It all started with a bang.
We landed at the CDG Airport after a tiresome journey of 10 hrs approximately and to add to that we had also spent some extra 10 hours at Mumbai Airport. Thanks to Miss Dependable: P.
The immigration counter didn’t bother us much. Meanwhile, me and Brij were busy to espionage the whereabouts of a certain someone. It didn’t materialize though.
After having picked up the luggage bags, I thanked no one but the Almighty. For the uninitiated, there is a 50% probability of losing ur baggage at France Airport. That’s what we heard from our Gems Instructor.
Excluding me, there were 4 ladies and a guy and all of us chose the adventurous option of catching a Train to get to the Hotel. I still dream whether we really are Schlumberger employees, as we think more than twice while spending a penny.Btw we are spending Euros here. I dread the very moment I chose this option and not the cab.
While Shelly was busy taking the tickets upto Chatelle Montrouge, Brij had a better idea in his mind. Just wait for few lines…it will give u a stomach ache. So we (no ladies included) went for a expedition in the station. We asked a few ppl but our prayes fell on deaf ears. Finally, after a brief exploration we did find the washroom. Brij helplessly went in but the person at the counter stopped him and showed him the rate chart :P.
It was 50 cents and my dear friend took the poor decision of converting it to Indian rupees. It amounts to INR 35. He gazed into my eyes with utter shock and asked “Is he really serious.” Without contemplating anything, he barged out and thought of fighting it out for some more time.
In the meantime, Shelly got the tickets and we boarded the train with some serious luggage. We were 6 of us and if I am not mistaken we had 18 odd bags. One can imagine the eyes peeking at us from all facets. We got off at Chatelle Le Halles and then got another train to our final Destination. It was some funny sight, seeing the ladies carrying 4 luggage at a time. For the delight of frolicsome ppl, we thought of shooting a video. You can contact me for that. Somehow we managed to get out of the metro station cursing every damn thing in the world.
Little did we know then, that this was by no means anyway closer to our final destination.
Our guide, Shelly, gave us the info that we should take a bus to get closer to Rue De Gabriel Peri, where our hotel is located. We got off the bus at Jean Jourge. Gabriel Peri was next to it. We were delighted having reached there, but it didn’t last long. We took out the map and saw the demarcation of our hotel from the rest. I and shelly ventured out while the rest were the caretakers of the luggages. We reached the hotel after a few hiccups here and there. But God had some other plans for us. This hotel was Hotel De Ville( which the map showed as ours) and not Hotel Adagio, where we were booked. 2 days later we found out tht Hotel De Ville is where mayor stays. Our foolishness was glorified to the maximum with this blunder.
Then we had no option but to ask the address from every stranger we can get hold off. It was 4 pm by then. We caught hold of one lady. She was in her eighties. She was limber and could still walk on her own :P .Her Indian counterparts would be celebrating their death anniversaries in heavens at that age. As expected, she didn’t know an iota of English vocabulary. But the most interesting part was that even though she didn’t know anything about that address, she tried shyaam dam dand bhed to give us an idea of it and in the process delayed our pursuit. Somehow we managed to get out of her shackles.
We caught hold of some 30 odd persons to give us any idea of the place where the hotel is. But all our energies went in vain. None of them knew an alphabet of English Language. I know that it might sound grandiose but this is the truth of the matter.
So we took the burden of finding the place on our own and started exploring every odd gullies. Btw, there are no hoardings or advertisements put up in this place. The only area where one might fancy seeing some hoardings is the bus station because its there that u might end up seeing some raunchy stuff :P.
All of a sudden, we came across a Vodafone sign. It startled us for a moment. Surprisingly, the symbol had Adagio written on it instead of Vodafone. I guess there are no copyright issues in Paris. India has preoccupied the skeptics in this regard. I raised my fist in the air and I was happy as ever, gosh we won’t be spending night on the roads or the bus stops. But the tale had its own twist. The concern now was how to get to the bus stop where our other colleagues were waiting for us. We knew that they have been cursing us for the past one hour. Cursing is a euphemism here…one knows what engineering pass outs do in that case. So we had to tread on an unknown path once again but this time we will be on the lookout for persons rather than an occupied spot. You can understand my mind at this moment. It was delirious so to say. So our journey began once more and after some 30 odd minutes we finally found them waiting at the bus stop. I cant pen down my frustration assimilated during this 30 odd minutes. But somehow we managed to convince them that it wasn’t an easy task and they were gullible enough to understand the ordeal that we had just undergone.
The way back to the hotel was a painstaking task because of the luggage but we had learnt our lessons by then. I just hope that our further stay in Paris isn’t ass eventful as the first day.
