At the moment, I’m in Paris, my parents are in Tokyo, and my best friend is in London.  What a life!

I am fighting to stay awake until a reasonable bedtime hour after a remarkable series of unfortunate travel events.  Here’s the tale, as recorded via the texts I sent to my mother (who said she wanted updates, but promised she would put her phone on Sleep Mode so she wouldn’t be inundated until morning):

Ah, but it doesn’t end there!  The AirBnB rental we got is right on the RER route from the airport. Once I have my bag, I got a ticket and got on the train.
10 minutes
route from the airport. Once I have my bag, I got a ticket and got on the train.

10 minutes later, and a man in a uniform boarded the train, said something and very fast French while waving a walkie-talkie around, then hopped off. Everybody around me groaned and got off the train.  I didn’t know what he said, but when everyone else gets off the train, I get off the train. 

I crossed to a different platform, found a new train, and was once again led away from it by the crowds. After trying at two more platforms to get a train to Paris and being waived away by station agents at both, I gave up and caught a taxi.

There’s a part of me that is still surprised that I actually made it to Paris.