Finally, we arrived at the Innsbruck, Westbahnhof train station. It was around 6 in the morning. The weather was nice and chilly. The morning air was fresh and inviting. It was quite close the hotel we were put up at. We decided to walk it up to the hotel. Half an hour later VC and I were checked into our hotel room. With all the adventures of our previous night at the Milan train station, finally we made it to Innsbruck. For the real reason, why we planned our whole trip around this. But we were so tired, we decided to take a short nap.
We had to reach the Convention Center by 10am, to register our presence and complete the remaining formalities. Now, here's where the life event that had taken place in my life, started showing its colors. Eager to describe the experience to my fiancee, I rushed to the post office, so I could make the call and recount the previous night's experience.
I spoke to my fiancee and was donewith my call in 10-15 minutes. A relatively short duration for the kind of durations our calls would typically last. Then as I went ahead to pay for the call, I realized, I didnt have my wallet on me. I tried to reason with the clerk at the post office to let me go to the hotel and get my wallet. But he was in no mood to trust me. He needed something from me, which would ensure that I'd come back for it and come with my wallet as well. All I had on me, coincidently at the time was my passport. He saw that and asked me to leave it with him.
Without thinking too much, I left it with him and ran to the hotel room. VC saw me panting, as I entered the room. 'What happened ?' he enquired. I told him the whole story and also mentioned about the passport. 'Dude ! You dont do that, ever. Thats our freaking travel document. What if it gets lost ? You'll get deported man !!' he said. My stupidity had still not sunk in. But I picked my wallet and rushed back to the post office. 'Phew !!', I gasped. Finally the call was paid for and I had my passport. Now, I was thinking how foolish the whole episode was and what a crazy thing, I'd done.
Once at the hotel, we got ready for breakfast - that was on the house, courtesy the conference organizers. Now that was one meal which was sumptuous and we gorged on it, like there was no tomorrow. Once done, we went to the Convention center. Got our passes, the schedule of the conferences, the room assignments and all the other details. Our presentation was the following day at 11am. So basically, we were free to roam around town for the whole day.
We learnt at our hotel reception that people drink water from the tap in their homes. The water's so pure. And oh boy, how true this was. It probably is one of the best tasting water, that we'd drunk in a while and that too from the tap. We were basically at the foot of the Alps. One of the major sources for fresh water to the town of Innsbruck. The streets were nice and cobbled, there were quite a few bridges, over the river in 'Inn' in Innsbruck. In fact, thats what Innsbruck means literally - 'Bridge over the river Inn'.
It started snowing by around noon and cut short our adventurous plans for the rest of the day. We retired back to our hotel room. After all, we had to be ready for a formal 4-course dinner at 5.30pm in the convention center, which was to be followed by a walking tour of the town. Tired as we were, we quickly fell asleep and didnt realize we'd slept for a good 4 hours. The fatigue from the previous night probably got to us.
What followed, was an amazing sit-down 4 course dinner and was accompanied by announcements around the history of the conference and the formalities about declaring it open formally. We had lovely soups, appetizers, venison meat and desserts. The entire conference hall was studded with chandeliers and we were seated at round tables with about 5-6 individuals from the fraternity at each table. It was a surreal experience.
Finally once the ceremonies were done and along with them our dinner, we were taken out for a walking tour of Innsbruck town by one of the funniest guides, I had come across. The lengths to which he went to describe one of the so many paintings on the walls in Innsbruck. Our tourist group had a good mix of tourists from across the world such as American, British, Spanish, Middle-eastern, Indian, Chinese etc. So, it made for a fun experience listening to their attempts to frame questions and our guide doing his best to answer the queries in his own English.
Once our tour was done, we got back to the hotel. Rehearsed our paper presentation a few times and went off to sleep. Though our time slot was from 11am - 11.25am the following day, we had to be in the assigned discussion rooms by 10am, listening in on the presentations of fellow presenters from the fraternity.
The next morning, we reached the convention center after our customary complementary breakfast binging session. VC and I took turns presenting our paper and shuffling through our transparencies. It was all going well. We then opened the floor for Q&A. We got a few questions, which we answered satisfactorily. As we were about to get done, we got stumped by our last question. We didnt have an answer at that moment. Just then, we remembered what Mark had told us. If in doubt or clueless, you can always say, 'I'll get back to you on this.'. We used this to our advantage and got through with our presentation. Exchanged emails with the concerned person and were done.
