It has been an idle day. The rain has been pouring on and off over the city for the last 48 hours now. Since I live on the top floor of my building, and fortunately my window opens to the city side, I have the luxury of not being bothered by the moving traffic and seeing just the cars, roads, and entrances of houses for view. My balcony overlooks the city center to the mountain on the other side which has a few houses scattered here and there.
The city in
ancient time was fortified and the remains of the outer city wall is next to my
place of stay. There are two towers which are nearly the same height as our building.
In the past two months alone that I have been here, I have seen the terrain
change already. The mountains were brown initially or occasionally covered in a
white blanket of snow and one could only see the houses as far as one could. I
would not call them eye sore because most of them are idyllic old houses, with
traditional red and brown slant rooftops, and timber framing. But what caught
my attention was the only piece of modern structure made of cement and glass
that stood out on that hill. Thankfully, the trees are no longer brown and
naked, they are beginning to show new leaves in all shades of green which covers
that hideous building now. At any given point in time, clouds, mist, and smoke
from kitchen houses all keep vanishing into the air. I do not get to see the
sunrise or sunset yet (location constraints and maybe work timing issues :P),
but it is relaxing to see the clouds race past each other through the balcony
door. They are sometimes grey and fluffy and at other times they are white and
long. I have witnessed rain, snow, hailstorm, and a bit of sun this weekend
alone. Pitter-patter raindrops, falling from the sky indeed :D
The only
birds I see are the pigeons and peculiarly the people living in the building in
front of us have domesticated pigeons, but they rarely set them free. That is
one common thing I have noticed throughout my stay in Germany now that I do not
see many birds in the city. Also, I am not sure how many cats are here either. I
have seen just one and that too lives rather far from my place. Sadly, my
residential building has a no-pet policy and in general, I am to believe that most
people in this city or at least in the immediate vicinity of the neighborhood
are weekend commuters.
Speaking of
the city, it strangely feels quite international? There are 3 industries here,
and I was told one of the companies has a branch office in India and most of
the Indian community (which is a lot for what I am used to seeing) here works
for them. The city is scattered in terms of land and civilization. I have been
telling people that it looks like an octopus with its arms stretched out if you
look it up on Google maps. Most of the residential areas or the markets are
in the city center which kind of lies in the valley or along the imaginary
arms which eventually get elevated as they are situated on the hills. This
makes the traveling time and distance between two points longer as you would
have to always pass through the city center to get to the next arm as the two
arms are not connected by roads. The public transport is rather non-existent
and expensive for what they offer. I was spoiled, I guess, at my previous place
of stay because I had access to so many grocery shops in the vicinity and there
exists just 2 which are pretty basic (one of them being Aldi, for those of you
who know) but on the other hand, there is an Asian supermarket just 5 minutes
away and I no longer need to plan about buying desi grocery in advance
which is an upgrade.
So much so
for the city as of now. I am consumed by the new routine, and I am still trying
to figure out or take out the time for the things I like doing. This one, for
instance, is one step in that direction, yet again. 😊
😍😍😍 awesomeness of City Schwäbisch Gmünd crafted with excellent wordings😍😍😍
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