Paris - the city of lights

April 18th, 2005.

3 cities. 3 months of planning.3 boys. 3 girls. A short description to the tall trip we took after module to Paris, Venice and Rome.

We left for Paris from Copenhagen on April 17. It was the last day of the module and all of us were still high on closing dinner. Hardly a couple of hours sleep made us quite drowsy at Copenhagen Airport. Finding every opportunity to catch up on a few winks we embarked on a trip that we had dreamt of for months now. We caught the Air France flight to Paris where we were to spend two wonderful days of our trip. Reaching Paris at around half past eleven we decided to jettison all our baggage at the airport for a few euros of rent and travel light with just about a backpack of essential belongings so that our shoulders can be burden free.
Our first day in Paris we arrived starry eyed at Charles De Gaulle Airport. However our sprits were dampened when we stepped out of the airport, since it was not a very impressive sight with hordes of cars and flyovers. We decided to take a one day metro pass in order to move around the city. We soon reached our hostel called ‘Friend’s Hostel’ where we decided to spend our time in Paris. It was the first time we were entering the streets of Paris. There was traffic, chaos, filth, and noise – something that we have an overdose of in Mumbai. Soon we realized that in our quest for looking at cheaper options to stay we ended up one of the darker sides of Paris. It was actually an area inhabited by many people of the Dark Continent. After freshening up and cooking up a decent meal of instant foods and soups all of us hit the sack for an hour or so. But soon we realized that we haven’t traveled half the world to sleep. Then each of us made our ‘Reached here safe’ customary phone calls back home. We proceeded to a church called Hunchback of Notre Dame. Now we were beginning to get the real flavour and spice of the most romantic city in the world – Paris. The church over looks the river Siene that runs through the entire city and is ornate with typical medieval sculptures. Then we spotted some of those famous ‘Hip Hop’ buses of Paris. These buses are tourist buses often spotted in Bollywood movies that are double deckered and the top row of seats open. So we were like a bunch of excited school kids who immediately hopped into one of them, bought our tickets in the bus and ran to the top floor. Each person is given earphones which when plugged gives you exact information of the monument or structure that you are passing. Each passing minute one gets reminded of the richness of history and culture. What makes the city unique is the wonderful blend of the old world charm and the avant-garde global city. Next we headed towards Arc De Triomphe which is a historical monument built for honouring some Brave French soldiers. Fishing out some extra euros from each of our pockets we took some winding stairs atop the monument just to catch a breath taking view of the city. The entire city has a definite plan and has retained its classical look even though ultra modern cars whiz past. The skyscrapers are built in a separate area so that there is no break to the timeless historical monuments that are being preserved for so many years now.

The rest of the evening we toured the city in the Hip Hop bus, which gave us ample commentary of the surroundings. Then we stopped at the Eiffel Tower. It looked unbelievably beautiful at night. The entire structure was lit up and the tower simply looked like it was made of 24 carat gold. A lot of pictures in many angles were taken. We wished to take elevator up and get a feel of Paris by night, but to our utter dismay it was closed for the night and we vowed to come back the next day.
It was when we decided to call it a day and decided to retire to beds early that we realized how cold and hungry we all were. In spite of a couple of sweaters, jackets, stoles, gloves and caps we warm blooded Indians still couldn’t handle the 6-7 degree chilly wind. Then we came to our hostels and grabbed a bite from one of those affordable Afghani tea stalls.

Then we had a refreshing eight-hour sleep. The next morning we started off early to explore the city that had so many faces to it. On the one hand it seemed like a parody where one could see millions leading very perfunctory and lonely lives and on the other there was the opulence of the sprawling shopping malls and designer cars and clothes. What was also glaring was how expensive it is to make a living here. A sandwich off the road will not cost less than three Euros! Nearly 160 Rupees would buy atleast 8 such sandwiches here. Well I guess I haven’t factored in the excellent quality of life, air, water and other social security benefits one gets though not directly related to a sandwich.

