Delhi-Moscow-Paris-Lille

Our flight was an Aeroflot from Delhi to Moscow at 4 am in the morning. We reached well ahead of schedule at 12 am at night. The flight was quite uneventful. Aeroflot served us good food and we slept for sometime. I watched 'Argo' on the flight. We landed in Moscow at 930 local time. The city did not look very different from Delhi from above. We met a Pakistani medical student at the Moscow airport. He is studying in Havana and lives in Karachi. Moscow airport had awesome free wifi and we did not realise when we had spent our 3 hours there. We departed for Paris at 1230 local time. 

I had my first experience of real Russian food in this flight. Boiled chicken and cheese with some vegetables. The weather was sunny and I had a chance of some really good aerial views of European countryside. We landed at Charle De Gaulle at 1440 local time. It seemed a bit old. There was a Concorde kept on display outside. After finishing Visa check, we hurried to the train station. We got our EU Rail passes validated and booked a TGV to Lille. The train left at 4. French countryside was sunny and full of windmills. We passed many small villages. Finally, reached Lille by 1715 local time. 

We had arranged for accommodation with another IIMB gang living in Lille, but they had some last minutes issues. We stayed in Hotel Star overnight, paying 120 euros for two rooms. Next day, we dumped our luggage only with the friends and left for Brussels. Due to confusion and inability to read train timings, we missed two trains, before boarding one at 11 am. This experience made us smarter with the French Railways. We reached Brussels by 12 and were surprised by its energy. Lille seemed to be very sleepy and quite. It was full of old people and very few kids. There were a few beautiful girls, including the one who helped us get around the metro. 

Picture from the trip: Aeroflot still uses sickle and hammer in its brand.

Sky over Belarus