I reached Zurich in the morning on the 2nd after witnessing the beauty of the Alps from above. I had 3 hours left my connecting flight, so I decided to step out and inhale the cool Zurich air with Alps providing a tranquil backdrop as I set foot for the first time on European soil. I roamed around for a while, checked out the airport mall, ogled at the German signs and the prices in Swiss Francs, realized I didn’t have Swiss Francs, and finally ended up back in the airport. The departure area was a single long corridor dotted with plenty of chairs and door on either side taking you down to the respective gates. I sat on one of the chairs next to my door (this was 40 mins before departure) and saw just 5 other people. But by the time I had grinned at the lady near the door who checked my ticket and said “poittu vaanga”, 50 passengers had appeared out of nowhere. And so I sat in the 4-seats-row-flight, chatted for a while (yes, I had wifi inside the aeroplane :D), and had the vegetarian sandwich offered after take off.
When I landed in Warsaw, I realized I hadn’t informed Microsoft of my arrival but they had hired an agency to stand at the airport all day and pick up anyone who responded to the Imagine Cup Sign and bring them to the hotel every half an hour. As I waited for my bus to have enough people to justify a trip, I saw some interesting pictures on magazines, realized I could withdraw Zlotys directly using my DBS ATM card, got a SIM card, spoke to a judge who had come and spoke to the girl holding the Imagine cup sign. I also shared the story of the Indian from Singapore who was representing Sweden with the Kenyan press who refused to believe that this place wouldn’t accept Euros. Sleepily, with the jet-lag headache building up, I “read” the unreadable Polish signs all along the way till we finally reached Hotel Novotel Warszawa around 2pm on Friday, the 2nd of July.
There was Microsoft all over the place! We got a free bag, T-Shirt, bag, tourist guide book, and a map at the reception. There was a huge banner which read Imagine Cup outside the 20-storey hotel. The LCD monitors in the lobby talked about Imagine Cup. The whole hotel was buzzing with Imagine Cup! At this point, I couldn’t help but Imagine what the conversation would have been between Microsoft and the Novotel Manager –
"Hi, Novotel? I am XYZ from Microsoft. I need to make a booking"
"Sure, sir.. (sipping some beer) When would you be visiting?"
"1st to 9th July.."
"How many rooms would you like to book, sir?"
"Well, actually, I want to book the hotel"
"(Cought.. Sputter) The hotel, sir?"
"Yes, the entire hotel"
“(Cough) All right, sir. Please speak to my boss.”
And well, I guess a couple of million Zlotys would have exchanged hands after that.
But anyways, I got my card to access the room, realized it didn’t work, got another card, locked myself out, got yet another card and finally flopped into the luxurious bed. Then, I felt dirty, took a bath in the bathtub - I wanted a shower actually but couldn’t figure out how to operate it and made a mess of my hair, eyes.. Actually lets skip the bathtub part. Point is, I took a bath and realized I had forgotten to get a converter for the powerpoint.. So I decided to take a walk and see if I could buy one without running to Hotel reception for help.
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