Trip Report X
Bonjour et salut toute le monde.
1) Arriving in Amsterdam.
2) Staying in Den Haag (the Hague)
3) Taking it easy & getting to Toulouse
4) Catching up with Rebecca
5) Caroline
6) Le lac
7) The food of kings
8) The train to Toulouse & contacting airlines
9) Narbonne & trying to get on trains
10) Narbonne by night
11) Montpellier to Geneva, contacting Pierre-Alain & Natalie
12) I'm sick but life is good
13) The hot air balloon in the front yard
14) Taking it easy
1) I arrived in Amsterdam at 8am on Friday the 9th August. After spending a while checking out the layout of the airport (I would be passing through here twice more in the next few weeks at least, and the 2nd time would have 30 mins. to get from my flight from Geneva to my flight to London), duty free shops and ticket prices to Toulouse, I picked up a flight to Toulouse with Lufthansa leaving 7.30pm Sat., stopping at Frankfurt, then returning Thursday the 15th August at night (via Munich) in time for my 10am flight to Geneva the next day for 300 Euros. KLM wanted 720 (there are $1.83 AUD in a Euro). Apparently the cheap flights I was told about are all out of London & booked via the internet. Dropped my big backpack in a locker (I had a weekend's worth of clothes with me in my small backpack). Caught the train into town and wandered around, then found a post office and found I was right at the start of the one walking tour around Amsterdam I had really wanted to do. Had lunch at a really nice cafe for about 20 Euros (prices seem to almost be in Euros what they would be in $AUD in Aust., but not quite), listened to some great buskers and checked out the old palace. That was tre cool, but I wasn't as impressed with the Newerks Gallery just across from it. For some reason almost all the artists seemed to believe it was important not to use any craftsmanship, and unbelievable cynicism was the order of the day (OK, so everything we do, think, watch, read, say, eat etc. is entirely evil and leading to destruction - now what?). The only thing I found even remotely interesting was a rowboat constructed entirely from phallic objects. A bit of work and a bit of humour had gone into it at least. A couple of the places I was supposed to visit on my walking tour didn't seem to be where they were supposed to be. Was looking forward to visiting Anne Frank's house until I saw the que stretching around the block. Checked out the Bible museum, which was a bit strange. It did have some nice models of Jerusalem at various times, and of various Jewish temples and the tabernacle, & a partial history of the New Testament. I don't know, if a place like that doesn't enthuse me it's going to leave most people running for the exit. Wandered through some interesting places and ended up at the Historical Museum, but I only had 40 minutes and it wasn't enough. Seeing how Amsterdam had developed from a bunch of farmers living on peat bogs to a thriving trading community in 1200 AD or so was very interesting. I intend to go back to Amsterdam & I may visit the Historical museum again (although there are so many other interesting places to see I may not get time). Caught a train to Den Haag.
2) I got to Den Haag, had a Chinese restaurant meal for dinner, and asked a taxi to take me to the youth hostel. I couldn't quite make out what he was trying to say (I thought he was pointing out which was his cab, their were a bunch of them at the rank with drivers hanging around nearby), so he found another driver who spoke more English who told me it was behind the building we were standing in front of. The Youth Hostel is a really nice place by a canal with modern facilities (such as electronic keys and internet terminals). They had heaps of tourist info about Den Haag, which looked really interesting and I hoped I might fit in a visit to a couple of different places the next day, such as the miniature village & aquarium, as well as get a chance to check out a couple of places in Amsterdam I still wanted to see, mainly the maritime museum, but I thought this might be pushing it. Although it is a great place with great facilities far far exceeding an Egyptian 3 star hotel, along with a great breakfast (self serve so some people were making it their main meal of the day) (I had Vruchten Hagel, Anijs Hagel & Chocoladehagel Melk - the closest description of which I can think is 'hundreds & thousands'), a dorm is not a place to get a good nights sleep. Apart from being in a top bunk a few people felt the need to set their alarms REALLY early - and sleep through them.
