My France Trip (June, 2006)

I wrote this story on a piece of paper almost 3 years ago during my first ever vacation in Europe! It was Jun, 2006 and I was working in east Germany as summer intern. I have a lot of wonderful memories from that time.

Places: Koln, Paris, Nice, Monaco, Marseille, Frankfurt
Guys: Sameer, Das, Pushkar and Anupam
Time: June 2006

"I still wonder how lucky you sometimes get. Das called me in the morning and I woke up. Still checking, packing my bag, and thinking that I would be able to reach Jena West station in 23 minutes. It was 4:59 am when I realized I should better be taking the hell out of my room to the station. Walking down the way I realized how far my place was from the station. I was running and walking and still confident that I would make it. Well! I saw buses going in front of me when I realized buses do exist and I could have taken bus directly to Jena West. So habitual of taking a walk to every place I go with the idea to save money that I forgot the buses do exist. I hurried and reached Jena West Station at last and on time. As I was trying to figure out which of the two platforms is my train going to come I saw it coming. So I rushed towards the platform and boarded the train. I faced the ticket checker for the first time. I reached Weimar and took the train for Frankfurt. I was having a printout in hand of my train schedule. I was supposed to reach Frankfurt Flughafen FernBf and it was Frankfurt (main) HBf. So I asked a guy outside and he told me that the other part of the train is gonna go to Flughafen (airport) and so I again rushed towards the other part of the train. After boarding the train I looked around and it seemed first class. So I thought that I will have to come out again and board another bogy. One more guy who boarded was equally scared. It seemed like he also was travelling on DB for the first time. We went to the other side and found the second class. I got out at Flughafen FernBf, looked around for Das and he was there. We went to Cologne together. Cologne turned out to be a very nice place. Cologne Cathedral is just outside the station (Picture to the Left). We took a map from the tourist information center and started walking on the road. The whole city looked kind of empty. Maps are confusing if you are looking at one for the first time. It took me some time to figure out how to use a map. There were just churches, museums and art galleries in the city and nothing else. That’s when I realized that I don’t have anything to see here anymore. After appreciating the architecture of the Cologne Cathedral, the city has nothing more to offer me. We went to one of the art galleries, spent some time looking at weird pictures that had some weird stuff in it that we didn't understand. Anyways, we came out horrified and decided not to visit another art gallery in near future. We went directly to an area close to the train station. We spent quite a long time on the riverside, first on the bridge for road traffic and then on the other bridge for the trains. I took lot of pictures of the beautiful river Rhine before boarding TGV for Paris.

