The first thing which hit me as soon as we came out of the station was that Roma was so like Pune!!!! the same cobbled footpaths, broken in numerous places, cars parked on the kerb (although here Mercs were in abundance), garbage lying around and sooooo many ppl! It felt so real that for some moments it seemed i was bak in pune! Well we reached our hostel which was really good and the ppl very friendly. We felt instantly at home....Next day after breakfast we "tried" to reach the Vatican early.....wahan jakar dekha to itni lambi
line.....looked like the Q at the ichchanath temple on shivratri! Khair Manghani was determined to show his bhartiyapan by cutting the line although it was not reqd since we were moving pretty fast and we took advantage of the whole lot of couples too busy in kissing to notice us overtaking them in the Q. U can see only a part of the Q in the picture (on the left).The entry fee was 8 euros for students under 26 but i managed to get in without paying more as as he dint notice my DOB on my I card. I wonder whats with europe and the concept of concessions for students only under 26. They should be happy that i am going bak to studies in budhapa!Well, the Vatican museum was much more interesting than Louvre since everything was in English and we were able to get a hang of things. It was huge and very awe inspiring. We saw the change of guards too. After that we
moved on to St Peters Basilica which i liked the best. All the Popes are buried there!
Weird!! Another Q greeted us (photo of St Peters Basilica and the Q on the right) and Manghani again tried to prove he was an Indian....We were not able to see the Pope although Manghani was pretty sure that if the Pope knew that he (Manghani) was in town, he would jump at the opportunity of meeting such a great dignitary from India! He also wondered what would happen if something was stolen from the Basilica,and contemplated stealing something and giving it to our hostel receptionist, Carlos, as a tribute to their common dislike for the Italianos! However, we did see someone new recruit in the church decked up in full finery and walking around like a messenger from god!We came bak to the termini and booked tickets for the next day. that was when we got the first inkling of how big the train strike was. We had got a resvn for a train which would take us to ventimiglia at 23:15 and from there the last train to Nice was at 23:32, a gap of 17 min. We assumed we could make it coz we were too engrossed with thoughts of eating kebab/felafal to do any more research. We then scoured the area for the cheapest and kebabs and had our fill!!!
And then we set out for the Colosseum, one of the wonders of the world...Manghani had somehow convinced me to shell out the money for entering it (i dont know why i listen to him time and again, against my better judgement!) The metro on the Linea B for the Colosseum was literally jampacked....Mumbai ki local ki yaad aa rahi thi..uspe se italy is famous for thieves par haalat aisi ho gayi thi ki it was difficult to breathe...usme kya chor kya saamaan...well, we braved it for the famous colosseum....and it was a huge letdown!!!
The Colosseum
FORZA ITALIA DemonstrationWe were pretty tired by then but we had our metro pass to choosofy and also the famous La Spagna(Spanish steps) to see. Somehow we boarded the metro and reached there...The famous Spanish steps turned out be a normal set of wide steps leading to a church and ppl were just hanging out on the steps like we do in front of Renaissance...Khair ab aye to baithna tha hi...i dont know how couples managed to concentrate on each other exclusively in that confusion...and the ubiquitous peddlars selling roses literally thrusting the roses in their faces...another big reminder of our homeland where half of the time in such an outing goes in fending off peddlars....and then out of the blue the police came...it was a spectacle...very efficiently they started shooing ppl off the stairs with their batons...and the ppl took it all as a matter of fact and were of the attitude "haan haan ruko thodi der, ja rahe hain!!" It was spsd to be a tourist attraction!!!
We went to catch the metro to return and this time the crowd had increased...which is difficult to imagine as earlier it had already been overflowing. This time there was no space on the platforms leave alone the train....We somehow managed to get on the train after a lot of pushing from behind and held on to dear life...At the next station ppl were not even able to get in, in spite of their pushing and insistence on getting on! At the termini after getting off, we just had to stand there for 5 min trying to breathe and get some life back into ourselves....people were pouring out like swarms of bees and i cud have almost sworn that i had not seen so many ppl together even in india....
The metro "Crowd"
At the termini we again went the resvn counter and by fluke found out that the last train to nice from ventimiglia was at 7.21 pm and not at 11.35...we were so shocked we did not know what to do...we did a lot of research and went to so many counters...both national and international and to the informazion that they got really bugged by us...then we realised the magnitude of the strike and that so many trains were not running...now this was a big problem since i did not want to get caught anywhere for the night...Not that i minded sitting on the station thru the night but these europeans lock their stations at night (i dont why) so u have to literally spend the night on the street in the freezing cold...and i did not want a repeat of corsica in any case!!!! i was even ready to forego the leaning tower of pisa so that i cud reach nice on time....however manghani was not ready to let me go as usko us traditional pose mein pisa mein photu khichwana hi tha.....the problem was that for some trains it was that the train might or might not run....finally we gave up and booked a ticket which wud leave us in genova at 3.15 and after that we thought we should def get smthg for vent. as they were so near......
