Paris
Ok…so let me start of from Friday. After a dinner on Thursday night we planned to go a little late to office. So we took only the 9 O clock shuttle. Since we went late I made sandwiches for evening(nothing much…just put margarine in between bread slices and made 4 such sandwiches). I did some packing also for the weekend trip. The bag had become pretty heavy. Could not help it. Then went to office.
At office in the afternoon we went to the SAP shop where we could buy some retractors and back packs and all that wit sap logo on it. I found everything to be too expensive. And also I already had all those things. I dint want to simply buy it and not be able to carry it back to India. So I just did window shopping when my colleagues(anu, moi, deep) did the shopping.
Moi tried using her amex card in the atm, typed in wrong pin and the card got stuck and locked. She finally managed to remove the card. But unfortunately she can’t draw cash now.
Then we went for lunch. We were in the university block. the lunch looked too good with a lot of international variety. I am sorry…I forgot to mention. this sap shop is not in rot but at walldorf. We had gone all the way to walldorf. When I saw the lunch itself I was doubtful if it was for free. We asked and found it was not…obviously…there was too much to give free.
Then we decided to come back to rot and have lunch. On the way back all of them decided that they were not hungry and so dint want lunch. But I was too hungry. So I told them I will get down at building 3 directly and have lunch and then join them. I went for lunch and was eating when moi decided to have lunch and came and joined me. We finished and ran to a meeting that was scheduled at 1:30. we slept nicely in the meeting.
Then the day went on dragging. Lots of work was also there. But no mood to do it.
Finally it was 4:40 and time to leave. Deepthi suddenly said lets leave at 5:12. so we decided to leave a little late. We left by the 5:12 shuttle and reached walldorf office. When we started walking to ambiente from there we saw ranjini who was leaving to India on Sunday and was supposed to give me all her food stuff. I asked her to leave it at the reception if at all she could not give it to me on that day. We then walked to hotel.
I had almost finished my packing. So I just charged my mobile and camera batteries and all that. I ate a un some yogurt(not some …a lot of it) and also..something else…I forgot. Also had some ribbon pakkoda that mom had given. Then I spoke to prashanth . after that I went and took bath(as we could not take bath the next morning) and got dressed.then went to the reception and gave my clothes for laundry thinking that by the time I am back from paris the laundry will be done. But then she said she will give it to me only on Tuesday as it was weekend. I thought its ok and gave it.
After that I was done….so sat and read satsaritam, then sophies world and then also…before taking bath I had done pranayama and exercise that I had missed in the morning.
After all this I still had one and half hours to go. So I went to sleep. for one hour I slept. Then got up. It was too difficult to get up. Anyway..got up…booked taxi. Went to ranjini’s room to ask if she had packed the food stuff. But her lead had come to visit her. So she was busy. So I told her it was ok and came back. Did some last minute stuffing into bag. Put on socks gloves jacket and all. Had filled a 1.5 litre bottle with water from office. Put that also into the bag. Whew!!!heavy it was. Anyway…carried it to the taxi and left to station. Met moi there.
The train came at 10:58. got in and reached heidelberg. There we waited for train for sometime. got into the next train and sat in our seats. Two other men were there in our coupe who were aready fast asleep. We sat down. I spoke to prashanth again. My throat was doing some nonsense. I was wishing I don’t get cold. Then I switched off mobile and went to sleep.
We got up at paris.we were there finally. We already had the map of the metro trains and the RER(sub urban trains) with us. We went, got a metro pass for 2 days that was valid in all metros, rers, buses etc in paris. Then we got infor how to get to our hotel.we wet to the first metro station.
I think the paris metro system is one of the most wonderful and efficient things that I have seen. We dint have to ask a single person for any directions. We had the map and we just followed sign boards. The metro als was very frequent and very fast. It was more like India here. A little dirty. But life not as dull as germany.
The train doors shut in such a speed that wewere scared and we used to rush in and out of the train fearing we might get stuck between doors.
Trains were crowded and the stoppings were only for abt few seconds.