Paris! The fashion capital of the world! How my stay gonna b like? Pushkar and Anupam were waiting for us on the station. They were there since d morning. The first thing he told me is that the place is in mess and people not supporting at all. They won’t speak English with you even if they could. Since we were already late, Pushkar went to search for a room and we (Das and I) started our journey in Metrorail towards Eiffel. It was decided that we (might) meet at the Eiffel Tower, besides one of the four feet. We didn’t have an idea how the metro lines worked, and we boarded the metro. We saw black people all around. It seemed like nobody knew any English. So we reached one station and came out of the other. We again boarded that station and came out of the next. We were not getting how to reach to Eiffel and there was nobody to help us. We were on our own. It was already 8pm and we were getting very late. We then decided to go back where we came from. We took the Metro,  waited for the station from where we started. But rather I saw my train coming out of the ground and it scared the shit out of us. Holding the map in our hands, we tried to understand how the whole metro system works. We talked to a French lady who was standing in the metro. She was really trying to help and so the whole English-French conversation started. We were asking in English and she was responding in French. We finally came out and she showed us the platform which will bring us back. As we boarded the metro again and saw lot of black people again, I lost any hopes from the people out there. It was very scary. With some hope Das asked one of the two white women talking to each other that I didn’t even noticed. She replied in English and it was a happy and satisfying moment after a long time. She explained to us how the whole metro system works. We then started for Eiffel tower, got off at the right station and started walking towards the Eiffel. Das had to pee now. It was really an emergency for him and I was scared of the city. We started looking here and there for some place for Das. Das was ready to pee anywhere and I was telling him to hold on to it. Don’t go for public urination and let French police catch us for that! I convinced him that Eiffel gets lots of visitors. So his problem will be solved there. As we reached Eiffel and looked for the first place it was closed. I was all scared, and Das had an emergency. Both were not in the condition to think anything. Finally we found a place for Das and then we sat down on a bench for a while and took some pictures of Eiffel. I was so scared about where to stay in the night that those ‘taking pictures of Eiffel’ was just a formality. Das was feeling relieved now and not at all scared. He was trying to convince me to stay there overnight to save money and I was suggesting that we should go to Notre Dam and stay there as Sanchit had told me earlier that he stayed the whole night with his professor at Notre Dam. Anyways, we asked a guy and he told us that it’s safe to stay at Eiffel. So we were pretty sure that we were going to stay there at night. We took lot of pictures when they started twinkling lights on Eiffel at 10 pm. It was really a nice experience. I generally asked an Indian street seller who was again and again coming to sell key rings to us about whether Eiffel will be open at night or not. He told that everything will be closed by 1:30 am. Then I enquired about Paris metro and it closes at 12 am! It was the scariest moment ever. Especially when Das was not at all scared, rather confident, that we would spend the whole night on the streets. Paris is obviously not a safe place for that. So I said that I will pay for his hotel stay if he is supportive, and that he was not helping at all. So we asked the same guy about the place where we can stay in the night and he told us to go straight to a place. So we started walking very fast. We met a Chinese looking couple and the woman was very helping. They helped us with the map, showed us one place where we can go and find a cheap hotel. It was very far away from that place. Metro was also about to close. So we started our way towards the metro rail. Then we saw Pushkar and Anupam coming from the other side. The improbable had just happened! We got reunited in such a big city like Paris. God is great, the ultimate reality I guess. Four of us started walking towards the metro again, there was not a lot of time left. Pushkar had to take his bag from the Paris station and then we had to go to the place they had booked for overnight stay. It’s the “Formula One” hotel. We reached the hotel, and got good sleep. Next day we woke up late and went to Notre dam church where we met a group of IITians. Summer students from the IITies are everywhere in Europe, and especially in Germany. We then went to Louvre Museum (Picture of Das and I, in front of The Louvre, to the right) and then to Eiffel where we took a Boat trip on river Seine. The trip was an hour long and we saw most of the important places. After the boat trip, we went up the Eiffel climbing stairs. I really didn’t want to go till second floor just to save money as it’s quite at a height. But three of them wanted to go up taking stairs and save money, so I was left with no option but to take the stairs. We went to the second floor and took lift from there to the top. We spent lot of time on the top. After we got down, Das and I went to Paris Nord station to collect our bags and directly go to Paris Lyon station where we were supposed to take our next train to Nice. Nice is on the Mediterranean coast in southern France. Pushkar and his friend went to see Louvre museum. We met in Paris Lyon again and started our over night journey towards the Mediterranean Coast. Since we all bought the tickets separately, so we got the seats in different bogies. Again I saw mostly black people in the train. We reached Nice early in the morning. Police caught and enquired about us!! The tourist information center in Nice was closed, so we decided to visit Monaco first. It is the second smallest independent state after Vatican. The whole journey from Nice to Monaco was amazing as you see Mediterranean Sea on one side and mountains on the other (Picture of Monaco Monte Carlo train station to the left side). It turned out to be very nice place. No streets lights are required and you can just go on to cross the road anytime you like and cars stopped giving first preference to you. It was totally a different experience for me. In Germany it is mostly streetlights everywhere and people follow the rules properly. So people will cross the road only when the light is green even if there is no car on the road. We went to the castle on top of the mountain and took lot of pictures. We returned to Nice and police caught us again. They were looking into the visa with lens and talking to each other in French. They then took us to the post and we were waiting outside when they were inside with our passports. We showed our university identity cards from IITies as well as our host German universities. They also took it and went inside. Finally they came out and let us go. We were four people, so I was not at all scared this time. Das told that he was!! The tourist information center was open by that time. We instinctively headed towards the beach. We really had a great time on the beach. Nice is famous for nude beaches and so we all were kind of excited but it was quite rainy that day and so not a lot of people were around. We were lethargic about visiting larger part of the sea coast at the time, so we just stayed at one place and took a dip into the Mediterranean waters. We returned to the station early and waited quite a long time on the station for our train to Marseille, which was supposed to be a very old town. Pushkar and his friend stayed back in Nice. Marseille was bit like Mumbai. It was indeed very old town and no feeling of beautiful Europe. We just took the map from the information center and started walking down the hill to visit a few places. We went to the sea coast and watched street performance by red Indians (Picture to the right). The funny thing about Marseille is that people don’t follow street lights! Nobody even look at the streetlight I guess. We took the train for Strasburg from Marseille and spent about an hour in Strasburg. From Strasburg we took train for Frankfurt and stayed there for quite a long time. We went to the airport first to get the information about tax free shopping. We then visited the new FIFA football stadium which was closed for tourists for security reasons. Our eurail pass included the local S bahn (local metro rail) as well. So we went to the main shopping area of the city and then headed for the old city. Their was a screen in the middle of the river and people were watching the football match on both sides of the river. Hey! When I entered Germany from France, I felt like coming back home as my French experience didn’t go so well. Das and I took trains for our respective destinations after that. I traveled a lot in those 3-4 days and got an idea of those places. Although I guess it requires some quality time if you want to know any place."

