Weekend in Dusseldorf

Attention: this is a long post, worth reading.
Don't forget to check the video attached below:)

Czech Gulash
Before I share with you our adventures from a weekend trip, let me get back to Thursday's team dinner, very special one, as Petr and his Czech friends were cooking Czech Gulash! It was delicious! Besides that, we had interesting conversations about Czech culture:) Sometimes it was even funny:), especially when I was asked what Gulash actually means and I explained that it has no particular meaning. Then I added that in transferred meaning it can mean a mess. When Petr returned from the kitchen he was asked as well and replied exactly (absolutely exactly!) in the same way:) We Czechs simply do know our cuisine.

Now, let's have a look on weekend trip in Dusseldorf.
Because we were four people (Gwen, Zeno, Cindy and me), it was more convenient to go by car. Gwen did all the necessary arrangements. Still, we were facing serious trouble.

Case study "Farmer"
Our situation reminded me the case study Farmer, where each member knows specific pieces of information which are complementing those of other people and you need to answer a question like "Which vehicle is Skinner's?" etc... do you remember? ;-)

Our question was: "Who will be driving to Dusseldorf?"
- Gwen has a driving licence and has driven thousands of miles in US
- Zeno doesn't have a driving licence, but he can drive
- neither Gwen nor Zeno have sufficient funds on their credit cards to pay a deposit
- Martin has money:) But on a debit card, which is not accepted
- the same person who pays is the only one who is allowed to drive
- paying in cash is not accepted
- money transfer takes more than 3 days and it is only 1 day before
- Gwen has never driven a car with a manual gear (stick shift)
- Cindy has no money and no driving skills, however, she is good in encouraging people:)

...and that is something we definitely needed!
The process of getting the car from a rental was very physically as well as psychically demanding (going by train to the other part of Rotterdam, running for 15min in 26°C to be there on time, me swapping the seat with Gwen in front of the rental to drive off (Gwen wasn't ready to drive that time yet) not being noticed.
It was just a beginning:)

Training session
Since I had some urgent stuffs to finish that afternoon after we returned to the office, it was Zeno who was supposed to provide Gwen with some training on how to drive a "European car":) But time flies. So we were practising on our way, in a real life traffic. Uh, I had enough! Don't forget it was Friday 13th!

Clutch! Gas! Clutch! More gas! Clutch! Release the clutch! Oh, shit! You need to be more sensitive! Try again! Slowly! More gas! More gas! Clutch! Watch out! Clutch!... no way:)

Honestly, I didn't feel well that time. All those cars and pedestrians around considered us to be an "ordinary" car, but we were very special... not even able to smoothly start :)
Fortunately Gwen was confident at least in steering and acquired the remaining skill extremely quickly. Although we had some "starting" challenges throughout the whole weekend, I felt safe later on. Good job, Gwen!:)

In Dusseldorf
Yes, we safely arrived in Dusseldorf at Dani's house. Dani is Cindy's and Gwen's ex-team mate from MC in Mexico last year and our host for the weekend.
I was impressed by the city... it was really nice, clean and vivid (which I didn't expect, not knowing why at all). In terms of architecture, it was similar to Rotterdam. We have seen the city-centre, traditional festival, old-car exhibition, historical part of the city and we also had some fun in the amusement park!

As you might have noticed, I've created and uploaded some short videos from time to time, becasuse I miss my favourite video/PPT editing:) This video should be the best of them:) So enjoy it!
I like it:)

Barbecue at Dani's house. Talking about Germany, Czech Republic (especially beer:)) and Romania brought interesting insights.

I'm sure I'll not forget this weekend! I dare say it was "like no other" :)

Check Zeno's post about this trip here.