of cold swissland, nice beach, and F1
aaaaaah! well, now that the next weekend arrives, I should jot down what I did over the past weekend :) A long weekend, starting Thursday, most people bunked Friday making it a 4 day no show. I decided to bunk Monday too, but then work on Thursday, keeping it a 4 day weekend. What I was to take in later was that my supervisor left for a 12 day family holiday on Thursday, and so I had no motivation to work on a day that had attendance lower than a regular weekend Saturday.
Not working, chatting, orkutting, mailing, and making pasta was how I spent my Thursday. I washed clothes for 2 €, and dried them for another 1 €. Finally, I packed my bags, and went to the train station to catch my 19.42 connection to Wolfsburg, where I would get my City Night Line for Basel SBB, Switzerland. The wait at Wolfsburg station, 2 straight hours in the cold, weren't great, but that was to be done to save some 10 odd euros, which were very much required, as I am being paid an amount that would be given to a beggar who'd not be doing anything but sitting idle throughout the day. Well, that's Germany for you.
Aboard on the train, I had my ticket checked at around 12, and then off to sleep. Was woken by Swiss customs officers some 30 minutes before we reached Basel, to check my passport. As usual, the passport snap was desperately compared to my face, and the amount of missing hair was much pondered on. But then that's something I have to bear for another 5 years, before my passport expires :) Into Basel, I changed over to a train for Bien, and then onto a train to Geneve (Geneva for non-Europeans) Scheduled Arrival: 10.47 AM. NG was supposed to be waiting for me at the platform. It so happenned that I dozed of at around 10, and then got up with a start while the train was at some station. A conversation between a woman behind me and me went like this:
I: where are we?
She: Geneve.
I: Geneve?
She: Yes
(I pull my bag, my jacket, and make a run for it)
She: (calls back)It's not Geneve Airport.
I: (a desperate reply, so that I can hurry getting down from the train) I was supposed to get down here :P
She looks stunned, but then who cares ;)
Down the train, I meet NG, who was desperately searching for me from one end of the train to the other :P He would have borded the train incase I wouldn't have gotten down :D Into Geneve, we ran into a group of 3rd yearites interning at EPFL. NG and I had just 10 SCF in his pocket, other than loads of Euros, decided to borrow some of this pack. 10 SCF on, we headed off to the tourist information office. Strange but true, the [i] is not near the station, but somewhere in the city, to where NG knew the way. (thankfully!)
Taking a map, and some instructions later, we went to see the Highest water fountain in the world. The water goes up some 140 metres! A few pics of the fountain, a few of the ducks that swam the lake Geneve, and then NG kept wondering where the flowerclock was. We looked, and looked, and looked. Then we gave up and went ahead towards the old city. I was keen to have a look at the cathedral (it sure was a letdown) and the rulers of the Reformation that are set in stone, not far from the cathedral. NG disclosed that he had half a bottle of red wine (or was that white?) and we both took in a few sips on an empty stomach, right in front of the The rulers of the Reformation :) A few pics here and there, we walked (read trecked the steep slopes) our way to the other side of the lake, to where stood the Red Cross Museum and the United Nations building. Somehow NG knew all the ways in this city, and that was kind of good. Some more pics, and we decide NOT to enter the museums in each of these buildings. Some 10 SCF and 5 SCF each. We took a break at the lawns of the Red Cross Hospital, and then went all the way back to the station, so that NG could find some possible connection to Paris from Monaco/Nice for the race day.
The Geneve Fountain. A 140 m high burst!
