In another 3 weeks, this year will come to an end. It is finally a good time to update something here, more out of guilt that I posted something (finally) and a reminder for me to improve upon this for the next year.
This year was quite eventful, and I am extremely grateful for having the opportunities both at work and on a personal level to be able to see and travel to different parts of the world. If you might think this is bragging, then please excuse yourselves and do not scroll further. I often think about how many things one should share on social media, and every time I end up convincing myself that being active on social media is not my cup of tea. In some sense, I have become more of a recluse, and I think it has got to do with my conditioning of being here in Germany. People in general are a bit reluctant in displaying their private lives, and I seem to resonate with this thought. And anyway, people with whom I want to share stuff, reaches them anyway. And as for keeping myself updated as to what is going around, I am conveniently happy not knowing too much.
The year began with a work trip in January to Latvia, Ventspils to be precise. Do not worry, I had not known the name of the city before traveling there myself. It is a small old town, with cobblestone streets situated on the west coast along the Baltic Sea. Apparently, the cost of running a paper or coating machine or buying time on a machine is relatively cheaper than being anywhere in the central EU itself, and thus companies often prefer this route instead. January was cold, and Latvia was colder. A snowstorm had just passed before our arrival, the entire landscape was covered in fresh snow in the countryside and piles of melting snow in the city. Although I did not get a chance to be outside too much, the country felt devoid of humans and civilization but nonetheless pretty and one could imagine it looking a bit lively and nicer in summers.
February was rather uneventful in terms of travel. My routine of home-work-home was keeping me busy.
Late March and early April brought me back to India. It was the first time in 6 years that I was home during summers and had the chance to indulge myself in feasting on mangoes. The weather was pleasant, not too hot. Although, the pollen and dust had kept me irritated throughout my stay. Time spent at home passed by quickly and before I knew, it was already time to head back.
Then came May. There are a lot of public holidays in the month of May in Germany. And if the holiday presents itself on a Thursday or Tuesday, one takes the Friday or Monday off and calls it a BrückenTag (Bridge Day). I called a few friends to see how I could utilize my BrückenTag and planned a quick weekend getaway. A lovely friend invited me to visit her in Ghent, Belgium. It was after 4-5 years that I was travelling via Flixbus! At one point, this was my most preferred way of transportation because as students we liked to joke that we did not have enough money to waste on trains but enough time to waste on a bus.
Ghent is a lovely and vibrant city in the northwest of Belgium. It is also a port city, at the confluence of Leie and Scheldt rivers. The city has beautiful medieval architecture and university buildings next to each other, and the atmosphere was relaxed and international, thanks to the strong presence of students and tourists alike. One can quickly cover the famous sights on foot in a day and for the next, see the same through a boat ride or kayak. A strong recommendation would be the Botanical Garden, if time permits. Ghent felt like a place straight out of a storybook. Be it the magnificent Gravensteen castle in the middle of the city, to nice cosy cafe’s and restaurants, to views along the Hoodbrug of pretty bricked houses with typical shapes on both sides of the canal.
June was the longest month. Or so it felt. At work, I had been working on a development project after our first scale up in January. The plan was to have another product ready to be used on machine sometime in August. I was already happy at the prospect of getting to see another city where we could have a pilot run.
In anticipation came July, and I had already planned a week’s trip to Norway! It was a pity though that my flight was cancelled shortly before flying and I ended up losing one travel day. It feels bad when a short trip becomes even shorter. The next day we flew to the capital, Oslo. The city felt very different from the rest of the EU countries. It was modern architecture mostly, and most of the shops/ brands had US products. I am always impressed by the ‘’ library culture’’ of the EU apart from the beautifully maintained public gardens but Oslo’s public library was at another awesome level! There were sewing machines, and 3D-Printers available for public to use. And they had a wide collection of books in multiple languages unlike Germany, where most titles are in German and a small section on one corner of one floor available in English.
The weather was very unpredictable, and it is utmost important for the weather to be on your side, as most activities are planned outdoors. Apart from that, it did not get dark, even in the southernmost part of Oslo!! At midnight one could see slight yellow along the horizon, and it always stayed some darkest shade of blue instead of getting dark, dark at night. If I would have had more days, it would have been the perfect time to see the midnight sun from the Northern city of Tromsø.
The next day, I was at an island- Utøya, some 40 kms east of Oslo where one can do a nice hike along the ‘’Kongens utsikt’’or King’s view. The trail was quite steep at the beginning and was demanding but later it turned out to be ok. The hike presents an excellent viewpoint offering stunning panoramic views.
