Wednesday, May 13, 2009

Four is company,- The Trip

The four of us set out on a mission : Mission France. But only one survived till the very end(The west end of France - Brest).

Day 0

12 Noon: Relaxing at the airport, waiting for boarding. The international terminal looks nothing like the one in the movies. Overcrowded, Indians everywhere... oh where art thou firangies??

18:30 : Landed in Paris. Cameras out, flash! Flash!... until the authorities threatened to seize our passports. Customs - I wish our religious customs were that easy.

20:00 : After a wild goose chase for the metro station, finally settled down on the cosy red leather Paris metro seats. Cost : 8.4 euros. And please, don't convert to rupee :(

21:15 : Reached the destination Paris Monteparnee... Whatever its called! Shyam is still struggling with his baggage and Iyer is delighted after his first 'complete' french conversation.

Midnight : After buying my ticket again ( Yeah, had to, because of some problem) and waiting alone for 1 hr, found my place in the fastest train on earth, TGV.

Day 1

05:52 : Dot on time, the train reaches Brest. One thing common between Indians and French - everyone's in a hurry to get down. And yeah, Iyer was right. Everyone smokes here. Even the baby in the cradle was sucking cigarette, not his thumb. But then, its so cold out here. Understandable.

07:27 : Found the keys to my room. Nice, small, cosy. And oh, a girl lives next door. Heck, I am a sadhu :) .

8:00 : Met Arun Kumar aka Baby bhaiya. Hasn't changed a bit, only his girl friends have changed nationality. Some Hindi, some iitg lingo. Ah, what a relief.

13:30 : Got up from sleep, Met the professor. Here is a snippet of our conversation -
"Yes sir, I will start right away sir."
"Don't worry, work slow n steady. I am sure you have to mail back home. "
Shows what a diligent and obedient boy I am :)

18:00 : I went to the Beach, you bitches! Few more Indians had joined in. Helpful lot. And a lot crankier than I thought they would be.

22:00 : Slept....

FOOD : I haven't mentioned the food I had. Well, that is because I dint have much. Just Parle-G, some boiled beans, some Laddus from back home.

I guess my settling was pretty smooth. Lets see how the stay goes. ;)

2 comments:

  1. u rite... usual habit to convert in rupees and think nd then it feels a spoilt spendthrift... "Yesterday, I bought a small notebuk, a diary u may call - 5 pounds .... I quikly converted it and it made me really reluctant". Rest seems as if you had a well planned smooth journey.....
    Keep blogging!!!!

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