Episode 16 - Lyon 🇫🇷
Beautiful churches, a confluence of 2 great rivers, Roman amphitheaters, and wonderful company :)
Alas, the last stop of one of the most fun trips of my life has come upon us. Our merry band of 3 joins Ben, Lara, and Anna in Lyon before heading back to Paris. Lyon is gorgeous, full of a long history, beautiful architecture, and tremendous views. I would love to live here one day.
At the end, I wrote a reflection about the entire trip. I’ve never done such a reflection before, and hope to be able to put into words some thoughts I’ve had on travel and the value of relationships here.
Friday 11/3/2023
We made it! We made it! The last stage of our great Interrailing trip — Lyon. After 6 days of train travel and too much fun to recount, Joe, Emma, and I had finally reunited with our group at our nice AirBnB in Lyon.
At the train station in Lyon, we found a 5 Guys restaurant, and all ordered burgers. It was my first taste of true America since coming to Europe and I have to say, it was quite strange. Delicious, yet also reminiscent of a different time. It will be very weird to be back in the US.
I had a Deloitte final round interview at 5 pm, and our train arrived around 3:45. We got an Uber after eating our burgers, though it got lost in the underground parking garage and we ended up ordering another one.
25 minutes later, we were at the AirBnB! We excitedly said hi to Lara and Anna (who were already there and watching the David Beckham documentary), then I had 10 minutes to unpack my bags and prepare for the Deloitte interview.
The interview went great, and was actually super fun! I had 4 prompt options to choose from, then had 30 minutes to prepare a presentation and recommendation to a senior partner. I had never done an interview like that before, and quite enjoyed it.
After the Deloitte interview, I did another practice interview for my upcoming final round on Friday, then proceeded to the most highly anticipated event of the entire day:
Taking a shower!
It had been 3 days since my last one and I was getting quite disgusting. My clothes smelled horrid (as did I), and I was ready for that hot water to cascade down my skin.
Greatest shower of my life.
After that, we chilled in the living room, eating baguettes and catching up about life. After a week of just me, Joe, and Emma, it was quite strange to be with others, but it was so lovely to see our friends again! Lara’s friend from Bristol (Masha) came over to hang out for a bit as well (she was on exchange in Lyon) and turns out, she had lived in Moscow for a number of years when she was younger.
We chatted in Russian for a bit (with her commenting on my accent, of course), and we all heard tales of her crazy travels and adventures. I found it all tremendously exciting, and quite pleasant. I was exhausted at this point, so I just was sitting on the couch and listening to her tales. What a great time.
After Masha left, Ben arrived! He had lived in Lyon for a number of years when he was younger and his dad worked for Interpol, so it was like the title of the 3rd Lord of the Rings movie for him.
Joe and Lara made a lovely pasta pesto dinner for everyone, then we 6 gathered around the living room table, in Lyon, and shared a lovely meal together. It was perfect.
We proceeded to watch Borat (what a fantastic movie), but pretty much everyone except Ben fell asleep within 30 minutes (we started the movie at 11:30, I believe). I randomly woke up to watch the scene of Borat and his director having a naked fight at the mortgage conference. What an excellent scene!
We finished the movie around 1 (maybe 2?) and headed straight to bed, what an exhausting bed. Emma and Ben proceeded to watch The Princess Diaries before going to bed themselves. That is clearly the optimal way to prepare for sleep!
Saturday 11/4
Woke up at 9 in the morning for a great day of Lyon exploration! Anna and Lara were still asleep, so naturally, I woke them up by singing the American national anthem and yelling “Mussy” with Joe. What a wonderful way to wake people up, I say. They were up in a jiffy!
After we all got ready and woke up, we went to a yummy boulangerie for breakfast, then ate our croissants while walking to a gorgeous overview of Lyon. My first impressions are that Lyon is basically a mini Paris, with more topography, chiller vibes, and yet still a lot of things to do. It’s 2 hours from Paris, the Alps, and the Mediterranean Coast. In that regard, it’s like the Bay Area of France. I love it already!
We took the metro down the hill (turns out it’s called a funicular), and it was super cool because it used this gear mechanism to get down the hill so that it wouldn’t slip and fall. It was basically a ski tram, but in a French city and on a hill. I thought it was really cool!
