First Europe Trip

So... after a 5-6 hours a day sleep for the 6 day workweek, I was planning to sleep a very lazy sleep on Sunday, I was hoping to pull off a 12 or 14 hour sleep. Went to sleep at 2am hoping to wake up at 2-4pm... on my ONLY day off of the week.

My dad wakes me up at 10am. D'OH! My day off and I get waken up by my dad.

Dad: "You're going to Germany"
Me: "WHAT? WTF? AF:LSDKIFHSDOIFH!!!!!"

He had long planned for a trip to Europe to do some business and was suppose to go tomorrow. But in the light of the recent events with my step-grandmother. I was forced to go in his place.

Basically my step-grandmother had contracted a rare virus called the Guillain Barré Syndrome. This is a very rare virus in which will cause the immune system to attack the body... thus causing her to be paralyzed. My dad had to stay to comfort my step-mom and my step-grandmother. So I was going in his place and with the company's Sr. Vice President, Mr. Chuntang Tan.

I was clearly not ready. Last minute packing and notes about what to ask the customer, what goals to accomplish, etc. From this, I've created a new philosophy in order to better prepare myself.. "There's no such thing as being ready, there's only such thing as doing it!" Works quite well for me. Nike made the greated slogan ever of "Just do it!". It was derived from that.

So it was a 10 day trip that starts on 13th and ends on 23rd. The day before the 13th. I was sent off to Shanghai to visit my Uncle, then we checked into the airport hotel.


Day 1: Boarded the plane, this was the easy part as I had been a frequent flyer between Canada and China, the only difference was the destination was in Europe. Not the two countries that I am used to travelling to. Mind you, I had JUST recovered from a serious stomach bacteria infection that had required me to do 6 days of IV drip. My stomach was still weak and not fully healed. The airplane food... certainly did not help at all!

Arrived Frankfurt, Germany:
So I arrived Frankfurt, Germany. Tan and I got our baggage and proceeded to the car rentals. Now, here we bumped into a dilemma. There was 6 car rental companies. 2 refused to lend me a car as I was not of age. Their minimum age was 23. Tan was of age... but no driving licence with the priviledge of driving internationally (he has a Chinese license, which means he can only drive in China, unlike my Canadian license where I can drive anywhere!). Another 3 had NO cars left. We were really unprepared as we did not make reservation for this. So the last car company... called Sixt. Walked to the counter.

Me: Hey, you guys got any cars left for renting?
Girl: Yup, one left!
Me: Oh sweet! Any age restriction?
Girl: How old are you?
Me: 21
Girl: *to her co-worker* Is 21 good enough?
Coworker: Yeah, it should be fine
Me: *whew*
Girl: OK, so we only have an SUV left. It's a Subaru Forester.
Me: WHAT? a BIG car? No other small cars????????
Girl: Nope...
Me:....... ok I'll take it.

So we were lucky that: 1. I met the age requirement for this company, 2. They had a spare car for me to rent.

Oh well, off to the Autobahn! The company provided us with a portable GPS system, which I doubt I could get ANYWHERE without. European roads are very complicated and far too confusing. So we hit the "Autobahn" which is German for highway.

Here I am cruising at 130km/h towards Belgium, just relaxing that I finally rented a car. In the middle of the 3 lanes... I keep hearing Whooshing and Vrooming sounds of a multitude of cars passing by me! Hmm... I wonder how fast they're going? I sped up to 160km/h. Still Whooshing and Vrooming. OK... this is definitely not normal! I sped up to 205km/h (max speed of the car and in 6th gear). VROOM AND WHOOSHING.

WOW!!! I think I'm in love with this country! I can go 200km/h and not worry about getting a hefty ticket!!

We got hungry. Stopped by for some Burger King. It tasted damn good as I haven't had Burger King since I left Canada. Quite expensive though, 12 EUR for two people, compared with the rest of the world. Then back on the road again! Mind you, it had already turned into nightfall by the time we left the airport so it was pretty much pitch black already. We finally decided to stop by a local hotel that we found through the GPS. Best Western Koln in a little town called Koln. Looks to be a small town, but not too small. Checked in for 85 EUR a night. I thought it was quite expensive, but it'll have to do.

Day 2: We woke up. Had breakfast at the hotel as it was included in the price. Oh man... That was an AMAZING breakfast... My stomach immediately felt better from the sickness and it felt awesome!

So we hit the road again! It was quite funny on the Autobahn, some areas have a speed limit of 130km/h. People normally go 140-150 in those section. But as soon as you see the no speed limit...


Well... MOVE THE F**K OUT OF THE LEFT LANE!! You'll hear everyone downshifting, revving their engines, getting to high speed mode and breaking 200km/h barrier! I witnessed an Audi R8 and a Audi TTS and some other nice cars just rip it on those zones. Sounds pretty sweet! Well... My poor little Subaru Boxer Diesel only had 145hp and 248 ft/lb of tq. It couldn't keep with the traffic and had to stay in the middle lane or move to the right sometimes. But I did manage a top speed of 220km/h on a downhill slope of 6 degrees! =D

We finally arrived at our destination in Belgium, a company called EFECO. It was simply a courtesy visit to see the company's capabilities and power and any potential partnership. Had meeting with the big boss (the person who owns the entire EFECO and ESCO company chain in Europe), Mr. Schmidt as well as two other main guys of the company, Mr. De Goef and Mr. Becker. Had a tour of their company and discussed a lot of things. Turned out to be a great meeting, after the meeting we had lunch with Mr. Schmidt and talked about a lot of things. Turned out great and nothing threatening our company or their company and most likely will have some form of co-operation to assist each other.

