The most unforgettable trip to Germany

20 February 2019 • Travel time: with 24 January 2019 on 02 February 2019

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The most unforgettable business trip to Germany

Did you ever dream of getting into Orel and Reshka as a host with a gold card? Something similar happened to me and I am still under the impressions of my last trip to Germany. I have been working for the German company Matrix42 for several years now. One of our offices is located in Ukraine. Every day I struggle with bugs in programs, one of my main tasks is to make sure that the final program reaches our users in the highest possible quality, and is also compatible with all major server systems in the world. Once a year, our company hosts two important events - HackWeek (Hakkaton) and KickOff. This year both events were held in Germany for 8 days. The complexity of the trip was that it was necessary to fly without a family. Which slightly affects our concept of travel. But now I have an excellent route, which will have to go with the whole team.

Munich

Munich hosted the first HackWeek event. All employees should unite in teams and implement a small project about what they wanted to do for a long time, but there was no time. You can’t do your daily tasks and your main project, only something new and on the fourth day make a presentation and demonstrate a prototype. The second task of Hackweek is to get as much pleasure from the informal environment as possible. Our journey began with a long delay in a Lufthansa flight, which resulted in half of the Kiev office being stuck in the Boryspil lounge area. The second, half, who did not issue a special card for themselves, suffered more. To be honest, in the lounge area on the all-inclusive, you can go gray for longer, it’s not stressful at all. After about two hours, our plane did arrive, and we set off.

A smiling stewardess offered me a German beer, and I didn't really resist. The flight went very smoothly and fairly quickly, from the airport we were loaded onto a bus and taken to the outskirts of Munich to a good four-star hotel. Fortunately for me, there was a direct metro line to the center near the hotel. It was about 22:00. Don't go to bed when the center of Munich is 20 minutes away. Out of 200 like-minded people, there were few, and Masha and I went together. Masha is a colleague from my team. Even before the trip, she told Dasha that I would be in good hands during the trip)

It was the coldest outing into the city. It was crocodile cold, but, fortunately, all other days were really warm. The city met us with a beautiful house and a town hall right at the exit from the metro. But as soon as you turn your head, this house seemed already quite simple against the backdrop of an incredibly large building with a new town hall. We managed to have dinner at a reasonable price of 4.50 euros per person.

Despite the time, two things work around the clock - the metro and the bakery shop at the Marienplatz central station. By the way, the cheapest dinner on this trip I had for 2.50) Eh, I remember the last time it was so cheap to dine only in Paris, those giant hot dogs for 3.50...

Film Studio

Hakvik took place at the Bavarian film studio. Every morning until 10 transfers from the hotel ran there and starting from 18:00 they ran back. At the film studio, we were given laptops, and all the teams seized various zones for themselves. About five people were needed for my project. One signed up because he said he was doing latte well. The other said that he would watch carefully so that everything worked out for us. Yaroslav took on the role of a robot, who decided to work almost around the clock for the benefit of the project, Masha played the role of Yaroslav's moral support. Zhenya was a mystery woman, Andryukha was the winner of scripts.

I took over the deployment and support of servers, presentation and decided to speak to a wide audience with a report. Since last year, I have noted to myself that hackvik is the best chance to try myself as a speaker in English as well. In parallel with the working process, relaxing music played all the time and dim lights shone. But in parallel with the work, a lot of entertainment and surprises awaited us. From 10:00 to 22:00 there were three points with unlimited food on the territory: Italian, burgers and Asian cuisine.

Every day the assortment at the points changed, and at the point itself there was a wide selection of dishes. To not want to sleep, the barista prepared culinary masterpieces for us. As for drinks, there were about 8 refrigerators in the studio filled to capacity with the most interesting non-alcoholic sweet waters.

At 16:00, the water in the refrigerators was replaced with the most delicious Bavarian beer of nine types. And at points with food they began to pour wine. In order to work as comfortably as possible in the pavilion, there were many different entertainments for relaxation.