I already knew that I did not have enough time to see and appreciate nature, what Norway is best known for. One needs another trip or at least 2 weeks to see the Fjords and visit north to either see the midnight sun or northern lights.
In August, my former flatmate visited me, and we saw each other after 2.5 years! For 2 days over the weekend, we hiked to 2 near by places- Königswinter and Wahnbachtalsperre. Weekend spent like a German! Out in the nature, amidst forest and fresh air.
Then came September, and we were busy hosting/onboarding the Indian team visiting us. It was such a pleasant experience to be able to talk in Hindi without other people knowing the context of our conversation. I felt a strong need of having another person here permanently with whom I could talk freely without having the need to explain why I prefer eating warm meals, or how being vegetarian all my life is not a big deal. Although my day-to-day work is done in English, the team meetings are held in German and it gets difficult sometimes to keep up with the pace at which this language is being spoken. The visit also brought to me a realization that I had overlooked- It is not easy for an outsider to function properly let alone live and work in Germany without knowing the language. I did not face this struggle alone and things are always easy when dealt with a group. During my master’s we were always a group of people having the same struggles and it never felt too challenging as we were all in the same boat. But, I saw how one has to be dependent on Google Translate the entire time even for basic things like a visit to the grocery shop, in trams, trains, hotels. And on top of that deal with finding the right food especially if you are a vegetarian. One can only eat in restaurants for so long before your body gives up and craves only a plain, simple, hearty, warm meal of dal and roti!
Being a good host, I showed them Cologne and Bonn. And I can proudly say that I have seen The Dom in Cologne in all seasons now. And as for Bonn, it was my first time going to the Botanical Garden myself.
PSPS. I attended my first live show in a concert hall- The Kölner Philharmonie. Virtuoso sitar player, Anoushka Shankar performed with her quintet, and I was mesmerized throughout my time.
October has been the most memorable month for me, this year so far <3
A dear friend of mine was to get married in Jordan and since the beginning of the year I was looking forward to visiting there. So much so that I had planned an entire trip of 1 week on the pretext of attending the wedding.
On one hand, everyone, including myself, had concerns regarding traveling, especially now that the geo-political situation was not so promising. But on the other hand, Jordan was never part of the conflict and after having checked the travel advisory thoroughly, I decided to go ahead with the trip. The country and landscape were nothing like I had seen before. My trip to Jordan would be a blogpost in itself, and I will try to limit myself here to a few lines.
"Where you are from?"
"India."
"Hello, India. Welcome to Jordan!"
This was ubiquitous during my entire stay in Jordan. Friendly people (apart from the one’s at airport; good food; great views)
The trip started from the capital city of Amman, which is hilly and looks like Shimla- but without trees. The hills, the houses, the walls are all the same colour- chalky. A soft mix between yellow, cream and white. The next day, I visited Jerash, some 40 kms north of Amman. Jerash is considered one of the largest and most well-preserved sites of Greek and Roman architecture in the world outside Italy. From there, I headed to the south towards the Dead Sea but with a small stop at the Baptising site of Jesus Christ. The site is located on the East bank of Jordanian river, and I was so close (a few meters infact) to the Israeli border on the other side. The rest of the day was spent in a luxurious resort by the Dead Sea. For the next 3 days I was headed further south, passing by Mount Nebo- where Moses was granted a view of the Promised Land, through Madaba city to reach Petra.
A full day was spent walking, admiring, being awe-struck in Petra. Apart from the Treasury (what we mostly know of Petra); there are hundred of tombs and pillars and stairs and an amphitheatre and a monastery and scattered windows and doors carved out of hills. It felt surreal to see how humans could have carved the entire city from rocks and how gorgeous it would have looked when it was flourishing some 2000 years ago! And the last stop on my itinerary was Wadi Rum, the desert area which is also known as the Valley of the Moon (more like Mars surface). As far as one could see, there is a vast desert with enormous red, orange, yellow mountains and sand dunes. One could hear the stillness at night while gazing the stars overhead. Whenever you are at places like these, which are larger than life, you feel how insignificant and unimportant we are. And how smalllll our entire stay on the planet is. It fills you with a sense of gratitude, pride and contentment all at the same time.
November, again, was rather light in the sense of traveling. The planned scale-up is now scheduled for early next year and I can only hope that this time around, things would go as planned.
And now that we are in December, I can only say that I am looking forward to what the next year has in store for me!
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