Travelling can be a joy, full of wonderful adventures. But sometimes things don’t always go to plan, and there are those moments when your heart just sinks…….
1. Standing in the dark at 9:30 at night after a 19 hour flight, outside the apartment you booked over the internet, not knowing how to get in
It helps to read the email from the owner carefully all the way through to the end. Then you don’t miss the bit that says the key is under the mat…..

2. Not being able to find any light switches that work once inside the dark apartment
Despite the handy flashlight on my Mobily Tools app, we were unable to find any lights that worked so we went to bed. In the morning we found a kitchen and bathroom light but no living area lights.

3. Suffering badly from internet withdrawals, finding the network ‘chatchic’, but not having the password
How did we know the network was chatchic? We deduced it from the extremely tasteful mural above the sofa bed

Thank goodness for McDonalds!!
Free wifi, and we were able to catch up on news from home and family and friends, as well as email the owner who answered promptly and solved situations 2 and 3 above!

I don’t know how we missed finding where to turn on the lights?

4. Waking up early in the morning, deciding to read a book on your brand new, birthday present Kindle, and realising that you left it in one of the dinky little compartments next to the Business Class seat on the flight from Dubai to Paris.

Thanks to D2’s Gold Frequent Flyer membership we were upgraded to Business Class!! Very classy!! But so many little compartments to hide things that I forgot to check them all. At least at the back end of the plane there is only the one pocket. Frantic phone calls to Emirates and my Kindle was located. Readers of Baguettes and Vegemite may remember my boast that I could ‘do’ the Metro, well I didn’t do it so well today, but despite heading off in the wrong direction and buying the wrong tickets, we finally retrieved the lost Kindle.

Despite all that there are so many things to make your heart sing.
Just walking the streets of Paris,
eating Normandie Tartine at Amelie’s cafe,

and of course my first baguette and vegemite