3 hours before my departure, I had finally started packing and 20 minutes before my journey started, I was done way ahead of schedule. Time management at its best!
Will it all fit into the two backpacks?
It fits!
Even though it doesn't look like it, both backbacks weighed roughly the same.
As she said goodbye, Sofie said I should just let her know if I needed anything, to which I responded that that would not be necessary. Half an hour later I needed something and Sofie had to come to my rescue: The S-Bahn had a problem and stopped in Olching for an indefinite time. So Sofie and Manni gave me a lift to the main bus station. (Thanks!) There, the bus left with a delay of 15 minutes because a police check was still in progress. At first I had an aisle seat, but the young man next to me got out in Memmingen and I had the rest of the ride both seats to myself and now also the window to lean against. I’d tried to sleep right from the start, which - thanks to inflatable neck pillows and sleeping mask – worked surprisingly well, even though it was only 9:30 pm. For an estimated 75% of the 9-hour bus-ride, I slept or at least snoozed. Accordingly well rested and lively, I arrived at 6:30am in Geneva. There, finding the train and buying my ticket was not that easy. Well, okay, maybe it was easy and I was just being thick. (I’ll just blame it - despite enough sleep - on "fatigue" and the fact that everything was written in French.) I had tried to buy a ticket to France at Geneva’s public transit’s ticket machine, which had, of course, not worked. I decided to take a shot and go to the platform and try my luck there again. Near the platform, there was an SNCF ticket machine and I had my ticket in hand in no time. Through a narrow corridor, past several signs that you are about to enter France, and a customs station, I got to the right platform.
It was just about to get light when I arrived on the platform. A house next to the station had psychedelic art made of neon lights on its frontage.
Unfortunately, I had only my phone at hand, because my camera was disassembled and packed away in my backpack in Tetris-fashion.
The train arrived - as so often in France - already 20 minutes before its departure, and I sat down with my luggage in a small compartment and read for the next roughly 2 hours. During the train ride, I would from time to time simply admire the stunning scenery, bathed in a golden glow from the morning sun, until I arrived in Tenay-Hauteville at 8:45 am.
Luc picked me up from the station and a wonderful day began.