3) On Saturday instead of carrying out all my great sight seeing plans I booked an extra night at the youth hostel so I could rest until 4pm when I had to catch the train to Schipol airport. I did a bit of net stuff and that was the last time I had the chance before arriving here in Geneva (where I've been slowed down by being so sick). in the course of re-booking, having to change dorms & getting locked out of where I was staying (my electronic key ceased to function at 10am), my toothpaste, toothbrush, shaving cream and razor got thrown out, and I seem to have lost my scarf. As my flight landed in Frankfurt & Toulouse I thought the sinuses behind my left eye would implode, which was a new experience in pain (it's not the most painful thing I've experienced, just a new flavour). Anyone lip reading what I was saying might have been a bit confused (I was praying but with a lot of words that shouldn't be part of my vocabulary). At Toulouse the shuttle busses have stopped running and the taxi phone isn't working. Fortunately the couple in front of me is happy to share a taxi when one arrives, which is also helpful when they translate how cheap a hotel I am looking for. Stayed in a really nice hotel with a full bathtub for 29 Euros, 33 including breakfast. Developed a rasping cough and started cramping up at night for the first of several nights, although this night my cough hasn't started keeping me awake. At breakfast someone staying in the hotel walks past and says 'bon appetite.' I consistently find the French not only more friendly than I was lead to believe, but more friendly than Australians (can you imagine an Australian saying to a stranger eating breakfast, 'enjoy your meal,' unless they worked there?).
4) Rebecca met me at the train station at Maurs. She is a friend who is Australian and met the love of her life in St Cirgues, France, and moved there. She has no nearby friends except those French ones she has made and she can't even get videos or DVDs with English subtitles let alone in English. The only churches anywhere nearby are extremely traditional Catholic ones with very few people so she has no Christian fellowship, and she lost her English bible some years ago (which I will be rectifying shortly). Also she uses the internet via AOL, which gives her 2 hours a month & can't communicate with me or a lot of her friends (AOL is one company I actively advise anyone I know to avoid, I heard of too many people having too many problems with them when I was a real net addict). I wonder if some of the problems I am experiencing are a spiritual backlash for breaking through her isolation a bit. She and her fiancée Jean-Michelle live on a small farm with a chateau they are turning into a bed and breakfast. When she first me him he was doing strawberry farming as well as cattle and would leave the house at 6am and arrive back at 9pm 7 days a week. Rebecca persuaded him this was a bit ridiculous and they are fixing up the chateau because although a bed & breakfast is a lot of work (and a heap more money than they bargained for - but if they stop now they get no return on their loans), at least they will be able to take holidays. At the moment the only person they can really leave their cows with is Jean-Michelle's ex, so they can only have very rare weekends away somewhere where they can return from at a moment's notice at present.
5) One friend Rebecca does have around from time to time is Caroline, & her beau Benoir, whose family live in St Cirgues and who is the way Rebecca met Jean Michelle. I've known Rebecca for about 18 years and Caroline for about 15. She has a daughter now, although I didn't get to meet her as she is in London where Caroline & Benoir live. Hello from her to all of you who know her. This means I now have 4 cousins (2 married couples) & 5 friends to catch up with in London, not to mention a trip to Belfast to catch up with another 2 cousins, catching up with a friend from Yorkshire and trips back over to the continent to revisit Amsterdam, Den Haag, Rebecca & Jean Michelle, & to see Paris. In September I'm going to be a busy little beaver.
6) There are a couple of lakes near St Cirgues, although I only got to see the smaller closer one. Caroline & Benoir offered to take me sight seeing one afternoon & Jean-Michelle wanted to show me around, but I really wasn't well enough and mainly just wanted to hang out with Bex (Rebecca). On this smaller lake there is a beach and watercraft for hire, pedal boats, canoes etc. There are also free water slides, a children's playground and a cafe if you haven't brought a picnic with you (the 2nd time I went on a water slide my head went under at the end & I thought it would explode because of my flu). I took my camera with me and meant to get some shots, but I forgot. I was having too good a time. You can tell I have an engineering background at times - I was bothered by the inefficient propulsion mechanism of the 2 person pedal powered watercraft, which use a paddle wheel, until I realised the 1 person pedaloes were propelled by a shrouded propeller. Bex and I had a lazy pedal around in a 2 person craft and she dived in and went swimming a few times, but I figured this wasn't a good idea for me since I was sick.