I flew in virtual reality on a hang glider, in a special mechanism, where I had to perform pilot maneuvers in three-dimensional space. You could fight on old consoles, triple car races, assemble mechanisms from Lego-techniques and create on a 3D printer.

If the work is very tiring, then you are given a blanket with a pillow, and you can go to the dark zone for a healthy sleep during working hours. Around the film studio there is a beautiful forest with fresh winter air. Am I in a fairy tale? Yes, this is just a dream job in reality! Although I imagined my dream job much more modestly.

From time to time, the organizers held various activities, for example, who can hold a glass of beer longer on an outstretched hand. The girl suggested that I sign up to play big golf. When asked where the holes would be, she pointed in all seriousness to the places between the working employees and among the tables. I thought it was a joke, but no. Golf really took place right over the heads of the teams.

Unfortunately, hitting employees was unavoidable, if the trajectory to the hole potentially passed through the worktables, then before hitting it was necessary to shout “Achtung! ”. It was fun! But the most-most active is a tour of the film studio itself. We were taken around the pavilions of many famous films.

I visited a real village from Asterix and Obelix - Galia, flew on the beast from "The Neverending Story", we passed through flying planes and passed long submarines.

We even starred in films against the backdrop of a green screen. This was the roof of the train and we were attacked by a dragon! Then I filmed as a cloud in the weather forecast and in the finale we rode in a compartment of an old train that had an accident.

Each evening, with the first shuttle bus or local tram, I went to the center to explore Munich. Although, to be honest, such an atmosphere reigned at the film studio that one could not even return to the hotel. Entertainment was all available every day until one in the morning, and the film studio itself worked around the clock.

Every evening I explored Munich bit by bit, sometimes I managed to snag like-minded people for an evening walk. Sometimes I had to do it alone, not everyone apparently likes to explore cities in such detail. Of the interesting discoveries, I liked the bridge between the two Passarelle rivers, the bridge does not unite the rivers, but rather goes between them.

It is quite interesting to walk along it at night. Especially if no one gets caught in the meeting, otherwise someone with a smaller physique becomes uncomfortable from a deserted meeting in the dark on the bridge. For me, Munich for the first four days was an exclusively night city, I could only imagine how it would look in the light of day, but during working hours it was not easy to escape to the center.

On our project, one of the project participants took on such a responsible mission while we were working. So our team sort of worked and visited the center during the day. One of the hiccups of getting from the film studio to the center is the tram stop without a ticket machine. Either go a couple of stops as a hare, and then go out to the machine, or have a supply of change to buy a ticket inside the tram, or walk those couple of stops on foot. I tried the walking route once. As a result, I walked along the road, inside the forest and knee-deep in snowdrifts. The idea was a failure, but official. The easiest way was to buy a travel pass for a few days, which would definitely pay off for me, but who knew that it would turn out to make so many forays into the city.

One of the key attractions of the city is the Hofbrä uhaus pub with the most delicious shank and beer. This pub is also one of the largest in the world and has a rich history. I did not know all this and stumbled upon it by accident.

The atmosphere, as if thousands of Germans united into one big family and at the same time everyone is talking about something together, I immediately wanted to join them. The pub has an orchestra that sits with beer glasses and enjoys life in between songs.

Bavarian girls walk around the pub and sell local pretzels and gingerbread. Will have to come here more hungry one of these days. However, it happened the next day. Almost always in the evening in the pub you could catch one of ours. And the next day, after my 3.5 hour walk from the film studio, I came to the pub just at the moment when the team of our project was gathering there, my gut did not let me down. Despite the number of people, and the pub seats over 3.000 people, beer is served in less than three minutes after ordering. Sometimes there were even double forays into the center. This is when I arrived at the hotel around ten in the evening, refreshed myself in the shower, lay for about 20 minutes, and returned to the center.

