24 December

Dave got up early the next morning and we didn’t see him leave. We also planned to get up early, around 6, but Julie had to sort of wake us at 6:30. She left shortly for Brussels and we never saw them again. The quiet girl was still asleep and didn’t move during the time it took us to get ready. Since we were running rather late I decided not to shower and am glad of that decision. The bathrooms were simply deplorable on our floor. There were exactly two toilets for about 40 people. One of them had a sink but no soap or hand towels and the other did not have a sink. We had sinks in our room but you could not stopper them well so I forewent putting on my contacts for a few days. After getting ready as quietly as possible, we left for the train station. While the metro is clear to ride on, the local train stations are a little confusing and not very foreigner friendly. Hardly anything is in English and it took us some time to find an information desk. The metro ride over took longer than we expected and since we also left a little late, we just got on the train not five to ten minutes before it left. Saket and Sachi quickly bought some pastries for breakfast and we ate them on the train. The ride to Caen took nearly three hours and since it was early and I couldn’t see much of the countryside, I decided to sleep. I slept pretty much the entire ride which was rather nice. Poor Saket didn’t get a wink of sleep. He brought his laptop with him and my spare batteries because he knew he would be taking tons of pictures (which he definitely did while there; he must have emptied his camera 2-3 times and believe me, it can hold a lot of pictures). We grabbed some more pastries at the Caen station before catching the next 15-min train to Bayeaux. Our tour was scheduled to start at 13.00 and since we were really early, we decided to explore Bayeaux for a bit and grab something more substantial for lunch. I saw a BP station down the road and led us there. We bought some cookies and drinks there but that wasn’t a real lunch so we continued down into town. I saw a sign for “City Center” and figured that would be the best place to go. The center was about a ten minute walk from the station and we had about an hour to explore and eat before heading back to the station. Since it was the 24^th a lot of shops were closed and finding food was a little tricky. We settled for a grocery store and bought, surprise, surprise, more bread and cheese and orange juice! How boring can you get! But hey, it does the trick and it’s cheap. We also stopped at a post office for some money to pay the tour guide and then reached the station about 20 min before 13.00 We sat outside in the cold munching on our lunch and then a van finally pulled up with “Sightseeing Tours” brightly painted on it. Our guide had arrived. He hopped out of the van and held up a sign that said “Vora” on it. He also informed us that we would be his only visitors so we would get a private tour. His English was excellent and he turned out to be a wonderful and knowledgeable guide. I had a lot more to learn about the place and WWII than Saket and Sachi because they have read and seen so much more about it than I have. I don’t really remember the details of the places we visited so for those you’ll have to read Saket’s blog when he has it updated. He’s at http://saketvora.blogspot.com. Maybe strange places and strangers make me kind of nervous, but I couldn’t but feel a little unsettled as we went driving through fields and back roads along the coast. I had this Mafia-esque feeling that our guide could just stop the car, rob us, and then just leave us in the countryside and we’d be lost because we couldn’t speak French and had no idea where we were. He was a nice and honest man and of course, that didn’t happen. It was still a little nerve-wracking though, I must admit. The trip was fun and it was rather surreal to visit the locations of so much horror and destruction and yet of so much bravery and sacrifice. The boys at Normandy really did have a huge role in saving the world. Olivier, our guide, has relatives who served in the war and lived in the area during the occupation of France. He knows so much WWII history from growing up in Bayeaux. Our tour ended promptly at 5 and we waited in a freezing waiting room at the station before boarding one of the last trains bound for Caen. Fortunately the same train would take us all the way to Paris so we didn’t have to worry about changing trains. Sachi and I slept again nearly the whole way back to Paris and again Saket didn’t sleep because he was editing the pictures on his computer. We were exhausted upon arriving to Paris and had little to eat for dinner. Saket and Sachi wanted to check e-mail and so I returned to the room to find a new roommate there. Her name was Alison and she was almost as quiet as the other quiet girl from the night before who had left during the day. Alison seemed more interested in reading her book and listening to her music so I left her alone while I unpacked and prepared for bed. Soon after I got in I heard a knock on the door and to my surprise I opened it to a strange face. We had yet another roommate. His name was Shri and he came in from Dubai. He’s done with college and decided to travel around Europe for a month before returning to work. I’m not sure how much traveling he’s done ‘cause he definitely had way too much luggage with him for just one person. You cannot backpack around Europe if you need two trips to handle your luggage! He turned out to be a nice guy though and after talking for a while, we went to sleep.