We began our day by walking down the much talked about promenade of Paris – the Champs De Elysees. It had some of the most celebrated brands of the fashion world. With arching trees stooping over elegantly on both sides of the road and vivid hoardings it was indeed a very pretty sight to behold. Then we hopped into one of those hip hop buses again and simply took a tour of the city. We passed by some of the renowned monuments, museums and palaces. Then by noon we landed at the Musee De Louvre.It is the world's largest museum. The River Seine flows gracefully around the museum making the entire scene extremely picturesque. We had made it a point to read the recent best seller ‘The Da Vinci code’ just for this day. The museum itself is a few hundred years old. We captured the glass pyramids on camera and proceeded inside. Inside it was simply mind blowing. There were 65,300 masterpieces in all. So even if you spend 10 seconds on each it would take you 181 hours which is 7.5 days to cover the entire place! But of course Dan Brown would have spent much more time than that building up the intricate plot around Sophie Neveu and Jacques Sauniere. So we saw some important ones like The Mona Lisa, Madonna on the rocks , Venus De Milo etc. Looking at Mona Lisa reminded me of trying to get a darshan of Lord Balaji in Tirupathi. Since she has been faked do many times that looking at the original self did not pique our interest to the level it should have.

There were some notable frescoes and roof carvings ceilings that one cannot miss.
Once again atop the hip hop bus we saw Pont Dana which is the bridge where Lady Diana and Dody Al Fayed died. Then there was the Obelisk, Mary Magdalene Church, Sacracour church, Lafayette Shopping Mall, and a number of museums whose names I simply cant recall.Later we strolled down Chatelet, a place that had some affordable shops and we soon simply couldn’t resist picking up some inexpensive miniatures of Eiffel towers , post cards of Mona Lisa etc.

Later we came back to the Eiffel Tower. It was when we took the elevator up the tower we realized what an engineering marvel it was. Built to commemorate the centenary of the French Revolution at an exhibition in 1889 it was truly awe-inspiring. It was through a panoramic view of the city and its colorful lights that the perfectly planned city looked evident to us. The tower was so captivating that we simply had to ignore the cozy eateries and shops.

After two days, just when I had fallen in love with the city it was time to say goodbye and head to Venice. There is so much to Paris and we could just get a feel of the place. One would require a minimum of couple of weeks to really soak in the sights and sounds of the place. Walking through the city we encountered many Indian, Bangladeshi and Sri Lankan hawkers, restaurateurs and shop owners who in the name of amity gave us some useful discounts.

Well spending two days in Paris is like reading two pages of ‘Gone with the wind’ and trying to writing a book review on it. Margaret Mitchell will not appreciate it too much.There is so much more to this quixotic city.There was so much to see like Sacre Cour church, Musee de Picasso,Musee Rodin, Hotel De Ville, Sainte Chappel and so on. We were however restricted by time, money and a quest to see more. We made our sortie out of Paris and were headed for Venice. So it was Au Revoir Paris and Bienvenue Venice.

Venice - the city of canals

April 21st, 2005.

When is Venice coming? That was all we had on our minds when we were traveling from Paris to Venice. The transition from Paris to Venice was smooth and memorable.

We took a train to Venice. Time to make use of the Eurail passes we had acquired from Mumbai. The train stopped over at Milan. We made a hundred meter dash with bag and baggage from Milano Centrale to the train headed for Venice. We barely made it to the train. Our joy was short lived however when we had to cross many bogies to find ourselves some sitting place. Soon we found a comfortable compartment for six and positioned ourselves there.

We caught some fleeting glimpses of Milan. It seemed quite unassuming. It was one of those noveau riche cities dotted with industries. However forming an opinion of any city in between anthakshari and chocolate biscuits cannot be conclusive. Spending the entire day in the train left us in awe of the Euro star TGV (Train a grande vitesse) we were traveling in. We had a second-class pass and the interiors etc weren’t really inspiring. We did manage some glances into the first class compartments and the passengers did look suitably pampered with the plush settings and the royal service they were receiving. The train however was probably traveling at over 300 kmph, but you could even write out a long thoughtful letter sitting inside. After an entire day of sitting around in trains we reached Venice – the city of beautiful canals. We stepped out of the railway station and actually saw the Canal Grande, the main canal running through the city. Before even putting the luggage down we took some pictures for memorabilia.

