Crazy Trip: Day 1: Oslo to Paris

Yes, it is late, but better late than never! My favourite quote (grin). The trip was literally crazy and hence I did not find any time to update or write blog. I had even taken few papers to pen down my thoughts, and I wrote a few lines too, but then I was damn sleepy and stopped writing since I would not have made out what I have written if I continued. Without further ado, I will start with the story …

The plan was hatched a long time back. My Euro trip was supposed to start with Paris with my best friends Achintya (Ach) and Rajarshi (Raja), but thanks to the French Embassy in India, my trip was extended to Rome too. They did not get Visa appointments and tried with the Italian embassy which granted the visa immediately. Long story short, the Paris trip became Paris and Rome trip for me. I got the flight tickets as soon as their visa was granted, at that point of time I was travelling alone to Paris and then to Rome. Later Kiran and Venkat joined in for my trip to Paris. I know Kiran was disappointed with me since I did not inform him about the Bergen trip (I have not blogged about it, it is still in drafts!!!), hence this time I informed him in advance, and repeatedly reminded him of getting his flight tickets booked, which he did eventually. Then after a week of extensive planning, we were ready for the crazy trip.

Day One actually started the night before. Our flight to Paris Beauvais Airport was early in the morning at 6:35 am on a Thursday, and the flight was from Rygge Airport far from Oslo city. There are two cheaper options to get to the Rygge Airport from Oslo (of course you can hire a taxi and pay half of your salary!), one is to take the Rygge-expressen bus, and another is by train. Bus far is NOK 140/- and starts according to the flights, train fare is 144/- and does not start according to the flights. The situation was quite complex for us. Owing to our location and it being a weekday, we could not reach the Oslo busterminal (from where Rygge-exressen was supposed to leave) at 4 am in the morning, so we decide the take the train. Now the last train is at 12 in the night and the first train is at 6 am, hence we decided instead of spending the night at bus stand, we will spend the night at the airport. But we did not know what was in store for us.

All packed we left our houses at 11 pm on Wednesday, first trouble was that there was no train which says it goes to Rygge airport, since it doesn’t! We have to take a train which goes to Moss/Rygge train station and then there is a free shuttle till the airport. We took the train which was leaving at 11:59 pm from Oslo S, and reached Rygge station (which is just after Moss) at about 1 am. Now the fun started, other than three of us, just one lady got down, who ran towards her parked car and drove off immediately, leaving the three of us at the station. It took us about 3 minutes to realize that there was no shuttle at this time and we were doomed to freeze. Kiran was the worst of the lot since he forgot his jacket and thought he will buy a better one from Paris. But of course we did not panic! The solution was to confirm if there was a bus at all, hence called up Anil in the middle of the night, but there was a new problem, his internet was not working. Then called up Babaprakash, but guess by the time he got back is senses and understood the situation, I found three taxi numbers in the parking lot. The decision was immediate, called up Moss Taxi and the lady was really kind to pick up, and our taxi was on the way.

Then we took a look around of the platform, there were no other living creature except us. As we were discussing the weird station, our taxi came, it was a Merc E Class. The lady chauffeur was kind enough to inform us that there were no shuttle service at night. We reached the airport in about 15 minutes (we could not have walked all the way!). The bill was 210 NOK, pretty decent than freezing to death. Venkat found the lady very nice since she could have asked for more as we did not have any other choice (Indian minds!).

The airport was a small one, few fellow travelers were waiting too, maybe they came by an earlier train. It was just 2:30 am, sleep was not in the agenda. Kiran got a coffee and I got hot chocolate, then we settled in one of the tables, and started talking about our managers (what other interesting topic could we possibly have found). Time passed soon, with we weighing the bags (Ryanair checks the cabin bags to be exactly 10KG), Venkat updating Facebook with a boring status (there was one terminal to do free internet/Facebook), and seeing other people arrive at the airport. We were no doubt sleepy, but the excitement kept us awake. We were amongst the first to check in (we needed to get our boarding passes stamped as we were not EU nationals). Then through security check, and to the tax free area. Had a breakfast of muffin and coffee, and paid NOK 99 for that, in-flight food were much cheaper! Browsed the tax-free section, since Kiran was new to alcohol and he has to carry one bottle for Anil. Then boarding started and we were in queue (no seat numbers in Ryanair flights).

La Grande Arche

The flight was on time. In flight all three of us were sound asleep, only to awake at about 8 am when the flight was about to land. We were flying to Paris Beauvais airport which is far from the city, so whatsoever I tried, I could not get a glimpse of the Eiffel tower. After getting down at right time, we took the shuttle to the city. It was 15 Euros each way per person, a long queue at the counter inside the airport, but we could have taken the tickets outside too. Also remember, they do not accept cards. The bus journey was a long one and the route was boring too, another round of sleep. By the time we reached Porte Malliot, it was about 11 am. And finally, it was true, my Euro trip has begun.

First destination was Grande Arche, near La Defense. We took a carnet of t+ tickets (10 tickets for 12.50 euros), which was supposed to last for 1.5 hours for a single journey. We thought this will be cheaper, but I guess a Paris Visite pass which is valid for 3 days would have been better. The first ride in Paris metro was nice, felt a lot like the London underground. But yet different, like I said, Paris smells of perfume. Parisians are very fashion sensitive, as expected. And as soon we entered the metro, I could feel all eyes scanned us (and our fashion sense) on 3 seconds. Well, we were not bad either (grin). In no time we were in La Defense, where the Grande Arche is situated. The first sight was awesome. The arch is huge, and is perfectly aligned with the Arche De Triomphe. After a lot of photographs, we took the metro to Gallieni (actually we changed twice), where our hotel was.