7) On Wednesday the 7th we went to a cafe in Figeac for dinner after checking out the photographic exhibition of one of Rebecca & Jean-Michelle's friend's (it was great - I thought of buying something but the mountings were what really made the pictures work & all the ones I liked were unsealed wood, which would go in the bin upon hitting Aussie customs). The cafe Rebecca had wanted to book was booked out so we got 2nd best, which was about as good as the best restaurant in Sydney (Figeac is only just big enough to make it onto the maps - Maurs & St Cirgues don't). I had foi grasse (which didn't do anything for me), truffles (which did), a variety of mushrooms cooked in various ways & a few things I don't remember. What I do remember is experiencing things change taste in my mouth, like a good wine, which is not something I'm used to. Of course, we had a good wine. Dinner for 3 including a good wine bought at the restaurant (there is no bringing in wine from outside in France), 100 Euros. OK it's not something you can afford to do every night but it's still cheaper the Australian equivalent. By the way, their 1 Euro table wine is about as good as the $12 AUD bottles of Preece Merlot or whatever we have at Bill & Judy's pizza & wine nights (which means a $20 AUD bottle of wine if you shop at Liquorland). A quick meal for when no one is dropping over is a 3 course equivalent to what most people I know would feed good friends for dinner, and friends dropping by means a 5 course meal that I don't have an equivalent to.
8) Because I had the flu I had to cancel my return flights & catch the train (apart from the pain, flying with a flu can rupture your eardrums). A general policy of airlines is that if you fail to turn up for a flight without contacting them, they cancel all your ongoing flights, so it was very important I let Malaysian Airlines in particular know I wouldn't be flying from Amsterdam to Geneva on the 16th as my round the world ticket is with them. On Thursday the 15th I got on a train from Figeac to Toulouse at 7am, on an itinerary which would have had me in Geneva at 5pm that day. At Toulouse I had a bit of time before my train to Montpellier, so I rang directory assistance and tried to contact Lufthansa (Toulouse to Amsterdam) & Malaysian (my ticket for Amsterdam to Geneva, although the flight was with KLM). Malaysian (MAS) played a recorded message giving their office hours (during which I was ringing) and hung up on me. After a couple of other things I realised the train on the departures board to Montpellier I was thinking I had plenty of time to catch was an hour after the one I was supposed to be on, which I had missed. As my connecting TGV to Geneva at Montpellier left half an hour after I was supposed to arrive, I couldn't make the connection. I got my ticket changed and now I had to get a train at Montpellier to Lyon, and a train at Lyon to Geneva, which would arrive at 9pm.
9) At Narbonne (100km before Montpellier) there was an accident which was going to delay the train I was on for at least an hour, so I went to information again and they told me the TGV to Lyon I was to get at Montpellier was on another platform and to change trains now. TGVs have booked seats, so I found my seat and stuck my bags on the rack, and as the delay was so long I got off and tried to contact the airlines again, this time succeeding with Lufthansa (I had one digit left out of their no. before), but the same problem with MAS. I went to get back on the train, which was now about to leave, and as I put my hand on the door it locked closed. I literally missed the train by 1 second (if I had had the door open it couldn't have locked). I went back to information and they told me when the next train to Montpellier left from and contacted the train so my luggage would be put off there. When I went to get on that train the stationmaster said it wasn't the train I was about to get on that went to Montpellier but a different one. I went to get on that one and they said I needed a booked reservation to get on the train. I went back to the booking office and the person in front of me was the last person they served before it closed. It was 8pm and all the trains to Montpellier that were on the display were TGVs I couldn't get on without getting my ticket changed (at least I was having no problem doing this each time if I could get to the booking office). OK, so I'll find a hotel and do some sight seeing in Narbonne and head to Montpellier in the morning.
10) It was the middle of the school holidays here, and Narbonne is so popular there were heaps of people sleeping at the train station & quite a few backpackers sleeping in the park. At about 1am I saw a big family of three generations pleading with the owner of a really big hotel (it took me ages to realise it was a hotel, because it was a castle, so although I saw it on the maps I kept thinking 'it must be near this castle but I can't find it'), but they ended up hanging around a playground all night long. Although it wasn't a cool night, all's I had on my torso was a T-shirt and there was a slight breeze. At 2am I am walking past a couple in conversation who call out 'bonjour' as I approach & 'avoir' as I pass. I'm too surprised and preoccupied to respond while they're in earshot. Note that people are saying 'bonjour' all the time and 'avoir' fairly frequently, once from a car driving past. At 5am I realised I should have stayed at the train station, as although it is locked between 12am & 5am, if you're in, you can stay in. It was warm (probably from everyone's body heat apart from anything) and there was no breeze. I had gotten a couple of hours (at most) sleep in a park, but mostly I had walked around in a pair of shoes not suitable for walking long distances (I had pretty sore feet by now). In the morning I got a train to Montpellier.
