This was a normal site in Frankfurt especially around the main train station. Walking around places like this you just find so much to photograph, and it has a special zest to the whole place. I have to say that I enjoy train stations, I think I might traveling by train more often when traveling in Europe.
The Germans have some interesting ideas in their design, its just simple and clean. I didn’t like other areas but I liked Frankfurt’s modern industrial look. It would be nice to have an area in Kuwait which has this type of industrial look with a cleaner setup for areas such as Shuweikh.
Why so much chocolate! Every airport has a billion kinds of chocolate, I’m not a chocolate guy and Bounty does it for me, but some people in Kuwait asked people that I was traveling with for certain kinds of chocolate and that is where it gets interesting.
They all know exactly what they want, the kind of chocolate, all the additives, and the specific wrapping. I’m just curious as to what is the profit behind all these chocolates, Cadbury must make a ton of money since it seems to be a favorite of many people in Kuwait.
Then my boss buys some chocolate and I’m forced to try some and it tasted pretty good, but no clue what it was I just at it automatically. The problem is that I need some water or 7up to wash it down and change the taste in my mouth, it was pretty thick! So many people were hovering around the chocolate!
I managed to watch a couple of shows which entertained me. I watched open season which is a cartoon with Martin Lawrence and Ashton Kutcher. This cartoon is too long, but its really entertaining I especially liked that they made the head of the squirrels scottish.
Then speed on two wheels which is amazing to watch since it talks about the experience about riding at such high speeds and when things become instincts and what is needed to become a racer. Just amazing.
The next show was short and sweet, I watched an episode of Joey. After friends a couple of years ago the show Joey came out and I have to say that I liked it for the sake of nostalgia and I still do. Joey is just the funny nice guy that goes through some rediculous escapades while trying to get his carear of the ground. I still have a sentimental attachment to Joey, its like I’ve known the guy for years.
Then I came to stash of anime of my laptop is which practically longer then the amount of time on the flight!
Covered: 890 KMs
Locations driven to:
- Hannover to Frankfurt
- Frankfurt to Kelberg
- Kelberg to Stuttgart
- Stuttgart to Koln
- Koln to Frankfurt
Average Speed: 185 KM/H
Range of Speed: 160 Km/h to 230 Km/h
While driving I was driving at 200 Km/h there were a ton of cars that were passing me as if I was slow which pissed me off!
The cars that passed me while I was driving at 200Km/h:
- Audi A6 (HatchbacK)
- Audi A4 (Pre-2000)
- Opel something!
- Ford Mondeo!
- A DAMN VAN!
If you are on the highways and there are no speed limits visible you can go as fast as you want, I was following groups of people going 180 to 210 Km/h, its insane and I can’t believe that the whole lane were just flying. People are a bit aggressive in their driving but they are systematic, so its not as if they are trying to cut you off, they are just trying to go fast too, and if your going faster they will move out of the way. I am assuming I got caught by a couple of cameras, so I will know it a couple of of weeks from now. Another recommendation is never to go faster then a cop, but I did follow a cop and I wasn’t stopped so I got away with that.
The scenary is extremely beautiful and the banked highways were amazing to drive fast on! We literally drove through every season in the last 24hrs! We drove through beautiful sunny weather, through rain, through hail, and everything in between! It was insane, I was confused by all the weather changes it was different. And sometimes me and the navigation just didn’t agree and she would go nuts on me! I was laughing since my bosses in the car thought I couldn’t keep my foot off the accelerator! Everytime we had a distance of 100Km or more to cover I would always shave 30 minutes to one 1 hour & 30 minutes from the time to destination. I need to get on a race track post haste! For some odd reason there is no valet parking in all of Germany!
I just wish I could ride my bike in Germany my cruising speed would be everybody’s cruising speed!
We are done with CeBIT and need to get to Frankfurt. 364 KMs, 4 hours and 35 minutes based on google, but I bet I can shave an hour off of that.