Pub

The film studio-Munich was drawn into the rhythm quite quickly and it was already a common thing of a normal working day. But the hackvik was coming to an end and the final day had come. This is the day when I will appear in front of a large audience and present our project from the stage. To rehearse my speech, I went to the forest, where forest birds listened to me with joy. I spent the final training in front of an audience in the form of Masha. The list of speaker order was opened by four people. I was the first in one of the fours, it was exciting, but I did it! I'm done!

After the performances in the studio, a real holiday and party began. It seemed that the trip could be better, but the organizers said that compared to the second part of the trip, this is a rather simple program.

Tomorrow is Wednesday, we will have an official day off. It needs to be done to the fullest. Since I have already studied Munich up to the streets, it is necessary to expand the geography of the trip. Even from Kyiv, I planned a visit to Austria for this day. The DJ seemed to set himself the task of keeping the audience until the morning and kept adding heat.

But traveling above all, I pulled myself out of the party in the middle of the night by force and put me on the bus. True, when I arrived at the hotel, I walked for another 10 minutes, as there was an overabundance of energy inside. Tomorrow morning on the road!

A day off in Innsbruck

German accuracy, how much power these words give, trains arrive here with an accuracy of seconds, it's easy to plan routes! The next subway will be in 43 minutes (instead of 10)…

So slippers sailed to the cliff. German accuracy failed, at such a pace I might not get to the bus station. But, fortunately, it was the scoreboard that failed. The train arrived in about 15 minutes. Phew, already relieved. I got to my flixbus on time. The journey from Munich to Innsbruck takes 2.5 hours. Music and alpine scenery, I'm ready! But not here, it was one of the guys who recognized my face from Hakvik sat down to talk. But just at the beginning of the Alps he was leaving, so that my beloved Onuka was waiting for me somewhere in the Alps. When the sociable friend came out, and I had already tuned in to Onuka, the next one sat down. Initially, the guy was from Russia, but for some reason he changed his citizenship to Armenian)))) In general, we chatted with the guys sincerely, but it seems to me that Onuka was a little offended by me, after all, she was ready to sing to me almost all the way .

So I'm in Austria! Himself, without Dasha, without any of my friends for many kilometers. It's kind of weird to wander around. Well, the company could not warn about the dates of the business trip a year in advance, so that Dasha and I would pave the route for ourselves at low-cost tariffs. The city came to me from the first moments.

As soon as we got to the central streets, majestic mountains began to rise above the central square. The scenery around the city is simply fantastic. I didn’t know where to start, I wanted to visit immediately and everywhere. Moreover, the city belongs to those where you just need to walk aimlessly. Even at McDonald's they gave out coffee in a pretty cup.

I generally think that the beauty of a cup of coffee is half the taste! The painted lift on the cup seemed to me to hint at a wonderful continuation of the route. First, I went around the city along the river with beautiful turquoise mountain water, then my feet led me to the ski lift. The climb to the very top and back costs 36.5 euros. The price is like a hammer on the head.

At such moments, complete confusion attacks. You have to pay a considerable amount for something that you do not know whether you like it or not. Of course, it would be cool if you go first and then pay if you like it, but it's fantastic. In general, it was necessary to decide, but if you don’t try now, you will never know how it would be.

Let's go! (If it’s longer in Innsbruck, then it makes sense to buy an Innsbruck card, it seems to include ascent and descent as well) The road was long, first on an underground-ground funicular, then on two cable cars with a transfer. As soon as I reached the top, all doubts were dispelled. There was a real and beautiful winter. Knee-deep snow, mountain silence!

I was immediately greeted by mountain birds with their chirping. I immediately went to conquer one of the peaks. There were a couple of signs in the direction of the snowdrifts along the mountain cliff and thin posts with a rope. Well, apparently this is the path. It's a pity there are no people willing to let them go ahead and be sure. Okay, I'll be the pioneer. Someone's footprints were visible along the snowdrifts, he tried to follow them, where there was a rope - he did not let go of it. A couple of times, having stumbled from the trail, the foot fell into the snowy infinity, once even a small snowball rolled down and disappeared from sight in the mountain distance. Hard work for a pioneer.

