Goodbye Dublin

I was counting down the days since three months for an occasion that would mean that the routine i have done day in and day out for two and a half year stops. It was pretty exciting at the same time saddening as well.
I did a few things to make these last days in this great city stay cherish able.On the last but one weekend in Dublin.I took part in the Frankduffy 10 mile marathon. The very marathon that i took part last year which I completed in 1 hr 58 min. it was a pathetic time , but for a first timer its fantastic time. This year i did train well and then i must say that I am impressed by my own time though its not the target I wanted to achieve. I out did last years time by 18 minutes!!
(www.dublinmarathon.ie/results select frank Duffy 10 mile and race number is 7776)
T my surprise the next day i had no aches or pain what so ever!!



The days in office went on and a leaving lunch was organised and I did not want to go to an Indian restaurant again. So we all went to Maiya, and italian restaurant. Had a wonderful Veg pizza and on the way back did the most instinctive thing that I always do, peer into the glass front facade of the Mercedes showroom and this time I saw a bicycle. its a Merc Bike priced at a reasonable 1300€.
The weekend has dawned once gain pretty quickly and i remember that onceI had promised my good mate Antony and his girl friend that I will come over to their place and show them how good ol Kerala puttu is made. So on the final weekend I headed down to their gaff. Gewn who is half Italian was making cheese raviloi an Italian dish and an Irish veg soup and chicken stew. The puttu was ready and I was delighted to know that enjoyed it and ate it with their hands which is the right way. There is something nice about squishing banana into the rice and coconut for a great taste.
Then it was my turn to set up the leaving drinks day. Had to co-ordinate with two other best buddy's of mine Paula and Noreen for a date and it was the Monday. which is definitely not the day anyone wants to out for a Drink here. The fact that we had the entice Paddy Cullens for ourselves was a testament to that.
None the less, nothing can stop for few good lads having fun. Anthony always cracked us up with this is hilarious ways of narrating prosaic stories. Everyone was keen on buying me a Drink and i had to play along and trust me the next day i did feel that I must not have played along.
Noreen, Richard and I made sure that the pub as closed well till 12:00 am after finishing out heated debate and argument about religion and faith because we had catholic,a Hindu and an atheist!! perfect concoction for a great debate.
The final day, 31-st of August flew past me as it was the busiest going about doing the regular business of coding and then the gong had struck to bid my final good byes to all. My client managers had called to thank me and it felt so good to hear that. managers whom i have not worked with since one year called me up to say at any time they would be proud to give me a reference. End of the day thats all what I needed. With gratitude to a great institution instilling a hope that i will be remembered in there for a good work.
I love this city so much and more so the people so much, that I dont mind saying I am an Indian and an Irish :-)

For more pictures: http://picasaweb.google.com/badri.nair/LeavingDays#

Blown away by Berlin

I got off the airplane into the train at 10 pm and the first thing I did was doze off!, only to be rudely woken up by the announcement that the "Train terminates here". Realised that i was at a deserted station at 11:30pm. Pulled the maps out and caught a couple of trains to finally arrive at the hostel at 1 am. Ladies and Gentlemen this is how i begun my fantastic journey in Berlin. One of the most memorable ones I will cherish.
On the first day I wanted to take a walking tour of Berlin, but was unable to find the guide. So I hopped on to a hop on and hop off tourist bus and went around looking at the City, midway i saw a crowd following one overly excited guide. I got off the bus and followed the group. The new Zealand guide had extensive knowledge of the city and took us to the French opera house and later on to the the place where the Berlin wall once stood. Its such an irony that the wall that once divided Berlin the whole 145 km of the wall was taken down by the people in the 80's and now a little bit of the wall has to be protected for tourism.
I did have a huge surge of information on that small trip on how the allied forces decided to split up Germany and Berlin. Trust me even a 20 hour history course on this subject would not have given enough information as compared to being on the ground and seeing it for real. I guess when one sees the pictures, see the monument and hear the narration there is a little bit of emotion involved that makes registering all these stories in our brains much easier.
We moved to a parking lot and realised that under that was a bunker where Hitler committed suicide along with this newly wed, 36 hour ago wed wife. We then moved to the holocaust memorial and walked though the concrete blocks and truly felt the sense of the the carnage that Hitler brought upon Germany. 6.3 million people were killed under his regime and walking through these 2700 odd blocks which deepens in the middle made me realise that each of the distinct block is a person of a different character and the tall imposing blocks in the middle empathized on the gravity of the tragedy.
We then walked to the Brandonburg gate to relasie why it has such an iconic status. It was stolen by napolean and then it was reinstalled. Had a look at the famous Atlon hotel, thanks to MJ and his kid dangling off the balcony act.
I wanted to make the best use of the bright sunny sat and sun, hence I wanted to stay outdoors and explore.
The next day the first thing in the morning I got to the Raistag, which is the German parliament to beat the long queues. Its open for public from 8 in the morning till 12am and its free. I got into one of the largest lifts I have ever seen. 50 people!! At the roof stood this fantastic glass dome with a spiral walk way inside.Got a view of Berlin skyline and realised that the building was 80% self sufficient. The light through the dome was reflected by mirrors into the chamber. So the entire building is flooded with natural light all the time. The warm air coming out of the building is used to heat water. Solar panels every where and they even use bio diesel to power the generators. But what stood out was the that everyone one could look into the hall and see the politicians go about their business of running the country. its a true example of people over power. This building had so much history to it, that it was once raised to the ground by a massive fire and it was built up again, and then in WW2 blown to smithereens by bombs and yet it stood up again. I think no other building in the world has seen so much as this building has. No other building stood for so much value for democracy as this one has.
I went on the holocaust memorial and trust me, the sense of the tragedy truly strikes one to the heart. How the people in millions were killed mercilessly. For example,Jews were forced into a van without window and the exhaust was re directed to poison them. Once they were dead the bodies just dumped to the side of the road and the van moved on to catch the next crowd of Jews. Thats how merciless it was. I got to see the van and anger just boiled my blood. I read letters written by the victims to their family on their last days. There was a video room where every individual victim's name was read and what ever back ground information they had off him was read out. Apparently t go through the entire list it would take 7 years!!
Its such an unbelievable even tin human history where man looses the value of life. Not at one single place in the musem is a picture of Hitler, because thats how much they hate him. I sometimes even feared to take his name out there.
From there I moved to the dreaded site where all this natzi Germans planned this atrocities. It was the site where the official SS and secret police building once stood. There was an elaborate display of various pictures taking us chronologically though that ill fated era. Many of the official Natzi documents were displayed. Some of them simply read, kill all Jews of that town under 24 hours. Thats all!!
I moved then to Charlie's checkpoint.
An iconic gate where the Berlin wall once stood. There were many meters of tall bill boards that explained pictorially all that planning and the mis adventures that Berlin had gone though post WWII.
Apparently JFK is worshiped in Berlin. I headed to the Berlin zoo and honestly i was not impressed, but i did take the effort to get there to see the Polar bear. He was a lazy bugger who did not want to work for his food. He holds a German passport because he was born in this same very zoo.
I even got to see another spectacle that I did not expect to see, that was a heavy weight hippos swim effortlessly in a huge glass tank and trust me folks thats some sight to behold.

