- Lack of sleep. I have been going to bed late (the sights to see are too many! the conversation is too good! so many photos to download and upload!) and getting up early (travel always seems to require getting up early–need to work on that for next time). Part of this is weird time stuff, part of it is middle of the night texts from people who have forgotten or didn’t know I’m abroad, part of it is weird hotel/motel/nature sounds that wake me up (since when does anything wake me up? since now, apparently) and part of it is…
- Poor nutrition. I mean, it’s not like the bread on bread on bread on cheese on pancetta on wine on black coffee is bad for me, per se. But I am bloated to within an inch of my clothes, I’m over sugared and under-worked. And I’m just not drinking enough water or anything else liquid-like. I don’t care how much strolling you do through a capital, you aren’t going to walk off a croissant and brie with jam for breakfast and then a baguette full of local delicacies for lunch. Not even if you only had HALF a baguette. I was suffering from a serious brain-sugar imbalance by the time the shit was really hitting le ventilateur today. It didn’t help my mood or my ability to deal like a grown ass woman. There’s a better way to prepare for this kind of travel; I just haven’t found it yet. (Where in the luggage do the nuts and dried fruit go, and does that mean no books, because I did buy two books?) And to be fair, speaking of preparation…
- Failure to properly pre-plan. I can and must and will take some responsibility for my disappointments today. (And while I do, I will acknowledge the smoothness of other transfers and my ability to handle a lot of crazy on other days.) So, I got totally fucked over on the (triple the expected) cost of my metro pass because I didn’t realize quite how far out of town my hotel really was. However, I did call the hotel in advance to make sure they could accept a PIN transaction for the room–they said yes, which turned out to be incorrect. As far as the extra fees and shitty treatment at the Lyon train station, followed by the dirty looks on the train and in each subsequent station when I asked anyone for help?–well, I don’t know. Maybe if the whole train ticket business had started better, I wouldn’t have noticed. Or I would have been able to laugh it off. I don’t know. The problem is…
- Comparative awesomeness of previous days. Yesterday I was hiking in the French Alps, for fuckssake. Even the longest car ride ever the day before yesterday was spent sitting next to an endangered bird. OF COURSE a day of crowded trains full of pissy commuters would be less amazing. Which segues nicely into…
- Expectations. I really wanted to get to Paris early enough today to meet with my next vulture expert. It really should have been possible, all other things considered. But it wouldn’t have been, as too much chaos was unaccounted for (see #3)–and that was a bummer. It is hard not to let expectations rule the day, especially after nearly 3 weeks of almost everything else working out. Expectations are the biggest buzzkills of ever. However, one big bowl of French risotto with chicken and wild mushrooms and a solid glass of red later, and I feel a bit better. Still let down–that’s my brand of unshakeable crazy–but calmer at least, and feeling good (to be honest it’s more like less dismal, but I’ll take it) about tomorrow.
Categories: Adventure Stories