11) They didn't have my luggage but Lyon was where the train terminated and it would probably turn up there. I rang Pierre & Natalie whose last information was that I was arriving on a plane at 12pm, and got no answer. As the next time I could ring was from Lyon, where I arrived at 11.55am, I asked mum to contact them. She had also contacted Malaysian Airlines. Apart from not having my mobile phone with me, it has stopped working properly and just cuts out as soon as I connect to anyone (maybe it's been damaged by too many X-rays). In my first break, an announcement came over the intercom just as my train pulled in & I got my luggage & made my train. At Lyon I gave Pierre & Natalie a ring and mum had gotten through to them. I got to Geneva at 2.45pm and was fairly relieved to see Pierre's face.
12) That night (Friday) I saw a doctor who was very glad I saw them when I did because my lungs are heavily laden with fluid. I am now on an intensive course of antibiotics, a fever suppressant & something for my cough. Of course, I have to keep coughing until after the antibiotics have done their work and all the fluid is out of my lungs or I could experience serious long term consequences (I had a friend who took a cough suppressant and because there was still stuff in her lungs it created real problems for a long time, I think still ongoing). Fortunately I can take lozenges which mean I can cough without it hurting so much, but even this can present problems. Once your throat doesn't hurt it is easy to strain it and damage it further (a general problem with pain killers). My voice has been disappearing from time to time. I got a good night's sleep for the first time since the 5th August (rising to travel from Wed. the 7th to Fri. the 9th, staying in a dorm in a youth hostel on the 9th, being sick & cramping or coughing myself awake from Sat. the 10th until the present). In spite of all this I am having one of the best times I've ever had in my life. I feel like someone who has been quite happy with their car, having no problems with freeway driving or anything, but who has just realised they forgot they had overdrive and haven't been using it for about 28 years.
13) The day after I arrived here a hot air balloon landed in the front yard. Hang gliding, ultra-lite flying, para-gliding etc. are all really popular here. Natalie does some hang gliding. I ran the 5m back to the house to grab my camera and it wrecked me. Anyway I got a shot, so next time I get access to a computer with at least Windows 98 & USB support where I can upload my pics, you'll be able to see it on the web. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. The fine cuisine I started in France has not abated, although because of the antibiotics I can't try any wine, & I'm probably eating quantities more in line with a person than a horse. I've had more cheeses than I can think of (probably more than a dozen different types), including a few of those that aren't just a great taste, the taste develops and changes in your mouth. Went back to coughing myself awake all night.
14) I've been taking it pretty easy at Pierre and Natalie's, hanging around the house or the yard and resting, reading Asterix in French & writing stuff on Pierre's Powerbook 150 (the 2nd Mac laptop ever made, 8MB RAM, 160 MB HD, only 8 keys you wouldn't find on an old mechanical typewriter, Mac OS 7.5.1 from late 1995, uses Double Density disks which new Macintoshes have no trouble reading), and it's such a joy to use I remember why I love Macs so much. I can't believe how quiet it is, there's no fan so spin down the HD & it's absolutely silent. Other than that I have been out a couple of times to see Pierre's work or whatever, and gone wandering around Geneva through lakeside parklands with little museums here and there. Geneva is a really beautiful place. Pierre & Natalie live where the first farmlands begin in their own forested area at the foot of a mountain just over 3 km from the heart of the city. It's exactly like in all the fairy tales except with all the modern conveniences. The ATMs warn you not to insert trombones into their deposit receptors (a trombone is also a paper clip). One thing about Europe is all the larger packets have handles built in (eg. buy a six-pack of sparkling water, fruit juice or milk at a supermarket & it'll have a carry handle).
Blessings,
Joe Krishna Mithiran
1) Arriving in Amsterdam.