But it's even harder for space tourists. The skier who started to catch up with me added confidence to me. Perhaps he, seeing me, decided that this route was a common thing. And at some point he got on his skis and just went down. I was waiting for a beautiful panorama and a sense of pride in the courage and the completed route. Two kilometers below was the whole of Innsbruck. Thick clouds floated indicatively, but they apparently had important things to do, they did not linger over the city, they simply sailed away on their own route.

I went back to the ski lift and decided to look up the routes on maps mi. Navigation offered me another route to the most beautiful panorama. But, apparently, the navigator decided to just finish me off. Probably, the route is easier without snow, but I was able to walk 20 meters to the protruding tips of the backs of benches.

The Navigator told me to turn. And in a place where it would definitely be my last turn, “Maps mi, why are you doing this to me? Is it because of those errors that I sent to your developers? ”. I had to abandon the idea with the path and carefully go down.

The main thing is to stay away from the cliffs and you can even run waist-deep in the snow. I finally decided that the snowy mountains are one of the criteria by which you can watch tickets. It's time to go down and see the city. I did not descend to the very bottom, but to the mountain town of Hungerburg.

From there you can go down on foot. The town was as pretty as Innsbruck itself, maybe it's just its area. Road with temporary panoramas to Innsbruck. That's just the descent assumed a path that was littered with snow. And without this path in the middle of the route you will have to make a huge detour. Okay, let's go the other way, if you turn into the forest, then there will be more paths. But it seems that my navigator decided to finally get rid of me, sending me to a dense forest, in which there were no necessary paths. I continued along the main road. A gigantic dog ran out to the meeting and rushed somewhere into the distance, there was his owner. Well, the dog was with a kind muzzle. Otherwise, you would have to climb the snow-covered pines. One of the dozen paths did turn out to be, perhaps five people had already passed through the snow through it. A little further along the road was a cozy hut over a cliff. Good move navigator!

I know, this is a hut that absorbs lost travelers, in Kish's song it was just about such a song, there will be adventures in the basement. Or is it a hut from one movie, with the immortal phrase “Students, why are you killing yourself? ”. I'd rather go down the untrodden path. Then the navigator began to lead me along completely conditional paths, how does he know about them at all? It was quite slippery in places, I had to run.

The main thing is to get out of the forest before dark. From all these adventures I was literally in ecstasy. It was getting dark, and I still didn't eat. This is a good indicator of the city when there is not enough time for food. The cards ended up leading me straight to McDuck. In expensive cities, this is the right decision.

I had a few more hours before the bus, which I spent aimlessly wandering around the beautiful city. Climbed one more panorama, but as soon as the night swallowing mountains comes, the city loses all its panoramic magic. Climbed into a cozy flixbus on the front seats of the second floor and went back to Munich. A snowstorm began, the bus was driving along an unlit snow-covered road. At speed, the snowflakes flew into the glass like stars around a spaceship. It was warm and cozy, I was alone in the front seats. The multi-kilometer route and the fatigue of the hackvik enveloped me. The player on the phone seemed to determine the atmosphere and turned on the calmest music for me. Somewhere on the Fleur song “We flew” I completely blacked out.

I woke up in Munich itself. Tomorrow begins our second part of the trip - KickOff, a series of strategic conferences and reports on the closed year and plans for the next year.

Sledding turntables in the Alps!

