Losing Control

It’s amazing how things just work out when you stop trying to work them out. As I write this I’m travelling by train through the French countryside on my way to Lourdes. Getting on this train has been a wild adventure that I never could have planned.

This morning I awoke at 4:45 am to catch a plane from Turin to Paris. The night before I barely slept because there was some kind of block party in front of my hotel. Italians like to party. When I arrived at the airport I tried to check in at an e-ticket kiosk but it didn't work. Out of nowhere a kind lady from Air France approached me and figured out that my e-ticket number was off by one number. Soon thereafter I made my way to the plane.

When we arrived in Paris we asked a taxi to take us to the train station. He told us in French there were five. I told him in English, “We’re going to Lourdes.” He didn’t understand and gestured to get in the car and he would call someone to figure it out. All was going well until a car almost side swiped us. Our driver flipped out and yelled what seemed like some French obscenities at the top of his lungs. When we finally pulled into the train station a tour bus was blocking the entrance and our driver flipped out once again. This time he jumped out of the car as he yelled words similar to the ones he had shared a moment earlier. This whole thing was actually hilarious and as I left I patted the driver on the shoulder and we both shared a laughed.

Inside the train station the adventure continued. After trying a couple of tellers we found one selling tickets to Lourdes. The clerk said all departures from that station were full and we would have to transfer to a different train station. This time around the taxi driver was cool and just didn’t say a word. At the second train station we put our luggage in a locker (after spending something like 20 minutes figuring out how to operate it). We had a few hours to kill so we grabbed lunch at a local hotel restaurant. One great thing about this trip is that I am eating incredible food. At lunch I was enjoying myself so much that I feel asleep. A cappuccino later and I was restored. Since we had more time to burn we decided to go for a walk and as I turned the corner there staring back at me was the Eifel Tower. Wow! How many times in life does that happen? Without any plans or direction I ended up at the Eiffel Tower. A brisk walk later and I’m standing under it. Crazy huh?

The trip back to the train station was another misadventure. We waited around for a taxi that never arrived and just as we decided to run back a taxi shows up. At the train station all was alright until I decided to study my train ticket and realized it doesn’t clearly say which train we were to take. After a few unsuccessful attempts at communicating with some people I finally located a woman who spoke English and she told me to look up at the ticker board. There I would be told what rail number the train was on 20 minutes before it departed. It actually turned out to be more like 10 minutes and we had to run to the section of the train we had been assigned. To be honest we barely made it before they closed the door. Everything worked out and now it’s time for me to relax until the next great adventure. Right now we don’t officially have a hotel room booked so I guess I’ll figure that out when I get to Lourdes.

The lesson? Let life lead the way and you just might end-up doing things you could never have planned.