traveler in training

I guess it would sound bad of me to complain right now...but I will anyways.

A train company (who will remain nameless) in a European country (which will remain nameless) decided to go on strike. If We had known this prior to showing up with all our luggage ready to leave for our next destination I would not have minded, but we did not know ahead of time and so we did end up fully geared up with nowhere to really go. The plan was to go to Switzerland to a tiny little village (read: more cows than mailboxes) in the alps, which would be relaxing and make Dana less tired and irritable... but no... we had to re-route back to Paris. Now I know this is the part where everyone rolls their eyes and thinks I am lame because it should be illegal to complain about having to be in Paris again, but please keep reading. There was a major holiday yesterday in most of Europe, and unbeknown to us... not much was open. So we wandered somewhat aimlessely killing time until our connecting train was ready to leave.

Somehow we killed a bit too much time (perhaps due to the fact that I feel asleep in a park in the mid afternoon sun) and ended up running down the steets of Paris in desperate search of a Metro station, which we have been told are located at almost every intersection of the city. (Why is it you can never find the most common of things when you need to ... like a baguet and a metro station in Paris?). Finally we found the metro, hopped on, three transfers later arrived at the tran station sweaty (I do not advise running in a rainjacket) and a wee bit stressed to board the train that would take us to Geneva, Switzerland, where a relative of mine lives. Great, except she was not expecting us for another day, so we were homeless in a foreign country and a unfamiliar city. Good thing for friendly taxi drivers, and youth hostels.

If anyone is planning on traveling in the near future make sure you realize that plans on paper and the way things actually unfold are two very different things. Have fun planning but be ready to scrap it at any moment. After a day and a half of not really being able to relax I think I might head back to bed for the second nap of the afternoon.