Take me home, somehow

In this capital, I would like to tell you about how I got back home.

First and foremost, I must admit (to myself) that I made a potentially substandard decision, as I could have taken a FlixBus starting on August 16, it would have taken my bike and myself to Vienna with one transfer in Geneva, this would have cost €250 and taken 30 (yes, thirty) hours. The price was not low, but the length of the journey, having to sit on board for 30 hours, scared me off. Back then, I did not know the price of the alternative - well, the bus would have been a lot cheaper.

I have flown with my bike before, it means having to find someone that dismantles it, then would have to haul the box to the airport, then pay for extra luggage and do the opposite in Vienna. As Thursday was a public holiday, it was pretty unsure when I would have been able to box my bike, so the train seemed the most viable option.

After a very good breakfast at the hostel, I rode to the impressive train station and with no wait time, I got to a nice young gentlemen, also a leftie (just as me). What followed was quite a shock. He worked for one hour and a half (!) on finding an option for me to return home - it was the bike that caused the issue. TGV`s hardly take bikes and if they do, they get booked out months in advance. So he put together a master thesis, offering not less than two options of getting not quite home, but at least to Geneva.

So it was two days and at least €150 to get just to Geneva. That did not taste nice and I had one more idea - BlaBlaCar, or car sharing. There were no rides offered, however, there was a BlaBlaBus to Paris, leaving not far from the station. I found to the bus station, a friendly driver disembarked, to be replaced by an unfriendly one, he turned me away immediately, as my bike was not packed. So I made the decision to bite the bullet and take the train - however, the first train of the cheaper option had already left and I even had to rush to catch the more expensive one to Agen. I did not want to experiment with other options - if the expert needed 90 minutes, I might never make it home.

I was a bit sad in leaving Bordeaux and worse, leaving France, but was also looking forward to returning home. Right on time, at 13:33, I started a trip that would last 67 (yup, sixty seven) hours and cost me a small fortune. Even before leaving, I saw a so-called "Sparschiene" (Supersaver) ticket from Zürich to Vienna on the evening of the 17th (for the reasonable price of €75, including my bike), so I only had to get a train from Geneva to Zürich on evening of the 16th or the morning of the 17th - should not be an issue.

So here a summary of my train ride:

• Agen - The train ride was pretty much uneventful, except for it having been full at the start. Agen itself is a very pretty town, with a wonderful church and half-timbered houses. I got a sandwich at a Subway, prepared by a friendly young girl.
• Toulouse - On the train ride, it turned out that while taking a bicycle is free, one still needs a bike reservation in the summer months and/or on weekend and public holidays - and this is different from region to region. A friendly lady ticket collector informed me and helped find the website - which is a different application and/or website from region to region and she helped me get this otherwise free-of-charge reservation until Narbonne, but no further, as it was a different region. When disembarking, all passengers were controlled by police or some sort of security forces. When it was my turn and they saw the bike, one inspector asked the other, "hey, is this the guy from Austria?", the other nodded and they did not even check my papers or tickets. I was curious how they they knew this and I asked. The guy laughed and told me they had called the train before arrival to find out who it was buying so many bike tickets. Interesting. So I had a bike ticket to Narbonne, but not to Montpellier. Without thinking this reservation would be an issue, I went to the counter and got the same reply from not less than two separate employees - a TGV and an SNCF (French State Railways) worker - they both had no idea as to how to make this reservation. I was quite frustrated and started running around, despite having had grand plans for visiting Toulouse in the one hour we were there. I was running around like a headless chicken, but nobody seemed to know. A biker told me to download an app, but that was the wrong one. I finally went back to the office, got to another employee and he did make the reservation - so now I was fine for Montpellier.
• Narbonne - Not much happened, the connection to Montpellier was just a few minutes long.
• Montpellier - The ride itself was on time. It was 10 pm and the town is very pretty - so started riding around, got a passable (but expensive) tapas dinner. At 1 pm, I was still discovering the city, and made a feeble attempt at finding a hotel - no luck, everything sold out (it was a 4-day long weekend, with Thursday a public holiday). So what, I kept riding on, till about 2:30 am, the town was pretty much awake, only then did the folks start to rest. I only had to bridge three hours, until the train station opened. I found a pretty park opposite a 5-star chateau hotel and dozed off for a few minutes, but overall, the night went by relatively quickly. A funny thing that happened in the evening. I no longer had any food for breakfast and the stores opened only around 7:30, after the departure of my morning train. I found a store doing inventory, the guy from Afghanistan smiled at me and allowed me to do grocery shopping at around 2 am.
• Avignon - According to the plan, I would have had 3 hours or so in Avignon. However, the train from Montpellier was delayed a bit and the service from Avignon was cancelled. We were made aware of this, but also told that a the 8 am train to Lyon was also delayed, so we would be able to catch that. I was a bit bumped, as was looking forward to visiting the town . Anyhow, I got on the train - and nothing happened. We were told we would be delayed by 15 minutes, then another 15 and so on. Well, one more reason to return to Avignon (hey, I would return to Montpellier any day, even though I had spent an entire night discovering it!). It was a rather ancient train - but we got to Lyon. On the way there, the cap of the conductor was stolen, I was the most "exotic" person, so he asked me about three times if I had seen his cap - each time looking suspiciously around me and my bags. No, it was not me, I would not have known what to do with a French conductor cap.
• Lyon - Arriving to Lyon a bit ahead of the original schedule, I had plenty of time, so I rode around town, where I had been on an earlier trip, with my parents, about 10 years ago. It was interesting how little I remembered of the outline of the city, however, there were memories of smaller details that did pop - strange how the brain works - or is it just my brain?
• Geneva - That was an easy ride, even earlier than planned, so there I was in Geneva, on the afternoon of the 16th. Before my arrival, I saw that the tickets to Zürich were available from CHF 33 or so. When I got to the counter, the cheapest ticket, leaving immediately, would have cost over CHF 100, dammit. A train ride the following day cost a bit less, CHF 80. I thought a hotel in Geneva would cost less than in Zürich, and I found a one-bedroom hostel for around CHF 65, cleaned up (ah, a nice shower after the night in Montpellier!), washed all my stuff one last time at the hostel and had some Pakistani food. I was no longer in France - it tasted very good!
• Geneva (continued) - The next morning, I got a haircut for €10 (paid cash in € after some haggling, but then I do not have too much to cut), did some grocery shopping and bought some Swiss and French cheese for my parents as present. I then rode around town, doing pretty much the same sight-seeing as a few weeks prior to this visit.
• Zürich - The arrival was on time and I still had a few hours before departure, so I did some more sight-seeing, and liked it more than on earlier trips. I climbed up the university, from where there was a beautiful view of the town below. A funny story happened - I was curious about a certain building and, after having spent a month in France, posed the question in French, the person did not understand me, so I repeated it in German, when he finally answered in English he was not from there. Next to him, was a family standing and I rode to them, asking "English, German, French?", the guy answered "whichever, can be Hungarian as well". Keeping my cool, I posed the question in Hungarian - and after an initial shock, the family broke out in laughter. Anyhow, I was quite excited to get to the train, the last of eight connections. It was pleasantly empty, and I had 4 seats to myself, however, these were seats that could not be pulled together. Before boarding, I did try to book a couchette or a sleeping car, per the website, everything was booked out. After two hours of trying to find a good sleeping position, I looked for the conductor and he readily offered a couchette for €30. I fell asleep as soon as I laid down.
• Vienna - Arrival was on time and so ended my 67-hour long train journey and my six-week adventure. While not an integral part of this blog, I slept through pretty much the next three days.

If you want to add together how much I spent on this trip, feel free to do so, I´d rather refrain from doing that - financially, it was not the wisest decision...

Arriving in Vienna on a very slow Sunday morning, I had my first encounter with the grumpy Viennese (as I had mentioned at the beginning of the story). I went to visit my parents from the station. The city was practically empty on morning of the 18th, and, getting off the subway, I rode a broad side-walk, wide enough for at least a car, if not a truck. The one and only pedestrian was an old man walking his dog. When he saw me riding my bike on this sidewalk, he called out in a disgusted voice "This is not a bike road!". Not sure why Austrians, especially the Viennese, cannot chill a litte more, just a little bit more...

My parents were expecting me and greeted me with a breakfast, one that the Grimm brothers must have referred to in their fairy-tale called "Wishing Table" ("Tischlein, decke dich!" in German). We chatted for a while a breakfast, then I took a nice looong hot shower, finally, fell asleep, staying in bed for for the most part of the next three days...