Being spontaneous!
Hi Peeps,
I thought I would share with you a story of a wonderful unplanned weekend I once spent with some friends in a cool place.
It was 4pm on quite a normal Friday evening, and I was sitting in Dave’s apartment in the middle of Munich, Germany. Dave was a fellow IT Contactor who so happened to have been placed in the same company as I had a few months back. We had formed a friendship as we were both quite a way away from home. This was my first contract assignment abroad and I was eager to get to see Europe and so far I wasn’t displeased. Munich was a wonderful rich city. The public transport was second to none and the convenient location in the middle of Europe was an ideal place to get away for some great sight seeing weekends.
The problem was, we kind of got into a Friday routine. Every Friday we’d go out with a few other mates, and have something to eat and then they would all get drunk in the pub. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t drink. I’m a straight Pakistani Muslim, but the thing is, I was the only Pakistani Muslim in the whole of Munich, so making fun of drunks was kind of fun at first. But, as with all things it lost its shine.
So, where was I, Oh yes, I was sitting there thinking of the weekend ahead. Meanwhile, Rachel was packing her things to go home to the UK. Rachel was another one of my colleagues who was sharing Dave’s flat. We had promised her we would escort her to the airport later. So, it was a case of just waiting.
Then as if by magic it dawned on me. Why stay in Munich at all? I mean, the world is our oyster. I mean, we were getting paid an awful lot, why not use some of that to urrrrm see what the world had to offer. So, I stood up and looked in my bag. Cool, I thought, my passport and tooth brush was still in there from the trip back home I had last week. “OK!”, I announced, “Dave get your passport and your toothbrush, we’re going to catch a flight when we drop Rachel off, and I don’t know where we’re going”. Suddenly, his face went blank, and both of them looked at me as if I’d just cursed them or something. After 5 minutes of convincing, I got him to agree .
Now, at this point let me cut to the airport. Rachel has just left and myself and Dave are staring at the international departures screen. With passports and toothbrushes in hand we stare…and stare…there’s absolutely nothing interesting leaving within the next 5 hours. What a let down, it’s 7pm and the only interesting place is…RIO…that gets me thinking. wouldn’t it be cool if we went to Rio for the … Weekend. After all we are in Europe and it’s good to visit other continents once in a while. So, after convincing Dave we stand at the ticket counter. “2 tickets to Rio leaving on the next flight”, “The one which will dept in 50 minutes” the lady replies, “yup, that’s the one”. “And, when would you like to return?” “Tomorrow evening” I say with a smile on my face. Then it struck me, I didn’t even know where Rio was? She looked at us and burst out laughing. “Do you realise it’s a 23 hour flight to Rio”, at that point we made our excuses and embarrassingly backed away. What a let down I thought. Dave was anxious to go home now, he wanted to get some drinks in before the pub got busy. I was miserable.
We were approaching the exit when I noticed a Hertz Rental Car sign.
Cut to myself and Dave sitting in a new hire car outside the airport looking at a weatherman in USA Today. We can go either north or south. Vienna or Venice is the choice we have to make. We decide to also pick up Michael ( another colleague ), and therefore that leads us south to VENICE!
It was 10pm before we actually left Munich and we arrived in Venice at 4am in the morning. We were all tried after the long drive and decided to find a hotel and have a nap first.
As I stood on a bridge over looking the series of canals and watching the sun rise in Venice. I smiled, to think that If I had kept my mouth shut, I would have missed out on so much beauty.
So, the morel of the story is. Go with what you feel is right and be spontaneous once in a while. Life’s too short to get into a routine.
here are some pictures courtesy of yours truly.
Enjoy.
Kiz.
http://www.gupistan.com/gallery/1/bridge1(1).jpg
http://www.gupistan.com/gallery/1/bridge4(1).jpg
http://www.gupistan.com/gallery/1/canal5(1).jpg
http://www.gupistan.com/gallery/1/square2(1).jpg
http://www.gupistan.com/gallery/1/The door.jpg
http://www.gupistan.com/gallery/1/view.from.bridge(1).jpg
http://www.gupistan.com/gallery/1/view.from.tower2(1.jpg
And my personal favourate, the artist painint a picture by the canal. I have a larger version of this if anyone is interested.