A weekend in LYOn, a great city to roam in

I was really getting frustrated, I had no work and in a place where everyone is busy working, a man with no work has no bounds for his sorrows. So, there I was waiting for the weekend and it started on Friday evening.

I got hold of a new friend of mine, Saurabh who knows and speaks french well. Take my words, you need to know a little french, if you want to enjoy france well. So, we (I, saurabh and my IITK friend Mohit,another intern) started our weekend with a nice dinner at a french restaurant, there comes the menu and I am again reminded of my vegetarian food habits, alas in the starters, I had no choice but the salads, so I order "salad de Tomat", it contained onions, tomatoes, olive and green leaves but it was delicious and a good appetiser. Then, for the main course, I saw the menu and finally decided on "Mozarella", which was a fine cheese pizza with olive and tomato. It was good, and big, more than enough for one man. There begins the real show: a famous bar in Lyon, Ninkasi is our next destination. It being a friday night, the place is beeming with young guys and gals, teh place is aheaven for beer lovers..........the pub had its own brewery.........and a discotheque. So, there I was, drinking soft drink, (I do not like alcohol........) and dancing all night............till 2:30 am in the morning. But, I was not done, and when my friends went to sleep, I just watched a movie of Aishwarya.........."chokher bali" till the time, I met the early sun-rays at 5am lulling me to deep sleep.

So, after the last night, I was rejuvenated and determined to enjoy the weekend at full throttle, so I wake up early (11am or so) and then got my lunch in haste............(nothing but maggi yaar........2 minutes ). I come to know that there is a fest in some engineering college, INSA ( the biggest in LYON).........so what next, catch the metro and reach INSA. INSA was beeming with french beauties giving lots of pleasure to my eyes..........and the place was overflowing with music and quite a lot of it in English, I cannot comprehend French, though I find it more romantic and soothing.


So, since saurabh was unavailable, the first thing I needed was a friend who could show me the place and obviously follow french. But, I had no choice, since mohit's knowledge of french is as poor as mine, if not more.........so, we found mohit's mentor there, Antoinne.........a really cool guy........more of a friend, less of a teacher........he showed us around the place and took us to show a robotix competition going there. And, we show really ood robots working there, it once again ignited the deep burning desire in my heart to design some good autonomous robot someday.........I must do it someday.........I wish I do it sooner than I pass out of KGP. It was really good competition, involved a lot of skill, colour recognition, self protection, attck, error-recovery and much more, really complex thing to design, but believe the feeling ofaccomplishment on the faces of winners was worth the effort, they showed a video of their work, and all the beers drank while working on lathe seemed to have been put to really good use.

Then, I started roaming the place, all by myself. They had all three activities, cultural, sports and technical going together. There was a skit, depicting old french battles, with a really good set,costumes and actors.....(sorry I did not follow the language, only the expressions)........I am sure it would have involved lots of hard work behind it. There was cycling competition, a long race, football, volley and what not. In cultural, there was a quiz (but in french, I could not participate) and a large number of student groups performing western music..........and a brazilian group all in a frenzy of music and beer.

But, the thing which amazed me most was that there was a free-wall painting going on and the theme was "Gods of India"........somebody had painted a really good picture of Ganesha, and they respected the Indian God. I really liked it and felt sorry for my poor skills in art. Then, there were star nights and discotheques, which I could not attend since Antoinne had to leave.........I again felt sorry for not knowing French.

So, we came back from INSA and we were exhausted, so just went to sleep. But, next morning is a new day and after the breakfast, I thought I must not waste this day, sitting in my room in such a beautiful city.

So, the next destination is St. Fourvier, the most famous tourist destination in LYON, a place at a great height........from where you can view the whole of LYON. Basically, LYON is divied into two parts, uphill and downhill. IT is at the tip of the uphill region. We went to Vieux YOn by metro and then visited St. Jean, another famous church in LYON. Then, I started taking the arduous route to St. Fourvier, .......it is quite a slope. Once, I reached there I visited the virgin chapel, the panorama, the ville de lyon etc. I could not go to museum, and the observatory since I was late. I saw the breathtaking view of the LYON city, I roamed in the gardens around.And, when I was exhausted, I came walking slowly by the side of the Rhone. Two things I really missed were a bicycle, and a camera. A cycle-journey on the riverside on a cool evening cherishes one's heart to no bounds, and you can see lots of people, young and old bicycling on the riverside as a testimony to the statement. And, the camera because I could not capture such beauty, such architecture, such paintings for my meories.........for my friends. So, the decision is I will visit the place, again but not without both these things, so wait for a more vivid breathtaking description.......I am not on an internship, I am on a two month long summer holiday of France,yes this is the spirit with which I am gonna rock the next two months.