Lofoten, Norway (May 01-11, 2009)

At last, I am creating the long awaited travel-blog to share my travel experiences, and I feel great to start with a place as special as Lofoten.
Traveling has always been an adventurous sport for me and Bear Grylls a constant source of inspiration. Although I have traveled a lot within western Europe in last 3 yrs but my recent visit to Lofoten was something extraordinary.Norway is a special country. It consists of Fjords (mountains submerged in ocean) stretching 2500 kms north-south across arctic circle but only a few hundred kms east-west. It faces Atlantic to the west and Sweden to the east (mountain range-Skanderna). The landscape is very unique and not easily approachable. Gulf stream, that arrives all the way from Mexico, makes the place warmer than you might expect. Lofoten has unusually warm and habitable climate compared to any other place on same altitude anywhere else in the world (Temp above zero all year!!!!).Lofoten is located across arctic circle. It forms a narrow stretch of Fjords (islands) coming out of mainland Norway and extending more than 400 KM into Atlantic. There are finishing villages which export Cod and Stock fish mainly to Italy and Nigeria. The place is very remote but the tourism is booming. I guess Climate change has also a role to play. They have recently build a road across the Lofoten which makes getting-in very easy. Although the main tourists are still those getting off the cruise ships and spending few days time on the islands. The best season to visit Lofoten is summer when you get sunlight all day! although it must also be nice to experience Northern lights (Aurora Borealis) in winter time when its dark all day. Whale Safary, Puffin bird safary, fishing and diving are common activities in summer. Most of the mountains are approachable as they are not very high.



The Fjords in Lofoten are higher and narrower than the Fjords in south. There is no connection to this place from south Norway by road (or train) unless you get your car on a ferry. The only connection by train is from Sweden to Narvik that is an important port for transporting Iron and Copper taken from the mines in Kiruna (famous ice hotel) and Gallivare.


My journey from Eindhoven(nl) to Lofoten(no) with an air distance of 3000KM south-north was half way by air (Eindhoven to Stockholm) and half way on train (22hr, Stockholm to Narvik). I love spending time in Stockholm as it is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. My journey from Stockholm to Narvik (1500+km) by train was one heck of an experience. One can see the changing climate from humid continental (dense green pine forest) to subarctic climate (short scarce trees, huge frozen lakes every now and then- picture to the left, people ice-finishing and moving on snow mobiles).



