Saturday, there was a Techno parade taking place in Paris- basically, a parade of tempo trucks blasting different kinds of Techno music, going from one destination to another over a course of time. I anticipated a day full of fun, with great music and great company. However, as irony would have it, the day did not go quite as well as I envisioned.

It started on a note of doom as I woke up Saturday morning, realizing I had slept in and all my friends had left without me. Getting ready as quickly as possible, I decided to rush to the station and take the first train out, intending to get there by myself and meet up with my friends later. Which, in retrospect, was not the smartest idea, since I did not have a phone, having broken it a few days ago, and had no idea how I would get in touch with anyone.

Anyway, I got to the station and met another friend who had slept in as well and was now trying to get to the same place I was. At least he had a phone, albeit with no credit. The problem was, neither of us knew where exactly to GO, since it was a moving parade, and we weren’t sure where it ended.

By a stroke of luck, we met some other friends from school on the train who knew where the parade was going to culminate-Bastille- so when we reached Paris, we just decided to go there. This was the first time we were in Paris, and had never used the metro before. After getting credit for my friend’s phone, we tried to get in touch with a few people to ask them where they were. However, you can imagine what ensues at a techno parade, thanks to which none of our friends picked up their phones. If they did, they were not coherent enough to be helpful. So, we spent the next thirty minutes figuring out the metros till we finally arrived at Bastille and saw the parade. We had made it, just in time to see the parade pull in! The turnout was absolutely incredible- there must have been hundreds of people in the streets, all dressed in neon colours, glitter, wigs and numerous mismatched accessories. Bottles of poorly concealed alcohol and rolled up joints that I can only assume were cigarettes completed their ensembles and epitomized the general heady atmosphere of the parade. Needless to say, being sober, my friend and I were not in the same frame of mind as ANYONE else at the parade.

When the parade finally started coming to an end, the dynamics of the crowd seemed to change rapidly, almost like a switch being activated. Since people did not have music to listen to or dance along to anymore, they started getting bored and agitated, looking for alternative ways to entertain themselves. We saw several SWAT teams march in lines and get in place- armed with guns and covered from head to toe in military gear- clearly anticipating some kind of violence. I was anxious to find everyone else, as the crowd got increasingly rowdy. We finally got through to our friends, and started making our way towards where they were, right across the street from us.

However, at that exact moment, someone in the middle threw a glass bottle at the SWAT team, and all hell broke loose. Numerous glass bottles were being flung at the police by an angry mob,  glass shards were flying everywhere from the impact and people were running in all directions to avoid getting hit. In a split second, the SWAT team descended on the mob, spraying the crowds with tear gas and pepper spray. My friend grabbed my arm and we ran away as fast as possible to find a safe place as the riot unfolded before our eyes, at the exact spot we had been at less than a minute ago. The air was so thick with the fumes of the tear gas and pepper spray that we both felt our eyes tear up almost instantaneously. It was absolute pandemonium, and without a doubt, one of the scariest experiences of my life, even though it only lasted for a few short minutes (the SWAT team did an impressive job of breaking the crowd up and calming things down quickly).

I eventually found my friends and we spent the rest of our day in a much calmer environment, walking around Paris and enjoying the night-time view the city has to offer. However, I learnt a few important things that day:

Lesson #1: It is not the smartest idea to go to a parade by yourself, hoping to find your friends when you reach.

Lesson #2: Never, EVER, travel without a phone to a new, unfamiliar place; especially when you have no idea where you are going.

Lesson #3: Being spontaneous is GREAT, but it does not always work out for the best. Planning ahead is both safer, and has a higher success rate of ensuring you will have a good time.

Lesson #4: Mob mentality is like spilled petroleum on the floor-dangerous and highly volatile. All it needs is one spark to ignite before it spreads like wildfire, causing damage in its wake. BE CAREFUL and alert any time you are in a place with a large group of people.

And finally, lesson #5: It is extremely idealistic to expect all experiences while studying abroad to turn out exactly the way you planned. However, they all add up and contribute to what is bound to be an interesting m�lange of events during your stay. And most important of all, they will always make for the best stories 🙂

Location: Bastille, Paris, France