2 weeks – 7 cities

It’s been 15 days since I left and I’m starting to get “home”-sick.

The first city London, UK was pretty interesting. Even though I was jet-lacking badly, and no sleep, I got to do some sightseeing the first day. Buckingham Palace, Westminster Abbey, House of Parliament, St. Paul Cathedral, Tower of London, Tower Bridge … all pretty awesome!

Second and third day, I met the UK team for the first time, after only talking to them over the phone. All are very nice and everyone is from a different country, so many different accents in this office.

After 2 days ‘London business live’, I started getting used to it. Taking the underground train “Tube” everywhere is convenient, but VERY fast paced. In the financial district, if you don’t walk fast enough, you get run over, literally. The Tube is not a good idea of transportation if you have too much luggage with you

One thing, I had the hardest time with was the traffic and the people driving on the other side. I can’t describe it; it’s just weird and messes with your mind. Crossing the street alone is strange because you get confused which way to look first.

3 days London was enough and time to move on to beautiful Germany. Oh, I was so happy to land in Bremen, especially after the experience of flying with Ryanair. Ryanair is a big, low-cost carrier in Europe with the emphasis on LOW (service). I’ve always heard about the bad rumors, but this was definitely “different”. You pretty much felt like cattle being shipped somewhere. Anyways, my team and I made it safely to Bremen, a city in the northern part of Germany. We stayed at a very nice hotel from the Swissotel group. We met and trained the German support teams at their office the following 2 days. It was great talking to them and finding out they’re dealing with the same exact things/situation that we are. It doesn’t matter on which side of this globe you are, we’re all in the same boat and now can help each other. There was no time for sightseeing in Bremen. It was Friday evening and I had to take the ICE train to Hamburg, another northern city. Btw, the ICE train is a great way of transportation through Europe, comfortable and fast.

By the time I got to my hotel in Hamburg, all I wanted to do is sleep, I was pretty beat. I relaxed a lot that whole first weekend and got to do some sightseeing. I took a boat tour around the huge harbor and through the many canals, was very interesting! Then I visited the St. Nikolai church, the famous city hall, the main church St. Michaelis and climbed its tower. In the evening I strolled down the Reeperbahn, the ‘red-light’ district of Hamburg. Strange place, didn’t feel too safe there by myself. Well, now I can check it off as “have seen it, don’t need to see it again”. After an adventures and relaxing weekend, it was time to start the training for Sales & Account Management (SAM) in Hamburg from Monday through Thursday. It was every day a different group of people with various backgrounds. Each session was mixed with S&A Managers; some who handle huge accounts and others who handle many small accounts. Every day was challenging, but rewarding at the end of the day when hearing the positive feedback. We had dinners every evening with people from the office, which was nice but also exhausting.

Thursday night, we had to catch a flight on Lufthansa (great service!) to Frankfurt located in the middle of Germany. We only stayed one night, so no point of unpacking. The first SAM training in Frankfurt went well too; now it was time for the weekend and to finally see my family. After the 3 hour train ride, I arrived in Bamberg (in the south), where I was welcomed by my sister, brother-in-law, niece, nephew, mom, and brother – yep, I had a whole ‘welcome committee’ at the train station. J Oh, it was so nice to see them all!!! I stayed that night at my sister’s house in Steinsdorf. The next day, Saturday, I unpacked, repacked and drove with my brother 1 ½ hours to my grandma’s house to Pöllwitz. There, we celebrated my uncle’s birthday and visited with grandma. Dad came to visit the next day too, and then it was time to pack-up again and head back to the train station in Bamberg. There, my ‘welcome committee’ came again to send me off and my sister brought back my laundry that she took care of over the weekend. Thank you so much Sandra! Thank you ALL for everything you did for me this weekend! I know it was short, but wonderful and very energizing, being surrounded by family. Love you all!!!

The 3 hour train ride back to Frankfurt went by quickly; I checked in my hotel by 11pm, unpacked, got ready for next day and got some rest.

Today, second training day here, went well again, and we got more great feedback. It’s late by now, but I wanted to send a note of my journey, finally. Sorry, it took a while; it’s just been a ‘little’ hectic lately.

Tomorrow, is our last day in Frankfurt, in the evening we have to catch a ride with the ICE train to Munich (in the south), where we’ll be the rest of this week. I’m excited to see Munich; it’s such a beautiful city. More to come, stay tuned…

Gute Nacht!