2) Staying in Den Haag (the Hague)
3) Taking it easy & getting to Toulouse
4) Catching up with Rebecca
5) Caroline
6) Le lac
7) The food of kings
8) The train to Toulouse & contacting airlines
9) Narbonne & trying to get on trains
10) Narbonne by night
11) Montpellier to Geneva, contacting Pierre-Alain & Natalie
12) I'm sick but life is good
13) The hot air balloon in the front yard
14) Taking it easy
1) I arrived in Amsterdam at 8am on Friday the 9th August. After spending a while checking out the layout of the airport (I would be passing through here twice more in the next few weeks at least, and the 2nd time would have 30 mins. to get from my flight from Geneva to my flight to London), duty free shops and ticket prices to Toulouse, I picked up a flight to Toulouse with Lufthansa leaving 7.30pm Sat., stopping at Frankfurt, then returning Thursday the 15th August at night (via Munich) in time for my 10am flight to Geneva the next day for 300 Euros. KLM wanted 720 (there are $1.83 AUD in a Euro). Apparently the cheap flights I was told about are all out of London & booked via the internet. Dropped my big backpack in a locker (I had a weekend's worth of clothes with me in my small backpack). Caught the train into town and wandered around, then found a post office and found I was right at the start of the one walking tour around Amsterdam I had really wanted to do. Had lunch at a really nice cafe for about 20 Euros (prices seem to almost be in Euros what they would be in $AUD in Aust., but not quite), listened to some great buskers and checked out the old palace. That was tre cool, but I wasn't as impressed with the Newerks Gallery just across from it. For some reason almost all the artists seemed to believe it was important not to use any craftsmanship, and unbelievable cynicism was the order of the day (OK, so everything we do, think, watch, read, say, eat etc. is entirely evil and leading to destruction - now what?). The only thing I found even remotely interesting was a rowboat constructed entirely from phallic objects. A bit of work and a bit of humour had gone into it at least. A couple of the places I was supposed to visit on my walking tour didn't seem to be where they were supposed to be. Was looking forward to visiting Anne Frank's house until I saw the que stretching around the block. Checked out the Bible museum, which was a bit strange. It did have some nice models of Jerusalem at various times, and of various Jewish temples and the tabernacle, & a partial history of the New Testament. I don't know, if a place like that doesn't enthuse me it's going to leave most people running for the exit. Wandered through some interesting places and ended up at the Historical Museum, but I only had 40 minutes and it wasn't enough. Seeing how Amsterdam had developed from a bunch of farmers living on peat bogs to a thriving trading community in 1200 AD or so was very interesting. I intend to go back to Amsterdam & I may visit the Historical museum again (although there are so many other interesting places to see I may not get time). Caught a train to Den Haag.
2) I got to Den Haag, had a Chinese restaurant meal for dinner, and asked a taxi to take me to the youth hostel. I couldn't quite make out what he was trying to say (I thought he was pointing out which was his cab, their were a bunch of them at the rank with drivers hanging around nearby), so he found another driver who spoke more English who told me it was behind the building we were standing in front of. The Youth Hostel is a really nice place by a canal with modern facilities (such as electronic keys and internet terminals). They had heaps of tourist info about Den Haag, which looked really interesting and I hoped I might fit in a visit to a couple of different places the next day, such as the miniature village & aquarium, as well as get a chance to check out a couple of places in Amsterdam I still wanted to see, mainly the maritime museum, but I thought this might be pushing it. Although it is a great place with great facilities far far exceeding an Egyptian 3 star hotel, along with a great breakfast (self serve so some people were making it their main meal of the day) (I had Vruchten Hagel, Anijs Hagel & Chocoladehagel Melk - the closest description of which I can think is 'hundreds & thousands'), a dorm is not a place to get a good nights sleep. Apart from being in a top bunk a few people felt the need to set their alarms REALLY early - and sleep through them.