This morning turned out to be unusually sunny, not a single cloud in the sky. Transfer to the Alpine town will be only at 12:30. I can't just sit in the hotel and wait, I have to re-explore Munich, this time sunny. So this is what the center looks like in daylight. It was very unusual how many times I was here, but in the bright sunlight I could not even imagine it. In a few hours, I made a huge walking circle, covering all the main places, and at the end I even had time for a puppet show in the central square. Photo of bees, and you can move on. Now I have completely conquered Munich, I can at least lead excursions. Arrived at the hotel 9 minutes before check out. Almost everyone was already sitting on the bus and waiting for departure in 40 minutes. The demagnetized card took another two minutes and it took me 7 minutes to collect things, considering that it was necessary to dry three and a half pairs of washed socks with a hairdryer.

We're on our way to the mountains! We were brought to the lake Tegernsee in Rottach-Egern!

I send the name of the city to our personal virtual museum of cities with complex names, put it on a shelf between Ollantaydambo and Sehershvehervar, you can also prop it up with Agauas Calientes just to be sure! At the entrance to the hotel flags of our company were proudly raised. The bus rolled “We were brought to a five-star hotel! ” The hotel looked very decent and impressive. At the reception they were already waiting for us, but they said that my room would be ready very soon. While we were driving, we saw how people were loaded into the airship. Tax, a room is good, but it's still sunny outside and somewhere the airship is getting ready to fly.

“Excuse me, could you please tell me what is the next event according to the plan? ”. The girl answered me that the next event is dinner in almost 6 hours. I already have a bunch of ideas lined up in my head where to go, and clearly exceeding this gap. “So I can not wait for the check-in and just leave things? ”. The girl told me not to worry about things and go for a walk.

“People, you don’t have to wait for the settlement ahead of the lake! ”, there were no like-minded people, the main argument was that things should be brought into the room first. But the weather is sunny there!

Okay, I ran myself. The lake is like in the picture, as if the designers specially placed it in this particular angle in relation to the hotel. I went towards the city in the hope of dealing with the airship, but it was already hovering in the air. I fed my eyes a little with lake landscapes and hotels that looked like the residences of billionaires. On Google map, a place with the strange name Wallbergbahn was highlighted, with a score of 4.4 and 690 reviews. Without the Internet, details about the place and reviews could not be read. But I obviously need to go there. Walk about three kilometers. It will also close in a couple of hours. I turned the map in more detail and determined that it was a lift. Super! Now there will be perfect visibility to see the mountains. I tried to catch the Internet to warn our chat about the availability of a lift, but there was no Internet. I walked three kilometers in race walking, in order to be sure to be in time. From the outside, I looked like a sprinter lost in the mountains. And a little lame sprinter. The lift worked, there were practically no people. While standing in line, consisting of one guy, I noticed the rules for braking on a sled. Is it really possible to drive on a sled here! I didn’t know how the sled would be in English. And the woman selling the tickets couldn't understand point-blank that they were talking about sleds. I described them as skis, but not really, they have the same essence on this mountain. Past! The second attempt showed her the rules of sledding. I found out that you pay 5 euros, give a sled as a pledge and ride as much as you like until 17:00. One lift costs 11 euros, the more lifts you take at a time, the less you pay for one. By the way, the descent without a sled also costs 11 euros, so it's cheaper to go down on a sled.

The sled is attached to the lift from the outside.

I had some doubts about the size of the mountain. I clarified with the woman that it was probably not difficult to go down on a sled. I received an encouraging answer: “Of course it’s difficult, you saw the height of the mountain and the length of the route is 4.6 km. ” But we all know the story about the engine that could, and therefore I can. The sled was attached to me outside the booth. The ascent was long, about 10 minutes, and the higher we climbed, the less the idea with the sled seemed good to me. I have included height detection. The mountain had a height of more than 1600 meters. The height difference on the sledge track is 868 meters. There was Wi-Fi on the mountain and I was able to throw some information about the mountain with sleds to ours.

At the same time, they will know where to look if anything, otherwise they brought to the hotel, and the employee disappeared. At the top was a piece of heaven. Visibility is endless, hundreds of alpine peaks, a lake below, forests. Small church on the mountain. Cool! Here is created same nature such places! Moreover, an hour's drive from Munich, that is, if you wish, taking tickets for a year, theoretically it is quite easy and not expensive to get here.