And the ducks that swam Lake Geneve
The Cathedral was a let down
The rulers of the Reformation
United Nations
Red Cross Hospital
At the station, after more than 40 minutes of trying with the person at the counter, NG finally found a train that would get him to Paris in the morning of the Monday that followed, and not in the night, as previously scheduled. He was extremely relieved getting back to office on time :)
We caughtup with Sarmistha at the Geneve station, and the 3 of us boarded the 16.21 train to Lyon Part Dieu. In Lyon, with about 30 minutes to spare, we ran around the station trying to jugaado something to eat, and drink. NG confidently said he'll get something, and ran up somewhere. While Sarmistha and I looked for him, we bought a huge loaf of sweet bread, 3 €, and then found NG with a packet in hand. Few chocolates, marshmellows, and some nutties. 2 € :P:P Lovely buy. Pondering whether we should buy a bottle of wine (prettz cheap: just 5 € a bottle) or not, we took a bottle of juice, and 2 of water. Hurrying onto the platform with some 3 minutes to go, we climbed on the wrong one, then came hurrying down, and get onto the right platform. No, we didn't miss the train. We caught it with more than a minute to spare :)
Onto the train, we ate the food, drank the drinks, and tried to decide where to alight: Antibes (the staion near which stays Chinmay), or Nice, as planned. Then came up another option: Cannes, and with the film festival, it was the best bet. At around 11 in the night we got down, found a map from somewhere, a train timetable for getting to Nice, and some directions as to where was the beach, and where was the film festival. Both in the same direction. I somehow always had the idea that such places have casinos, and they are the best bet for dumping luggage. We did this quite often when in Sydney :) And as expected, this city did have a casino, next to the blue carpet. We entered the casino, dumped our bags, and had a look around the slot machine room. NG and I wanted to try our hands at cards, and as we moved towards the cards room, we were "shooed" away with the gatekeeper saying something in French. We tried again, and we shooed once more, only to learn that sport shoes weren't allowed inside the room. Some fundaes for sure!
Dejected, and hungry, We looked for some place to eat, and as expected, NG found an Ice-Cream Parlour! We saw this board that said:
1 scoop: 2.0 €
2 scoop: 2.5 €
3 scoop: 3.0 €
And I was happy that the 3 of us would have a scoop each in a personalised cone for just 3 EUR. But to my utter dismay, it was 3 scoops in one cone/ cup :) We ordered 3, one of each person's liking: kiwi, mango, and green apple. The woman at the counter asked us where were we from, and we said "India" :) She claimed to have been in India, and named places that even we haven't visited as yet. Then she showed us the cup with 3 scoops, a biscuit and a spoon. Asks: Is this good? Or one more spoon? We say 3 :) She smiles, and then offers us a plate too to keep the cup on ;) Soon we were joined by a huge group of college-goers, and everyone ordered a 3 scoop cone. Sure we had fun sitting there and the 3 of us gheezing into one cup :)
We left that place, went up the road, and found a small store open. Entering it, NG was happy to see the wine bottles, and then as usual, we bought a packet of slice cake, and a big bottle of juice :) The cake sucked! And the juice was cold. So was the places where we sat to rest :|
We went towards the blue carpet, saw some European actress, lots of Ferraris with V8 engines going vroom vroom on the road, and then slowly walked towards the beach. An hour on the beach, the chilly air started getting to us, and so did the cold sand. We decided to get our bags back (the casino closed at 4) and then grab some sleep. With bags in our hands, we tried to get some sleep on the benches near the film festival area. 40 min down, I was woken up, someone was feeling cold. So, we decided to head up to the station, and try getting a place like we had in Vienna. Unfortunately, the station was closed, and after a closer inspection, we realised it didn't open till 5! Sarmistha made us sit down in the middle of the road, and with cold winds blowing from both sides, it sure wasn't the best place to sit. Then we decided to move in towards a wall, so that we could be protected from one side atleast. An hour of sleep, and some drunk moron comes shouting at us, and we get up. Lucky enough to see that a cafe open infront of us :) We entered it, drank large coffees, and nibbled onto some bread. And then sat there for the next hour or so, regaining the lost heat :|
At around 7, we headed to the beach, to take some morning shots. Saw a couple of oldies fishing by the tier. The did catch something small. But nothing useful. Took in some shots of the place. Finally, we headed towards the station, bought a tickets for Nice. Freshened up for 0.50 € at the station restrooms, changed clothes, and then waited for Pursha and Chinmay at the meeting point.
The old man and his fishing rods
Boats on which were held the night long parties
Early morning. Look at the clouds close to the mountain tops
From here on, Chinmay's blog is being Ctrl-C - Ctrl-V-ed, coz he's done exactly what I would have done! Written a blog post on Nice beaches, and F1 @ Monaco :)
I'm not a big Formula 1 fan. I don't watch F1, I hardly follow it on the net, and I definitely don't get into heated debates about how Schumacher is now a shadow of his old self (or alternatively, how he still kicks butt). But I know enough about the game. And having missed the Monaco Grand Prix last year, I jumped at the opportunity, when Purshya, NG, Vishnoi and Sam made plans to come down here. I have uploaded the album on my homepage, as well as a page I created on the INRIA server, which might be faster to access.
