It all started much before the time when I and Soham waved goodbye to my parents at Delhi Metro Airport Express station. For months we had been preparing for ‘the trip’ to Reims Management School (France) by getting Schengen visa, Eurail pass, Medical & Travel Insurance, Acceptance Letters, Hostel Accommodation, Youth Hostel Card, International Student Card, Basic French Language Certificate, etc, etc. I spent last 2 days in Kolkata (Sunday & Monday) shopping with my mom – bought 25kgs of food (maggi n stuff), other usuals like warm clothes, shoes (Nike worth 6K!), cosmetics, medicines, etc. Our flight allowed only 40kgs so some stuff had to stay back. My parents came along with me to Delhi (after all my close relatives had warmly bid me farewell) where Soham joined us on Tuesday morning. We went to spend some time with my cousin Dr. Kushal (at his hostel filled with Medical books) and then to a Kali Temple where my mom prayed for my successful journey. Our Turkish Airlines flight was at 4:45am and I & Soham caught the last metro to airport at 11pm, so we reached more than 5hours early. We met other guys from IIML & IIMI there and off we were to Istanbul!
The flight services were excellent, so were the air hostesses and so was the breakfast (we ordered veggie so as to avoid the possibility of beef!). I found 3 empty seats, made a bed of it and slept there peacefully. When I woke up we were already flying over Turkey. Istanbul looked rather beautiful from the window, with sea on one side and land on other, not to mention the Turkish architecture. We had a 5 hour stop there but we longed to go outside the airport (which by the way was full of tall, fair, sharp, beautiful women!). Turkish officials kept on directing us to some Passport Police which we could not find for a long time and when we did, we found a long line! When an Indian there said to us that he was stuck there for 12 hours (!), we gave up all hope of going outside and waited patiently for our connecting flight to Paris. :\
After an awesome Chicken lunch (and wine for Soham!) and watching movie ‘Diaries of a Wimpy Kid’, we reached Paris at evening, and so did our baggage! (We had almost lost all hope of seeing that happening after hearing all the horror stories of seniors on delayed baggage). To all our surprise, a lanky fellow was standing there with a card naming Soham Banik! Apparently he was from the agency which gave him (and others) scholarships. I had not applied to the scholarships pessimistically judging from historical data that almost nobody gets that but this time they gave scholarships of over Rs.1 lakh to almost everybody who applied! (Ain’t I something?? :O) Anyway, so the guy took all the scholarship holders on his car and gave rest of us directions to reach the Paris East station - via shuttle to Terminal 3 (free!) & metro to Paris Nord (9.10 euros!) - from where we were supposed to catch a train to Reims. As I got the first looks at suburbs of Paris from the metro, what I noticed most were the omnipresent graphitis (spray paintings on walls – all of them!). On the way we pissed off one security guy at metro station (one of us left his big suitcases lying unattended while buying tickets and security was shouting & whistling for few minutes to find whose they were!) and one beefy guy at Paris East (because he thought we jumped lines and was partially right – thankfully a young pretty French lady defended us while we pretended not to understand what was going on!) :P
Riding on the ‘local train’ with a speed more than Rajdhani Express we finally arrived at Reims around 10pm on Wednesday. The station area (Gare Centre) looked deserted; the train station got locked at 10:30 and we were thrown on streets all empty except for a hippie couple (a lady with a long red tail (wth!) and a guy with a long ponytail) playing with some yoyos and smooching casually, frequently. We found some taxis after a long time, but they insisted on carrying only luggage on one taxi and passengers on other. So had to let them go in fear that the one with our luggage might never return! There was also a lot of confusion on whether we should go to a nearby hotel (costing 40E) or a temporary hostel (costing 20E) or our own hostel (free) which wasn’t supposed to be open at this time. Finally, we decided to go to the temporary hostel (only to know next day that our own free hostel was open that time!) We managed to get the driver of the Mercedes taxi angry when we weren’t ready to pay extra euros for so many luggages (40 kilos each!). We paid when he slammed the door real hard! :P. We spent the night at CIS hostel and finally went to our permanent accommodation at Crous Gerrard Phillippe in the morning. The hostel room - which to my astonishment opened with the key chain instead of the key - is pretty neat and compact with large windows & cupboards. The only problem is that all the taps & showers have buttons which need to be continuously pressed for water & there was no mug or toilet papers!! (Do the math! :P)
Reims (pronounced as Raans) is a beautiful place with classical European churches, buildings, pavements, canals, trees and lasses. The climate is excellent (AC weather!) and romance is rich in the air (lot of PDA!). The problems for outsiders are language, transport & non-availability of people on roads, but none of us could help but love the place (Soham – ‘I am gonna come back here and live forever!’). The culture is pretty different from India, with strangers greeting you on eye contact, cars stopping even without red signal to let you cross the road, people sitting outside restaurants chatting casually with no traces of hurry or worry, working 9 to 5 and then partying from 8 to 12, etc.
First day (Thursday) at Reims Management School was the Welcome Day and we were the last students to enter the auditorium (just 1.5 hrs late!) and were welcomed by students (more than 60% girls!!) with applause! We even got a free RMS shirt. There was a beer party at night along with a music concert organised by RMS students and we went there to soak in the European party experience. We had fun but unlike other guys we hesitated to talk with gals, so Soham took a self-resolution that next day he would talk to them or sleep outside the railway station! :D
Next day we were late again but this time had to listen to ‘9 means 9’! :P We completed all paperwork and were treated to free breakfast & lunch followed by a tour to Pommery Caves where Champagnes are made. The caves were something new to us and so was the sight of a stuffed elephant hanging upside down! So we got a lot of pics & free Champagne! ;) We then went to make a bus/tram pass of 1 month and an advance reservation to Munich via Strasberg (the reservation lady sat with us for half an hour to get us the tickets since all trains were booked). At Friday night there was a Pizza party and we ate & drank unabashedly in merry only to discover that it wasn’t free! :O Oh btw, Soham did fulfil his resolution and even had to turn down a late night invitation by gals to have fun at their hostel! ;D
So now, after a good night’s sleep here I am on my room this Saturday afternoon eating maggi, bhujia & Soham’s sandwich (made of turkey eggs & potatoes) reminiscing on the hectic but enjoyable few days & getting ready for the bigger adventures awaiting us.
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