In the meantime, I was standing at the start of the track. The woman who sold me the tickets noticed my shoes and said that I would need to brake with my heels often. There was also a picture in the instructions in which the sled had to be pulled towards itself for an emergency brake. Let's start! Sel pushed off, food. I can't believe it, I'm on my way! So, I'll try to slow down. Yep, it doesn't slow down much. I'm going faster. The sled begins to go even faster. First turn, handling is good. Turned at speed with ease. I'm going even faster, for some reason I'm going very fast. The roar of the wind rises in my ears. Begins to blow through all the cracks in the jacket. Now it is clear why those buttons are needed. Something I'm going very quickly, I need to slow down, there are signs about throwing off the speed. He began to slow down so that there was a deep footprint behind his legs, sort of like slowing down. But the speed is kind of dangerous. The descent became even steeper, however, as did the turns. I’m already going very fast, I’m flying straight, I’m flying in the truest sense of the word, the sled is flying nearby. A stream of adrenaline went through the body, we are flying with a sled perpendicular to the track. Now I will feel the Alpine mountains. Somersaulted me, and now I not only know all the beauty of the Alps, but also the taste! It doesn’t look like Milka chocolate at all. Snow in the Alps is of high quality, without tastes, fresh, today's. From forehead to feet, I was covered in a uniform white layer. The sled lay nearby, as I thought to throw a noose over my arm. He got up and felt for his phone, which was tightly packed with snow in his pocket. The snow turned out to be quite wet and I had to unbutton my jacket to wipe the phone. Cards in jeans met the same fate. I had to put everything in my pockets and wipe off the snow. My fingertips lost sensation in the cold, my face ached from the cold. Re-fastening all the buttons and hiding everything in my inner pockets, I continued the route. Now a cold wind began to be felt, and snow was clogged under the ass, which had to be cleaned off on the go. Further descent was at a more moderate speed and even stops. I crossed paths with the guys, from whom I asked for a long time, whether it was still. I was told that it would take a very long time. It really was only the beginning of the track.

Robe, slippers, everything is as it should be. On the ground floor, I was waiting for a chic pool with a jacuzzi area. Separate Jacuzzi with hot water, 4 saunas including an Asian sauna, a relaxation area with marble dark seats and a relaxation pool with warm water, where you could lie on your back with your head half submerged and is in semi-weightlessness under star-shaped lights. Even every hour the attendant comes and puts on a show in the saunas. Of all the saunas, I liked the humid, Asian-style one, filled with impenetrable-looking hot steam. How I love this scent. After my spinning sled rides, the spa area of the hotel was just right for me. Endless joy and jaw dropping, somehow I can describe my emotions. But we had to get back to the room, because in 20 minutes there will be a grandiose Italian dinner. The chefs stood along the pallets of food and greeted the guests entering the hall. We had a cozy place overlooking the mountains and the lake.

There are no words that can describe the beauty and taste of the food, only the Michelin stars awarded to the restaurant. In fact, I don't know if this hotel's restaurant is awarded. But I would give it to him. A sea of delicious Bavarian beer, awesome wine, desserts that are a pity to eat so as not to spoil the beauty. The main theme of this evening was my sledge and the endless exchange of impressions about the hotel and the place. Just yesterday, it seemed to me that the business trip was just at the top level, but today literally overshadowed all the previous ones. And the icing on the cake is that in addition to the salary, the company also pays travel allowances, which significantly exceed my daily expenses. One could assume that this is a dream, they will pinch me and I will wake up, but I have not even seen such chic in my dreams, so that this is definitely not a dream. I fell in love with our Matrix42 again, I really love the company from the first day for the atmosphere and the set processes, but this trip is some kind of unique phenomenon in the travel world. As a nice bonus, a non-snoring employee lived with me in the room.

