They say there is a learning in very moment that life presents to us. I had never thought that i would be writing about a journey that i had made atleast 4 times before in the past. The answer lies in the question itself. I have done the same flight with the the same sad looking Air hostesses with their unfriendly if not rude behavior in the past. I know what to expect and more strongly know the reason for returning to the same flight time and again. So, when you know what to expect and what will come next, you dont spend time anticipating, rather you invest it in observing and trying to understand something that you have perhaps missed in the past.
It was the kind of people I met in this journey that prompted me to write this piece. I knew the journey was going to be interesting right from the start when for a change i found a taxi driver, who on arrival to the airport, got down without asking for the fare, went down the walkway, got me a trolley, loaded my seemingly heavy 20 Kg bag and then opened the door for me; and after all this he did not expect even a single rupee extra from me. This is a rarity in Bangalore considering how the Auto rickshaw drivers wait with bated breath to cheat you in broad daylight.
No Pen!! Damn. I needed a pen to fill in the immigration forms and finding this in the airport is not an easy task, since these days most of the people flying have forgotten the art of writing. I think soon schools would be giving you typing courses instead of writing. One needs to know which key means "A", rather than knowing how it is written or said. Thankfully for me a stationary shop at the airport was still open, though it was 11.30 in the night. 10 minutes and with a minus of 45 Rs from my purse i was the proud owner of a stupid looking pen, which i guess would not have cost the manufacturer more than 10 Rs, Taxes included.
Next I meet our bloke at the AF counter ( I prefer to use AF instead of Air France since by blood boils when i have to type that name!!). With a false accent and even faker behavior of being smart and helpful, he asks me questions about immigration etc before i get irritated and cut him and say, that this is not the first time i am doing this flight. He then tries to explain that it is a procedure to help people. Later, during Security check, i was told that our bloke had forgotten to stamp my Web-Checkin boarding pass rendering it almost as valid(in) as a tissue paper in this context.Yeah, I had to go back and get the whole thing done once more!!
The flight was nothing new, except that this time the crew was behaving even more stingier. I request the Air-Hostess who is a French and I guess can speak nothing else but that. I am given water when i ask for orange juice. Further she doesn't even try to understand what i am saying when i try to clarify. I assumed that this is because she was busy. However, later i figured out that she did this because she wanted to talk with the gay-like French sitting next seat. Considering myself lucky not to be sitting next to him and holding on to my shiny engagment ring, i tried to take my mind off the wreached flight. It just showed me that some people like to be with their own kind and clearly she did not like the job. I say this because, i met another French purser,strangely on the same flight who tried his best to sound perfect in English, cracked a joke with me and gave me hot mug of coffee when he saw i was suffering from heavy cold. Thanks to the extra blast from the aircraft's ventilation.
Just when i thought that my woes were getting reduced, Varundev got angry, causing massive turbulences. The plane was doing a Shiela ki jawani some 20000 Feet in air when the Pilot chose to turn on the seat belt sign, while I frantically tried to find the seat belt. When i found it, i found it stuck between the seat and its back. I tugged it, pulled it, did everything i could do with the might i had...only to see that it was still stuck. The Turbulences where getting worse, i was suddenly reminded of the Air crash investigation episodes. I calmed myself down, tried to see where the damn seat belt buckle was stuck and try to slowly adjust my seat inclination and nudge the buckle between the backrest and the seat. Finally my cajoling worked and the buckle came out and i fastened it tight and said my prayers; Praying that they wouldn't me be my last. The incident drew upon me the fact that not everything can be achieved by pulling at it or going the hard way, sometimes softness works. Understanding the situation is more important then trying out the very commonly used methods.
The journey from Paris to Stuttgart was an uneventful one, except that the bloke at the security at France asked me if i could give him a Mercedes looking at the Mercedes T-Shirt i was wearing. Humble as I am, I told him that i too have been asking my boss the same question.
Last but not the least and this is not a part of journey but something that i discovered as i write this piece....I have a webcam that i purchased on the last day before the journey to Germany in India. Having never used an Webcam before; It was never needed..I did not know how the function. The cam has 6 Leds, which i couldn't get to glow as long as i was in India, trying to setup the webcam. The only control on the Webcam was a rotary knob, which up until now i was sure was to control the Microphone volume. For those who don't know, webcams come with an Integrated Mircophone. Even though my mom had begged me to try out this control, i had dismissed her suggestions knowing that she was a technology illiterate. Now i realize that that control is for the LED brightness and that my mom was right. Lesson learned- give every suggestion a patient hearing, what you cannot see, maybe the other person can, even though its not his area of expertise.
Reminds me of How can i think outside the box, if i am made to sit inside one!!
Frieburg is about 1.5 hours journey from Triberg. One search on google will tell you that this is like the capital of Schwarzwald. Well surprisingly, this place failed to impress me much. For one the tourist information center is quite a walk from the Hauptbahnhof...or the main railway station. Frieburg has a lot of churches, the old and new rathaus which can be both visited by folks who have interest in taking some pictures. The Saint Martin Kirche (Church) and the gate with the same name are some of the good tourist attractions. You can also do some shopping on Kaiser-Joseph-Strasse on a working day....Dont forget to click a pic of this bull there....
