The blue travelling diaries

In April this year, I had the opportunity to travel to France. Travelling to France is something I've dreamed about ever since I first studied French in 1988. My port of stay was Grenoble, which isn't exactly the typical French city, but it will do for now.

When I left Bangalore, the weather report in France pointed towards Spring. I packed 10 t-shirts and a couple of pairs of jeans, cotton socks and tennis shoes. Yup, this was going to be nice. Descended into Frankfurt for a change of flights. Fog all around. Oh well. That's Frankfurt I guess. Frankfurt was a good stopover. Got a chance to practice some German and had zwei Würtz mit Brotchen. It was sehr gut and bloody expensive too. Got myself Harry Potter und die Kammer des Schreckens from a bookstore for 15€. Someone please remind me to take pictures next time!

After the 5 hour wait at Frankfurt, left for Lyon. No window seat, but I could see out the window. Decided to pass some time reading Le Monde. Turned to the weather page. samedi et dimanche: neige. WTF? Looked out the window as we descended... ok, I'm not prepared for this, but whoa, cool! Snow! Everywhere. This was great and bad at the same time.

Luckily my cab was waiting at the airport and after a brisk walk across the airport driveway and to the parking lot, I got into the cab. Decided to sit in the front for a good view and to have a chat with the cabby - Bernhard. He explained quite a bit about the area, and I explained a bit about where I came from and the lack of snow back there.

Didn't have a chance to freshen up, had to go straight to the office as it was Monday afternoon already.

Dinner that night was escargot. Put my cholesterol problems behind me for a bit and promised to be prudent for a long time to follow. It was good. Later that night we ended up at O'Callaghan's where the only beer they serve is Guinness. Yup, that's me in the pic.

The next couple of days were spent at work with trips to the centre of town for dinner.

Went back into town on the weekend, this time for some shopping and real sight seeing. I'd wanted to check out the Bastille all week, but it was too late on Friday evening. Shops were still open though, so I just walked around a bit. Victor Hugo is the town centre (at least I think so). One can start out from there and go in any direction to find places to eat, bookstores, department stores, and pretty much anything else. All trams stop there, so it's quite convenient.

Got myself some shirts, and a few good books:

• Asterix et les Goths — yeah, I had to have this one. French and German in one literary work. How could I miss it?
• Harry Potter et la chambre des secrets - I'm building a collection of this one book in multiple languages... or so I say.
• La petite chatreuse - for someone special :)

Saw some other really nice books, but they cost €50. Damn, I can't afford that much. I only get a $50 daily allowance! That's like €35 to cover all my expenses in a day. Ok, I shall not speak anymore about how expensive the place is.

While walking around I'd noticed these Organic Shops. Went into one of them. It was like a grocery store with all organically prepared fruits, vegetables and juices. Got myself an orange juice and a pomelo (un pamplemousse en Français). I'm not sure what the difference is, but it was tasty.

Daylight lasts really long, so even at 8pm it was still bright enough to see everything. I strolled into a park and walked around. Great for bird watching, and many people come there with their dogs too. They have parks where pets are permitted and others where they aren't. The park had a few memorials in it donated by individuals or groups. One of them was for 6 children who had died while on an excursion. Another was for the millions of victims of the Armenian genocide.

The next day I managed to get up to the Bastille, and could see all of Grenoble from there... and that's what I shall leave you with tonight.

Today I decided to go around the city by subway and on foot. Started by taking the subway to Chungmuro, and visited the Namsangol Korean village. The village is small - about 7500 sq.ft., but the houses are pretty. There was a wedding going on in one of them, and I took a few pictures.

Around the village the scenery is quite serene. Walked around for a while. There's a mountain stream that's not too full this time of the year. I guess as the rain picks up it will fill up, or maybe it's the melting snow at the start of spring that fills it up.

Next door to Namsangol is Korea house - which has traditional korean cuisine and weddings and other functions. I walked around a bit. Took pictures of this traditional wedding ceremony, and the musicians and all. Then looked around and there was this large crowd of people dressed in suits and their best formal wear. Peeked into one of the rooms and a buffet table was being set I think. I think I might have gatecrashed someone's wedding and taken pictures of it. The stares I got definitely hinted at it. :P

Got out of there quickly and moved on. Took the subway to Hansung University looking for the Seonjamdan Altar, but couldn't find it. Turned back to Hyehwa looking for Munmyo, but couldn't find that either. Instead found Roboworld and the science museum. After a quick look through I left and along the same road came to Changgyeonggung Palace.

Changgyeonggung is simply huge with loads and loads of gardens. I really hope my pictures come out because it was getting really overcast by then. It took me quite a while to walk around the whole place. Most interesting was the resting place of the placenta and umbilical cord of one of the emperors. Strange that they'd choose to preserve them.

Finishing with that, walked along the wall, and finally came to Changdeokgung, but couldn't go in. You're only allowed to enter with a guided tour, and there weren't any more English tours scheduled for the day. Missed the Royal shrine as well because I couldn't find the entrance, and my feet were too tired to search.

Got to Anguk station and took the train to Amsa with changes at Jongno sam ga and Cheonho. Went walking north towards the Prehistoric settlement site on the banks of the Han. It was already 7:15, and the place was closed, but I got an idea of how to get there - will try again one of these mornings.

After that headed to Jamsil to Lotte World. Decided to skip the amusement park as it was already 8:30, and went to the Lotte Mart instead and got myself some stuff for breakfast.

Got back to the COEX and decided to have dinner at Pizzahut - yeah, boring, but I needed a break and something familiar. Met another Indian guy there - Vikram. He just arrived today and works at Lucent.

Got back to the hotel around 10pm and I have wet socks, blisters on two toes because my socks shifted around too much, and my legs ache too. I think I shall sleep well.

Today was Children's day, and a holiday here in Korea. We went to Gyeongbokgung Palace, and got there in time for the changing of the guard. I tell you, it's a long process. An enemy could attack and be done with the war during that time.

We started at Samseong Dung - which is where I stay. Look at the Subway map (needs flash, zoom in a couple of times). It's no. 219 on the green line. Headed down to Seoul National University of Education and switched to the Orange line to Gyeongbokgung (no 327) for the palace.

The palace is huge, and has a backdrop of mountains. There's a moat around one of the chambers, and also the museum of Seoul in there. We visited the museum, and then went out looking for lunch. Found it in a street market who's name i cannot remember.

We had a vegetarian dish - for once - with ginseng gin. That was followed by a Korean pizza. Served in a shallow basket rather than a pan, and made out of vegetables, dough, cheese, octopus and prawns. You eat it with chopsticks, and there's a soya sauce mixture that you dip the pieces into before eating.

After lunch went down to the Dongdaemun market and got some stuff from there.

On the way out saw a dance competition for children's day where this 8 year old girl (I thought she was 3) totally blew the crowd away. She danced really well.

Took the subway back, really exhausted by then, and came back to the hotel. Took a short nap and washed my clothes.

Later went looking for a veg dinner as Arun was with me, but the guy at the Taiwanese place that we went too looked at us very quizzically, trying to hold back a laugh. Finally went down to the mall to Mr. Pizza. Had spaghetti with cheese and meat sauce, bread sticks, garlic bread and a salad bowl with unlimited refills.

Long and tiring day. I don't quite have the stamina for sight seeing that I used to.

Radio here is all Korean, but Yahoo! Launchcast gives me a good selection.

Good night