Skiing is something which excites one as he enters Europe, and after watching our movie heroes do it with ease, we were awaiting a chance. Then came our Jaffa(Sandeep akkanapragada) to Italy again, don’t worry its just about a 2 week trip as usual!!!
So with the enthu of completing a whole eurotrip in just 2 weekends, he urged me and hari to plan something a Friday night. And being bad planners we couldn’t obviously decide upon a common place. Oberstdorf was far away for hari, Amsterdam was not feasible for either me or sandeep. So one weekend wiped out. So last weekend Jaffa was fired up. This time hari could not come because of a ‘On call’(wonder how people work in the weekends in Europe)
So time for uday to join us amidst his exams. The plan obviously finalized by me, was to go skiing to Oberstdorf on Saturday and to Neuschwanstein on Sunday.
After a long day in Pforzheim building EGR coolers, I went to pickup uday who came by carpool and Jaffa by Airberlin. So the old gang met again for a drink of Red label and a delicious dinner(I think it was dal rice…or kichidi???) made by me.
Generally people go very early in the morning when they decide to cover a place in one day. But being Bitsians it was next to impossible. So by the time we woke up it was already the time when people would have reached Oberstdorf. Nevertheless we waited for Uday to complete his makeup(all for his marriage) and boarded the train to Oberstdorf. The schones wochenende tickets are always good for people like us, and it certainly helped us this time as well. We reached Oberstdorf and were so excited to ski that we immediately approached a ski school, and then got the shock of our lives. The girl said skiing would close at 4pm and to our horror when we looked to our watches it was like 3.45pm!!!
After some internal discussions we decided to quit ski and look around some good places. We went to Breitach klamm. A wonderful place looks like a heaven on earth. Germany is so full of places famous for nature, waterfalls etc etc. The hills, crystal clear water flowing, snow slowly melting and lush green trees….it was some sight!!!
We had the SLR camera with us(of course uday did not know the various settings yet in it) and then started our photoshoot. And the as usual ‘on fire’ jaffa was so excited to see snow that he started playing with it like a small school boy. Anywhere there was some snow, he wanted a photo. An hour long walk in the hills, tired but absolutely worth it.
Then started the dark part of the journey. We had to go back the same way we had come, but trying to be more adventurous we wanted to take a longer path to enjoy more nature. And we walked and walked and walked for atleasa and hour and half just to be terrified enough to hear wild voices from the forests than surrounded us. Thanks to a jogger, we accidentally found our way to the bus stop. 10 minutes later, after a comedy of errors in opening a restaurant door by uday, we were informed that the last bus would come 10-20mins later. We waited instead for 45 mins to find nothing that could take us to the main station. I found a family finally to ask them about the bus. And they simply answered that there was no public transport at that time of the night!!! Shivering in the cold and really hungry, we entered the same restaurant to have dinner. We called for a taxi and went to the station to find that our last train had left ‘ONE MIN’ before. Now it was time to find a hotel. The first one we entered – no vacancy. The second one – one night 250 euro( breakfast incl :)). Uday finally used his brain to call his friend and find a youth hostel in the internet. We found one and I talked to him on phone and when he said that he had a room vacant, we were over the moon. But he wanted a mail confirmation about our booking before we reached there. So it was time for udays jaffa na jaffda friend to write a mail. We took a taxi again to reach the youth hostel and then came the next surprise. The one who talked to us over the phone had mistakenly said that there was a room available. 5 mins we did not know what to do, we just stood there looking at each other…and sometimes to the guy at the reception. He tried to help us and found a hotel nearby just for 210 euro/day. Having no choice we decided to go for it, but when we came to the hotel, we were offered for 186euro, so a small discount at the end of an eventful day.
Next day we woke up fresh to have a good breakfast(except our jaffa, who doesn’t eat meat, bread and fruits..and the germans of course do not offer anything else)
We reached the ski place Sollereck. There were innumerable people from all Europe who had come to enjoy the holiday, and we couldn’t find a ski teacher. So first we planned to go on the rope way up the mountain to get a feel of what skiing is about. On the top it was so beautiful with loads and loads of snow, and jaffa was again so excited that…………………
We came down and decided we were going to ski on our own. First uday said No, and finally came along to rent the ski equipment. Took a while to put on the shoes and just to walk with them was like an IIT exam for us. Finally we reached the ski zone for beginners and got ready for the time of our lives!!!!!! And what happens……we fall a 10 times before even moving a metre. Then we went to a plain land, and again steadied ourselves. And the next hour was great fun, falling down getting up skiing for some time and it went on and on. We were sometimes helped by some Bosch tamilians as well :)
And while even children aged 3 were skiing, our jaffa who came about so excited from Italy to Oberstdorf, was afraid that he would fall down and break something that he stood and watched all the people as if it were a movie shooting. So many times we advised, suggested, ordered and finally even requested to ski, but in vain. I have never seen such a coward in my life, useless guy!!!
Uday and myself, we enjoyed a lot and finally wanted to go back. Then we went on a small roller coaster ride, and even there our jaffa was going like a snail. I liked it so much that I was speeding and there I find jaffa in front of me waiting for a collision. And it had to happen, I went and collided so hard, luckily nothing happened to us nor the hardware. And from then on I really made a lot of fun of jaffa.
It was time for a quick snack and we rode back in the train to have some more pegs of red label and a very bad potato fry, this time by uday and slept very tired. Next morning my friends went back and I as usual to my office.
