My Travel Adventures

Not long ago, I decided to stay in the UK while looking for a new job, which has allowed me to finally check an item off my bucket list: to make a rail journey from Prague to London. Sketching out a list of places I wanted to see, I decided to cluster my journeys around two centres rather than sleeping in a different city each night. The first of these centres was Nuremberg, which serves as an ideal base for exploring Upper Bavaria. After finding out that rail connections to Nuremberg are quite a pain, I immediately ditched my initial resolution and took a direct bus instead.

The 1 st of October was another sunny day in a string of pleasant weekends, so I decided to make a day trip to Annecy. To reach this French town from northwestern Geneva, one has to traverse the entire city to Annemasse, which lies just across the French border. I am sure there are other connections as well, but it seemed more pleasant to stay on one single mode of public transport since I could keep myself entertained.

I rarely explore different public transport options in the cities I visit, preferring to travel everywhere by foot. I think I developed this habit in places where I did not understand the local language and where the threat of getting lost seemed much more real and potent. There was something about Lyon’s public transport system, however, that won me over. Accidentally walking into Perrache Station yesterday, I noticed the shallow tram channel, the unthreatening walk across the tracks, and the simple turnstiles behind which the metro zoomed to and fro, turning transfers into a matter of seconds. Enamoured with the ease of everything, I bought a 48 hour all purpose ticket for the entire city.

For a normal person, a trip from Ferney-Voltaire to Dijon might take about three and a half hours on a good day. I, however, am an anxious anchovy, and connecting times below ten minutes scare me. I would much rather wait at a train station for twenty minutes than fret about having to buy tickets and find the right platform in the time it takes to boil an egg.