I'll have to admit, I was kind of nervous before the first meeting. But Mr. Schmidt had already visited us at Wuxi Driveshafts just a few months ago and had great interest in our products and services. He had a meeting with my father in which I attended, so it was not as awkward as I had met him before.

After our delicious lunch, well... at least mine was delicious, Tan says otherwise because he ordered something he had never tried before and turned out to be the worse food he ever had haha. But the good thing is that it was courtesy of Mr. Schmidt. Thank you for the excellent meal Mr. Schmidt!

So after the meal, we hit the road again. This time to Paris. I had complained a lot about the car not having enough power to keep up with the people on the Autobahn and the size (I personally HATE SUV's as my friend flipped one over but no injuries) so we decided to exchange the car for a better one at a rental location in Paris... Only to find that they had no cars left. So then we just decided to look for a hotel from the GPS. Found one... Well... it costs about 150 EUR. Damn, ok let's find one outside of Paris, that'll be cheaper. Ended up finding one 40km away outside of Paris on the east. Turned out to be a tiny ass town which didn't look very good. Then we checked in for $80 EUR. Funny the guy said it included breakfast. That's not the story the next morning *rolls eyes*

So we got hungry and decided to use the GPS to look for some restaurants. First we found a Pizzeria. Now the problem was... everything was in French, unlike in Belgium where Mr. Schmidt had translated and recommended the items on the menu for us. We had no way of knowing what the items on the menu was and the waiter spoke extremely poor english. So we decided to leave.

Looked up the GPS again, and found a nearby Chinese restaurant. Can you believe it? This tiny town has a Chinese restaurant!! Drove over... The restaurant didn't look as good as we thought. Upon walking in, it had a weird scent, not very pleasant. But at least the waiter and waitresses could speak Chinese. Sat down... spoke with the waitress for half an hour on what kind of dishes they have. Then waited for the order... and guess what? Turned out to be some AMAZING chinese food! Tan and I was quite shocked after consuming a few dishes, and proceeded to order more. We were stuffed afterwards, had a nice chat with the waitress and left a nice hefty tip. The food wasn't too expensive either! 30 EUR for two people. Went back to the hotel and rested with good food in our stomach.


Day 3: We checked out the hotel without any breakfast as they had requested an extra 13 EUR! Ridiculous for breakfast! So we proceeded to find a McDonald's on the GPS. Upon arriving, we found that it was not open yet... they open at 11:00AM. It was 9AM currently. So we said screw it and hit the road towards our next destination. On the highway, we found a service area and proceeded to buy a hot dog and 2 chocolate croissants each, costed about 6 EUR per person, wasn't that cheap either. But we had to do something for our stomach. Hit the road again. Unlike Germany, France has a speed limit of 120km/h on any highway as well as speed traps and speed cameras, etc. I didn't like this at all.

We finally arrived at our destination. ESCO France (a company under EFECO of Belgium). Met with Mr. Denis, the Managing Director of that company who at first sight proceeded to give us a tour of the company and then went to his office to discuss our products, their products, possible relationships, etc. Also met Mrs. Dubois, who is responsible for the mechanical sectors of the company in which WE are specialized in. But she obviously did not know much about our products and what requirements are needed etc. But it was still potential opportunity as they want our products. After the meeting, we proceeded to have lunch at a Chinese buffet on Mr. Denis' treat. That was pretty damn good too. Both chinese restaurants I have went so far in Europe are better than a lot of restaurants that I have been to in China! Talk about cultural irony!.

After lunch, we left the company and proceeded back to Paris. Because we did not have a chance to sightsee Paris yesterday and had plenty of free time today. First destination. Arc De Triomphe. Amazing structure, but no parking. Simply took a few driveby photos.

Keep in mind that Paris had really bad traffic, and reminded me of driving China, nobody in their lane and very unorganized... also... with REALLY bad parking, you had to have a smart car to fit in any parking spot! Here's what I mean!

So then we proceeded to the Eiffel Tower. FOUND parking for once... But it was paid parking and the process was that you had to buy a parking card from a tobacco shop. After walking around, we failed to find the tobacco shop... so we decided to take our chance and not pay for parking. Got lucky on that! Here's some pics as reward of not paying for parking! =)

The amount of crowd lining up to go up the Eiffel tower was stunning!

But at least we got some good pics!

Then we drove around and arrived at the famed Notre Dame!!

I had been wanting to visit this place ever since I saw the movie "Hunchback of Notre Dame" as a kid! And I finally did get the chance!

We drove around and finally decided that it was getting late for our trip to Germany. Decided to hit the road.

I'm tired of typing. I think that will be it for today. I will finish the remaining of my 7 days of Europe in another post! Keep checking back!

You could find more pics and more events that I have been through in the 3 days from my facebook albums!