I then took at tour of Berlin's central station and i say tour because its that huge. It was built in 2004 to impress the visitors for World cup and god did the Germany get it right! One can look down 40 met into the subways and international trains that is at least a kilometer long arrive here. This place is packed with shops that I sometimes got confused if it were a shopping mall or a train station. Its the magnificent all glass Haupbanhhof station.
I had set aside the gloomy Monday for the Museums but being the ignoramus I am , all museums were closed on Mondays. I took a one hour long boat trip along the river spree and then headed to the only paid museum called Story of Berlin and it was a well laid out, well planned exhibit of the history of Berlin. Then had a guided tour of the bunker which was built during the Nuclear holocaust. It was spooky place to be in. more than 3600 beds and a small kitchen and a door less toilets and shower rooms.
I tried to do a little bit of shopping at Alaexander platz, but i am not that types.
The last place I waanted to see one of the dominant structure of the Berlin skyline. Its not a historical structure but one that called at the holy mountain of the Japanese. Its the "Sony Center" . Its a massive independent 900 tonne structure shaped like a mountain made of fabric and metal only. The place has seen its fair share of celebs. Celebs from Tom cruse, Will smith, Tom hanks, SJ parker..hope you get my drift .
I spent some time watching a huge TV screen and then once when I was bored with that decided to headed back to Hostel to get my stuff out all set to bid good bye to Berlin.
back at the airport the party never stopped because I was amidst a group of school students who had come for band competition. In spite of all the noise and crazy talk of these kids I was cherishing all that I had experienced and see and felt in Berlin. Trying to make sense of it all, at the might of Germany and how it was and how even greater it has become now.

I guess every nation has to go through a phase of complete destruction for the people of the nation to integrate to build a better nation. I can see that in japan and in Germany. Like they say, every forest fire is utter carnage for the wild life , but once its done life returns to even more splendor and greater grandeur. That is Germany, I admit I was "Blown away by Berlin"

For more pictures:
http://picasaweb.google.co.in/badri.nair/BlownAwayByBerlin#

Airspectacular at Bray

it was the 25th of July and I had been waiting for this day since 2 weeks. Reason; The air show of Ireland. It was called the Air spectacular to be held over the beautify Bray coast. This event was a free public so did the public under stand that so well that sixty five thousand turned up to witness.

I had to take the train, and we were packed like sardines. with my nose scraping against the glass door of the train every time it opened !! Finally made it to the super busy coast which was set with many fun games.
Now let me stop before i start describing the show. I have been to the air shows in bangalore, three of them to be exact in Bangalore. The largest air show of its kind in the East. Air show where we had F 16, F18 Hornets, C-180, Antnov, Sukohoi 30, Raphel, Mirage, Euro fighter Typhoon, Harreir jump jets and the list goes on and on which all performed like an over excited dog in air for the audience. Now you know, my expectations was high and the bray air show was no where close to it.
The only impressive display was of a massive B 52 bomber with its 8 thundering engines just do a slow fly past.
There were a few not so famous helicopters with the rescue team who managed to pull of a parachute crowd to get an occasional WOW and applause.

I headed back home a little early to beat the crowd and even more important to retain my glorious memories of a true air show fresh