3) On Saturday instead of carrying out all my great sight seeing plans I booked an extra night at the youth hostel so I could rest until 4pm when I had to catch the train to Schipol airport. I did a bit of net stuff and that was the last time I had the chance before arriving here in Geneva (where I've been slowed down by being so sick). in the course of re-booking, having to change dorms & getting locked out of where I was staying (my electronic key ceased to function at 10am), my toothpaste, toothbrush, shaving cream and razor got thrown out, and I seem to have lost my scarf. As my flight landed in Frankfurt & Toulouse I thought the sinuses behind my left eye would implode, which was a new experience in pain (it's not the most painful thing I've experienced, just a new flavour). Anyone lip reading what I was saying might have been a bit confused (I was praying but with a lot of words that shouldn't be part of my vocabulary). At Toulouse the shuttle busses have stopped running and the taxi phone isn't working. Fortunately the couple in front of me is happy to share a taxi when one arrives, which is also helpful when they translate how cheap a hotel I am looking for. Stayed in a really nice hotel with a full bathtub for 29 Euros, 33 including breakfast. Developed a rasping cough and started cramping up at night for the first of several nights, although this night my cough hasn't started keeping me awake. At breakfast someone staying in the hotel walks past and says 'bon appetite.' I consistently find the French not only more friendly than I was lead to believe, but more friendly than Australians (can you imagine an Australian saying to a stranger eating breakfast, 'enjoy your meal,' unless they worked there?).
4) Rebecca met me at the train station at Maurs. She is a friend who is Australian and met the love of her life in St Cirgues, France, and moved there. She has no nearby friends except those French ones she has made and she can't even get videos or DVDs with English subtitles let alone in English. The only churches anywhere nearby are extremely traditional Catholic ones with very few people so she has no Christian fellowship, and she lost her English bible some years ago (which I will be rectifying shortly). Also she uses the internet via AOL, which gives her 2 hours a month & can't communicate with me or a lot of her friends (AOL is one company I actively advise anyone I know to avoid, I heard of too many people having too many problems with them when I was a real net addict). I wonder if some of the problems I am experiencing are a spiritual backlash for breaking through her isolation a bit. She and her fiancée Jean-Michelle live on a small farm with a chateau they are turning into a bed and breakfast. When she first me him he was doing strawberry farming as well as cattle and would leave the house at 6am and arrive back at 9pm 7 days a week. Rebecca persuaded him this was a bit ridiculous and they are fixing up the chateau because although a bed & breakfast is a lot of work (and a heap more money than they bargained for - but if they stop now they get no return on their loans), at least they will be able to take holidays. At the moment the only person they can really leave their cows with is Jean-Michelle's ex, so they can only have very rare weekends away somewhere where they can return from at a moment's notice at present.
5) One friend Rebecca does have around from time to time is Caroline, & her beau Benoir, whose family live in St Cirgues and who is the way Rebecca met Jean Michelle. I've known Rebecca for about 18 years and Caroline for about 15. She has a daughter now, although I didn't get to meet her as she is in London where Caroline & Benoir live. Hello from her to all of you who know her. This means I now have 4 cousins (2 married couples) & 5 friends to catch up with in London, not to mention a trip to Belfast to catch up with another 2 cousins, catching up with a friend from Yorkshire and trips back over to the continent to revisit Amsterdam, Den Haag, Rebecca & Jean Michelle, & to see Paris. In September I'm going to be a busy little beaver.
6) There are a couple of lakes near St Cirgues, although I only got to see the smaller closer one. Caroline & Benoir offered to take me sight seeing one afternoon & Jean-Michelle wanted to show me around, but I really wasn't well enough and mainly just wanted to hang out with Bex (Rebecca). On this smaller lake there is a beach and watercraft for hire, pedal boats, canoes etc. There are also free water slides, a children's playground and a cafe if you haven't brought a picnic with you (the 2nd time I went on a water slide my head went under at the end & I thought it would explode because of my flu). I took my camera with me and meant to get some shots, but I forgot. I was having too good a time. You can tell I have an engineering background at times - I was bothered by the inefficient propulsion mechanism of the 2 person pedal powered watercraft, which use a paddle wheel, until I realised the 1 person pedaloes were propelled by a shrouded propeller. Bex and I had a lazy pedal around in a 2 person craft and she dived in and went swimming a few times, but I figured this wasn't a good idea for me since I was sick.
