Another Year Down...

Another year down...a year older, perhaps wiser, smarter, more mature and richer in experiences, but also more cynical without those rose-tinted glasses I wore till last year. I didn't want to do anything today - didn't even want to talk to my closest friends. If not for Ma and some of my friends, I'd have probably spent the entire day curled up in bed, reading. It started off yesterday with a friend dropping in for the quickest visit ever, just to give me pre-birthday wishes and the biggest bouquet I've ever received. That gesture alone warmed the heart that had been lying bruised and battered all week...another friend refused to back down despite cold emails asking not to be bothered. She called on Ma's cellphone when she couldn't get through mine, scolded me, made me switch on mine and reminded me that I am made of stronger stuff and can't give up so soon, so easily. The last one week has been of much musing, pensive, punishing walks back home, battling the tears and the negative thoughts and I had come so close to giving up, but for the few people whose refusal to give up on me and their insistence on pushing me back...many revelations, many personal decisions taken this week. I hope I'm strong enought to stick to them all! Amen!

It was a very quiet birthday this year. I spent the day largely in the company of Ma - and the only thing that could have topped that would be having Papa there. Unrealistic, so I can't say I have any real complaints with the day...have been pampered with a surprise shopping excursion. Ironically I ended up buying more for the others than for myself, which made the family decide a second excursion was in order and in a short span of 15 minutes I walked out of FabIndia with three new things to add to my wardrobe. Well I did tell friends that they shouldn't gift me books this year since I was a rather clothes/jewellery deprived individual and in desperate need for clothes! Dinner with the family at Sigree, was a very satisfying affair. Excellent service, great food coupled with a perfect ambience...yes it was a quiet birthday spent with those who matter the most and I wouldn't have had it any other way!

Euro-Rail V

Even though not enamoured by the city of the famed la Cathédrale de Notre Dame, la Tour Eiffel, l’Arc de Triomphe et l’Arche de la Défénse, l’Obélisque/ Place de la Concorde, le musée du Louvre, la Sacré Coeur (my most favoured monument parisien), the city of the high fashion, the city of the metro, I always wanted to visit it and to feel that rush from atop the Eiffel with the French capital lying below me. My first trip to Paris (December 2003) was as perfect as it could be – a low-budget trip made in the company of my friend from Bordeaux, P, it was ideally planned and I covered more in those three short days in Paris than most people cover in a week. Sure I didn’t enter a single museum, in a city famed for its museums, I didn’t visit Le Moulin Rouge or Lido, I didn’t shop at Champs Élysées, but in those 72 hours I discovered Paris through the eyes of someone who knew the city, who admired it with a certain level of objectivity and the same sense of aesthetics and cultural interest as me.

(At the Temple de Madeleine - taken, obviously by K)

I wanted to go back, not so much so cover what I missed last time, but to go back to the streets and places that most charmed me on my first visit and spend time there and most importantly to spend time with Kitana. I didn’t achieve most of what I wanted to do, for various reasons, my missing bag being the biggest of them all, marking it as an incomplete sojourn in many ways, but I did discover a different Paris this time…

Paris, of the famed Catacombs, which despite all the warnings of being spooky and not for those with a frail heart, weren’t the least bit frightening. Interesting, but after a point a little too boney, if you get my point ;-)
Paris, of Paris Plage, a crazy idea, that only a French-man could come up with, of dumping tons of sand by the banks of the Seine to convert it into a beach every summer, so that Parisiens who couldn’t head to the beach for summer are not deprived!
Paris, home to Shakespeare and Co, paradise on earth for book-lovers and amateur writers. It applied the must needed balm to my bruised spirit at the right time. I would have broken down completely, if not for that visit to this amazing bookstore opposite Notre Dame (needless to say, even Shakespeare and Co would have been helpless if not for Kitana)

Biggest Regrets: Not being able to spend that completely mad, crazy moment with Kitana, or catch up peacefully with A (who had traveled all the way from Magdeburg to spend time with me), friends I cherish and don’t get to spend enough time with because of the miles separating us…and most of all, letting the dark cloud of worry consuming me, cast its shadow on K, Kitana and A’s break.

...and with this, I finally complete my Euro-Rail series! :-)

Surreal Reality...

Euro-Rail IV

Germany seemed so familiar even though this was completely new territory, a region that I hadn’t trespassed before. Yet it felt so right to be standing at Köln Hauptbahnhof; even the language barrier didn’t upset me much this time! I do, however, think it’s high time I got around to realizing that dream of learning German – at least the basics.

Our host’s house charmed me completely, at least the ground floor did, for I never saw the first floor which housed his “private quarters” – the entry is through a building which opens into a semi-private courtyard (reminiscent of the “traboules” of Lyon) covered with creepers and weeds, beyond which lay his cottage. Utterly delightful and bewitching!

