Montag, 19. September 2016

Bangalore and meeting up with old friends

While in Munnar Prashanth called me. He was one of my best friends in KIS (3rd and 4th grade). It was weird hearing his voice after 17(!) years. But kind of cool. So I told him about the train and that it would probably be late, he seemed flexible with his job, so everything was fine.

While I was waiting for my train to Bangalore I got a message from the railway company telling me the train will start 2,5 hours later from it's starting destination! Great... So I had to wait till 11:30 pm instead of only 9 pm, I arrived at 7:30 pm at the train station... When the train finally arrived it wasn't able to catch up its delay and so I arrived about 3 hours late in Bangalore. Which wasn't too bad, so Pranshanth (who wanted to pick me up) just had to take a longer lunch brake instead of leaving his job inbetween.
When I arrived he picked me up and brought me to his place. There I met Nishanth (the second one) and his mother again. Awesome!
So I hung out with Nishanth who is currently freelancing and therefore doesn't have "officehours" like Prashanth or courses like Sushanth. In the evening we all together headed out to a pub called "Pröst" (they didn't acknowledge the "ö" and just called it prost - of course pronounced in englisch... I thought then how to say it german). We cought up, talked and had a great time. But we came back to his home rather late, the landlord locks up the outer gate in the night, so the mother had to open it for us (kind of inconvenient).
The next day I did some shopping and exploring with Sushanth, after we did a short jam session in Prashanths office. When he headed to his college I went to town or tried to. Not that easy in this gigantic huge cty. The traffic in Bangalore is unbelieveable! There's probably be a traffic jam at all times somewhere in the city, more likely several. In the evening I met up with Prashanth and Sushanth (I took a rickshaw with Nishanth) at a pub/ bowling alley and we had another fun night. Prashanth and I talked long and it was great. Just checking out what was going on in his life and chatting, I loved it.

But because Prashanths place was kind of crowded I stayed with a couchsurfer (Vivek), who lived close by, so we were still able to meet up.
After the two days staying out late I took it a little more relaxed and stayed one day just at Viveks place, played with the cats (they have 2 cute cats!) and answered some work, you do while travelling (making plans etc). That day was a general Bandh (strike) in India, so I wasn't sure I would even be able to get anywhere.

Cute little balls of fur! Muffin and Shotku (little one in Hindi - spellcheck pending)

The next day I took a bus into town. I wanted to see  the MG Road area (which the Lonely Planet talks alot about). Not that exciting, except you love shops, malls and stuff like that. A taxi driver talked me into taking a ride (for a favour, similar to Kochin). So I agreed and looked at a few shops (again... they were suprisingly similar to the ones in Kochin). They of course had Bangalores Speciality (Silk and precious stones, which seems to be every places speciality). Visiting the shops  took much longer than I expected and so it was already dark, when the guy dropped me at a bus station. I had a quick dinner and searched a bus back to Viveks place (my phone was dead, so I couldn't search online). The people were all very helpful and told me where to change/ get off but couldn't make up theis minds which would actually help... So I wasn't sure and decided to take the advice of the conductor. But on the way I chatted with an indian guy my age, who then suggested I take his Motorbike to a bigger bus station where a bus will definately go to my destination. I think he underestimated the distance and because he didn't know Bangalore (he just moved here) he had to ask for directions. All the time... and it took long. Very long. So at about 22:30 I arrived at the bus station and waited for a bus. When a private bus approached, which actually drove close to Viveks home I entered happily hoping my adventure would soon be over. But they waited. And waited.
Some people got into the bus, others out and we waited. Till the bus was almost full and only then did it start! Same happened at a bigger station where alot of people got off the bus. Sadly I noticed too late one of the government busses overtake us and just left the station while we were waiting at... So after about an hour I finally arrived at Viveks place... The drive is usually maybe an hour with medium/ heavy traffic. And at that time there wasn't much traffic... (wait what?!!!) so it just took rediciulous 4 hours to get back!

The last day I visited the botanical gardens and drove with the metro. In all I didn't really have the feeling I saw alot in the city, but I had the feeling aswell, that there isn't THAT much to see. Most is meeting people and having a nice evening together.

The metro signs in Bangalore: Of course women wear sarees!
Security scans at the metro entrance!

Huge metro hall

And the Botanical Garden: Small maze for small children to get lost in^^
Nice peacock flower thingy in the Bangalore garden
Another selfie - with big green ears!

Thanks to Vivek I was able to book a train online and took the morning train from Bangalore to Mysore on the 5th of september. In total a nice stay. Just the fact that I met Prashanth and his Family again was amazing. They are really cool guys and I hope to be back soon, or maybe they'll come to Germany one day? :D



2 Kommentare:

  1. Coole Begegnung :D Und süße Katzies! Hoffe es läuft weiterhin so ~Reibungslos~ ;D Nein, ich meine, dass ich hoffe, dass du immer an dein nächstes Ziel kommst ^^ Wie sagt man so schön "Die Reise ist das Ziel."
    Freue mich, dass du auch Bilder von dir zeigst :) Und wie immer danke ich für dein fleißiges Schreiben und hochladen! Liebe Grüße und eine dicke Umarmung von deiner Schwester :)

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  2. Du hast eine tolle Art zu schreiben, da macht es Spaß zu lesen. Ich konnte mir manchmal das Lachen nicht verkneifen, vielleicht weil ich mir auch vieles lebhaft vorstellen kann. Schön, dass Du gute Begegnungen hattest mit Deinen Freunden. Das wiegt sich vieles andere auf.

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