7) On Wednesday the 7th we went to a cafe in Figeac for dinner after checking out the photographic exhibition of one of Rebecca & Jean-Michelle's friend's (it was great - I thought of buying something but the mountings were what really made the pictures work & all the ones I liked were unsealed wood, which would go in the bin upon hitting Aussie customs). The cafe Rebecca had wanted to book was booked out so we got 2nd best, which was about as good as the best restaurant in Sydney (Figeac is only just big enough to make it onto the maps - Maurs & St Cirgues don't). I had foi grasse (which didn't do anything for me), truffles (which did), a variety of mushrooms cooked in various ways & a few things I don't remember. What I do remember is experiencing things change taste in my mouth, like a good wine, which is not something I'm used to. Of course, we had a good wine. Dinner for 3 including a good wine bought at the restaurant (there is no bringing in wine from outside in France), 100 Euros. OK it's not something you can afford to do every night but it's still cheaper the Australian equivalent. By the way, their 1 Euro table wine is about as good as the $12 AUD bottles of Preece Merlot or whatever we have at Bill & Judy's pizza & wine nights (which means a $20 AUD bottle of wine if you shop at Liquorland). A quick meal for when no one is dropping over is a 3 course equivalent to what most people I know would feed good friends for dinner, and friends dropping by means a 5 course meal that I don't have an equivalent to.
8) Because I had the flu I had to cancel my return flights & catch the train (apart from the pain, flying with a flu can rupture your eardrums). A general policy of airlines is that if you fail to turn up for a flight without contacting them, they cancel all your ongoing flights, so it was very important I let Malaysian Airlines in particular know I wouldn't be flying from Amsterdam to Geneva on the 16th as my round the world ticket is with them. On Thursday the 15th I got on a train from Figeac to Toulouse at 7am, on an itinerary which would have had me in Geneva at 5pm that day. At Toulouse I had a bit of time before my train to Montpellier, so I rang directory assistance and tried to contact Lufthansa (Toulouse to Amsterdam) & Malaysian (my ticket for Amsterdam to Geneva, although the flight was with KLM). Malaysian (MAS) played a recorded message giving their office hours (during which I was ringing) and hung up on me. After a couple of other things I realised the train on the departures board to Montpellier I was thinking I had plenty of time to catch was an hour after the one I was supposed to be on, which I had missed. As my connecting TGV to Geneva at Montpellier left half an hour after I was supposed to arrive, I couldn't make the connection. I got my ticket changed and now I had to get a train at Montpellier to Lyon, and a train at Lyon to Geneva, which would arrive at 9pm.
9) At Narbonne (100km before Montpellier) there was an accident which was going to delay the train I was on for at least an hour, so I went to information again and they told me the TGV to Lyon I was to get at Montpellier was on another platform and to change trains now. TGVs have booked seats, so I found my seat and stuck my bags on the rack, and as the delay was so long I got off and tried to contact the airlines again, this time succeeding with Lufthansa (I had one digit left out of their no. before), but the same problem with MAS. I went to get back on the train, which was now about to leave, and as I put my hand on the door it locked closed. I literally missed the train by 1 second (if I had had the door open it couldn't have locked). I went back to information and they told me when the next train to Montpellier left from and contacted the train so my luggage would be put off there. When I went to get on that train the stationmaster said it wasn't the train I was about to get on that went to Montpellier but a different one. I went to get on that one and they said I needed a booked reservation to get on the train. I went back to the booking office and the person in front of me was the last person they served before it closed. It was 8pm and all the trains to Montpellier that were on the display were TGVs I couldn't get on without getting my ticket changed (at least I was having no problem doing this each time if I could get to the booking office). OK, so I'll find a hotel and do some sight seeing in Narbonne and head to Montpellier in the morning.
10) It was the middle of the school holidays here, and Narbonne is so popular there were heaps of people sleeping at the train station & quite a few backpackers sleeping in the park. At about 1am I saw a big family of three generations pleading with the owner of a really big hotel (it took me ages to realise it was a hotel, because it was a castle, so although I saw it on the maps I kept thinking 'it must be near this castle but I can't find it'), but they ended up hanging around a playground all night long. Although it wasn't a cool night, all's I had on my torso was a T-shirt and there was a slight breeze. At 2am I am walking past a couple in conversation who call out 'bonjour' as I approach & 'avoir' as I pass. I'm too surprised and preoccupied to respond while they're in earshot. Note that people are saying 'bonjour' all the time and 'avoir' fairly frequently, once from a car driving past. At 5am I realised I should have stayed at the train station, as although it is locked between 12am & 5am, if you're in, you can stay in. It was warm (probably from everyone's body heat apart from anything) and there was no breeze. I had gotten a couple of hours (at most) sleep in a park, but mostly I had walked around in a pair of shoes not suitable for walking long distances (I had pretty sore feet by now). In the morning I got a train to Montpellier.
