Tuesday, 7 June 2016

My Fate with France (real one)

So two weeks ago my brother was coming to Europe with his girlfriend for graduation trip
And I was so thrilled to see him
In fact, I had been excited for about a month

So the plan was that I would go to Paris together with the friends I met in Vienna
then I'll be off joining my brother
then I'll go back to my Vienna friends the other day.

Everything was perfect
I imagined myself going to Eiffel Tower with bro
taking our first selfie ever in life
posting it on Instagram
Valencia filter with a bit of Fade and Vignette
captioned "Can't believe that I bumped into my brother on a random street in Paris! #jk #itwasplanned"
Location: Tour Eiffel (in French looks cool)

Oh talking about Eiffel Tower
I'm gonna share with you about my fate with Eiffel Tower four years ago
So my family and I were on our first ever European Trip
It was a one week trip applied through the travel agency
so basically it's like a bus carrying you and 30 other random funny Hongkongers all over Europe
And a tour guide will arrange everything for you from accommodations to itinerary
including the shitty Chinese meals
yeh, all the way to Europe and hv Chinese meals of chicken with fish soya sauce and European fish with chicken sauce

Same, I was so thrilled about the Eiffel Tower
I had been thrilled for two months
so much expectation
so much excitement

So we arrived at Paris
and the precious free time came
My brother went to walk around the cities and take amazing picture
and Mum and Dad went for shopping, shopping and shopping (hate that)
They went to shops that are either too old for a 16-year-old girl or too expensive for a Form 4 student
So Mum bought a Chanel which the French girl spent an hour to wrap it
Time was running out but how about Dad's Louis Vuitton?
They rushed to LV and grabbed the bag
and went for the super long queue
that line was huge
and if you calculated the estimated waiting time according to the speed of wrapping a Chanel
it would probably take another 2 hours

Time's up! We got to go and meet others up
but they are still way at the back of the queue
No, they weren't going.
And me? I was stuck in the shopping mall together with them
20 other people were there waited for an hour
and my parents are still in the queue
they already missed one tourist spot because of waiting for my parents
so the tour guide decided that they are not waiting anymore
they went to the next item on the itinerary
and that was my beloved Eiffel Tower!

So they went there
without me
I was stuck in the shopping mall waiting for dad to pay for the fuckin LV bag
my hope was trampled on
my heart was shattered
I missed the Eiffel Tower and tears started running down my face
I seldom cried
but this...
I couldn't stop crying
not even when I'm on bed at night
We were leaving Paris the next day and I knew there would be no chance with Eiffel Tower

The next day, I woke up and found Dad talking to the tour guide at the hotel lobby
Dad knew how sad I was
so he talked to the tour guide and took me out alone to the Eiffel Tower before they leave Paris in the afternoon.
so eventually I went there
and tears finally stopped running down

And this time, I am carrying so much expectation with me to revisit Eiffel Tower
together with my brother

One day before my flight to Paris,
I received a message from Ryanair
The flight was cancelled because of the airport strike

That couldn't happen again right
no way it's repeating
So all my friends gave up going to France
but I'm not giving up
Last time I made it through
and so would this time be

I took a deep breath and swore to make things right
to turn things around, I extensively searched through all the possible routes from Vienna to Paris
And I found one
from Prague to Paris with a reasonable price!
So i immediately booked the flight,
together with the earliest bus from Vienna to Prague

The next day, I embarked on this journey to Paris all on my own
I got on the bus and set my alarm
and then go into a long sleep
then as I woke up, the bus was still in the middle of nowhere
far away from any trails of the Prague city
And I knew the bus was running late

I already booked my ticket from Prague main railway station to airport
so I hope I could make it before the airport shuttle departed
but apparently it was an hour late! (and it was Flixbus by the way)
so I hopped on a cab asap
and there was a fucking traffic jam!
so I was stuck for another hour...
then I arrived at the airport 20 minutes before the flight
and they did not allow me in
so I was screwed

I did so much just to see my brother in Paris
what's wrong with meeting my brother?
what's wrong with going to Paris
I have tried so hard
but I still ended up crying at the airport for an hour
I emphasise, I seldom cry of hardship
almost never
but this happens again
on me
with Paris
with France

First the cancellation
then the late bus
then the traffic jam
How could that many things happen all together at the same time
I didn't understand and I didn't know who to blame
maybe I was in a war against France in my last life
now that they try everything to enter the border

But many things indeed happen during the days I was supposed to be in Paris
the strike and fight on the street
a group of French children got strike by lightning
the huge flood that covers the whole Paris
the evacuation of the Louvre Museum
the terrorist warning put up in France

I began to think that I was shielded from something
something bad
All those unfortunates that happened out of "bad" luck
i felt a strong momentum stopping me from going there
no matter what I did
I wasn't able to get there

Yes I lost more than 200 euros on that
but who knows
Maybe I was blessed in exchange for another litre of tears



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