We
rendezvous-ed at the CGK airport at about 10pm at 13/01/2015, and then we
checked in, though not without hassle, because some of our baggage were
overweight or oversized, which resulted in our run (yes, run) to the boarding
area, (no we didn’t skipped immigration) and at 23:30 we board the airplane,
Qatar Airways Boeing 777-300ER, with the flight number of QR 955, bound for
Doha, Qatar. The filght was facilitated with 2 meals, the first meal was a
regular sized meal (not breakfast), and we tasted some red wine and to our
surprise the taste of the wine was quite strong, but in the end it was nice, for
it helped us get a tight sleep, which is usually hard to get on an airplane. (No
we didn’t got drunk)
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| The dinner on the first flight, beef curry. |
The
plane arrived at Doha at 04:30 local
time, way faster than the scheduled time. At the Doha International Airport we
had a little time to use the internet kiosk provided, and we got the chance to
say hello to families and friends in the homeland. (Though the wifi at the
airport didn’t work, we can only use the internet kiosk) At 07:30 we get ready
to board the next airplane, QR39, Qatar Airways’s Airbus A380. Actually it was
huge, not just big, even the size of 1 of the engines was the same as a car!
Ok, so we board that huge beauty, and we took off from Doha at 08:05, bound for
Charles de Gaulle, Paris.
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| Above snowy mountains of Europe |
After
we arrived at Charles de Gaulle, we went following the sign, the sign took us
through immigration, where our passport and visa were checked (again, I’ve lost
count how many times the passport were checked,
make sure to keep yours secure, but also easy to reach) and after that
we went to the baggage claim area, here we set up camp, for our baggages sure
took their sweet time to return to their masters. (Oh yeah, don’t forget to put
on your coat, because it will get real cold soon) After we have claimed our
rightful baggages we went on and look for directions to la garre de SNCF, which
led us downstair and into the airport’s inter-terminal tram, bound for Terminal
2. There we went on, and at last found la garre. (And it was cold, like, winter,
duh)
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| TGV ticket |
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| The Station of TGV, upstair is the lobby. |
At La
garre, we created Carte de Jeune which we can use for
many discounts, including the TGV ticket that we about to buy, in here we paid €103,8,
that’s including the ticket for our TGV. Ok, so below I post the detail of the
ticket, you can see for yourself. For us this travel with TGV was quite
unconvenient, because of the baggages of course, (if we carried little to no
baggage on this journey with TGV would be very enjoyable, though I’ll doubt our
survival here) we had to stand near the door for the first train, because we
must exit on the next garre which was only 10 minutes
away, and transit to another train which goes to Angers, ETA : 2 hours.
(So secure your baggages, find your seat and sit on it! Unless there’s already
someone on it, don’t sit on people, that’s rude. Instead of sitting on them, ask if it is your seat or not, well you'll know what to do)
Angers comes after Le Mans (I’ll remember it because MotoGP), and so, we prepared our
baggages right after the train moves on from Le Mans, and waited about half an hour near the door until the
train stopped again, and we stepped for the first time in Angers. So right after we stepped out from the train, there’s a
stairway going up, DON’T TAKE IT, we
tried to go up (with our baggages!) but
luckily Mr. Asep came to the rescue and direct us to an underground tunnel
(which was actually behind us *facepalmed*) that goes to the garre
entrance. We met up with Mr. Asep in the tunnel and went out from
there. From the main entrance, we walked on, a little bit to the left, turn
right again so our back was facing the garre again, and crossed the road. There you can see
a kebab shop, near a pizza shop, near them was a bus stop. We wait for bus
number 14 that goes to Belle Beille and we hopped on, there
Mr. Asep made us a 24 hours irigo
cards, which costs €3,80, that can be used as a ticket for the
bus for 24 hours. Below is the card.
So, we ride the bus through the
town, we passed through some classic buildings, and we saw le chateau d’Angers for
the first time. The castle was really big (obviously, duh) and still stands
strong as if ready for a siege like the old days. It feels that this relic of
medieval age wasn’t afraid of the modernization around him. One day I’ll visit
it for sure.
So, moving on with the bus, we
went with the bus for about 15 – 20 minutes, then we descended from the bus at
a bus stop, I forgot the name of the bus stop, but the name of the destination
was Lakanal.
And we went on towards the building, and enter. We fill out some forms,
and got the keys and bed kit (pillow, blanket, etc, though it costs €25 more for
it) and went to the rooms. (WARNING : Always look at the sign on top of
the door to the rooms, there are 2 wings, don’t make the same mistake i did and
climb all the way to 4th floor with my luggage just to find out that
my room was on the other wing!)
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| The room, small but functional |
So we arrived at each of our room
and we went to rest. Voila! Here we
are in France and didn’t got lost! Hurrah!
Cost of the day : €103,80 for making carte de jeune and
tgv ticket to Angers
€3,80 for irigo
card