Next day we reached pisa without incident...at the pisa station some black men were selling umbrellas since it was raining....manghani dint have one and thought of bargaining..the man started by quoting 8 euros but manghani said he wud pay 3..the guy trudged down from 8 to 5 and then as we started walking away in the typical indian bargaining style he agreed on 3 euros...after that manghani makes a thorough study of the sky, and measures the rain at diff points in the main square and then turns and tells the guy "Actually i dont think that i need an umbrella!" imagine what the man wud have felt "faltoo time kharab karta hai"
We reached the leaning tower which Manghani then realised ki "Arey yeh to sach mein lean karta hai"....i was wonderstruck by the vagaries of mankind...koi engg galati kare aur woh wonder ban jaye!! what wud have the teacher of the engg felt...ki uske student ne itni badi galati kaise ki!! manghani ne bahut fite maara diff poses mein photu khichwane ke liye and even climbed on some treachourous looking stumps to get the perfect angle..
Manghani's desperate attempts.....and finally "Conquered"!!!!
then he was taking my photo when an elderly indian couple living in the UK approached us...the buddhe uncle insisted on taking my photo and then one of us toghether...itne drama ke baad he finally took the photo and manghani praised it a lot...baad mein dekha ki the photo was totally out of proportion with our hands in front of the tower instead of supporting it.
One of Buddhe Uncle ke attempts!"The traditional pose...on Manghani's insistence"
We ate very tasty pizza at the station and boarded the train on time. But the train did not move on!! That was so much like india....after around 20-25 min it moved and reached genova late enough for us to miss the connecting train. we were told that because of the strike we would have to wait 5 and a half hours for the next train and would reach vent. by 11.15 but luckily a train to Nice at 11.32 did exist....It is really weird how the same trains dont show up in their systems at all places in spite of their having the same software!! Well maybe "developed" countries mein aisa hi hota hai....On asking whether that train wud be running (since we did not fancy getting stuck at Vent. - half an hour away from Nice), we were told that train was "good" since it was a french train and there was no strike in france!
Khair we went to the tourist info to ask about places to visit in Genova....Now at all European stations we have observed a sort of animosity between the tourist info and train info. Always, there are notices put up at both places that they dont give info about each other....So manghani goes to this lady at tourist info and says in that 'Rajdhani' (MDI ppl is there a knowing smile on ur faces???) way of his "We have a train at 9, what can we do??" The lady is flabbergasted! and then she tries to piece together the evidence and concludes that he is asking abt his train...so she says "this is not train info" and he says no..no and rattles off the same thing again....finally she had to say that she could not understand him!!!Then i explained that we were looking for maps and tourist places...she responds "Yes, this i do understand" and quickly goes thru the practised routine of explaining the city to the tourists.....The look on Manghani's face!!!!!! She explained about the old city "which was picturesque with cobbled streets and closed off to traffic so we could enjoy our walk there" we wanted to tell her that we had been to a whole lot of old cities and there was no question of any vehicle surviving those cobblestones!!!
Well, we came out and it was drizzling but Manghani magnanimously insisted on giving a 'guided' tour at which my heart sank (his guided tours are one unforgettable experience!) but finally i agreed under one condition that whatever happened i wud not look at the map! (a condition which wud have to be broken ultimately as both of us knew!) The city was the std european stuff with cobbled streets but it was better and bigger than the rest...it looked more beautiful with the christmas decorations beginning to show up.....we also came across an ice skating rink which was fun to watch....
Manghani can smell Mc. Donalds....so ultimately 'guided tour' mein 'guide' hote hote we reached a Mc D. Wahan humne adda jama liya aur kafi der tak kuch kuch khate rahe....And then a lady comes to us and asks for money to eat!!! Imagine Mc D ke andar koi bheekh maang raha ho!! Shayad 'developed' countries mein aisa bhi hota ho!! After all Nice ke beggars ko pehchanana mushkil hota hai by their get up....only when they sit on the pavement with their pram and all then we realise that they are beggars.....
