the puzzle piece behind the couch

had nice breakfast and then Elly read me a Bagpuss book! then Nick kindly drove me to Luton airport where i got a very nice flight to Geneva. flying is so so so fun. it was very so nice to see the landscape around Geneva and the bit water jet in the lake.

then the saga of how i would get to Chambéry with no trains began. i tried to ask the man at geneva Airport station if i could get a train and he laughed at my french then said no but sold me a ticket to Geneva Cornevin. i went on a double decker train! how cool is that! i was just discussing with Manda the other day that it's be cool if they existed. and they DO!

got to the main station. asked a man if i could go to Chambéry. he said noooooo. so i went to ask a bus man. he said go to coach station and gave me directions. i followed them, but saw no coach station. so wandered around in the 35 degree heat with my big rucksack. i found the youth hostel, just in case i needed to stay in it. and a man there gave me more directions to the coach station.

this time i found it, after realising that i'd walked right by it earlier. who'd have though the capital city of switzerland had a coach station smaller than my town's bus station eh! the nearest place i could go turned out to be Annecy, so i bought a ticket and got on the very nice coach.

then we got to Annecy train and coach station. oooh - no trains or coaches or buses to Chambéry. oooh - dilemma. i spotted a taxi rank and asked the woman how much it'd be and she said €100! what a shocker! i tried to phone Helen but to no avail. then i spotted this other girl lingering about so asked her where she was going. i was most pleased when she said Chambéry! it turned out she was american and going to study there over the summer. her name was Jessica and she came from Virginia. the taxi woman came back and i told her her price was un peu cher.

so Jessica and i were debating sharing a taxi, which would cut costs to only €50. which was still more than we wanted. so we wandered around and bumped into a coach driver and asked him if there really were no more coaches. he said no, but then the lady who'd been trying to pimp me the €100 taxi came over and said she could do it for €90. the coach driver laughed at this.

then he said he lived near Chambéry and would take us home after he'd taken the coach back to the epot. so we thought what the hell. we went in his coach to the depot and he had to refuel it and park it, then he drove us very speedily to Chambéry. all the time overtaking dangerously and shaking his fist at 'chaueffers de dimanche'. we did converse with him a bit. he dropped us off right outside the door of Helen's flat. then since Jessica had nowhere to stay that night Helen agreed to let her stay.

Mum and Dad came over to say hello. but we were all pretty knackered. (especially Jessica who'd been travelling for 30something hours.) oh, i did get a salad at some eating place i forget the name of. it was like McDonalds but not it.