Lyon (Part Deux)

Day 2: The day was less exciting, but it did start with “pain au chocolat” and hot cocoa. I basically got to sit at the entrance to this conference all day and watch people walk by. There were a few that came and looked quizzically at me and the brochures on the table, but upon realizing that I don’t speak French and that everything on my table was in English they were less interested in me and the information I could provide and just took the freebies. Oh, the life of the admissions officer.

The day ended with dinner at the top of the opera house in Lyon, with a beautiful view of Lyon City Hall and the “two hills of Lyon.” As they explained, there is “the hill that prays,” which is home to the basilica I had already visited in addition to other monasteries and convents, and “the hill that works,” which houses Lyon’s textile industry. Apparently, Lyon is the silk capital of France and as such this second hill has all the textile workshops.

Dinner itself was fairly uneventful. As it turns out the Nobel Laureate is quite the movie buff and grew up in Philadelphia, so we got to talking a bit. He is definitely a scientist and has that spiral way of thinking that seems to the norm among the super smart scientists that I know. It’s like they are thinking of so many things at once that they need to talk about them at once as well. It certainly keeps the conversations interesting.

Day 3: I again started the day with “pain au chocolat” but this time added Orangina. We were off to the conference again. Fortunately for me, I had a small break. I got to go to the hospital here in Lyon to get my yellow fever shot for my safari later this month. As it turns out, getting vaccines in KSA is quite difficult and the yellow fever vaccine is one of the hardest. I called the clinic on KAUST’s campus, which explained that they didn’t have the permit to distribute that vaccine. In fact, there was only one hospital in Jeddah that had those rights. I called that hospital, and just my luck, they had run out. Thus my visit to the Red Cross while in France.

Fortunately for me, one of the conference’s organizers came with me so that I had someone translate the forms and the many questions that I was being asked. Turns out, not a lot of people in Lyon go on safari in Tanzania, so a got a couple of confused looks. My favorite part was one of the questions on the forms. The question itself is pretty straight forward, “Where will you be staying?” My answer however, not as straight forward “Adventure,” which I took to mean camping in a safari type of situation and I thought just sounded like the best explanation of what I hope that trip will be.

The day ended well. After the conference I was able to go back to downtown Lyon and walk around a bit more (and of course take more pictures). I also walked into a wine store and bought myself a bottle of wine (I highly recommend the Bourgogne Hautes Cotes de Nuits). I walked back from Lyon to my hotel, strolling down the banks of the Rhone river. It was glorious. I fabulous way to say au revoir to a city that had treated me very well.

Day 4 (Back in black): What should have been an eventful day turned into a bit of a experience. I arrived at the Lyon airport about 1.45 hours before my flight and went to the check in counter/computer to check-in. "No ticket found" the computer tells me, so a friendly flight ticketing agent tells me to go up to the desk. I do. The agent takes my passport and my printed e-ticket confirmation (given to me by the KAUST travel agency) and starts typing on her computer. She pauses and starts talking to the person next to her in French, all I got was "ticket not found." She looks up at me and says, "did you change your ticket?" Not really, the agency had changed it for me over a week ago, but the new ticket had been confirmed and she was holding all of the information I had. "Ok" she says, and goes back to her computer.

She then looks at me and explains that while the confirmation and ticket number are valid, she can't seem to find me in the system. I proceed to call the travel agency in KSA and tell them what's going on, they insist that I should be in the system and proceed to give me all the numbers I already have (ticket number, confirmation code, flight info...) I look at the ticket agent, while she picks up the phone, more french and "no ticket found." Again she looks up at me, smiles and goes back to the computer. She then stands up, says "I'll be right back. I have to talk to my colleague," and leaves. Ten minutes later, she returns and goes back to the computer. Again, she picks up the phone, more french. Another ticket agent comes to the desk. More french, the first agent goes through the computer process with the second agent, "no ticket found." They both look at me and smile.

The second agent tells me to follow her to another desk. I do. She tells me again that they can't seem to find me in the system. I'm starting to worry, it's been almost 1 hour and my flight is supposed to leave in about 40 min. Finally a third ticket agent comes up, she must be the woman in charge because she takes all of my paperwork, looks at me and proceeds to yet another desk. She starts her computer thing, "I have found the problem. Do you know why there are two tickets in your name?" There shouldn't be, but unfortunately I'm not terribly surprised. "Don't worry. We will get you on this flight, but you should contact your travel agency and make sure they don't charge you for two flights because this is not your fault." She then smiles at me, takes my luggage and (hurray!) hands me a boarding pass.

The flights themselves were normal. However, once again, upon arriving at the boarding gate in Frankfurt the atmosphere clearly changed. Mostly men, and the few women there didn't seem terribly happy. "Welcome back to hell" some guy tells me when we get on the shuttle bus on our way to the airplane. Great, the craziness has already begun I think to myself.

The flight lands, and I'm back in my black abaya... Home... well for now.