The Castle

Saturday 09.07.05

I woke up early, switched on my laptop and played music... Deewana hua baadal.. from Kashmir ki kali. I was quite enthusiastic and I had to charge up others too. After all we were going out. After all life had started playing pleasant tunes and all we had to do was to dance and enjoy.

We had our regular breakfast at Asheffenburger Hof, the hotel where we stayed. We walked down to the main station and bought ‘weekend ticket’. You must know the concept of state and weekend tickets in Germany. The state ticket costs you 20 euro and 5 people can go wherever they wish in that state with one ticket by train.. and even by bus or tram. The weekend ticket costs you 30 euros and again 5 people can travel in entire Germany with it. If you don’t know or forget this, you screw you wallet. I did while coming from Frankfurt to Ashaffenberg.

The journey was pleasant. Watching the tilted-roofed houses arrayed along the sides of streets trigger your imagination.

We reached to Heidelberg at around 11.40 am. This place is 1.5 hrs far from Ashaffenberg if you travel by train. I don’t know how far is it geographically. I don’t care. It doesn’t matter. Physical distance never matter. Anywhere. Well, Kabby (Tejinder) had called me there. He is hell of a crazy surd and my batchmate in IITD. But he made my day. Hang on, I will tell you everything.

We had agreed to meet at McDonalds at 3 pm. As my friends(Dilip, Louis, and Nilesh) had 3 hrs spare, we decided to see the castle first. A bus took us there. We had to walk up to the castle. Now you must be knowing that castles were made at the top of the hills. Rulers controlled the people from there only. You know the political and strategical significance of altitude. Whatever, we reached there and took pics. All of us were more interested in taking pics. It’s okay but to expect the photographer to make you an Amitabh Bachchan is too much of idealism. Anyways, the view of the city from the castle was nice. We saw many Indians there, mostly south Indians. They were, not contrary to their reputation, nice but cold. But we were more interested in the castle. And visibly so were they. It is a tourist place and you can see people from many places. I saw a big group of east asian girls. They look scary with their small eyes.

I will upload these pics soon on internet for you to see.

German beer is the best in the world. I try to feel the spirit of the place I visit as much as possible and as much as permissible by my nature. Though I don’t drink (beer) but I know that it is good for health if taken in right amount. So when Kabby, and my foreigner friends J insisted I didn’t say no. PROST!

Kabby is kewl. As a matter of principle he doesn’t talk anything non-frivolous. I don’t claim to know him in and out but when I found that Jeremy had no idea about the vastness and diversity of India, about arranged marriages etc then I figured. At the table every Prost was preceded as well as followed by some lewd err… interesting comment on some passerby girl or waitress. Many were shot too… by his new digicam. His german “I don’t care” friend was no less. Yeah the French guy was relatively staid.

We all had met at McDonalds, 15 mins after the stipulated time. It is so nice to see an old pal after an year. Our interests are poles apart but still I enjoyed his company. Initially I didn’t talk to his friends. But soon I found myself quite comfortable with them. We took a train to reach the hilltop. This was even higher than the castle. This train journey was B R E A T H T A K I N G. The slope was practically 90 degrees and we witnessed the incredible technology when the train crawled along the steep rails like a lizard. There we ‘prosted’ and listened to the non-vegetarisch conversation of Kabby and Tilo. This was followed by a trek. The view was again magnificent. I tried to capture the beauty in the camera. We had already exhausted our batteries. Thankfully Kabby had his camera with him. Today he said that the snaps are beautiful. More than that my knee didn’t complain at all. I am young again. :)

As we had visited the castle before we skirted it this time. We took a long time to reach at the foot of the hill …to the old town. Ohh I forgot to tell you the most amazing thing. The old town was like a huge fair. And while going to the railway station(a special one for the hill) we passed through the old town. There I saw a lady fully painted in ash color. Her face, her clothes, everything was painted. And she was standing like a statue at a podium. Sometimes she would move to shake hands with kids. And her movements! God it was simply unbelievable! She was like a robot. I can’t explain the finesse with which she maneuvered her body. Her expressions, her grace, everything was just out of the world. You have to see it to believe it. Ok have you seen this movie, ‘Euro Trip’? Some said that it is shown in that movie. Watch the movie.

We again ‘prosted’ in the old town. This time I tried the beer of west Germany. Earlier it was of east Germany which was lighter in color. Even after gulping down a litre of beer I didn’t feel tipsy. I don’t know why these guys act macho.

Kabby had again ‘interesting’ plans but we had to choose between spending some 50 euros more or to go back. Anyways, the interesting plan was a no-no for me so we decided to come back. Our train was scheduled after 5 mins and we had to eat too so we couldn’t even say bye to our host friends. We had to change 2-3 trains and at last we had to board on a bus to reach Ashaffenberg.

I slept as soon as I lied down.

The next day we shifted to an apartment. It is beautiful. More beautiful than we had expected or imagined. I started jumping on the beds and dancing on the floor. Our life is going to be easier now. From yesterday we have started cooking too. Now bye-bye to bland food. Life is going to be spicier.