And we're off....

Hi again all...Hari here and I am making a debut on our blog.

Well, we've done all the responsible stuff, in other words -
1. Get a house - Check!
2. Lease a car - Check!
3. Collect ATM cards - Check!
4. Deplete bank accounts to truly feel like students - *sniff* check!
4. Embarass ourselves speaking french(?) - Definite check!
5. Transform ourselves from Indo-Americans to Indo-frenchies - hmm, not quite there yet, mes amis!

Now its time for the long planned, long anticipated EUROTRIP!!!!!!!
We have dreamt about it for the last few years. I have been calling hotels, shortlisting hotels, planning train-rides and booking tickets for only the last 4 months, thats all. So now time to enjoy the fruits. Time for the movie to begin -

ACT I:
Date/time: Nov 20/6am
Location: Somewhere in the forests of Fontainebleau

We find our two intrepid adventurers frustated with attempts to defrost the damn windshield of the rented car. Many minutes later, we find them zipping through the french countryside, a dash above the speed limit both for driving and heart-rate - you see Havek is a nervous traveller and has managed to transfer some of that to his poor wife - Mayhem (there nicks are no coincidence)

After paying a Euro toll and following the poor directions, they find themselves......

..hold on a bit, the poor directions warrant some explaining. You see Europe uses an equivalent to the excellent Mapquest.com service in the US, called Mappy.com. Well Mappy has been obviously designed by some sadistic souls as they try to be as unspecific as possible, as if to say - enjoy the moment, take time, smell the roses, drive in circles. Well mission accomplished...I can confidently say that I as I type out this rant, several poor drivers are meandering around Europe wondering what they did to deserve this. Mappy has beautifully painful directions and in spite of being a Brit site ( or maybe because they ARE a brit site), the English is pitiful at most times.

...anyway, where were we? Oh yes, our two brave gypsys are now on the outskirts of Paris. AFter taking a deep breath, they dive into the city of lights. Paris is still fairly asleep at 7:30am, but the roads have a fair amount of traffic. Driving here is like driving in Bombay - lanes are suggestions, not requirements and the horn is put to fine use (I mean some poor guy spent time testing the damn thing, so use it will ya?). After zipping through traffic, the duo find themselves within a 5km driving distance of Gare du Nord Railway station, but never closer. Try as they might they cant seem to get any closer to the goal.

After some dubious U-turns and quick turns, they find themselves near the station, but rental car return is nowhere to be found???? AVIS and co. in their infinite wisdom have not posted any signs showing the way. Maya bravely steps out to ask some friendly Parisians the way. The conversation (helpfully translated went a bit like this) -

Maya: Bonjour Monsieur (Good day sir)
Frenchie: Grmph... (Grmph)
Maya: Est-ce que vous m'aider ... (Could you help me...)
Frenchie: Je ne parle pas l'Anglais (I dont speak English)
Maya: Ou est le.. (Where is the...)
Frenchie: Je ne parle pas l'Anglais (I dont speak English)
Maya: Savez-vous.. (do you know)
Frenchie: Je ne parle pas l'Anglais, demandez le serveur (I dont speak English, ask the waiter)

Well Maya is made of some tough stuff and much later she came back beaming...she jumped in to the car and said "Take the first right". Well, of course, it turned out to be the first left...
Anyway, long story short....we drove into a subway below the station that wound to the very centre of the Earth and parked our car at the doors of Hell. Mucho climbing later, we made the terminal (just in time) and got our tickets stamped and breakfast eaten. Hari's folks called too and managed to sneak in a greeting.

At 9:45am, the two adventurers boarded the shiny red train (Thalys) headed for Brussels. After stowing away the luggage, they settled ino what was to be a very comfortable journey on a very fast train. Trains in Europe are spectacular and very fast. Especially a few special trains which have names associated to them, eg, Eurostar, Thalys, etc. The Thalys connects Paris to Amsterdam via Brussels. So, the dynamic duo will be using it twice (Paris - Brussels, Brussels - Amsterdam).

Belgium....here we come!