Two days after leaving home, I finally reached Narvik (03May2009). I was lucky to be traveling with Aleksey Kocherzhenko, my colleague from office and a good friend. He is a tough guy and a crazy traveler. It was raining the time we reached Narvik . Tourist information center was closed and public transport was also shitty that time of the year. We decided to hitchhike straight away. We were standing on the road asking for a lift with our heavy backpacks and raincoats on. Well! it was certainly not a nice spot to hitchhike as the road was steep and chances of someone stopping were small. After an hour or so, we eventually got picked but only got a drive for 4-5 KM. Well! within 10-15 minutes we were standing on the road. This time the spot was good and we were picked up by a guy from Finland who drove us more then 200 kms to Svolvær. After drinking coffee at a gas station we again went outside the city to hitchhike our way ahead.
On the picture to the right you see the place outside Svolvær where we started hitchhiking again. But wait!! there were two girls without any backpacks hitchhiking there. Being such gentlemen, we moved ahead and looked for a spot just on the other side of the bridge. Hitchhiking is not that uncommon in this place, is it? They finally got picked up and so did we 15 minutes after them in another car with two Norwegian girls. They took us just 5-10 km to Kabelvåg. It was late in the evening and we decided to camp there. Although its legal to camp everywhere in Norway, even on private property, we searched for a camp site to be able to take a shower and eat something in the morning. With some effort we found a campsite- but it was CLOSED! We put your tent there anyway and slept.






The first person who picked us up next day was a Norwegian woman who dropped us at Viking Museum in Leknes (50 kms). It was raining the time we started, but the skies were clear by the time we arrived in Leknes. As it turns out, weather in Lofoten region changes from island to island. Also, it differs from one side to the other because of the mountains. The place was one of the larger known settlement of vikings in Scandinavia. We were greeted by a French woman and a German guy who worked in the museum, very friendly atmosphere I must say. The picture showing our backpacks below was taken outside the Viking Museum. After hiking in the area for a while we were back on the highway. We were hoping to get in another car but didn't happen. Funny part was that a taxi driver parked there waiting for us to get in- well! we didnt go for it! we got into a bus and got off at Leknes.
We had plan to stay on a very remote part of the island in a small settlement called Valberg. I contacted Marinus through couchsurfing club who was going to host us there. There is no public transport to this place (50 kms from Leknes). Only a school bus, which runs twice a day, takes students to school in Leknes. We missed it. Well! we were back on the road! After hitching twice (in a car and than in a bus!) we finally arrived in Valberg. It was nice staying with Marinus in Valberg. Being on the south side of the mountains it was calm there (not windy).

The next day we started hiking in a valley behind his house (05May09). It was first time I walked on Marsh. It was like walking on a wet sponge. We walked our way up the valley. It was beautiful watching Fjords on both side of the island from up there. After we got lost a bit we found our way back down from the next valley and hitchhiked back to Valberg. On the right you see Aleksey lost on the mountaintop. In the evening Marinus cooked good Pasta for us and then we watched Ratatouille in Italian! (of course with English subtitles, I wish I could understand Italian!).


The next day (06May2009) we started our journey towards to the end of the Lofoten area. We took the school bus to Leknes, went outside the city to hitchhike (distance remaining- only 50-60 kms to the end of this road). The first person who took us was kindergarten teacher with his child. The next guy that gave us ride was going to the fish process factory that he owned (Picture of stock fish drying outside his small factory to the left). One kg of dry stockfish cost as much as 20 euros. The next was a construction worker who took us to a construction site close to the road (See Picture below). Although we were very close to our destination on road but we had to hike around the mountain if we wished to go to the other side on foot. Well! we waited and finally got picked up by two German friends who were driving 1000 kms to this place from southern Norway. Sameer: "Hey guys! where are you from in Germany?" Guys: "Jena" Sameer: "Friedrich Schiller University?" Guys: "Yes! how do you know?". World is small. I worked one summer in Jena in Germany (2006) while I was still completing my undergrad from IIT. I used to go to the student mensa of the Univ. Jena everyday. They joined us for our hiking trip up the mountain in Moskenes to Monkebu.

We arrived in Å (where the road finally ends!) and this rich fisherman came to us. Fisherman: "Hey guys! would you like to come over for a cup of free coffee in my fish-museum? I will give one cookie as well". Us: "Why not!" After visiting his museum and watching those short documentaries about fishing and life of fisherman in Lofoten we managed to get our trophy - a cup of hot coffee and one cookie each! :) To the left: picture taken before we started our way up the mountain. From left to right we have- Aleksey, Johannes and Thilo. Our trek up the mountain to Monkebu turned out to be the best experience. There were 5 lakes on our way up. We had to go around the lakes, up the mountains. The place was unimaginably scenic. It took us 4 hours to reach Monkebu. The height was just over 350 m above sea, yet all the lakes at the top were frozen to death (temp maintained at zero at all times).


