Fri, 10 Oct 2003

author Tim	location Lyon, France
posted 21:57 CEST	section Europe2002/Europe/Schweiz ( all photos )

Goodbye to Switzerland ( No photos )
We showered then organised ourselves for check-out, then transported the getting-rather-heavy packs down the road to the train station.
After sitting for a while at a café typing up some emails, we tried to use up our Swiss phone card (most of them only work in one country here :( ) to phone people back in Oz, but it seems that there was something wrong with the international lines. We talked to a few people in the UK and checked in with the progress of the Rosie transportation to Netherlands, but could not get through to friends and family back home.
Next we went up to the helpful internet café while where there was one, where the guy wanted to see my "Laptop Virus-Free Pass". Tune out about now unless you think you will chuckle at something nerdy. It seems that they have had quite a bit of trouble with viruses there, which they have tracked back to people with laptops coming in. I replied to him that "It's a Mac". He said "Oh, OK - you can plug in over there then". And that was that!
Internet done, we set about finding a train to France. We had heard that reservations were needed, but this turned out not to be the case. There were actually special platforms for trains going to France, complete with their own customs and passport control. Since the reason for this is that Switzerland is not part of the EU or Shengen and France is, I was a little worried that I would have a repeat of the Estonia/Helsinki incident. I needn't have worried, as the guy there didn't even look at our passports. Nor did he give me a stamp when I asked for one.
Up on the platform, we had about twenty minutes to kill, but there was no phone around to use up the phonecard. So, we boarded the first train to Lyon in France. Immediately different sounds for announcements and door opening and closing could be heard - we were on our way to another new country!
About ten kilometres later, we crossed the border into France.

author Tim	location the 11:14 Nice to Marseille train, France
posted 11:22 CEST 14/10/03	section Europe2002/Europe/France/France 1 ( all photos )

Into Lyon ( No photos )
(Continued from Schweiz)
No dramatic changes as we crossed the border. Infact, we had technically been in France some months back, when we drove Rosie (R.I.P.) back to London from the Netherlands. The changes you see on the road as you drive around the place are far more pronounced than those on the trains.
On maps Lyon doesn't look all that far from the Swiss border, but it took quite a while to get there, proving the fact that France is the largest country in Europe. We hadn't chosen Lyon for any particular reason, other than it sounded interesting, was about the right distance for a day's travel, and Meaghan and Dave had been there a week or so earlier.
Alighting at the Gare de Perrache train station, we headed off in search of the HI hostel. This proved quite a hike away, across River Saône and up some amazingly steep streets to the hostel on the hill. The hike with the packs was quite strenuous, and we stopped a few times just to admire the cobbled old streets down below us and catch our breath.
Finally making it to the top, we followed the road down towards the hostel - as luck would have it, we had chosen the steepest path up (not knowing otherwise), and we had a bit of a run back down hill a way to where the hostel actually was. The bulding was huge, and admittedly had great views across the city, which has two separate World Heritage listed areas in its old towns. It seemed to take as long as the walk from the station for the girl to check us in, people jumping infront of us in the 'queue' all seemed to not have Youth Hostel cards and hence took ages to check in.
We were put in separate dorms which is most annoying with only one set of gear, so we stashed our stuff, waited twenty minutes or so to give our keys back to the receptionist, grabbed a town map and set off for a look around.
Our busy day hadn't left much time to eat, so we set off to the recommended Café 203, taking a walk through town to get there along the pedestrianised rue de la République. We ate the set menu, which was quite interesting to say the least, the 'highlight' being my dessert which was like a tart with carrot in it - very strange but edible. Sitting there was marred a little bit by the group of eight or so Australians sitting near us who decided that burping and farting would be a great way to pass the time. I think they were several under each, but that doesn't really excuse the bad wrap they are giving us to everyone else.
Looking for nothing in particular, we wandered back through the town, taking in the central square place Bellecour and then crossing back over one of the footbridges to take the shorter path back to the hostel.
We spent the evening getting our journals up to date in the communal area of the hostel, which, being a Friday night, was unfortunately doubling as a disco. The effect of the lighting was annoying enough, but the noise was just getting silly. We gave up after a while and went our separate ways to our rooms, where I had a great view out over the town from my window. All things considered, we slept quite well.

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