After Purshya arrived by a characteristically late italian train, our first stop on a beatiful day was obviously, the Nice beach. The sight was so alluring that Nitin decided to hop in for some swimming, with zot knowledge of flotation, forget about swimming. Being an artificial beach, the depth suddenly increases couple of meters into the water. Long story short, our adventurous Mr. Nitin Gupta almost drowned 10 feet away from the shore =))
Everybody knows that Formula 1 is all about money. But we had realised just how much money FIA is rolling in, when we bought tickets for Secteur Rocher, the general admission area. For 62 Euros (all other tickets being > 250 E), we got admitted to what looked like an abandoned park.! Forget about seating, it wasn't even a lawn, the kind we see in Australian cricket grounds. It was an extremely inconvenient place, with trees blocking the view almost everywhere, the ground was sloping and positively treacherous to walk on. We finally found a place with decent view of the circuit and the nearest screen, and most importanly, having FLAT surface.! We've pledged.. Next time we watch a Grand Prix, we'll have the bank balance (actual word in the pledge was `aukat' :-P) to afford the Hairpin bend stand (the best place to watch the race from apart from the pit lane :-)) It's another matter that Nitin is the only one likely to actually earn so much money. :-P
A little about Monaco: Lavish.. That's how I'll describe it, if I really have to say `little' about it. This country, which is probably of the size of IIT Bombay campus, is an extreme spike of land value amongst mountains surrounding it. It is EXPENSIVE, in capital letters, even by French Riviera standards. One thing's for sure.. It provides a magnificent backdrop for a race. I mean, Monaco is THE Grand Prix to watch. As a not-so-big fan of F1, I think it wouldn't be half as much fun to watch a race in a circuit specially made for racing, far away for a city.
Why is watching a race in person such a big deal? I mean clearly, you can't see the whole of the track, you have to endure the afternoon heat (or alternatively, rains) and pay insane amount of money for it.! As a reply, I would say the single biggest factor is the sound of roaring V8 engines.! It might sound crazy, but the adrenaline rush one gets just listening to the thunderous sound is beyond description. When we landed in Monaco, we had hardly stepped out of the Monte Carlo station (which by the way, is spectacular) when we heard the cars speeding for the qualifying session. The sound coming from more than 200 metres away and past rows of buildings was almost causing tremors.!
The night-out : Since Secteur Rocher was a general admission area, it was imperative that we stay overnight in order to maintain `ownership' of one of the rare spots with a good view. As the dusk fell, temperatures dropped at steady rate and the breeze coming over the harbour wasn't helping either.. The night-life of Monaco came alive, and the view was dazzling, but as the night wore on, we were hardly in the spirits to marvel at the view. It was coooold.! Enough to remind me of the night on Brussels station last year.. But we had a helping hand this time.. Ricard's Pastis de Marseillies :-P This was our the algorithm for the night..
After Purshya arrived by a characteristically late italian train, our first stop on a beatiful day was obviously, the Nice beach. The sight was so alluring that Nitin decided to hop in for some swimming, with zot knowledge of flotation, forget about swimming. Being an artificial beach, the depth suddenly increases couple of meters into the water. Long story short, our adventurous Mr. Nitin Gupta almost drowned 10 feet away from the shore =))Everybody knows that Formula 1 is all about money. But we had realised just how much money FIA is rolling in, when we bought tickets for Secteur Rocher, the general admission area. For 62 Euros (all other tickets being > 250 E), we got admitted to what looked like an abandoned park.! Forget about seating, it wasn't even a lawn, the kind we see in Australian cricket grounds. It was an extremely inconvenient place, with trees blocking the view almost everywhere, the ground was sloping and positively treacherous to walk on. We finally found a place with decent view of the circuit and the nearest screen, and most importanly, having FLAT surface.! We've pledged.. Next time we watch a Grand Prix, we'll have the bank balance (actual word in the pledge was `aukat' :-P) to afford the Hairpin bend stand (the best place to watch the race from apart from the pit lane :-)) It's another matter that Nitin is the only one likely to actually earn so much money. :-P
A little about Monaco: Lavish.. That's how I'll describe it, if I really have to say `little' about it. This country, which is probably of the size of IIT Bombay campus, is an extreme spike of land value amongst mountains surrounding it. It is EXPENSIVE, in capital letters, even by French Riviera standards. One thing's for sure.. It provides a magnificent backdrop for a race. I mean, Monaco is THE Grand Prix to watch. As a not-so-big fan of F1, I think it wouldn't be half as much fun to watch a race in a circuit specially made for racing, far away for a city.Why is watching a race in person such a big deal? I mean clearly, you can't see the whole of the track, you have to endure the afternoon heat (or alternatively, rains) and pay insane amount of money for it.! As a reply, I would say the single biggest factor is the sound of roaring V8 engines.! It might sound crazy, but the adrenaline rush one gets just listening to the thunderous sound is beyond description. When we landed in Monaco, we had hardly stepped out of the Monte Carlo station (which by the way, is spectacular) when we heard the cars speeding for the qualifying session. The sound coming from more than 200 metres away and past rows of buildings was almost causing tremors.!
