I literally just walked into the door of my flat after returning from the last of my travels for the vacation (which I will post about soon). I had a wonderful time, but as with all wonderful times, there must be something to bitch about. The anticipated highlight of my vacation, the 500 ft bungee jump in the middle of a gorgeous Italian valley, did not happen. This is for two reasons:
1) Procrastination
2) The nation of France
I admit it; I procrastinated way too much, and if anyone wonders why I like to be places 30 minutes in advance, it's because of crap like this. The flights I anticipated to take had quadrupled in price, and I was looking at a budget of $500 to $700 for one day in Italy. When I did the final price calculation, I pretty much threw in the towel right there. But still... the adventure. The spontaneity. The adrenaline. It might still be worth it. But then...
FRANCE.
RUINED.
EVERYTHING.
-Officer 1: Sh*! How the f* do we get past them now? Game over, man! Game over! |
| -Officer 2: I'm not sure. Can't we just step over them or go around them or something? |
| -Officer 3: No. They're making out. There's nothing we can do. They've won this one. |
Okay, that is an exaggeration, but it got your attention, didn't it? No, what France did is put the final nail in the coffin, so to speak. In case you have not been reading the news (and yes, were this issue not actively destroying my chances of jumping off that bridge, I wouldn't care), France has decided that it would be fiscally beneficial to raise the retirement age in France from 60 to 62 (kind of obvious, and just for the record, it is 65 in the U.S.). Heavens no! My biggest problem is that 62 is a random-ass number, but that is beside the point. Due to this potential 2-year increase, the following steps have been taken by the citizens (not all at the same time, but some):
-Intermittently refusing to operate inter-city trains
-Intermittently refusing to collect garbage
 |
| This is not from the Internet. |
-Rioting (including egging the police (as if they weren't busy enough trying to prevent terrorism))
... and finally my personal killer...
-Intermittently refusing to operate the airports
Now I was faced with the situation of sinking $500 to $700 of money into my glorious one-day outing, losing all of that money, and being stuck in Paris with nowhere to live. Lesson learned; do not procrastinate anything ever.
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