11) They didn't have my luggage but Lyon was where the train terminated and it would probably turn up there. I rang Pierre & Natalie whose last information was that I was arriving on a plane at 12pm, and got no answer. As the next time I could ring was from Lyon, where I arrived at 11.55am, I asked mum to contact them. She had also contacted Malaysian Airlines. Apart from not having my mobile phone with me, it has stopped working properly and just cuts out as soon as I connect to anyone (maybe it's been damaged by too many X-rays). In my first break, an announcement came over the intercom just as my train pulled in & I got my luggage & made my train. At Lyon I gave Pierre & Natalie a ring and mum had gotten through to them. I got to Geneva at 2.45pm and was fairly relieved to see Pierre's face.
12) That night (Friday) I saw a doctor who was very glad I saw them when I did because my lungs are heavily laden with fluid. I am now on an intensive course of antibiotics, a fever suppressant & something for my cough. Of course, I have to keep coughing until after the antibiotics have done their work and all the fluid is out of my lungs or I could experience serious long term consequences (I had a friend who took a cough suppressant and because there was still stuff in her lungs it created real problems for a long time, I think still ongoing). Fortunately I can take lozenges which mean I can cough without it hurting so much, but even this can present problems. Once your throat doesn't hurt it is easy to strain it and damage it further (a general problem with pain killers). My voice has been disappearing from time to time. I got a good night's sleep for the first time since the 5th August (rising to travel from Wed. the 7th to Fri. the 9th, staying in a dorm in a youth hostel on the 9th, being sick & cramping or coughing myself awake from Sat. the 10th until the present). In spite of all this I am having one of the best times I've ever had in my life. I feel like someone who has been quite happy with their car, having no problems with freeway driving or anything, but who has just realised they forgot they had overdrive and haven't been using it for about 28 years.
13) The day after I arrived here a hot air balloon landed in the front yard. Hang gliding, ultra-lite flying, para-gliding etc. are all really popular here. Natalie does some hang gliding. I ran the 5m back to the house to grab my camera and it wrecked me. Anyway I got a shot, so next time I get access to a computer with at least Windows 98 & USB support where I can upload my pics, you'll be able to see it on the web. The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. The fine cuisine I started in France has not abated, although because of the antibiotics I can't try any wine, & I'm probably eating quantities more in line with a person than a horse. I've had more cheeses than I can think of (probably more than a dozen different types), including a few of those that aren't just a great taste, the taste develops and changes in your mouth. Went back to coughing myself awake all night.
14) I've been taking it pretty easy at Pierre and Natalie's, hanging around the house or the yard and resting, reading Asterix in French & writing stuff on Pierre's Powerbook 150 (the 2nd Mac laptop ever made, 8MB RAM, 160 MB HD, only 8 keys you wouldn't find on an old mechanical typewriter, Mac OS 7.5.1 from late 1995, uses Double Density disks which new Macintoshes have no trouble reading), and it's such a joy to use I remember why I love Macs so much. I can't believe how quiet it is, there's no fan so spin down the HD & it's absolutely silent. Other than that I have been out a couple of times to see Pierre's work or whatever, and gone wandering around Geneva through lakeside parklands with little museums here and there. Geneva is a really beautiful place. Pierre & Natalie live where the first farmlands begin in their own forested area at the foot of a mountain just over 3 km from the heart of the city. It's exactly like in all the fairy tales except with all the modern conveniences. The ATMs warn you not to insert trombones into their deposit receptors (a trombone is also a paper clip). One thing about Europe is all the larger packets have handles built in (eg. buy a six-pack of sparkling water, fruit juice or milk at a supermarket & it'll have a carry handle).
Blessings,
Joe Krishna Mithiran
posted by Joe at
Monday, August 19, 2002
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