Swiss soujourn ends!

In any field of endeavor, anything that can go wrong will go wrong. Logic is a systematic method of coming to the wrong conclusion with confidence.

Logic doesn't work well while you travel, and especially when you travel in Europe where things are so precise and safe that one tends to take everything for granted, be it trains, or robbers or health!

It usually helps to book train tickets in advance if you have a Eurail pass(wherever booking is needed). As it turned out, I couldn't find a next day TGV ticket back to Paris from Switzerland. Quite unexpectedly though, the ticket-office employee at Zurich station tried to help me out by trying several permutations and combinations for 45 minutes(yeah, full 45 minutes!) and finally came up with the best possible plan(Geneva-Lyon-Vierzon-Orleans-Paris huh!). I still can't forget the way he made efforts to sort things out, and my respect for Swiss people increased manifold after that day!

So, after the nightout in Zurich we reached Lausanne in the morning and went to a nearby town Vevey to explore the area surrounding Lake Geneva. Lake Geneva is a huge body of water, the largest freshwater lake in Europe, and is so amazingly clean that the bottom is clearly visible even at larger depths. After loitering around for some time with the swans, we hopped on a small toy train for Blonay, a village higher up on the mountains and were subject to some really awesome views of the vineyards, lakeside villages and the peaks of the Swiss riviera. But it wasn't meant to be so smooth a journey....

Fainted!

My temptation for taking photos landed me in a trouble once again(I have already suffered a surgery and a 3 month stint in the hospital due to this). While opening one of the train windows to get clearer pics, my finger got half-cut by the window frame. A jet of blood came out and I fainted inside the moving train. Jatin took some time to realize what exactly had happened and even he got frightened on seeing that. I regained conciousness after some minutes and managed to control the flow of blood through my handkerchief.

The only other person in the whole train(yeah, we were just 3 in the whole train except for the driver) was a Swiss girl, Laura, who also accompanied us to the next train for Geneva and along with an old lady, she managed to provide some relief from the painful situation that I was in.

The Defence Researcher :P

We then went to Lyon where Jatin left for his home and I took another train for Vierzon. I was feeling miserable since blood had still not stopped coming out, and this time an Algerian

guy came to my assistance. Later on, it all became interesting when 2 more girls joined in and we started my first true 'cultural exchange'. I found it comfortable to tell everybody that I was a researcher on Defence technology and was here on a deputation with the French government. Naturally, people were interested to know more, and the suspense surrounding my 'job' kept everybody occupied for the rest of the journey.

The common man of the Western world still thinks of India as a surreal ancient civilization where daily events defy logic and all the people happen to be mystics or sages practising spirituality in the form of Vegetarianism and Yoga. This is where being an Indian helps, when you deal with never ending questions about this exotic land and become the centre of attention in an otherwise very private French society. Fortunately for me, all the people involved in that talk spoke English and the remaining 3 hours passed like a breeze!

I changed another train in Vierzon and finally reached Paris late in the night. The blood hadn't stopped yet and it actually took a whole month for the injury to heal. Nevertheless, I was happy to have brought some watches from Switzerland, along with a lot of pics and some splendid memories!

And as Tim Cahill said, a journey is best measured in friends, not miles!