We have not walked to any destination…because we found that instead of asking people how to go to a plce if we found it on the metro map and followed those directions it would make it very easy. Tho we might have walked the same distance inside metro stations as much maybe from one place to another…we felt atleast sure of where we were going.
So we first went to our hotel that I had booked. That guy said we can’t check in at that time. We had to check in only at 2pm. We tried fighting with him…but useless. So we just used the rest room and freshened up. Then we took out some stuff that we dint need and left it at the reception and told him we will come back only at night and will check in at that time.he also gave us some maps and some directions.
Then he also gave us the Disney land tickets.but we had to pay him only half the money the rest we had to pay at Disney land showing this and they would give us the actual ticket.
Moi decided that she dint want to come with us. She wanted to see the palace of Versailles. We had to decided between Disney land and the palace as it was too far to cover both places. So she went there and me and deep went to Disney. We reached Disney at 10.we were so excited that we literally ran in. we were running abt trying to find the counter where we had to get the proper tickets. By the time we finished all this it was 10:50. anyway we ran in. picked up one Disney map. We could not decide where to go. So we went and stood in a q for the train that would take us thru Disney land. As we were waiting we saw some performances far away by some Disney characters and halooween pumpkins and all. Then we got into the train. got down at fantasy land. Needless to say we kept clicking pics at every point.
It was drizzling continuosly. We dint care. We went in. went to some castle of sleeping beaty and all. Then the snow white castle was good. It was too kiddish… but stikll I enjoyed it. We also watched a 3d movie….very nice…even the seats and all had effects…when required the seats would shake. Fun it was. Then we went around some shops…too costly. So dint bother to buy anything. But held the soft toy for sometime
Huge samba from lion king…very cute soft toy. And there were donalds and mickey. I took pictures of those but dint dare to buy all that stuff which had a tag…”made in china”
Then we were done with Disney land at 2:45. Every ride had a q. half the time went in waiting in q.
We got the next train to Eiffel tower. We were supposed to meet moi there at 4:30. we reached but moi was not there. We waited for 20 mins. So many trains came. But she dint come. I got tensed. She was alone also. I had given her my phone number and also the address to hotel. But still.. we thought she might have come earlier and gone outside the station. So we also went. We went to many hotels…horrible costly stuff.one cuppochino was 8.5 euros.by this time my throat was in a horrible state and I felt I might get fever. Needed something hot to drink. But it was too costly to buy there.
I decided that we go back to the station. Finally moi came and landed(whew!!!what a reflief)..she said she was late…but could not cal up. anways she was there.
We walked to Eiffel. The took a long time to search where the river boa ride was. Finally found one. She said 9 uros and that it would start in 10 mins. By the time we saw a coffee shop that served coffee cheap …just 2 euros( that’s just abt 110 bucks)…anyway…went there. I got a coffee (horrible one) and deepthi got some finger chips. Then we decided to go and find out if there were any cheaper boat rides. By the time we did that we realised 2 things…
There were only 2 boat rides
One was for 9 euros and one was 10
And the 9 euro one had already started and if we waited it we had to wait for one more hour..
Sooooo….we went for the 10 euro one. We sat next to the window in the boat. It started.it was a beautiful one hour boat ride on the sienne river showing us the whole of paris . it had an instrument that had commentary in 7 languages. After sometime we decided to go and sit at the dock outside so that we could get better pictures. It was cold. But as too good. One hour of great time.
Then it was night and Eiffel tower was glowing like gold. We ran to it. We stood in the q that was for taking the ticket to go to the top.we took 1 hr in the q. the 30 mins to go in q to the top.then we were there in tha crowd. On top of Eiffel..cold wind blowing hard. But beautiful paris in front of us. Sooperb view.
After taking snaps we came down(that also had long q). we were out of all this at abt 10. we decided to go to champs eleysee. We took a metro. Went there. We saw arc the triomphe from far. But then decided that there was nothing to go near and see. So we returned to hotel: just brushed. Spoke to prashanth and fell asleep on the bed.
Got up at 5. took bath . Woke moi. And I went back to sleep. they both got ready . I got up at 6:45 combed hair and was ready at designated time of 7 for breakfast. Unfortunately I forgot to take pics of the room. It was small. But suffient and clean. Very small bathroom. But was spic and span.
