds are made...
Towards the final goal, they all tend to fade...

So, after bidding good bye to Madurai, it is Hi Hi Frankfurt!! Every part of the journey was eventful. Be it the chat with a Dutch guy on way to Chennai about his genetically-engineered crops used in Madurai; or the nice talk with the Indian girl on way to Dubai; or the experiences shared with the Swiss gentleman and German lady on way to Frankfurt; every bit of the journey was enjoyable… Not to mention the list of celebrities I came across – renowned actor and social activist Rohini, upcoming actor Santhanu and ‘Subramaniapuram’ Sasi and Samudrakani…

Once in Frankfurt, rather than take a taxi and get to the hotel and enjoy its coziness; I tried a bit of adventure. This is where things turned murky.

I took the state-of-the-art SkyLine trains to commute from Terminal 2 to Terminal 1. It was a cool experience; had a good view of the Frankfurt skyline; also had a glimpse of an A380 on the runway. At Terminal 1, I boarded the hotel bus; 5 minutes later, I was dropped at a hotel. That’s when it dawned on me that I had boarded the wrong bus; this is NOT the hotel I had my reservation on!!!!! Turned down at the hotel, I waited in a bus station for a bus or taxi. The place was freezing cold with sub-zero temperatures. I summoned all my German learning; spoke with the occasional passerby to enquire about transports; and was told that taxis need to be booked and not just be hitched up; and at this time of the day (lunch time) there are no buses either. After almost an hour of hopeless search and waiting, I lost all hope and was about to book a room in the nearby hotel; when the bus driver who dropped me at the hotel turned up on his way back from work. Pitied at my plight, he offered to drop me at my hotel for a small fee; which I gratefully accepted.

Through the cab drive, we conversed in broken German and broken English; he spoke about Frankfurt and the problems that I may face with the German language here.

All I could say was “Language problem isn’t something new to Indians!!”

Chronicles to continue...