Sometimes living a regular life while traveling can be super difficult. And sometimes it’s impossible.
I had 4 tasks to accomplish today:
- Call my bank to figure out why my debit card wasn’t working
- Change hostels from the south of Paris to central Paris
- Drop my laundry off at a Wash n’ Dry service
- Edit photos / Update posts
Not a very glamorous day in Paris, but they had to get done. And travel waits for no (wo)man.
So here was my game plan — check out of my hostel by 10am, drop my laundry off, store the rest of my things in the hostel luggage room, set up camp in the hostel lobby, call my bank, update website posts, pick up laundry, transport my stuff to the new hostel, and check in at 4pm.
It was so cute that I had a plan. Everything backfired from the beginning.
The laundry service was going to charge me 20 euros for a small bag of dirty clothes. I might be lazy, but I’m also cheap. Instead, I decided I would just do the laundry myself at the hostel. I needed 7 euros in cash, which I didn’t have. So I went to the ATM only to remember that my debit card wasn’t working. I went back to the hostel to look up my bank’s information, but the wifi wasn’t working either. In a frustrated huff, I packed up everything and left for my new hostel.
Trying to navigate a busy metro with two big backpacks is a nightmare, so I figured noon would be a good time to go. Wrong. Once I finally squeezed out of the metro at my station stop and walked to my hostel, I was ready to drop. Luckily, the receptionist let me check into my room two hours early, bless her.
Once settled into my room, I called my bank. Basically I was like, “Yo, why doesn’t my card work?” And they were like, “Yo. We sent you a new card in the mail and turned off your old one. We’ll turn your old one back on for a few hours, but you have to figure out the rest.”
And I was like — awesome.
Turns out they sent me my card a few weeks back. But since I’ve been traveling for 2+ months, I didn’t know that. So now I had the task of finding that card and having it sent to me.
Cue parents.
My parents found the card and had it expedited to my Paris hostel. It needed to arrive before I left Paris since I’ll be in and out of the next few cities. Fingers crossed for zero delays.
So by 7pm, I was drained. However. I was still in Paris and wanted to end the day on a high note.
Luckily for me, there was a movie in the park that night showing The Grand Budapest Hotel. My friends and I stocked up on snacks, laid down our jackets/ponchos/towels/whatever we could find in our backpacks, and settled in for a great evening.
Perfect snacks. So happy to be following along. Hope tomorrow is better.
The snacks were just perfect! haha