EuroTrip - Day 33

12:40 ki last tram

Switzerland, Germany or Spain - where to go this week? Considering the amount of group work that is expected from us before the presentations in the next week, we had to make a short trip this week. And keeping in mind the generosity of the French railways (we have to pay a hefty reservation fee every time we travel to/from Paris. Only option to avoid that is take slower local trains with many changeover which takes a direct hit on our travel time), we had to do some real good planning.

So we did and the priority went in the order - Germany, Spain and others. Search for reservations in TGV went futile once again. I wonder why the trains from Paris are always full. We had no other option but to spend the night in Paris only.

And by chance I started chatting with Archana (A1). Bora was on his way to Lyon and she told me about their plans for visiting French Alpes. The chance to meet the old gang from RV was too tempting to refuse. And thus I decided to join them for their trip. Others will leave for Germany tomorrow. And hopefully I will join them in the end.

The train to Lyon starts from Gare Du Lyon, which means that I had to take a metro to Lyon. It was the first time I was going to travel alone. So first the search for metro route and then the right platform at the Gare Du Nord (gosh!! It's such a big station) - it was going to be my first chance to do all this tasks (HotTiii is too good at it, I must tell you that). I did it good and within 15 minutes I had reached Gare Du Lyon just to realize that the train was delayed by 20 minutes. It meant that I was going to be late in reaching Lyon. I prayed so much that the train makes up some time (like they do in India). But with the high speed which they travel, TGVs hardly have scope to speed up and save some time. Reaching late can be real painful if you are doing it post midnight and if the last metro leaves at 0020 hours. Bora and A1 had come to pick me up from the station. In our little hi-hello ceremony we also missed the last tram. God! We missed it by just a minutes because we spend an extra minute comprehending the map which was put at the terminus (one more thing HotTiii is really good at). Now we had almost one hour to share our stories before reaching the cozy comfort of home. Authentic sambhar rice was awaiting for me. :-)

RV arguably has been the best time of my life so far. That and my life in Bangalore is the most precious phase of my life. It was nice to relive some of those moments. Bora, in any case, is a very good company. His uncanny sense of humor and ready wit keeps you entertained. Beware when he is in mood to pull a prank or two. You might not even know when you become his prey. Him and A1 make a very cute pair. Fighting like kids on things as trivial as the correct pronunciation of Monaco, they are a real good company. Thank god Neha (A1's little sister) is also there so nobody can blame of being kebab mein haddi. :-)

A nice homely dinner followed by a cup of tea and some long conversations - there could not have been a better end of the day.

PS: It's been a day filled with mixed emotions. For a large part of it, I felt totally confused. A little work load had all of us little off guard today. I think we need to work a little to find our the right balance.