The scenic beauty made us very slow as we went up. We drank water from fresh water streams/waterfalls and took lots of pictures. I must admit I was bit tired already but still had energetic soul! As this was the coldest part of the trip and wet as well, I realized how important it is to have good shoes and warm cloths. The guys had bad footwear, so I wonder how they managed all this time.


We finally reached Monkebu. It was a wonderful experience. We didn't realize that it was so cold until we finally stopped in Monkebu. The first thing we had to do was to put up tents as soon as possible, and get inside our sleeping bags. Our German friends were carrying cooking gas. Well! only Johannes had enough energy left to make a fire and cook spaghetti in ice! I was already enjoying the warmth of my sleeping bag. The only thing I remember that night (well! I probably wasn't so dark!) is Johannes and Thilo calling "Spaghetti is ready!". I got to eat some not-so-cold delicious spaghetti. It was difficult to wake up the next day because we were tired and it was cold outside. Soon after we woke up, we were on our way back. It took us 3-4 hours to get down. We spent the whole day together (07May2009). They dropped us at the youth hostel in Å. To our surprise the youth hostel had great personal facilities. We invited them over for dinner. They left after dinner as they had to catch a ferry to Bodø.




08May2009- most interesting day to end our trip. we woke up late, cooked lunch and started our journey to the place we started, i.e. Narvik. We were planning to travel by bus on our way back. It turned out No public transport available. Only two buses during weekdays were at 06:00 am and 09:00 am. What the heck! It was a bit scary as we had to take train to Stockholm the next day from Narvik. So we had only a day to cross 400 kms and no public transport. We were at the end of Lofoten, we getting a ride for even 40-50 km was difficult as people who were driving were mostly locals. With no other options at hand, we started hitchhiking. Its rather easy to hitchhike at a place where everyone knows that there is no public transport. But- 400 kms!! how long will it take? Aleksey was sure we would make it in time- if not during the day- then overnight! We got 3 short rides until Leknes where we were lucky to find a sales manager who took us all the way to Narvik!, and guess what, we were faster then if we had taken public transport! We spent that night at the youth hostel in Narvik and started our long journey towards Stockholm.



Useful Information:

Q. How to get to Nordland?
A. There are many small airports in Nordland that have regular connection to other big cities in southern Norway. Its possible to drive here from southern Norway, Sweden and Finland. I took a train to Narvik from Stockholm (1500+ kms) to arrive in Nordland. http://www.sj.se/ Regular fare are pretty high but its possible to get cheap ticket for a fraction of that price (60 euros return ticket that included a birth!).


Q. How to get to Lofoten?
A. Once you are in Norland you can use the public trasport (Bus or Ferry) to get there. Although public transport is not that great, especially off-season. You could try hitchhiking, it works! Its possible to drive there, they have made a road all the way to Å (400 kms from Narvik). http://www.177nordland.no/rutetabeller.aspx?navn=Buss

Q. Lofoten is way up north. Any special preparation for the subarctic climate?
A. Lofoten is a very special place. It is unusually warm for such high latitude. The winter and summer temperatures are around zero and 12. It is world's largest elevated temperature anomaly. Hot stream comes from the Gulf of Mexico and make this place so warm.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lofoten

Q. Where should I stay?
A. Its very easy to camp in Lofoten. There are several camping sites spread all over. Also, there are many youth hostels in the area. Unfortunately, most of the places are closed most of the year! I stayed in a youth hostel in Å and Narvik. To my surprise they were cheaper for the facilities they were providing, especially the one in Å.

Q. How is the weather?
A. It rains in summer. Because of the mountains the weather changes a lot from island to island and from one side of the mountain to the other!
http://www.yr.no/

Q. How about hiking and trekking on the mountains?
A. Excellent idea! All mountains are very approachable and they are not so high. Buy a very good map (10-15 Euros), although the islands are so small you just can't get lost! I went for hikes in Valberg and Å - Great experience! I would recommend good shoes to keep your feet warm and a good sleeping bag. Temperatures falls drastically as you go up on such high latitudes.
You can stay in well equipped huts when you are on longer hikes.
http://www.turistforeningen.no/english/