We walked around Lyon for the next hour and saw the Hotel de Ville (super pretty) and a cheese market. We all tried some cheese, how yummy. Joe even broke his veganism to do so himself.
We then took another funicular up another hill to see Notre Dame de Fourviére, which sat atop the tallest hill in Lyon and overlooking the entire city.
It was one of the most beautiful churches I have ever seen in my entire life. I was in complete awe when I walked in. It, along with Ascension Church in Moscow and the grand church we saw in Vienna, are the most beautiful 3 churches I have ever seen in my entire life.
We saw in the church for a bit and lit a lot of candles, then walked outside to overlook the city.
It was some of the windiest wind I have ever experienced in my life. I was almost getting blown over; Anna was. I opened my umbrella to try and fight the wind, and barely made it out alive!
Our group took some great pictures overlooking Lyon, then slowly proceeded down the hill toward the city. Along the way, we saw a Roman Amphitheater and checked out a free museum about the Roman history of the area. Lyon was founded during the Roman Empire and was a super important power center, as it sat at the intersection of many great Roman roads and the confluence of 2 great rivers — the Saône and the Rhône.
This museum had Roman artifacts like pillars, monuments, statues, pottery, and sarcophagi from Roman times. It was amazing that it was all in such perfect condition despite being over 2000 years old, and it was especially cool to see artifacts I had learned about in my ancient Roman archaeology class freshman year of college in person.
The museum also had a temporary exhibit called Brickius Maximus, which was a bunch of Roman buildings and landscapes made from Legos. The group was getting hangry at this point (because I was taking forever looking at everything), so we departed the museum and headed to a restaurant Anna found on TikTok across the rivers.
The hill was wet from some light rain, so I slid down the hill. Amazing!
The restaurant was an amazing find — it was cold outside and super warm inside, and the sandwiches they made were delicious. The chocolate mousse cake for dessert rivaled that of Schubert’s Bakery in San Francisco! The only downside was that I hit my head twice on the extremely low ceilings in the bathroom, but the amazing cuisine and vibes more than made up for that.
After our yummy lunch (hangriness cured!), we took the bus to see Ben’s childhood home and school. The bus zoomed up the hill, we saw his nice house, and even saw his schoolteacher walking on the street. I wanted to say hi to Mr. O’Reilly, but the group vetoed that idea.
The walk from Ben’s house to his school was a short and pretty one and the school was quite nice! Ben and Emma took a picture in front of the sign, since Ben went there with Emma’s friend a number of years ago. We waited for the bus to take us back home, and waited about 25 minutes at the bus stop. We eventually made it to the central bus station after our transfer, but there was a long line to take the funicular back up the hill.
Ben and I had the genius idea to walk home. We made a quick departure from the group and proceeded up the hill. We had the equally genius idea of getting a pint along the way.
Lo and behold, we stumbled upon a pub that Ben used to frequent back when he lived in Lyon! We got pints and chatted about life, work, career plans, views on the world, and Ben’s childhood. It was absolutely amazing. That was a top-3 pint experience for me. Ben, thank you.
After we made it up the (very steep) hill with lovely views of Lyon along the way, we all chatted away the evening in the living room and made a LinkedIn post on my fake LinkedIn (identity to stay confidential). We could not stop laughing.
We ate more yummy pasta and then proceeded to watch some videos on my YouTube channel because Ben found it online somewhere. It was painful for me but hilarious for them. That makes it great for me!
I fell asleep sometime during Borat 2, and eventually made it back to my bed after the movie ended. I will need to watch Borat 1 and 2 in their entirety eventually.
What a perfect day in Lyon!
Sunday 11/5
Woke up at 10 this morning in preparation for check out at AirBnB.
This morning, Anna and Lara were treated to the Russian national anthem, as sung during the 2014 opening ceremony in Sochi, as their alarm.
Emma asked afterward if I was vocally trained, and I was extremely flattered. No one has ever complimented me like that before! Mama, I told you I can sing!
I packed up my things quickly and set them all by the door, and chilled while everyone else was waking up and getting things sorted with the AirBnB. Is this what being proactive and getting ready early feels like? It was wonderful!
Check-out went smoothly, and we got breakfast at the same boulangerie as the previous morning. This time we sat down at the tables outside, and even ate a baguette together. We had some leftover olive oil for dinner preparations the last few days, and I poured some of this into the coffee lids that had intentions at their tops. We then dipped the baguette pieces into the olive oil and ate them with delight.