The night-out : Since Secteur Rocher was a general admission area, it was imperative that we stay overnight in order to maintain `ownership' of one of the rare spots with a good view. As the dusk fell, temperatures dropped at steady rate and the breeze coming over the harbour wasn't helping either.. The night-life of Monaco came alive, and the view was dazzling, but as the night wore on, we were hardly in the spirits to marvel at the view. It was coooold.! Enough to remind me of the night on Brussels station last year.. But we had a helping hand this time.. Ricard's Pastis de Marseillies :-P This was our the algorithm for the night..- Try to catch some sleep.
- Get up because well, it's freezing, we are sleeping on wood!
- Curse the weather, curse the disco nearby playing loud music, curse one's own lack of foresight in not bringing sleeping bags.
- Have small dose of Pastis..
- Try to fall asleep before the effect of Pastis wears off.
- If successful go back to step 2 after a gap of two hours, else go back to step 5.
You get the point.. In any case, all of us survived :-P At some point during the night, I was on step 4, when a policeman approached me. He face contorted into an alarming expression at the sight of the bottle of Pastis in my hand. I thought he was going to make me throw it away, because our ticket did have a symbol of a bottle with a red cross on it. Instead he said in terrible french accent, "You drink that weeth water..!" =)) Go figure... (Well one usually does dilute Pastis with water, cause it is REALLY concentrated. But something strong was exactly what we needed..)
A bit about the race: I wouldn't write much here, everybody knows what happened. It was an exciting race. Alonso drove wisely, Schumacher drove brilliantly. Hadn't Webber's car blown up and the safety car come out (which nullified Schumacher's one stop advantage), he would've given Alonso a run for his money.
To close, I can positively say, that all the inconvenience, the long and cold night-out and most importantly THE 62 Euros, the trip was worth all of it. :-)
It's raining here..! Rain in Riviera! What's wrong with this world?
So long.!
Aah! Now that the F1 part is over, I can come to what happenned after that. NG hurried onto his train, Chinmay for his. Sarmistha and I left for our respective trains at 18.00, leaving Pursha to catch his train to Venice at 21.30. I boarded my on-time Italian train to Voghera. Was supposed to arrive at the place at some 22.06, but then just like what happenned on the Bien-Geneve train, I dozed off. And I Didn't get up this time :( With infinite nbd on my face, I asked the people sitting near me as to what to do. So far Italian/ French speakers spoke to me in English, and helped me out. Adviced me to go to Milan and work out a connection. That was the best way out, they said. At 22.51 we arrived at Milan. One step onto the station, and I realised this was a look alike of upna desi Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus at Bombay! Designed same way, it was equally dirty, the floor on which I wouldn't prefer sitting. Similar attitude of the police wallas, and the hustle and jostle at even 11 in the night.
