Monday – May 28, 2018
I woke up without an alarm at around 6:30. Got showered and dressed, then packed my things and headed for the train station, leaving the Air BnB at 7:20am. Along the way I passed a patisserie where I grabbed a croissant with some kind of fruit in it.
At the train station, my plan was to take the 7:44am train to Cannes. However, when I got to the station, there was no 7:44 on the departures board. On top of that, the station listed had a name which did not match that of the one I was expecting.
A quick Google search told me that this was or should be the correct station still. I had already committed and bought a ticket so I was hoping this would work out. Normally it wouldn’t be a big deal, but I was leaving Nice and needed to be at the airport for my 12:55pm flight. I was nervous that my return trip would be a later time than Google told me it would be and I’d miss my flight.
Gare de Nice-Ville to Cannes Voyageurs via train (~35 min)
I nervously rode the train to Cannes. When I arrived (approximately 9:08), the first thing I did was to check the departure board. As I expected, there was a 9:54 back to Nice. The second thing that made me happy was that upon looking out to the streets of Cannes, I could tell from my pre-departure Google mappings that I was in the right place.
I immediately walked over to the kiosk to purchase my return ticket. I needed use the bathroom and the attendant told me that there was one out the door and down a little bit and that I needed to pay to use it. Sure enough this public restroom had a turnstile and cost me 0,50 Euro.
Palais des Festivals
After using the restroom I headed for stop number one, the main reason why I wanted to dip a toe in Cannes, Palais des Festivals, the site of the Cannes Film Festival. It was extremely easy to find and was only a short walk from the station. After taking a few pictures, I headed to stop number two, the New York New York restaurant.
New York New York restaurant
I had seen this on Google maps when scoping out the location of the Palais des Festivals and needed to take a picture of it. I flew all the way to Europe and couldn’t escape New York. The next and last stop was the Da Stefano restaurant. Not quite my last name, but pretty close. Again, I snapped a pic, then headed back to the train station.
Da Stefano restaurant in Cannes
It was 9:39am, so I made my way (by “make my way”, I literally mean, crossed the street) back to the station.
Gare de Cannes to Gare de Nice Saint-Augustin (~35 min)
I took the train back to Nice and walked from the station to the airport. The walk was only about 15 minutes and if I’d known that it would be so easy, I’d have taken that over the bus, then again, the bus was easy too AND required less walking so it was probably, ultimately the better choice.
Nice to Geneva to London
I arrived at NCE by ~11:00am. I got situated, went to the bathroom to brush my teeth, then went in search of my gate. Looking at the departure board, I didn’t see easyJet anywhere. Checking my e-boarding pass, I found that I needed to go to Terminal 2 and I was at, you guessed it, Terminal 1.
I asked an attendant on the sidewalk where to go and he pointed me in the right direction. I took the free shuttle bus to Terminal 2 but was stumped upon arrival. All I saw were signs that said Arrivals and none that said Departures. I walked back and forth and then guessed that I needed to go upstairs. Sure enough, I was right.
I made my way to and then through security only to be stopped. Apparently the woman watching the x-rays found the large bottle of suntan lotion I’d forgotten to remove from my bag before my trip. I had made it though two airport securities without anyone noticing it and now, I get caught. Clearly Nice doesn’t like me.
I told the woman to just throw it away if I couldn’t take it with me (more money down the drain) but first I needed to sign some piece of paper. The paper was in French so I don’t know what it was. I probably agreed to be on a “no fly” list, but I signed it anyway because I needed to make my flight. After the paper was signed, she let me through.
Next, I came across problem number I-don’t-know-what. I looked at the departure board and, though I saw my flight, I was not able to determine what gate it was at. All it said was A; it was not followed by a number. I went all the way to the end of the gates to A00 and thought perhaps this was it. Eventually, I went to seek someone’s help when, along the way, I ran into a couple with the same problem.
When the problem was not solved, I went back to wait and write by the departure board. One cool thing was that in addition to showing the typical departure Airline info and logo, there was one with the F1 logo which I can only assume meant Monaco.
In any case, eventually a gate was assigned and, as I’d guessed, I was basically in the right spot. I moved to a better seat and continued to write until I had to board. Again my bag was checked at the gate and again I boarded via the tarmac.
NCE to GVA via easyJet A320 (45 min)
Our flight was supposed to leave at 12:55pm but it was a little delayed. To be honest, the only cool thing about the flight was the fact that we were taxiing behind an Emirates A380. I would not have guessed that the runway/airport was big enough to accommodate such a bird.
The Alps… maybe
Otherwise I basically napped the whole flight while listening to the Foo Fighters first album. No sooner did the album end were we on final approach, passing some Swiss Mountains along the way.
GVA
I arrived in Geneva at ~2:05pm. I grabbed my bag from baggage claim but did not have to go through Customs. Confused, I then asked where to go to board my next flight and was told to exit and go up the stairs on the other side. I then went to the check in gate where the man issuing my ticket was cool and gave me a window seat. I was also issued a proper Swiss Airlines boarding pass (real card-stock, not flimsy receipt paper).
After going through security, I found myself in a land of all things Swiss. There stores had every item and brand you associate with the country from Swatch to chocolate. I made a beeline for the chocolate store an got two triangles of Toblerone. I then proceeded to my gate.
“The hills are alive with the sound of music…”
Finally I was to go through security/customs. (Oh yeah, that was the other thing, it was like for Swiss… something, go this way, for French… something, go this way + the whole going down stairs/heading the the exit bit). Getting through was almost too easy.
However, after that, I headed in the direction that I though my plane was only to find it was closed. I went the other way and when I emerged, I checked my boarding pass and sure enough, I was in the right place.