The next day we have a series of conferences that last 8.5 hours in total. These are strategic sessions about the company's plans, reports and the like. For me, conferences are always a struggle with sleep, especially such long ones. On the eve, my colleagues and I discussed methods of dealing with sleep at rallies. Collected directly the Talmud of traditional medicine about the fight against sleep. It turned out that people are divided into two groups, some can easily sit out a chain of meetings, for others it's like a bell - to switch off. I am full of energy on trips, but it seems that as soon as the meeting - the body goes into storage mode.

Rallies are organized thematically. Last year it was a rugby game. Even one of the speakers was dressed as an American football player. This year had a music theme, all strategic development plans and presentations were designed in this style, and "had a common goal" to release a new music album to top the charts. The organizers apparently took into account the wishes and added interactive to the rallies. We sang in chorus, then we jumped, then we massaged each other. It was cool! There were also amazing coffee breaks and breakfast.

Detox cocktails, smoothies, fresh juices, cheeses of any kind, sausages, in general, I can’t write about food all the time, but I can’t stop either. When the session ended, there were still about four hours left before the main party. Too bad the sledges are already closed. Without wasting a second, I set off on a long hike to the other side of the lake. It began to get dark, yellow lighting gave the snowy glades a fabulous glow. The houses began to light up their lights, the cities plunged into a winter fairy-tale atmosphere. : initial; border-width: 0px; margin: 0px" />

I looked for exits to the piers so that I could feel myself in the middle of the lake. Behind the luminous cities are the night mountains. Even the toboggan lift lights up, but why doesn't it work at night. There on the track is still more dangerous nowhere already. The lake bypass takes about 16 kilometers. It's a pity time is not rubber. I had to go only about a quarter of the route. But on the other hand, with adventures - he almost fell off the pier into the lake.

And I jumped onto one pier, so it turned out to be floating at all. The hotel has such a strong Internet coverage network that I was finished off even from the other side of the lake, and an offer to move to the spa area flew into the chat. Well, where would a party be without a spa? I wanted this story to never end. When I came to one of the saunas to Ramstein's industrial metal, the attendant was putting on a mega show waving a towel. Our party was Bavarian style.

The organizers saved us from the requirement to bring costumes with us, but the Bavarian dress code must be observed. The event began with the fact that a wooden barrel of beer was brought to the center of the hall and a tap was driven in with a wooden hammer. But since the tap turned out to be a hitch, I literally saw the formation of an expensive ocean of beer on an expensive hotel carpet. At one point, the brave Bavarian guy defeated the stream and it seemed that the crane was installed. But as soon as he loosened his grip, the show with escaping beer continued. Beer seemed to want to break free and go sledding with us. With sleds, the whole main snag, tomorrow is the last day and the bus will take us away in the afternoon.

In order to ride, you need to get up as early as possible. After last year's festivities, some did not manage to get up even as late as possible. So, at the beginning of the party, I set the alarm for 07:45. As Dasha and I like to say on trips, “It's okay, we'll have a rest somehow in Egypt. ” When we fly to Egypt every two years, it goes just like a vacation for all trips. I urged the people to go with me in the morning too, quite a large number were ready for such an early feat, but here you still have to prove the desire by deed. In the meantime, the party was gaining momentum. After rewarding employees in various nominations, incendiary dances began. Several German bands performed.

The atmosphere was incredibly festive. Delicious German beer here took tons of tons. What's more, it's unlimited. There were various cocktails at the bar, but they obviously lost beer on demand. Time flew by at a frightening pace. One singer ignited the crowd so that round dances, German folk dances and mass singing will be remembered for a long time. We all held each other's arms and danced a synchronized German dance. By the way, in the nominations of the year I was nominated for the “Sunshine! ” nomination, but someone from Germany won by votes. But I am very pleased that I got into this nomination by the vote of the entire Matrix. When the time was approaching two in the morning, I forced myself to go and go to bed, otherwise my sleigh was crying.