A look at the arrival/departure board, and I realised the best bet to be a train to Verona, dep 00.25, arr 02.24 and spend a night out there. Taking this train, I slept on it through out the journey, and was lucky enough to get up precisely when we were to reach the station! Luck me. I got off the train, felt the chilling cold, and ran to the nearest waiting room. The room sure was inviting, but had a monster of a man sleeping. I went to the waiting room next to this one, and it had 2 females, and a man. Surely better company :) Slept there till some 7.30 in the morning. With prior knowledge that the next train to München at 9.01 from Verona, I knew that I had enough time to kill. Not to forget the time I was going to spend through out the day. I went to the ticket counter to get a reservation for the train, and was shocked to see the bill at 65 €. I repeated : "Only reseravation, no ticket, no fahkarte, only reservision" trying my had on all the German and French I could remember. All this to an Italian :P Finally, I showed him my EURail, and he accepted defeat in not selling me a ticket, but just a reservation for 5 €. Aboard the train, I rested the complete 6 hour journey :)
Finally, into know territory, Germany ahoy! I ran to the ticket machine to take a printout of my iternary upto Magdeburg, then to the FC Bayern München fan store at the station, to pick up a whopping 65 € jersey for Gullu. A jersey for which he still hasn't paid me! Next stop at Burger king, for a veggie burger, nope 2. Finally, I managed all this in 10 min, and had 5 minutes to board my next connection to Naumburg. And from there, its all history :) I landed in Magdeburg at 20.56, reached MPI at 21.15, and had dinner already prepared by Sumedh :) And then a good night's sleep :)
A bit about the race: I wouldn't write much here, everybody knows what happened. It was an exciting race. Alonso drove wisely, Schumacher drove brilliantly. Hadn't Webber's car blown up and the safety car come out (which nullified Schumacher's one stop advantage), he would've given Alonso a run for his money.To close, I can positively say, that all the inconvenience, the long and cold night-out and most importantly THE 62 Euros, the trip was worth all of it. :-)
It's raining here..! Rain in Riviera! What's wrong with this world?So long.!
Aah! Now that the F1 part is over, I can come to what happenned after that. NG hurried onto his train, Chinmay for his. Sarmistha and I left for our respective trains at 18.00, leaving Pursha to catch his train to Venice at 21.30. I boarded my on-time Italian train to Voghera. Was supposed to arrive at the place at some 22.06, but then just like what happenned on the Bien-Geneve train, I dozed off. And I Didn't get up this time :( With infinite nbd on my face, I asked the people sitting near me as to what to do. So far Italian/ French speakers spoke to me in English, and helped me out. Adviced me to go to Milan and work out a connection. That was the best way out, they said. At 22.51 we arrived at Milan. One step onto the station, and I realised this was a look alike of upna desi Chattrapati Shivaji Terminus at Bombay! Designed same way, it was equally dirty, the floor on which I wouldn't prefer sitting. Similar attitude of the police wallas, and the hustle and jostle at even 11 in the night.
A look at the arrival/departure board, and I realised the best bet to be a train to Verona, dep 00.25, arr 02.24 and spend a night out there. Taking this train, I slept on it through out the journey, and was lucky enough to get up precisely when we were to reach the station! Luck me. I got off the train, felt the chilling cold, and ran to the nearest waiting room. The room sure was inviting, but had a monster of a man sleeping. I went to the waiting room next to this one, and it had 2 females, and a man. Surely better company :) Slept there till some 7.30 in the morning. With prior knowledge that the next train to München at 9.01 from Verona, I knew that I had enough time to kill. Not to forget the time I was going to spend through out the day. I went to the ticket counter to get a reservation for the train, and was shocked to see the bill at 65 €. I repeated : "Only reseravation, no ticket, no fahkarte, only reservision" trying my had on all the German and French I could remember. All this to an Italian :P Finally, I showed him my EURail, and he accepted defeat in not selling me a ticket, but just a reservation for 5 €. Aboard the train, I rested the complete 6 hour journey :)
Finally, into know territory, Germany ahoy! I ran to the ticket machine to take a printout of my iternary upto Magdeburg, then to the FC Bayern München fan store at the station, to pick up a whopping 65 € jersey for Gullu. A jersey for which he still hasn't paid me! Next stop at Burger king, for a veggie burger, nope 2. Finally, I managed all this in 10 min, and had 5 minutes to board my next connection to Naumburg. And from there, its all history :) I landed in Magdeburg at 20.56, reached MPI at 21.15, and had dinner already prepared by Sumedh :) And then a good night's sleep :)
posted by vishnoi @ 3:38 am
4 Comments:
Whoa!!
Im jealous as ever
Having a nice time, buddy ?
the duck pic luks lovely
bas ab tere blog par aur nahin aaunga mujhe kitna inferior n jealous feel hota hai x-(
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