Another addition to the “genius ideas” column, I reckon!
We took the funicular back down the hill and switched over to the tram to get to the Confluence. Side note, but I think Confluence is an amazing word. Sounds so epic, so powerful.
The Confluence of 2 great rivers. Wow!
We took the tram back to the central part of the city for lunch, though unfortunately, our chosen restaurant was full for lunch.
Us being the extraordinarily flexible and dynamic individuals that we are, we pivoted and walked one block down to another restaurant that we found. It was quite delicious! I found this mysterious dark cellar when going to the bathroom (they stored their beer there but there were many abandoned rooms), then headed back up to civilization and the light.
Lara’s bus was leaving soon, so we sadly said bye to her. :(
The rest of us took the metro to northern Lyon to check out the beautiful Parc de la Tête d'Or. Alleys of trees, wide walkways, deer, gorgeous Sun, and a pretty lake. I loved the park so much. Mama, you would love it, too!
Anna and Ben left after the park to take the bus back to Paris, and then it was back to the original 3 — Joe, Emma, and myself. It was strangely nostalgic, a bygone of past travels and shared memories.
We walked north to see the Interpol headquarters, which I was excited to see after reading The Da Vinci Code. We made it to the bus stop to get back to the train station, and listened to The Phantom of the Opera while doing so. What a beautiful moment.
We quickly made it back to the central train station, and boarded the double-decker bullet train with no problems. Lyon, it has been an absolute pleasure.
The bullet train reached a cruising speed of 250 km/hour within 15 minutes, and I looked out the window until the sunset had completely passed. I read a chapter of my book, entertained a baby that was sitting at the table near us, and fell asleep.
Joe woke me up in Paris, and then our merry band of 3 departed the train, destined for a Vélib station. Our group parted for the first time in 8 days after I made it to my street intersection (how very sad :( ) but was very excited to take a shower in the comfort of my own apartment and do laundry. Finally, my clothes would be cleaned!
I called Papa to tell him about the trip while taping up all the maps I had collected on my wall, then watched Django Unchained before falling asleep under my warm covers. Django was a top-5 movie for me (I saw this about every movie I like lol), amazing music, and acting, and that scene at the end is absolutely legendary.
Life is good!
Reflection:
I’ve never done such a post-travel reflection, so I thank you all for joining me on this. I will hope to put into words what I have felt the last 8 days, and my feelings now that I am back in Paris, post-trip.
For the last 8 days, everything has seemed right in the world. Initially, it was Joe, Emma, and I, then later we added Ben, Anna, and Lara to our merry group. In that time, our lives were simple; we existed to travel, to see the world, to spend great times in each other’s company. I was happy and content the entire time as we saw beautiful cities, raw nature along the train journeys, and saw the countryside melt away as we zipped along on trains that were complete marvels of engineering and infrastructure. We shared so many stories, learned much about each other, faced each problem and obstacle with joy, and laughed so much. It was truly a lovely time.
The last time I felt this way was with my geology camping trip in May, where we traveled around the Western US for a week. In that time too, the company was amazing, and we enjoyed seeing everything together. It was a completely different universe than the one we had left before the trip and the universe we had returned to after.
Now that we are back, reality seems wrong to me. I’m sitting in my nice, cozy apartment, yet the fundamental undercurrent of my day has completely changed in a way that scares me. Why am I not with Joe and Emma, on this great adventure? I’m not sure the answer to that. The companionship and contentedness I felt on that trip is gone, and I feel all the worse for it.
It is the people, it really is. I had the best time not because we were traveling across Europe and seeing these amazing places. Though visiting those places was great, it was the company of Joe and Emma (and later Anna, Lara, and Ben) and the people we met along the way that made it all wonderful. We could’ve done half the things we did, saw half the cities we saw, and it still would have been a great adventure, with great friends and too much laughter to remember. I miss it tremendously. The companionship. The friendship. The joy I felt at spending my entire day with people I love and cherish. Thank you for an amazing week of Interrailing. I’ll remember it forever. :)
Some more pictures:
I have to say waking up has been much more difficult the last couple days without a passionately sung national Anthem as the alarm