I’m Driving from Hannover to Frankfurt and I have never driven in a European country before, I drove once in the UK but I just dont feel like driving much around here. I’m happy I managed to get the car with navigation. I got a BMW 525 from Hertz and its me and two of my bosses with me in the car. The thing is, I said I am going to drive no matter what. I love driving so its going to be really interesting driving in a European country and I know I will be pushing my luck with all the damn cameras. The Hertz guy turned out to be an Arab and he told me if I’m leaving Germany in two days not to worry about the speeding tickets, only when a cop stops you they will make you pay and they don’t take your license, you just have to pay right there and then. I’m willing to pay a few fines to go he speed that I want, its a misconception that there are not limits on German highways. I will just see how fast the fastest is going and go a little faster! I only wish the car was manual but you can’t get everything!
Continue Reading…
The second day we got started early and were going from stand to stand. There weren’t as many people since it was a sunday. After a few hours my feet went numb, every time we went into a building we had to have a plan of attack to know exactly how we are going to tackle the stands. Its funny, I started drawing patterns to how we were doing it, it was very systematic and worked but sometimes we stopped when there really wasn’t anything for us. I want to cover the networking because there are so many cool networking products and powerful wireless products! Too bad you can’t buy anything.
After interacting with a lot of Germans I have come to quite a few conclusion, some are obvious and some are interesting.
Points:
- They love their cars
- They don’t understand all types of humor
- They are extremely proud of their language
- Not all of them speak English, even the ones at the convention
- They love Beer (Obvious)
- They love sausages
- They love Pork
- They Love Coke (No a Pepsi can in sight)
- They are really professional
- They are damn tall!
- They are very helpful, even if they dont speak English they really go out of their way!
Its really weird seeing an asian speaking German, for some reason it just doesn’t fit in my head! Lots of interesting people and they all work really hard, I was just wondering when they take a damn vacation. I could be totally wrong with these points, but its the conclusion I have come to!
There is a lot to like in CeBIT Especially if your in this field, but there are a few stands which really attracted me and made me want to just stay at the stand to play with all their equipment, and I still haven’t finished the whole thing and I want to check out a few more later but I don’t think I have the time. This isn’t even including all the work related stops we made. This is one extremely organized convention.
- ASUS (Mother Boards & Graphics Cards)
- MSI (Mother Boards & Graphics Cards)
- Thermaltake (Silent PC Cases, Gaming Systems)
- Samsung (Consumer Electronics)
- Toshiba (Consumer Electronics)
- TomTom (Navigation)
- Gefen (Audio/Visual Equipment)
- Ubuntu (Distro of Linux OS)
So we were trying to figure out which train would take us to the convention, so it turns out there are three different platforms and we have to go down to the lower floors to get up to any of the other platforms. So we had to choose our platforms carefully. Everything is in German so its a bit confusing in the beginning, but we tried to figure out which one was the right platform so we chose platform two since it said FAIR, but afer 10 minutes the train stopped on platform 4 so we had to go down and run back up but by that time it already had left. So then we went and got a quick bite and waited there for the next train and it did come after 25 minutes.
The Next Day we did the next thing but it was my choice so now I’m not allowed to make decisions regarding trains. I’m hoping not to do that again. But it was funny since we kept running up and down those steps.
Warning A Lot of Pictures
As soon as we dropped off our bags at the hotel, only one room was ready but we just wanted to get to the convention so we said we would pick it up later.
We had to pay for the train tickets at the hotel and we took off the to train station. When we got to the Fair grounds we paid 71 Euros for a one week ticket entrance to the CeBIT convention. The convention fair ground is really really large, we were walking for hours, we got there by 11 am and we didn’t leave until 6 pm. During that whole time we sat down for only 10 minutes, I couldn’t feel my feet. It was insane, but really great seeing so many amazing stands and so much equipment, electronics, IT Solutions, and so many vendors/manufactuerers, and developers. This is really worth seeing this convention because of the size, and to get a bite to eat you can always find a hot dog stand. It took us a bit to find one with beef hot dogs.
