If there is for me a moment that defined this Europe trip, it's of me sitting on that train to Berne and almost breaking out in a cold sweat because I have not planned the itinerary for Switzerland. Spontaneous traveller, I am not. Seeing how this trip is planned by me, I had expected it to be eventful (ie, unfortunate events) and I was quite right. The series of boo boos was quite fantastic and I hope to never travel with myself again--not that it's possible!
Of course there was the one about us missing the flight from Paris to Singapore. It was partly because I spent so much time at the shop trying to determine whether green or black is a better colour on an ipod nano. And partly because at the last minute my sisters decided they had to go to the washroom for 5 minutes so that we reached the gate 2 minutes late. It was so surreal when they refused to let us board the flight that I thought they were just trying to scare us, a "next time let's see whether you dare to dilly dally again" trick they pull on delinquent passengers. But oh no, they were not joking at all. My sisters both pleaded fiercely while I acted confused, but actually, I was confused--I thought the gate closes at 11.45pm, when it was 11.40 pm. They didn't buy it and our luggage were taken off the flight and we had to go back home, but not before they escorted us out of the transit area.
During the cab ride home my eldest sister was worried sick about my parents' reaction while me and the second sister started to laugh--our parents were always grumbling about our disregard for punctuality but this must be the ultimate in tardiness.
Another close shave happened on the day we left Paris for Berne. For some unfathomable reason I assumed that the train leaves from the station 5 minutes from our hotel. During lunch, I glanced at the tickets again and realised I got the wrong station! The actual station was 30 minutes away and so we rushed through lunch (the puzzled waiter remarked: "You eat fast, huh?") and quickly checked out of the hotel and hailed a cab.
The driver didn't understand English and seemed like a tempermental French (I was going to type "one of those tempermental French" but I actually didn't meet that many--most of them proved pleasant!). I pulled out the phrase book and pointed out the French phrase for driving faster. He read it aloud and gave a big laugh, as if amused, mumbled to himself and started driving. On the way, he saw 2 police patrol cars and decided to follow them, probably thinking that traffic would give way to them. But the police led us straight into a demonstration and for a while we were stuck and panicking quietly. But somehow, he managed to get us out of there and to the train station on time after navigating through a maze of narrow streets. We gave him a big tip which he was mighty pleased about.
The last boo boo happened in Zurich, when we checked into the hotel. The nice receptionist informed us that we had booked a room for Nov 13 when it was Oct 13. I think my sisters really wanted to kill me at that point. But if they did, they didn't say anything. Thankfully, the hotel was able to spare us a room that night.
I was so glad to be home after all the stress in Europe. But I realised things could have turned out worse if not for the help we got along the way from the nice French and Swiss, like the Paris hotel staff who let us cancel a night's reservation without any penalty because we miss our flight, no questions asked. Oh, and we enjoyed good weather too, and like that tagline from the Emirates ad "When was the last time you did something for the first time?", being in a new land, submerged in a whole new milieu, I really do feel new again.
