A temporary suspension of discoveries

Another trainer, now of English descend. Now yours truly can at least to have a pleasure to hear a true Anglo-Saxon pronunciation.

All evening spent in a company of colleagues at Sachsenhausen. Apfelwein appeared to be a sort of white light liquid, which is mixed either with carbon water OR fanta by aborigines. I've tried both ways. Also i've tried some Hessian traditional food, which name I've already forgotten. As well, I've forgotten the name of the tavern, but is still can be recovered from a box of matches I've got there as a present.

Cheers

20071014

Standing alone at a noisy bus stop, under spare autumn rain, not unlikely to turn into snow sometimes, i was feeling somewhat unsure was it that smart idea to put on a light wind-coat for a two-week trip. After 40 minutes of such doubtness, a company car has finally arrived and took me to BPK airport. (Was it the fact that the former was a business-class Audi, that excuses a risk for me to get sick before a plane?). Having often visited Boryspil' airport to meet one little K(reature) from her european voyages made me quite familiar with this crowded and strange place, where the time is seemingly standing still for decades in a form of soviet-era frescoe depicting a muscle Mens'Healthy Atlantis, flying toward the West (probably escaping from a deformed red sea-star behind his back).

Passing ukraining guards appeared to be a relatively small deal (specifically, in comparance with passing a border of a German embassy, where one would have to take off a belt, empty pockets and, in advance, leave his cell phone at home). Waiting in line before an exit gate took a little longer, but what's good, having passed the latter, one get directly to the plane (which for me shows how amazing is ukrainian technological advance).

Lufthansa was kind enough to provide me a fresh issue of FT, a moderatly fresh A-320 to get to FRA-port, a 5c eco seat (in a row just after biz.), a hot rice with a meat, a smiling turkish stuard and a smiling alike nordic stuardesse, a cup of instant coffee and a full glass of red wine. In return for these goodnesses, i've stolen an emergency instructions card (which i promise to study thoroughly and return on a back trip).

Here i've to notice that flying on a jet was a big deal of excitement. The last time i had such experience was in ancient 1990 (taking a trip from the same Boryspil' to syberian Orenburg by a sowietische Tupolev 134) wich for now roughly means: 'never'. The board crew, including a captain Peter, was wonderfully tolkative, repeating each their phrase in undesrtandable to me anglo-saxon manner.

Fraport hapened to be a surprisingly busy place. (A collegue of mine has encountered 17 planes in the sky at a time, but fixing this glorious moment in JPEG was evidently beyond the technical abilities of his smart phone). It took two buses to take the whole freight of our Airbus into the airport building. There one should follow a signs with a suitcase and wait another half an hour for his very suitcase to arrive. After that, another 30 sec. it takes to pass a german guard and get rightly to the railway station.

The most tricky part when using F.am M. public transportation is a ticket purchase. Luckily, i was well virtually prepared for such transaction, so that could not only buy a single ticket myself, but to instruct a strangers to do this. Here is how to do this:

- Choose your destination on a table (50 is good for the whole Fra-city)
- Dial it on a keypad
- Select a ticket type with a dedicated button (the top-most one is for 'Einzelfahrt' -- a one-time ticket for 3.55 Euro or 2.20 Euro during non-rush hours, closer to the bottom there is a 'Wochenkarte' -- a weekly ticket which costs just 20.10 Euro)
- Supply a cash (both coins and notes are accepted, but the bad news is that only small notes will be taken, otherwise, one will have to ask for a change in a nearby bank for a fee)

It took just two stops (or roughly 10 minutes) to get to our Niederrad by S-Bahn route 9. Another 20 minutes it took to find an NH hotel. And another thousand+ Euro it took to save a place there for a next two weeks. All in all, the hotel looks prettier in reality that it is on a web page (another argument against virtual world for which i've got addicted so much).

All that could fit into remaining of a day was to walk around the business city (yes, we are lucky to live in a very Frankfurt business quarters!), notice that there far more planes in the sky than people on streets. (Even rabits there are more numerous than people, but i am not so sure about the former in comparence with planes.) Another discovery was that the destination of our business trip was actually a 5 minutes on foot from our hotel: a moder faceless skyscraper (Herriot's 1), which can be destinguished from it's neighbours only by front-shields with company names.

20071015

Training went as expected, held by a younger guy Achim from Essen and an experienced lady Tiina of Finnish origin (there should be Nokia HQ nearby, so no surprise of her knowledge of GSM markets) (she also assured that Finland is the only land where her name is spelled with a double-i). Amazing was a coffee machine with a great choice of cartridges and panorame of the city skyline throught a glass walls. At the dining hall i was pleasently surprised to meet a familiar guy N., whose trainings i've attended at least three times in a goddamned motherland.

At the evening we went to the downtown -- it tooke another 3 stations by S-9, which shows that we're living almost in the center of the city (if only we could swim through the Maine to get there on foot). The city to me has something in common with Prague and almost nothing in common with Warsaw. There big stores with clothes, but book shops are small and rare. Visually, there are more german-speakers than germans all around. Muscovian pronounce is being heard quite often (including a cash-desk woman in a nearby Aldi store). At the end i've sent my collegue home and spend the rest of the evening in the city by attending a local KFC a doing some cycles around the Hauptwasche quarters.

Cheers.