Köln itself was not quite what I expected – much more depressing than I’d projected it to be and far too grey and wet for my idea of a German summer….we couldn’t do much because of the weather and because of lack of guidance forthcoming from the host, who seemed to be extremely reticent about telling us what can be seen and done in and around his city thus making Köln seem rather dull and dreary which it really isn’t... (But then our host could take up an entire post by himself, so let's not even tread in that direction!)

Yet I don’t really regret making the trip for it gave me an opportunity to spend time with A – she hasn’t changed a bit; she’s still the same mad, adorable, warm and stubborn A I knew back in Magdeburg 2003. I take time to befriend someone, but I generally choose my friends well. ;-) So we basically saw the Cathedral which is almost synonymous with Köln and walked around the shopping district till our bodies bruised and battered by the grey, wet and windy day screamed for rest and alcohol and we found ourselves at a local brewery. That was a delightful, since it was this warm, noisy place where everyone seemed to arrive with the sole purpose of drinking beer and having a good time, which we did! Spent a long time at the Ludwig modern art museum, which was quite satisfying, but I wonder whether I traveled all the way to Köln to spend a day inside a museum. I did, however buy a wonderful print of Andrew Warhol's "La Nana Noire" for bhaiyya's office and am extremely pleased with that purchase! Walked by the river and around the old city till we found the Rathaus (town hall) which despite our best efforts we simply couldn’t appreciate with the rain coming down on our heads and our shoes and jeans getting rapidly wet…

Now on my way back to Paris to spend the last few whirlwind days there – ironically I not very excited about Paris per se, since my thoughts are totally and completely centered on my bag now – it has ceased to be a parallel stream of thought running along side the stream that pushed me to explore Barcelona, relax in Bordeaux or chill out in Köln. I really hope the bag has reached Paris and that I get it when I reach there – I’m so tired of wearing recycled undergarments and borrowed clothes…am also looking forward to getting back home since I’m quite homesick by now, with all that I’ve faced – oh how I miss Papa…

Euro-Rail III

Barcelona – a city that emanates creativity, evident in the facades of its buildings. Synonymous with Antonio Gaudi, the architect behind the Park Guell, Casa Batllo, La Pedrera and of course his most famous project, the colossal La Sagrada Familia. I wasn’t sure what to expect, and frankly by the time I got there I didn’t care much about what I’d see…but I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t enthralled by the colourful facades that curved and twisted and dipped and rose, abundant with creative craftsmanship, screaming out loud the madness behind the genius that designed them. The fairy-tale appearance of Park Guell with its lizards and its brilliant mosaics, the intense detailing of La Sagrada Familia, a work in progress that sent chills racing down my spine, the vibrancy of the streets winding down the older quarters of the city, the warmth of my hostess (someone who I’d known for barely a fortnight, who not only welcomed me into her home making me as comfortable as possible but has been helping me ever since – the next time someone tells me that it’s impossible to find warmth in foreigners and make true friends abroad, remind me to sock them in their nose!) and her friends with whom we shared some delightful Spanish meals and many a light moment…all of it made the trip worthwhile! We walked endlessly through-out the day and were ready to collapse by evening, yet summoned the energy to step out for dinner and mingle with our newly-made friends even when our legs were protesting and threatening to fold under us!

The highlight of course was that last evening, sitting around a table on a roof-top terrace trying our best to overcome language barriers and understand each others’ countries, cultures and languages ;-) drinking wine from a kettle-like carafe with a spout, laughing, enjoying….I want to go back someday, spend more time seeing and knowing the city…and most importantly spend time with B, O and co.

Bordeaux, in stark contrast was all about relaxing, about stretching out lazily on a Sunday afternoon in a park, watching the ducks and swans swim past, idly talking about literature and politics, about art and economics, about culture and technologies, about life…I wish I hadn’t had to cut short that trip, I wish I’d had the foresight to re-organise the rest of the trip so I could have spent more time with P and B, I wish I’d had more spirit to show K around. I’m glad we didn’t end up fighting that first afternoon when my nerves were stretched taut as a wire (and I’m reasonably certain, so were his…) and I’m glad I could take him to the Quinconces where we got to spend a quiet moment together.

I really hope I get a chance to go back soon. While my first trip to Bordeaux was all about discovery, this one was about re-acquaintance. I was utterly charmed last time; this time I know that if I ever go back to France to study/stay for short duration, it will be to Bordeaux , and not just because I have friends there, but because the city has made its place in my heart.

(This entry and the next two had to be edited quite a bit since they were scribbled rather hurriedly in moments stolen between absorbing as much as I could of the city I was visiting, catching up with friends and trying my best not to give up, curl up into a ball and wail in misery)

(Needless to say credit for pics goes to K since my bag is still, well, missing!)

Show me the world...

(Taken in Eze, by K)

Dear visitors,

Please excuse the long absence and the sudden interruption in the Euro-rail series. I've been busy running around, settling into my new work routine and getting the hang of teaching level A2 (yes I've been promoted on that front - now teaching the intermediary level, not just debutants!)..and licking my wounds in solitude!

The series shall be taken up once-again and completed in the next ten days - cross my heart and all that :-)

Your beloved Plain Jane