In 1 hour I will be in Torino, finally the 5.30 hours of train ride will be over! If i would have flown for 5.30 hours from Paris id be in such a different world, but well train will only bring me as far as Torino, good enough. The smile can already be seen in my face. Im in Italy!! First stop in Italy!! Many changes have happened of people in the 12 rows of thew agon.: People have goten on and off at various stops , yet once again only a group of persons has catched my attention. The 3 australian women- again. I was starting at the celing, where there are the luggage holders. These ones are made of a type of glass that reflects and ats as a mirrros. From your sit you ans see through the glass what people are doing- a great spying device. As I was bending my neck upwards to stare around my eyes saw an estonishing event. The Australians had opened their tables and on it they had papers, glasses of water, palettes to paint and paint and of course paintbrushes.
So yeah, they were paining in the traine while engaging in a friendly chat with eachother. It appeared as if they were in the middle of an art class, only that they were in a TGV which was running at high speed. Every person that passed by glanced at them and some even took advantage of this rare event to start a conversation. The conversation was always in english and it ended up with one of them saying "merci".
For the rest the customs police man passed by checking every luggage and asking to whom it belonged. Then the French and the Italian policeman also stopped by to check Ids. It suprises me that the police never stop by in the train Paris- Amsterdam, which crosses three countries- France,Belgium and Holland. Yet in this train security has been quite strict. My stomach is strting to roar so I just ate my banana but Im hoping to arrive in Torino to have a proper lunch, with some coffee of course!
14 d’octubre 2008
7.15 Pain au Chocolat et Cafe SVP
I needed to get something warm as my throught is starting to get irritated and i think I will soon get a bad cold. Buyin my coffee gave enough time for the SNCF to post the number of the track from where our train would be departing: Track 5 it was. Amazingly every person who had dark skin and had a train ticket was being checked by the police. Ont he other hand I was able to get on the train without showing my ID or ticket. Later the police got on the train to check once again the people with a dark skin. This kind of filtration of people just irritated me. As it did the beating up of sales people in India or the ID checking of south american looking people in St. Cugat this scene made me feel unconfortable and found it rather unfair. Who said I wasnt an immigrant myself??
In the wagon there is a group of 3 Australians. Highly identifiable by their accent. Although 4 rows ahead of me their loud voices and excitment of their trip grabed my attention during the first 20 minutes before the departure of the train. Soon after another couple also of middle age got on the train.
- Are you Australian????
- Yeahhh (with a typical southern Aussie Accent) You???
- New Zeland
- Oh UHhh Ohhh Uhhh
And with the social skills of the people of these two nations the group of 3 and the couple quickly engaged into a conversation in which they discussed their European trips ´´sight´´.
Nobody else has catched my atteention in hte rest of the 12 rows of this nicely decorated and confortable TGV wagon. Silence prevails and everybody seems to be engaging in one of the follwoing three activities. 1 Reading 2 Sleeping 3 staring out of the window. In the past 1.30hours of train ride I have attempted the three activities myself. Sleeping has clearly not worked, staring out the window is useless due to the gog and in my TGV magazine I have found only one intresting article- Disposable Mobile phones- A new product created by BIC at a price of 50 euros.... to be thought, how disposable is it something that costs 50 euros?? The marketers of the product claim its not meant to be disposable, however the title of the article underlines the disposability of the product.I wonder how consumers will see this product....
-
In the wagon there is a group of 3 Australians. Highly identifiable by their accent. Although 4 rows ahead of me their loud voices and excitment of their trip grabed my attention during the first 20 minutes before the departure of the train. Soon after another couple also of middle age got on the train.
- Are you Australian????
- Yeahhh (with a typical southern Aussie Accent) You???
- New Zeland
- Oh UHhh Ohhh Uhhh
And with the social skills of the people of these two nations the group of 3 and the couple quickly engaged into a conversation in which they discussed their European trips ´´sight´´.
Nobody else has catched my atteention in hte rest of the 12 rows of this nicely decorated and confortable TGV wagon. Silence prevails and everybody seems to be engaging in one of the follwoing three activities. 1 Reading 2 Sleeping 3 staring out of the window. In the past 1.30hours of train ride I have attempted the three activities myself. Sleeping has clearly not worked, staring out the window is useless due to the gog and in my TGV magazine I have found only one intresting article- Disposable Mobile phones- A new product created by BIC at a price of 50 euros.... to be thought, how disposable is it something that costs 50 euros?? The marketers of the product claim its not meant to be disposable, however the title of the article underlines the disposability of the product.I wonder how consumers will see this product....
