Tara Tries Not Being an Idiot

First and foremost, I am proud to say that I have not lost anything or have had anything stolen. Knock on wood. That's not to say I haven't had my brightest moments. Yesterday is a great example of my of "series of unfortunate events".

I decided to wake up early and take a day trip to Versailles, King Louis the XIV ridiculous palace which is about 40 minutes outside of the city by train. While his people starved and died in the city, Louis created a massive, lavish estate...he clearly was compensating for something. I read that he had serious erectile dysfunction concerns (really though), so maybe he actually was compensating! For whatever reason, it was insanely beautiful.

Anyways, Andrew had given me good instructions for how to go about getting to Versailles. Take the subway to Austerlitz, hop on the RER line C until Versailles RG. Simple? Not for me. I hopped on the RER line C...and ended up on the train for an hour and a half. The RER line C splits in two like a fork in the road, Train A heads for Versailles and Train B heads for...not Versailles. I ended up in 'Not Versailles'. What should have been a 40 minute train ride because a two hour trip from hell. By the way, the train was a steambox with no air conditioning in 90 degree weather. FAIL.

When I got to Versailles, I walked the premises with some Australian girls I met on the train (they made the same mistake that I did, so our mutual frustration made us friends). I had recently purchased new sneakers that morning so that my feet wouldn't hurt with all the walking around. However, I still managed to get blisters because the shoes were new and not broken in. FAIL.

On my way back to the hostel, I stopped in Subway because I was starving for a cheap meal. I took it to go, so that I could eat it in the common room of the hostel. When I was buzzed in (you have to get buzzed in to enter the hostel) I somehow managed to open the door on my face (?), if that is humanly possible. It hurt and I laughed along with some other people in the room. FAIL.

I proceed to walk over to the table to eat, where I trip over a chair. Seriously? My feet were aching so I wasn't being careful. FAIL.

Then I FINALLY am seated and think nothing else can go wrong. I open up my bottle of sprite, only to have the whole thing explode all over the table. While I was slightly embarrassed, I was more upset that half of my sprite would not be in my belly. FAIL.

I was absolutely exhausted from the day, so I decided to go nap. My clothes were slightly sweaty, so I thoughtlessly changed in my room without shutting the shades of the window. After I was dressed, I looked outside across to the other building, where a man was standing in the window smiling and waving. I was too tired to care, but quickly closed the shade. FAIL.

I managed to survive the rest of the evening just fine. SUCCESS.

Paris

Check out the photos!


Enjoy! I'll post next from Austria tomorrow!

T