Breakfast was included in the costs. We went. I had 2 cups hot coffee. I had asked prashanth previous night if I need to take crocin. He said he dint think so and to take it only if it was necessary. I had not taken. Anyway I dint have fever. So I was happy. I had one croissant. And something else was there I forgot wat.
We then settled hotel bill and checked out at 7:45.
We went to station and took metro to louver museum. We were at louver. Immediately we started corresponding its resemblances to wat was there in the da vinci code book. Stood in q for ticket. Counter opened by 9. then we were in louver. We already had a map with the floor plan of louver. Since it was too big to cover in one day we had decided parts of it which we wanted to see. We went in and put our bags in the cloak room.
We marched towards the first item we wanted to see.
But we dint find the map too friendly. We searched for most of the stuff so much that by that time we had almost covered the whole museum.it was too tiring.
We saw the monalisa and other important stuff.
We got out of there at abt 12:50. we then went to notre dame.
We went to notre dame des champs….but that was the wrong place we had to go to notre dame st michaele…but this was paris…so no pros. We took the metro. There we were in front of notre dame. That’s when sangu messaged saying”we r back from ooty.give mc and we will call”. I gave a missed call but they dint call. Said they wanted to have coffee.hmm…
We went into notre dame. And then sangu called. Use of mobiles was prohibited inside. So I just picked the call and told her that I was in church and that we will talk later. photography was supposed to be prohibited. But we saw every one was clinking pics. So we also clicked. We then got out of it. Then I spoke to sangu mom and dad.but since I was on roaming dint speak for too long.
We then had a little discussion on if we had time to go to soccer cour. We decided on going there. We again went to metro got some clarifications….and went to soccer cour. By now trains were crowded like mad.no breathing space also.
Soccre cour was too much. We did not have time to go up the funicular (winch) and all that. So we just took some snaps. We saw that some people were trying to stop other people (tho I dint know if they were asking for money…I was scared). I took out all valuables and put into my dress). When we came down they asked us to wear some thread in the hand saying African tradition. I just said sorry some other time and ran off.
On the way back to station we found some shops. Cheap stuff. Cute things. I found a beautiful bracelet…6 euros…but u all know I am slow with my maths…I took too long to see if in rupees it was too costly or what…y then it was time up. So I just left it and walked to station. We reached the station and boarded the train that we were to take back to germany. We had booking. But we had not reserved seats. We found some nice seats and sat down. After sometime I called prashanth. Then after talking to him I thought I would go to the train canteen and buy some water because I was dead thirsty. On my way…I saw that the seats were not so good. Then we realised…we were in first class compartment. We then moved to a second class. On the way we saw the canteen guy with the trolley and I bought one kutty bottle of water for 2.4 euros(heart breaking).there were no seats to sit. We kept moving thru compartments. Finally each of us found a place ad sat down. I took out a book and started reading,.after sometime I was hungry….ok..i forgot…I had carried 3 buns, the sandwiches, half bread loaf and 4 apples. This was my food for 2 days.all on the run. No stopping for food. Ate when in q when in train and all that.
I took out some bread and ate in train. then put on mp3 songs and closed eyes for a while.while going to paris in the train I had some pain in the knee due to the cramped way of sitting. It had been paining throught the trip. Now it was very bad. I checked that there was no swelling and all.so I hope it is no problem.
Throat was dry again. So took out and ate one halls.
Then resumed book reading. After sometime sitting made my back ache. So I was standing and reading. Then we reached Mannheim at 10:20. we went to mcdonalds. I had a coffee…nice hot hot…
Then we went to our next train hat left at abt 11. we reached walldorf at 11:30. we had already told hotel to arrange for a taxi. We went back to hotel. I spoke to prashanth for a few mins. Brushed teeth and just collapsed on the bed.
I had actually visited paris…I still cant belive it.
Paris is a great place. I wished i had my family with me there. I would have enjoyed ten fold more. It was half made of Indians…everywhere I found Indians. It’s a great place. And if possible…someday…I would want to go there again with full family…prashanth , his parents sangu mom and dad….i wish we get that chance…