We came back to the station at 7.00 and settled to wait for the train which was due at 9.15 Trains were running late due to the strike and we were pretty tensed coz if this train was late we would miss the last connecting train. Manghani ne train info wale ko to question pooch poochh kar pareshan kar diya...and every time he changed his get up (with/without cap; with/without sweater) so that they wud not realise that the same person was bothering them...as if u can forget his frame once u see the huge hunk!!! At 9.10 we went happily to the platform that our train was on time, but when it did not come till 9.25 we came back and saw that the display had been changed to 10 min "retardo". we still kept our fingers crossed in the hope that we could just make it...but the display kept on revising and ultimately became 40 min.
We decided we could instead go to Milano to Ritu and Maulik...wahan at least raat bitane ki jagah mil jati...kyonki ventimiglia raat ko 12.00 baje pahunchte aur sab kuch band hota...we cud not just go and knock on doors and ask if they were youth hostels and hotels wud be too expensive. We needed ritu's no and manghani had exhausted his phone card and me my coins...manghani had some coins in which we managed to call prady and get her no. but we did not have coins left to call her...so manghani asked for a change of 5 euros to some europeans and they refused!!! i saw 2 bangladeshi ppl(worker class) and asked if they spoke hindi..they said yes and i explained my problem and asked for change...they were so nice they gave us their cell phone to call her but the train to Milano had left by that time....The rich, educated, sophisticated europeans dint help us and the poor illegal immigrants helped us so much...they suggested we cud spend the night at the station and gave us tips on looking after our money and luggage since this was italy......
The train finally arrived one hour late and junta on the platform applauded its arrival....We reached at 12.30 and found that the next train to Nice was at 5.00....4 and a half hours to spend in that windy cold!!And that too when we were only half an hour away from home!! The 'good' french train was of course long gone...We reconnoitered around the station looking for the best place to spend the night....Luckily because of the strike, the waiting room and WC were open....A very big consolation to us...Although we did not have sheets, shawls etc and wud have frozen in the open...we cud somehow manage to spend the night in the waiting room....although it was pretty cold, at least it was closed! Initially i did not want to stay there as there were only 2 homeless drunks inside but there was no other option....Luckily more ppl including 2 couples arrived after that..it seems lots of ppl had missed the connection to Nice.... After some time one couple got up and went away...we began to wonder if they had found a better place.....kuch der baad, the other couple got up and went out too...yeh to hadd ho gayi...manghani rose up to the situation and followed them to see where they were going...imagine our faces when he came and reported that they had jumped into a taxi and driven away! So much for our finding a better place!
Fir raat ko 2 baje the police came...now we are very wary of police after the lyon incident...and specially when they started asking for "documenti"...our alarm mounted when they took one person's id and went away with it...we resolved to give our college ids and save our passports at any cost! Ek to train nahi chalate hain aur fir id check kar rahe hain!! Talk of priorities in developed countries!!! Hamara no aaya and we gave our college id...Honi ko kaun taal sakta hai...they asked for our passports after that...we gave it with trepidation and a sense of impending doom since these guys did not know a word of english so we wud never be able to explain anything even if we somehow understood their question...Luckily god took pity on us and they returned our passports after checking the visa and stuff (although they got a bit excited when they saw the US visa on my passport and were not able to find the Schengen visa).
It had turned pretty cold by that time and i spent the night walking about to ward off the cold....manghani tried to catch some sleep...the only thing which kept me gng was the thought that at least we had got this room and were not left at the total mercy of the elements!!! At 3.45 i went to the platform and tried to check if the train gates wud open (we concluded that we would be warmer inside the train) darwaza to nahi khula, ulta alarm lights began to flash!! i literally ran bak before the police could catch me!! After some time Manghani went to try his engg skills on the train door...He also came bak dejected and reported that the lights were still flashing in the dark night! At 4.30 finally the doors opened and we thankfully entered the train trying to find the compartment where the heating was maximum! Finally ek jagah mila jahan we cud feel the heater and we jumped near it like the historic lost travellers wud have done on finding an oasis in the desert!
Manghani sleeping in the waiting room
Ab prob Eurail pass ki...ideally we wud have completed the journey the day before....We were half an hour away from Nice and we did not want to write one new date for such a short journey esp when it was not our fault and we had already paid so much!! But again the prob, how to explain it to french ppl! We were determined to fight it out but fortunately/unfortunately nobody came to check our tickets.....It was one of the more suspense ful journeys first because of the pass and secondly because we were afraid of missing Nice stop. They were not announcing the next stop on the train (although it is usually done) and it was very dark and We being at the end of the train could not see the sign boards on the platforms....fortunately we recognized our pyaara nice ville and finally reached after a long treachourous journey.
One observation...every time i have been out of Nice, wapis aate samay kuch na kuch hamesha hua hai....Nice does not want me to go and i ll surely miss this place!!!!!
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