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Destination Torino
Fog is all you can see out of the window. Pitty because my hands are anxious to grab the camera and start shooting, but ill have to wait till later on the day. The atmosphere is calm in this train 9241 destination Milano Centrale. Although id love to go back to Milano if only to visit Marco,Chiara, Fiore and the rest of the people this time I will be getting of at Porta Susua, Torinos stop. It was hard to resist the temptation of the add"30 euros ticket to Torino from Paris". Saw the add, run home, got online and bought a ticket- of course previously checking if Giulia was okay with it, afterall im staying at her place. This is where the adventure began on the 28.09 at 22h on the sncf webpage.
Expectations? Not many, will be staying at Giulias and Carlos place in Asti, 40 minutes away from Torino. Hope to speak and hear lots of italian, eat pasta with real parmaggiano, I willt ry and take as many coffess as possible. And enjoy the few hours- 28 to be precise- that I will have in Italy. Having been to Venice, Milan,Bergamo, Florence, Pisa, Rome and multiple villages in the Alps, im very happy to go back to Italy. I dont know if its the language, the people , the culture or a combination of all which makes me want to go back. This time a new destination. However, Naples remains the city where I want - and of course, one day will go to. Italy is one of the countries where I have most friends from. How this happened I remains a mystery to me, but maybe one day I will move there, if only to absorb and enjoy some of its culture.
I feel that although extremly "fashion oriented" (yes, this might be a major generalization) people are very opened and warm. The impression is that a big value is given to family vanlues and with it reunions gatherings and of course meals. the mediteranean diest appears to be complemented with pasta with all sorts of home cooked sausces , later comes the meat the cheese the cofee and the after food discussions. Loud in nature, and with a need and urge to gesticulate every zord with hands, arms and body friendly discussions form part of their daily routine.
Trains to the south- Italy, Switzerland- seem to leave from gare de Lyon in Paris. This station is very easily accessible with line 14 of the metro. This line has very few stations, however it crosses Paris from one side to the other. Starting at St. Lazare and finishing at Olympiades the line is the newest of the city and most modern. The metros have no conductors and a double door exists permitting a more secure entry and exit of passengers. Each station has a connection with multiple metro lines, becoming like this a central axis perimitting commuters to easily and cross the city.
Expectations? Not many, will be staying at Giulias and Carlos place in Asti, 40 minutes away from Torino. Hope to speak and hear lots of italian, eat pasta with real parmaggiano, I willt ry and take as many coffess as possible. And enjoy the few hours- 28 to be precise- that I will have in Italy. Having been to Venice, Milan,Bergamo, Florence, Pisa, Rome and multiple villages in the Alps, im very happy to go back to Italy. I dont know if its the language, the people , the culture or a combination of all which makes me want to go back. This time a new destination. However, Naples remains the city where I want - and of course, one day will go to. Italy is one of the countries where I have most friends from. How this happened I remains a mystery to me, but maybe one day I will move there, if only to absorb and enjoy some of its culture.
I feel that although extremly "fashion oriented" (yes, this might be a major generalization) people are very opened and warm. The impression is that a big value is given to family vanlues and with it reunions gatherings and of course meals. the mediteranean diest appears to be complemented with pasta with all sorts of home cooked sausces , later comes the meat the cheese the cofee and the after food discussions. Loud in nature, and with a need and urge to gesticulate every zord with hands, arms and body friendly discussions form part of their daily routine.
Trains to the south- Italy, Switzerland- seem to leave from gare de Lyon in Paris. This station is very easily accessible with line 14 of the metro. This line has very few stations, however it crosses Paris from one side to the other. Starting at St. Lazare and finishing at Olympiades the line is the newest of the city and most modern. The metros have no conductors and a double door exists permitting a more secure entry and exit of passengers. Each station has a connection with multiple metro lines, becoming like this a central axis perimitting commuters to easily and cross the city.
29 de setembre 2008
This is an open promise, for you the reader....
This is nothing more than one big abandoned blog, with very sudden entries. I promise to develop this into an entreaining blog of anecdotes and travel adventures.
From now on I will write about intresting encounter in every trip that I take. Be it at the Thalys to the Netherlands or on a plane to Barcelona. I promise one entry per week at least to keep you updated on all the Parisian secret places and hidden beauty.
-- From Paris with Love--
This is nothing more than one big abandoned blog, with very sudden entries. I promise to develop this into an entreaining blog of anecdotes and travel adventures.
From now on I will write about intresting encounter in every trip that I take. Be it at the Thalys to the Netherlands or on a plane to Barcelona. I promise one entry per week at least to keep you updated on all the Parisian secret places and hidden beauty.
-- From Paris with Love--
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