Then we took a bus (by road) to the campsite where we were booked. The city was a little damp. Not even the rains the next day dampened our tourist spirits. Prima Facie Venice lacked the sophistication and exoticness of Paris but it still was very charming. It did not have the cosmopolitan feel of an international city but it did have a very tourist flavour to it. It had its fair share of litter and dirt caused by the travelers’ influx. Then again the small tea stalls; restaurants along the canals, blossoms of flowers welcoming the onset of spring did look very inviting. The entire economy of Venice seemed to thrive on tourist money and small-scale industries. Reaching the campsite we parked ourselves at the little cottages given to us and headed straight to devour some authentic Italian pizzas! Unlike the heavily Americanized version we have back home these pizzas have very thin crusts and very crispy. Soon we noticed that one could buy more pizzas for same amount of euros in Italy than in France. Once we had laid our hunger to rest, we headed back to our temporary shelters.

Another eventful day. The rains particularly made it more eventful. The wind chill factor called for a day of chattering and cribbing sight seeing. We started off by making use of the shuttle service the camping authorities provided us the city centre all the time praying fervently for the sun to show up. Once again we got ourselves one of those one-day bus passes. The only difference was it was a waterbus. There were little bus stops by the canal, which did amuse us to a certain extent in the beginning. The queue discipline however was noteworthy. We boarded one of those boats that would ferry us across to he other side of town. There was a quaint site that beckoned us. Old fashioned houses, museums and churches stood right beside the canal. Many houses now converted to hotels made a very pretty picture indeed. All this in the backdrop of people taking relaxed Gondola rides. We did toy with the idea of having one ourselves but the sixty euros price tag did make us reconsider our prospects and held us back. After all we were on a shoestring budget. A lot of houses were also built right next to the water level, but no one resides there any more as the monsoons could cause the houses to get flooded.

We first disembarked at St. Marco. There was a basilica, a museum and a tower there as well. As soon as we did land there were plenty of tiny shops selling their wares. All of us just could not resist buying one of those flamboyant Venetian masks. They come in many shapes, colors and sizes. Zeroing down on one is so hard because when you see so many there is an overpowering feeling to buy all. We did of course make good use of our in born trait of bargaining and managed some fair discounts as well.

Then braving the wind and the rain we headed to Doge’s palace. A Doge was a magistrate in ancient Venice, more like a medieval lord. The boys to this day crib about the famed palace and what it had to offer. Paris and its monuments had heightened our expectations so much that this did not hold our interest for too long. We did though walk our way through numerous carved pillars, chambers, antechambers, paintings, maps etc. Walking out we soon headed for the basilica, which was again as pretty as any of those European churches we had seen. There was the church treasure trove up for public viewing but the thought of shelling out some more euros for that made us look the other way and head straight out. Like all European churches this one boasts of a nice tranquil atmosphere with scores of candles illuminating the entire place.

Coming out in the rain again we climbed into one of those waterbuses again and headed for an island called Lido. Somebody’s luck was playing and the sun was smiling down on us a bit. Our digestive systems soon started giving us warning signals and we began looking for some place to eat. We were quite startled to learn that the Italians take their siesta seriously and it took us some walking to find something open in the wee hours of three in the afternoon. Recharging our batteries with pizzas and pastas we set out to explore the island. It was a refreshing change from the rest of the city. The affluent surroundings and luxury cars cannot escape one’s attention. The rich and famous of Venice seem to reside here. A lovely beach beckoned us here. After suitable ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ were uttered we headed back to the bus stop or rather water bus stop. We intended to pay a visit to the well-known Murano glass factory. To our disappointment there were no glasses made after five in the evening, which meant deviating our route plan. So we simply sat in the waterbus and took a joy ride through the Canal Grande that charts its course through the city. This was something etched in my memory. There were so many little islands lush with greenery, which made it a very pleasant sight to behold. The lovely sea breeze blowing through our hair and the light sprinkle of seawater right through the trivia of our conversations called for some memories.

So this was Venice in a nutshell. One day spent here and no regrets. Venice’s claim to fame were the canals. Imagining Venice without the canals is like eating strawberry ice cream without the strawberries in it. Hence I can safely aver that if it weren’t for the canals the city would not be that fascinating after all. So it was Arrividerchi Venice and Buono Sera Rome.