Trip to Alps: Episode 1 - The Start...!!!

So finally, after a month of knowing about Ulm, getting my German fiasco corrected (sigh! I actually dont have a count of them!), the cooking experiments (in this case I was the test piece! not a big surprise, no one would have given an attempt even if I agreed to pay them!) and lots and lots of F.R.I.E.N.D.S, we finally had the technical group gathering, where we were told the schedule for the next 3 months and though it didnt sound hectic, it was. However, the best part about the beginning was, we were to goto a place in Alps (its some complicated name, I cant recollect now!) and we had this induction program there, on the top. Now thats what I call an induction program! So we were supposed to gather at the Ulm Hauptbahnhof (Ulm main station), a train journey of 2 hours and then a hiking trip of half an hour. So the preparation for that, ahem, was quite overwhelming. I ended up wearing 4 layers of clothes and then a jerkin, just to be cautious, as it was the month of april and still snowing.
So the assembling time was morning 8am, which meant that I had to wake up early (damn!), which I managed to. Just had the usual amazingly healthy and boring breakfast of cornflakes and juice (man, am becoming a foreigner!) and started off the Bahnhoff (station). By the way, if I am using more German words in the subsequent posts, it must be considered the extent of my knowledge in German and not that am blowing my own trumpet :D! Talking about breakfast, sometimes, I wonder if I am really eating anything in the mornings. There was a time when I used to have chapathis, dosas, upmas, etc and never ate rice, nor drank milk and its just the opposite now, eating cornflakes in the mornings with milk, the afternoon food includes rice. Makes me wonder am I really in dreamland and is this reality. Anyways, but cornflakes does give lot of energy, even though its thoroughly boring. So I pack up some fruits and take water, and leave the dorm with Bhuvan. Surprisingly, we were well ahead of time, a change from being the usual late person, which made me really uncomfortable. Guess being on time never suits for a person of my caliber :D. And so we started our 2 hour journey in the train, which was not so entertaining, as it was crowded and I ended up sitting in corner listening to music on my ipod, which most of the others followed.

As we came near to the station, the beautiful scenery reflected on everyone's retinas, and people were swaying between the two sides of the train, wondering which side to look. The amazingly beautiful snow, covering the tip of the mountain, with greenish tinge of trees appearing in some places, is simply unexplainable. The digicams kept on clicking, even though the clicking speed was slow, making the pictures the worst representation of those scenes. And I was still trying to use my 2.0 Megapixel mobile cam in Sony Ericsson K750i, to bring out the best images possible, only in vain. The person beside me, William, using his 10 MP digicam, would just look at me, and I could comprehend each and every word:

William: "Dude, I am using a 10 MP camera and am not getting a descent pic with the train moving so fast, and you expect to catch a pic with that 2MP mobile cam of yours. Gimme a break!"

I was obviously intimidated by his digicam, nevertheless my pride didnt give up and returned a look telling, "Duh! you dont know unless you try!" Anyways, I was on the loosing side, for obvious reasons, else the Cannon company would have shut down. So we finally reached the station, and then we were able to take some good snaps, ofcourse in William's cam, I had to give up.

We took a bus from there and moved on further, and again those snow covered mountains, with traces of greenery in between, just got framed in my mind. Even though I repeat it a million times, the words dont express the real beauty. We reached to a certain part of the hill, and the path ahead was a small hiking trip of 10 mins. Well it was not really a hiking, just walking on the road, but the it was such a slant, that once if you would start rolling, you could easily return

all the way back to the station from where you took the bus. It had to be atleast a 60 degree slant on which the road was laid and walking up the

slant makes you feel even bad. To make it worse, I happened to realise my 4 layers of clothing, due to which I had started to sweat, and the baggage that I had packed. Well, I am sure, that i would have reduced most of my excess fat in that

particular strip of road. When we finally reached the top, which seemed to take an eternity, it was like heaven and it was just for a moment, as we had a storm approaching and had to get into our rooms immediately.

The evening was really good, except for the dinner, which I dont even remember what I ate, which explains how worse it would have been. But after the dinner, the real fun started, we had one of classmates playing some amazing tunes on the guitar and a few of them indulging in an entertaining game of cards, which included us. Perhaps the only moment so far, where the entire batch was together. We had to hit the bed by midnight, as on the next day, 2 long hiking trips, amidst the mountains, awaited us.