—
Now, the whole time leading up to this flight I was dreading it because, though when I was booking my trip, it said this was a Swiss Airlines flight, my confirmation later changed to say, operated by Bell Air. After looking them up, I was not excited to be flying on them. I love the clean and simple livery of Swiss Airlines and I didn’t want to have to take this cut rate, second class airline.
I had been watching some Swiss Airlines videos on YouTube and was bummed I wasn’t going to fly them. Cut to last month when I pre-wrote (basically just outlined based on my travel itinerary) some of these posts. While headlining this section, rather than write “GVA to LHR via Bell Air A320” I wrote “… via Swiss Airlines CS300”
So, when I got my boarding pass and it said operated by Swiss Airlines I got very excited, but I didn’t want to get my hopes up. However, when I looked at the gate there was the bird I was hoping for! I was so excited. Something in me knew the whole time that this would work out. Either that or I willed it into happening.
Swiss Airlines CS300
While boarding, I was told for a third time on this trip that I needed to check my bag. This time however, the Swiss Airlines guy I dealt with gave me a bit of an attitude. Not only had I not paid attention to the fact that my bag was “too big” but also I wasn’t going to be charged because I was checking at the gate.
I guess usually they charge you to check your luggage. I was psyched. Not only was I getting the plane I wanted, I also going to stick it to the man!
GVA to LHR via Swiss Airlines CS300
Immediately upon boarding I was excited. This single aisle Bombardier aircraft has a two/three seat configuration (two people side-by-side on the left of the aircraft, three on the right). On top of that, because the aircraft is so small, it feels like you’re on a private plane.
The video is of a CS100 (instead of the 300) but they are ostensibly the same plane
The seats are leather with beautifully crafted seat backs. We had a ~20 minute delay (we left a little after 4pm) sitting on the tarmac but, perhaps because of this, the crew handed out Swiss chocolates with the Swiss Airlines logo embossed in them. The take off was great and the hills and mountains along with the beautiful green grass and clear blue lakes made me feel like I was in the Sound of Music.
This is just another beautiful video of the C Series operated by Swiss Airlines
Additionally, despite the short flight time, we were served a drink and a Swiss pastry. Now, maybe I was the opposite of spoiled by my previous three flights (Norwegian, c’mon, no food for free on a long haul flight? EasyJet, Paris to Nice, short flight plus low cost airline, I get it. The same goes for my easyJet flight from Nice to Geneva) but this service was incredible; I loved flying with them.
LHR
I arrived in London Heathrow Airport at ~5pm and went straight to customs which didn’t have too long of a line, but, when I got to the front I didn’t have a Landing Card. There was no table on which to pick one up and no one handed one to me.
One last look at the CS300 before going through customs at LHR
Luckily, the woman managing the line noticed this, gave one to me, and told me to step aside to fill it out, then get back in line. After that, it was quite easy getting through customs.
Once through I made my way down to the Tube Station. I thought there was supposed to be an express train -Heathrow Express- to take you to central London in a short amount of time; like 20 minutes. I didn’t see anyone to ask so I just went to the vending machine, bought an Oyster Card and put 20 pounds on it. The zone bullshit they do here really confuses me.
In any case, I got to the platform at 5:30pm just as a train was leaving. However, another came about 5 minutes later and I got on to start making my way into the city.
LHR to Hammersmith via the Underground
From Heathrow I took the Piccadilly line Eastbound and was planning on taking it all the way to my Air BnB; making a couple of connections along the way. However, I noticed that my train would take me past Hammersmith which is where the hotel I had stayed at the first time I ever came to London was located.
My initial plan, after stopping at my Air BnB to drop off my stuff, was to go to the Hammersmith Ram, the first bar I ever drank at; I was 19 (legal age in the UK is 18). I decided instead to get off and hit the pub first, then go to the Air BnB for the evening to catch up on blogging.
I got off at Hammersmith, then switched to the District line and backtracked one stop to Ravenscourt Park. I knew this was where my hotel had been and as I got to Kings Road and looked right, I saw it (the hotel). I turned left on Kings road and made my way to where I thought the pub to be. However, after a while, it seemed like I was walking too far so I turned back.
As I got back, pretty close to the hotel I heard some kids behind me being bullied. I kept walking as to not get involved and as I turned around, I saw them get robbed by this group of thugs. I had no idea what to do. I had my suitcase with me and my backpack with all my valuables.
I don’t know if, with less to risk, I would have done anything but I felt so helpless. As the saying goes, “Evil prevails when good men fail to act.” And I know, I know, poor me, I had my day ruined by watching this shitty thing happen IN BROAD DAYLIGHT. But still, I felt so bad for them and it really bummed me out. Not to mention the fact that now I was on edge.
I went over and asked what happened. I apologized for not helping. As we were talking the police drove by and though they tried to flag them down, the good-for-nothing cops, who had looked over and everything, kept on driving. They were as useless as I had been.
Depressed and a little scared, I remembered that I had written the address to the pub on a word doc on my phone and walked all the down to where it was. I feel like perhaps it must have moved because I definitely don’t remember the walk being that far.
Regardless, I got a seat, ordered a pint and then looked at the food menu. I’d wanted a burger but they told me they were out so I ordered something else. I ate and used their wifi only to find that the Hammersmith station, the one I’d gotten off at to switch trains, was acutely much closer to the pub than Ravenscourt Park.
After finishing my meal I paid and walked to Hammersmith Station. Apparently however I’d entered on the wrong side of the road and it didn’t connect via underground tunnels. This would not have been a problem had it not just started to sun-shower.
I dodged raindrops while crossing the street, then took the tube to Surrey Qauys where I eventually found my way to the Air BnB.
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