EuroTrip - Day 37

The Longest Day

As expected it was a day (and night) full of hardships today. Getting up really early in the morning has never been an issue for me. The good night's sleep did a wonder and I was refreshed when I got up at 4:30am. I had my first train of the day (local suburban to the main station) in another 20 minutes. Bora packed a quick lunch for me [he has been really kind to me off late ;-)] and I was on my way to the nearest station.

The best or the worst part about this station is that it is hardly used by anyone. Bora says he has never seen anyone else taking trains from there. Whatever it is, expecting to see someone at this crazy hour, that too on such a chilly morning, was like asking for too much. Ironically, one should feel safe at such stations because even the thieves won't find its deserted-ness that good an opportunity. I waited there for a couple of minutes before the train arrived. This was first of a series of waits that I had to go through as part of my journey.

There is an early morning ICE train for Paris but unfortunately I could not get a reservation in that. The lady at the ticketing window had suggested me to check with the Train In-charge if I could get a reservation on board (reservation is mandatory on the ICE trains to/from Paris). I had to try my luck. The rule, as told to me by the TT, is that 'reservation on all the ICE trains to/from Paris is mandatory. It is generally 5 euros if booked at the counter. However if you wish, you can pay a reservation fee of 17 or 19 euro on board and travel.' The crux of the deal is that ICE does allow people without reservation. You can go standing or sitting next to door if the train is full. TGV is not so generous (however the on-board reservation charges for TGV are 'just' 10 euros). Still 17 euro was too much for a journey so I decided to break my journey (thus spending more time on and off the trains) and reach Paris by afternoon time. This option would cost me just 3 euros.

More train journeys in Germany, more security checks. Thank god I had a valid reason to be in Mannheim. Did I mention I had gone there to attend the Frankfurt Book Festival? Sadly when planning for this trip, we did not inquire about the timing and entry tickets. Later at Mannheim we found out that both of them were not favorable so we had to drop the idea of traveling to Frankfurt.

So I traveled, changed trains and waited at the stations. Offenburg was bloody cold. Seeing the surroundings, I could easily guess that I had just missed a snow fall. It would have been a first in my life. The fresh snow is a beautiful sight, I must tell you. The zero temperature is an altogether different feeling. The chilly winds pierce your skin like sharp nails. I was shivering even though I was dully dressed for the occasion. I wonder how will I survive the sub-zero December weather!!

There were a couple more trains, a couple more waiting rooms and a couple more checks. I felt relieved when finally I reached the Gare Du L'est. It's our home afterall!

The tough part of the day was not yet over. I had a big MarkStrat assignment sitting on my head (that was precisely the reason I had taken so much pain to reach Paris asap). Did I mention it was a group assignment? But this time it was going to be an altogether different experience for me in my small history of group works in a multicultural group environment. The good news came as soon as I reached home. There was no update on the assignment front from any group-mate. It meant that we were yet to start the work on the assignment (for the records, other group were beautifying their power-points by now). None of the group-mates seem to be online. Things could not have been better. So I started on whatever I thought I could take up and waited patiently for others to come. One by one they came online after the 'amazing' weekend trips. The work seemed so abstract that none of us had any clue of what to do. Assignments have never frustrated me so much. We were not heading in any direction and there was no clue too. Clock ticked 1am and then 2am and then 3am (that's so obvious) and we were still fighting within ourselves (yes, we did have a fight in the group on a very trivial issue) and with the time.

Finally it's 4am now and I am totally exhausted and was absolutely in no condition to contribute. Time for a short break so as to rejuvenate and contribute again. Work is still going on.

Today I made a history. I did a night out (ok not the full night out but still almost 95% types) for the group work. My group should be so proud of me. G3, are you listening???