Our paper presentation done, We didnt have much stuff to do after our conference. We got back to the hotel and started packing our stuff. We had another train to catch for Venice later that night. We were already looking foward to the next leg of our trip - Venice, Florence and Rome !!!
We had to reach the Convention Center by 10am, to register our presence and complete the remaining formalities. Now, here's where the life event that had taken place in my life, started showing its colors. Eager to describe the experience to my fiancee, I rushed to the post office, so I could make the call and recount the previous night's experience.
I spoke to my fiancee and was donewith my call in 10-15 minutes. A relatively short duration for the kind of durations our calls would typically last. Then as I went ahead to pay for the call, I realized, I didnt have my wallet on me. I tried to reason with the clerk at the post office to let me go to the hotel and get my wallet. But he was in no mood to trust me. He needed something from me, which would ensure that I'd come back for it and come with my wallet as well. All I had on me, coincidently at the time was my passport. He saw that and asked me to leave it with him.
Without thinking too much, I left it with him and ran to the hotel room. VC saw me panting, as I entered the room. 'What happened ?' he enquired. I told him the whole story and also mentioned about the passport. 'Dude ! You dont do that, ever. Thats our freaking travel document. What if it gets lost ? You'll get deported man !!' he said. My stupidity had still not sunk in. But I picked my wallet and rushed back to the post office. 'Phew !!', I gasped. Finally the call was paid for and I had my passport. Now, I was thinking how foolish the whole episode was and what a crazy thing, I'd done.
Once at the hotel, we got ready for breakfast - that was on the house, courtesy the conference organizers. Now that was one meal which was sumptuous and we gorged on it, like there was no tomorrow. Once done, we went to the Convention center. Got our passes, the schedule of the conferences, the room assignments and all the other details. Our presentation was the following day at 11am. So basically, we were free to roam around town for the whole day.
We learnt at our hotel reception that people drink water from the tap in their homes. The water's so pure. And oh boy, how true this was. It probably is one of the best tasting water, that we'd drunk in a while and that too from the tap. We were basically at the foot of the Alps. One of the major sources for fresh water to the town of Innsbruck. The streets were nice and cobbled, there were quite a few bridges, over the river in 'Inn' in Innsbruck. In fact, thats what Innsbruck means literally - 'Bridge over the river Inn'.
It started snowing by around noon and cut short our adventurous plans for the rest of the day. We retired back to our hotel room. After all, we had to be ready for a formal 4-course dinner at 5.30pm in the convention center, which was to be followed by a walking tour of the town. Tired as we were, we quickly fell asleep and didnt realize we'd slept for a good 4 hours. The fatigue from the previous night probably got to us.
What followed, was an amazing sit-down 4 course dinner and was accompanied by announcements around the history of the conference and the formalities about declaring it open formally. We had lovely soups, appetizers, venison meat and desserts. The entire conference hall was studded with chandeliers and we were seated at round tables with about 5-6 individuals from the fraternity at each table. It was a surreal experience.
Finally once the ceremonies were done and along with them our dinner, we were taken out for a walking tour of Innsbruck town by one of the funniest guides, I had come across. The lengths to which he went to describe one of the so many paintings on the walls in Innsbruck. Our tourist group had a good mix of tourists from across the world such as American, British, Spanish, Middle-eastern, Indian, Chinese etc. So, it made for a fun experience listening to their attempts to frame questions and our guide doing his best to answer the queries in his own English.
Once our tour was done, we got back to the hotel. Rehearsed our paper presentation a few times and went off to sleep. Though our time slot was from 11am - 11.25am the following day, we had to be in the assigned discussion rooms by 10am, listening in on the presentations of fellow presenters from the fraternity.
The next morning, we reached the convention center after our customary complementary breakfast binging session. VC and I took turns presenting our paper and shuffling through our transparencies. It was all going well. We then opened the floor for Q&A. We got a few questions, which we answered satisfactorily. As we were about to get done, we got stumped by our last question. We didnt have an answer at that moment. Just then, we remembered what Mark had told us. If in doubt or clueless, you can always say, 'I'll get back to you on this.'. We used this to our advantage and got through with our presentation. Exchanged emails with the concerned person and were done.
Our paper presentation done, We didnt have much stuff to do after our conference. We got back to the hotel and started packing our stuff. We had another train to catch for Venice later that night. We were already looking foward to the next leg of our trip - Venice, Florence and Rome !!!
awesome!! can't wait for part 4!!
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