@3:30AM on 27th Dec 2017 @ Paris de nord metro station
I reached quite early at the Paris de nord train station and realized that the station was shut completely and had to wait outside the station till around 4:30am. It started raining and I was carrying heavy backpack with 4-5 layers of clothing. I don’t remember how I managed to pass that time but then finally the gates were open and I was one of the few ones who entered the station at 4:30am. As soon as entered, I was looking for my Thalys to Amsterdam and found the note on Thalys website in my smartphone that the platform details will be displayed only 20 minutes prior to departure so I had to wait for another 2 hours. I found a waiting area and sat there on one of the benches.
In next 15-20 minutes, a guy with French beard approached me asking for 6:25am Thalys to Amsterdam and I responded saying that I am also waiting for the same one. He had a wife and a friend of his with him. This group of 3 was from Cairo, Egypt. Soon we started talking and suddenly got into a discussion about Sholay. I never thought in my wildest dreams that I would meet someone from Egypt in Paris who can sing “Amar Akbar Anthony” song. We had a blast discussing old hindi movies and these people were quite obsessed with Amitabh Bachhan. We had few Egyptian snacks as well (salty sticks).
I was really happy that day as it was my 4th day in Paris and for the first time I felt good to talk to friendly people. French people are quite difficult to deal with as they prefer speaking in French. Keeping that aside, I really liked the food in Paris. I feasted upon too many crepes for my own good. Nutella crepes were the best ones. I also had churros near the big wheel which the best delicacy I had after long time. It is a long fried churro stick, which is dipped in sugar and comes with a Nutella dip sauce.
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