07:45

“Andryusha you are strong, you can, you just need to get off the bed, you will get enough sleep in Egypt in a year and a half, ” I said to myself. Although who am I kidding, in Egypt, I then promise myself to sleep in Kyiv. There are also curtains that imitate absolute darkness. Let's see if anyone else could wake up. He turned on the viber, immediately caught a message from Denis, “Well, what are we going ? ! It's really raining there! " Even a horizontal ice shower in Norway was not a problem for us to overcome difficult routes. About four guys woke up, but the rain stopped them. I had breakfast, took an umbrella at the reception and went. The word "rain" was quite sparing. I could not even understand how we would go down under this half-shower. But here it is enough to apply logic. I woke up anyway and go to bed, it's just a waste of valuable travel time. If you do not sleep, then there is nothing to do in the hotel anyway. There will be plenty of time for the SPA zone. It makes no sense to just walk in the rain, since I have already climbed almost everything here. But if you go on a sled, then at an altitude of 1600 meters, minus temperatures are possible and the rain will be replaced by snow. That is, in any case, you don’t lose anything by trying to go on a sled. It took about 45 minutes for our route to the ski lift. The lifts are working, I let out my breath, I was afraid that everything would be closed. A deadpan woman sold the tickets and assured them that the downpour was not a problem. But there was a screen near the cash register with a webcam broadcast from the top and a warning. My bet turned out to be correct, there was a real snowstorm at the very top

It was so shallow that at a distance of 10 meters it was hard to see. The descent began. We were among the first on the route, so the slide was poorly rolled out and not as fast as the first time. But the effect of a trip through a blizzard is indescribable. I had to take my hand off the sled and cover my eyes. This is a real extreme and really those bright moments that will be remembered forever. At a certain height, the snow began to subside, and I was afraid that now it would turn back into a downpour. But it was not there, the snow turned into a bright sun against the blue sky! The weather has changed! Hooray! I went down, waited for Denis, he was 15 minutes behind me. Denis said that he fell on the track about 15 times, could not cope with the control of the sled and did not want to do it anymore. I hurried to the second run.

Now instead of impenetrable clouds, there were precipitous clouds over the morning lakeside town. The beauty!! ! During the ascent, I took, probably, fifty photographs. At the top, the blizzard also subsided and the clouds dispersed. In fact, the phenomenon turned out to be temporary, for 30 minutes, like a reward for those who got up earlier and were not afraid!

In the meantime, more and more tourists were pulling up the mountain, thereby rolling out the track. I was in no hurry, let them lay the route well. The second descent was already classic - high-speed. I was already mentally going to make the third ascent, but there it was. A queue, a big queue, even two queues. Some are waiting for someone to return the sled, as there are no sleds to rent. Others are waiting for the lift. So I got it right on time. Okay, let the line move, handed in my sled, I'm waiting for the spa treatments at the hotel. I went for a walk around the towns.

While I was walking along marvelous rivulets and ancient bridges, serenas howled in the city. Moreover, the locals did not react at all to this. The sirens were very alarming. I suggested that an avalanche was coming down from the mountains and I needed to inform home that I was already far from the mountains. But as one local grandfather told me, these are their trainings. Before leaving for the airport, I also had an hour and a half soaking in pools, jacuzzis and saunas.

The late checkout time was approaching at an elusive pace. It seems as if time in the spa area goes several times faster than usual. All right, it's time to head back. We all loaded onto the bus and after a couple of hours we were waiting in the departure zone for the “punctual” Lufthansa to deign to fly. Sitting at the airport, I mentally rearranged our travel plans. Next year, it will be necessary to visit Hallstatt in the summer and ride with Misha on these sledges. As times tickets cheap there is in this direction. This is such a fantastic business trip, I wish our Matrix42 to continue to develop in the same spirit and not slow down. And by the way, yes, right now we are looking for a developer team; )

Our hack-wick team

Translated automatically from Russian. View original