Okay, so where were we? Yes, VENICE. Probably you guys would
be wondering how some of our friends landed in Venice. There was a mishap with
the flight seat numbers and so some of them couldn’t be accommodated. Hence,
they were given flight tickets to Frankfurt via Venice because that was the
earliest flight they could take to Frankfurt. They arrived at Frankfurt around
4 hours later.
So, landing in Frankfurt, everyone was really excited about
the 17 days ahead of us in a completely new country. We got our luggage and
then decided on how to reach the hostel that we had pre-booked. We went to the
train station thinking we’ll get a train. But what do you know….everything over
there is in German. You try to ask people, they don’t understand English
properly…..once in a blue moon you meet a guy who understands English. Luckily
we got an Indian family who helped us out with ticket vending machine and got
us tickets. The trains are amazing over there. The first sight of Frankfurt
city when the train came out of the subway was really great. There was a huge
canal that we crossed. It was beautiful. The cars in Germany---there are no
words to express it. You look around yourself and you can see just Audis,
Volkswagens, BMWs, Mercs, etc everywhere. I even got to see some familiar Suzuki cars over there life Swift, Wagon R, Zen,etc. We changed our trains from Frankfurt
Central. We were looking around everywhere when suddenly I noticed our hostel’s
name written somewhere. So we got down at the next stop which was Galluswarte.
This was the place we stayed in for the next 4 days.
Checking in the hostel for the whole team took a long time.
Then we went to our rooms and took rest as all of us were really tired. After
sometime our friends from Venice also joined us in the hostel.
The next 4 days went on with team meetings and work as we
prepared for our car to arrive from India. We also did a lot of surveys for
some components which we required during the event and so some of us had to go
and buy components. The first day out in Frankfurt was kind of fun. We had no
idea where to go for components and also no idea how to reach various places as
we had to change a lot of trains to reach various locations. Luckily the
locations were narrowed down by a little help from a senior of ours. We roamed
around shops hoping to find something but in vain. Most of the shops were closed
by noon as it was a Saturday. Finally we took a tram to a mart named “Hornbach”--The
biggest mart I have ever been in. From a small screw to a big lawn mower, you
will get anything in there. We got what we needed and then came back to the
hostel. So eventually we spent the whole day out. The next day went with
frequent visits to Hornbach as we required more components. One morning we were in the reception of the hostel and looking out the window I saw a Merceded SLS AMG park right in front of our hostel. Everyone was really excited seeing the car. For me, it was a hell of a sight. This car is among one of my favourite cars. Everyone started clicking pictures. The driver inside realized the craze among the youngsters outside his car and revved the accelerator hard--that sound "My oh my".
Finally our car arrived from India and we worked on it for a day and
then we sent it to the Hockenheimring in Hockenheim where half of our team had
already reached to receive the car. There were 7 of us left in Frankfurt. It
was 4 pm by my watch and we had to reach Hockenheim by 6 pm as there were some
registration formalities to be taken care of. We had to rush to the Galluswarte
station. We had booked cheap tickets beforehand and so we weren’t worried about
the fare. But good things don’t happen always. By the time we reached Frankfurt
Central to catch our train to Hockenheim, our train had already left. So we booked
7 tickets to Hockenheim which was a connecting train via Manheim. We reached by
6.30 pm.
As soon as we got out of the station, we saw the cars there
and we understood that it was not at all like Frankfurt. There were vintage
cars. We were lucky enough to get a lift in a vintage Merc all the way to the
racetrack. Being from a right hand sided driving country, it felt pretty weird
to see the guy driving sitting in the left seat. We reached the campsite, paid
the amount necessary and then keeping our luggage immediately ran to the
racetrack. It was around a 2 kms walk from our tents. It was late but the registration
for all the teams took a long time and so we weren’t that late. The drivers’
names were registered alongwith the technical head of the team.
All of us were filled with immense motivation seeing other
teams. The cars that some of the top teams had- you could just look at the cars
and forget everything else. When I looked at one of the cars, I was like “Really,
this is built by students!!!”. The European teams have a wonderful way of going
to different competitions. They have their own truck, and by truck I mean a
huge Mercedes truck where they have their workstation and the car and they roam
around Europe going to various events throughout the season.
The next 4 days were spent in the pit or in the campsite,
either working or sleeping.
I’ll write more about the event and also about the rest of
the trip in my upcoming blogs.
Hope you guys liked it.
