London with a touch of Paris-8th Sept

The thought of getting up early after a nite of hard partying was torture-putting it into action was tougher. But no recourse, as I simply could not leave London without meeting good friends-The Loomba parivar.

While in the tube (the metro, silly!-wasnt travelling through magic beakers & test tubes), for some strange reason, I couldnt stop smiling at the fact that this was going to be the first time I would travel alone in London (yeah, I know-grown up girl and should be no big deal)-but I get this feeling each time I travel alone in a new city-the nervous excitemen does fizzle out after a couple of hours but I do really feel proud of navigating my way around a new place-it could have something to do with my pathetic sense of direction (in my world, I locate places by landmarks and landmarks alone-had a hard time during my sales stint in Pepsi, where I wouldnt know the name of the road but I would know the exact series of outlets that I'd find there-" Laxmi pan bhandar se right" , phir "jalaram cold drinks", uske aage " Bhavesh general store" blah blah- Landed me in a soup a couple of times during high profile visits, coz I missed the turn and made my god level bosses believe I was a fat-ass who never did any market work & someone who just played a recorded traffic scene each time they called). But well, enough of a digression!

So yeah- felt great to meet the Loombas-had a delicious hoome cooked meal and saw great snaps (that sold me on to the idea of definitely visiting Scotland, sometime!).

And as paranoid that I had become after the barrage of horrible stories of thefts at youth hostels and the pickpocket gangs in Italy, I thought it'd be wise to download all my London snaps onto Suvir's unsuspecting computer. Logic being-at worst, I'd lose the camera-wont lose precious memories. Yeah, very positive, I know.

(for the record, all my steely glares and paranoia-induced strategies of deception worked and we didnt really lose/forget/damage anything valuable, during this trip-only our minds, sometimes!)

The day was also marked by the huge 'phatka' of 125 pounds each, courtesy a misunderstanding in reading train times. Our train was supposed to leave at 15:11 and arrive in Paris at 18:43. However, G in some delirious trance, calculated time differences and worked out some economic curve to arrive at the fact that our departure time was 18:43-with the result that once we reached the station, no rubbing of eyes could reverse the train that we missed. So well, had to buy new tickets! (Einstein!)

The temptation to scream and generally create a scene was curbed rather well, I'd say, particularly by me (given the past record of hysteria and panic at smallest change in plans), with the long term vision of having a great trip and the overarching feeling that we shouldnt let this minor blip make grouchoes (if ever that's a word) out of us.

The Eurostar journey from London to Paris was comfortable and uneventful and largely comprised a great quiche and a dishy but extremely boring co-passenger.

Arrived at Paris du Nord-had to change trains (yeah-backpacking also means no-frills, no-cabs and no 100 euros a night hotels!) and several steps to get to the hostel and we did get a bit lost on the street looking for it (rather frightening..coz I had visions of us huddled in one corner-spending the night on the streets!). God bless G's soul- she helped me with carrying my fat bag around most of Europe (so G, this is the cumulative, all-in-one mega Thanks :)

Though at one place, the Montmartre station, it was just so pointless-and since its a funny incident, I insist on describing it in detail. Yeah so we reached the station, relatively unscathed (after an encounter with a Loony Punju weirdo who kept shouting sat-sri-akal & blowing air-kisses from the other platform-When will scumbags leave this planet and create their own scumworld??).

Now the direction to our hostel clearly stated, "Take the steps followed by some rights/lefts (which i couldnt distinguish between as no landmarks were provided)" as the instruction #1 and since, compliance in foreign land comes easy-we gulped as we saw the "sign of 90 steps" that greeted us, but valiantly made our way up. Huffing and puffing and sweating- even getting an occasional sympathy smile from the passersby, -we made it-tired but victorious! Getting to the hostel safe and sound made us forget our torture-What revived it cruelly was the sign to the bloody elavator which we noticed, the next day!!!!Those smiles- they were not signs of solidarity from kind hearted souls-they were the "how-dumb-can-you-get snickers from strangers!

The hostel was nice & warm and it felt nicer after we realized that we get 1/2 an hr of free internet and that there was a loo+shower attached to the room :) (yeah, I also had visions of queueing up for the basics!). We were to share our small lil home for the next 4 nights with 2 American girls (stuck up), 1 Romanian girl (seemed nice but her lack of english and our lack of french couldnt possibly amount to a decent conversation) & 1 Romanian boy (her bro, we discovered later).

Sleep didnt come easy-maybe it had to do with the squeaky bed and the individuals listed above who had graduated in honors from The Twist & Turn through the night School. Maybe it had to do with sleeping in close proximity with total strangers. Or maybe my hostel paranoia. Or maybe just, maybe it could have had something to do with the 2 calls I got from Singapore numbers at some unearthly hour, about my cable tv and my credit card! (the singaporean accent can sound very very annoying at 4 am, trust me!). Or maybe my brain just sensed how stupid the rest of me would be proved the next day when i read the "lift" sign. Ah well. suffice to say, I hardly got any sleep. But well, what do they say, tomorrow's another day-and will admit, it did turn out to be a great one!

Traveller's tip#1-For London-Paris, a return ticket on train is cheaper than a single ticket. Yes ! Just dont ask me how or why. The flight is even cheaper-so unless you are spending sleepless nights over global warming and you've turned carbon-o-phobic, just fly a budget airline. (The indian rule of train fares being lesser than air fares fails miserably)

Traveller's tip #2- Book your hostel in Paris way in advance-tends to be the most expensive city as far as good hostels go. Square Caulaincourt, where we stayed, was good-but we booked it only coz others like Le village etc were full.

& since Im feeling generous, Traveller's tip#3- Do carry some heat & eat/cup'o noodles type of food (I'd reco kohinoor rice series-coz it gives u the curry and the carb together lah)-most hostels have fully equipped kitchens-make the most of it. This will be really helpful if you are comforted by'hot' food alone/are veggie/dont have the energy or money to make it to the next restaurant & can not, simply can not have more crepes! (which I promise, you WILL have a lot of , if you are veggie).