Republique

This Etap hotel was pretty near the metro stop, with little help from GPS, we reached there. The room was nice, had a bunk bed, very contemporary set-up, with LED lights in the shower. We quickly freshened up, and were out for our next destination. Lunch was at McDonalds, not my choice, but did not spend much time searching for a lunch place. Our destination was Basilica of Sacre Coeur. We got down at Republique, and walked from there, via Gare de l’est and Gare du Nord (much to Venkat’s disappointment, since he had no idea why we were visiting these train stations). It was a long walk, but it felt nice, walking through the streets of Paris! The weather was nice too.

At about 4 pm we reached the Basilica, and the first impression was phew! We climbed a lot of steps, and reached the Basilica, the Sacre Coeur Basilica is situated on the Montmartre Hill. The city seemed so huge and dense from this location. Outside the Basilica, a moderate crowd was listening to some Italian guy, singing, and performing. The white coloured Basilica, looked great in the evening light. Inside the Basilica, photography was not allowed. The basilica is dedicated to the Sacred heart of Jesus, and has a huge gold mosaic of Jesus called Christ in Majesty, much alike Christ the redeemer statue. Interiors are heavily  decorated, and houses a huge organ.

Sacre Couer Basilica

After our free tour of the interior, we took tickets to the crypt and the tower. The crypt was nothing special, just it had an awesome version of Pieta. Then we climbed 300 stairs to the top of the Basilica. Venkat was panting like anything, it wasn’t much trouble for me or Kiran though. The views from the top were amazing, specially, the first view of Eiffel Tower in the late afternoon light. We went round the whole top, there were coin-operated binoculars too, but we did not use them. Again we got a view of the intricate roads of Paris. All buildings were more than three floors in height, we even traced Gare Du Nord and the road though which we walked.

Overall, the first attraction of the day did not disappoint us, we wanted to stay there for longer time, listen to the Italian singer, who would have become very popular in Facebook by now, but our tight schedule did not allow us. As any travel site will say, we did see the “string-men”, but they kept away from us (one of the advantages of traveling in an all-guy group). The area was filled with Africans selling bags and towers and what not. Of course, it is advisable to take care of your belongings.

Traffic at Arche de Triomphe

Our next destination was Arc de Triomphe. Went there by metro, till Charles De Gaulle stop, and as soon as you come to the ground, you will be amazed by the gate. By the time we reached there, it was dark, and the Arch looked great in all the lighting. The Arch is in the centre of a circle, with many roads (as many as 12) meeting there, hence it is always full of traffic. We had to do a bit of antics to get a shot of the Arch in the busy traffic. This Neoclassical building is 50 metres high, and is dedicated to the Unknown Soldier. We went via a subway near below the arch, it would have been impossible to cross the road otherwise. There is a eternal flame below the arch, a la Amar Jawan Jyoti near India Gate, dedicated to the same Unknown Soldiers who died for their country. Going to the top was 12 euros I guess, hence we gave it a miss. In the meantime, the search lights from top of Eiffel Tower caught our attention, and we became magnets and soon started moving towards the iron structure.

Eiffel at night

A little bit of walk, and we were near the Tower from the other side of river Seine. Caught up with a replica seller who was from Punjab, and he was so much pestering, we had to buy the metal towers and key chains etc. But it was a good deal in some way. Finally we were near the Eiffel Tower, the icon of Paris, the most photographed ugly structure (well Parisians did consider it ugly when it was built). Built in 1889, this 324 metre structure is an amazing example of great engineering of those days, when we did not have huge cranes and machines to support such huge structures. The lights in the tower fills every part of the structure, it was looking majestic in the dark. Every hour thousands of small light starts glittering and then unknowingly you say “Woohoooo!”

There was a huge queue to get to the top, the good news was we were not trying to get to the top today. The tickets to the top by lift is 13.40 euros, to second level is 8.20 euros, stairs is 4 euros only though you can only go to second level by stairs (of course you will die climbing till the top). There are four pillars, the west pillar is not open to public. East and North pillars are for elevator only entry, and south pillar is for stairs. The stairs queue is always small, in case someone wants to rush, I will recommend the stairs, but then you cannot go all the way to the top. The lift entry is open till 11:45 pm in the night, the stairs entry close at 6 pm.

Sparkling Tower

After roaming there and enjoying the environment, we decided to retire for the day. Dinner was pending, so we walked towards Ecole Millitaire (from where we will take our metro), and after a bit of searching found a place where we can dine. Menus and prices are displayed in all restaurants outside, so it was easy to decide on wherever some good vegetarian dish was available. We decided on a restaurant just beside the metro stop. Dinner was grilled chicken for me, egg club sandwich for Kiran, and chicken pizza for Venkat. The bill was 37 euros and we all had a hearty meal. Back to the hotel, we crashed immediately, and Venkat started snoring in 2 seconds. I got the bunk bed, it was nice, I even had a bed lamp. And then I started to write and then my pen started to slip, and I fell asleep. It was a long day after all.