Day 16 , 4 Aug 2019
Heidelberg
Hello People.
I finally had a good night sleep after a long time. I was very excited, for today I’ll be meeting all my friends from college and celebrating friendship’s day just like in college .
We had a train at 10 from Freiburg station to Heidelberg. Others were going to join us there.
We packed our bags and reached station and today I got my favorite thing. People who know me know my love for Hazelnut Mocha from Starbucks. I’d been avoiding it all these days so I can taste different coffees in Europe but today I went back to my usual. That felt like home 😊
We hopped on the bus and while I enjoyed my coffee , Swany did what he is best at, lol.
We reached Heidelberg at noon. Soon others joined us at the railway station itself. So today we were joined by Sameer , my Rakhi brother, Vinoooo the person I’d most fights with during college, he was accompanied with his wife Sneha and Amul without whom I would not have passed DSP, haha.
During college we would celebrate friendship’s day at khadakwasla, shaniwar wada, katraj park and here we were after 12 years of being friends together again at the Heidelberg Castel, celbrating friendship . I bet nobody had thought we would be doing it someday in a foreign land. However ,we missed Kunal and Pratik today.
We went at the top of the castle. It was a sunny day . We took a quick detour and just sat in the garden and talked.
To be honest it was more about people today than the place. I couldn’t contain this feeling of being with my gang. We have seen each other in so many different phases and still going strong. I know I’ve got the best set of people as my friends. If there’s one thing I’m really proud of in my life is the quality of friends I have. Truly blessed on this end. Also I’ve been a tomboy almost my entire college life so they never treated me like a girl ever. I was still the bro, lol.
Interestingly all of them are now married. I remember how during our college days everyone would tease me saying “ Rakhi ki shaadi sabse pehle hogi, iska pati aisa hoga, hamari shaadi me bachche lekar aaegi, bla bla” and here I was the lone bachelor in the troop. That made me realize how times changed. On the brighter side, all of us are happy with whatever we chose to do with life.
Some of our old pics from college times.
After the castle we went to have beer. Lots and believe me lots of talks we had, making fun of everyone and everything. Remembering the tapri wali chai, the funny break up phases, the quick Singhad outings,the crushes , the silliness, the panic during exams and what not. It felt like time travel, back to college days. I told them stories about my travel so far. They told me about their life in Germany. It was such a good exchange of experiences. It was like everything changed yet nothing changed .
Times like these make you realise how far you have come in life and some people stayed and changed with you and yet you can always go back to them and feel home . :)
I was having the best get together with these crazy people. We laughed and laughed until our stomachs hurt.
We were now hungry so we went for dinner in an Indian restaurant because all of these idiots wanted to eat Indian food. Today I was okay with anything . I felt the safest today on this trip. Usually I always had to make sure of the place, time, money, safety everything. Today I had these people to take care of all these things. It was like having a family in Germany. I was grateful for this day.
The restaurant had Indian theme but no noise, lol . Guess what, we made fun of the menu, the prices and the “apparently spicy food “ there . The food was good though.
And the day passed just like that with laughter and talks, remembering old times. It was time to part ways now. Amul , Vinay and Sneha took a blabla ride as their home was on the same route while me and Swanand went to Sameer’s home for the stay tonight. His place was closer to Frankfurt so the next morning me and Swanand would explore a a bit of Frankfurt and then leave for Belgium.
We reached Sameer’s home and there we met my wonderful Bhabhi Rumi. She’s so beautiful. They got married a few months ago and have a really nice cozy place here.
After seeing all my friend’s and their wives on this trip (Kunal-Priya in Prague, Vinay -Sneha and now Sameer-Rumi ) it felt different . How my idiot friends in college have turned into responsible and loving husbands for their partners. I was very happy to see them all. All of them make me believe more in love and marriage.
Later when we hit the bed I had a good chat with Rumi. I told her about my journey so far and she was very excited to learn about all the adventures.
With that we called it a night. Tomorrow was mostly going to be a travel day.
Learning from the day : My friendships are my greatest possession.
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