After celebrating New Year 2024 in France, I set out to visit my mom in Moscow. I took a night train from our small village to Paris to catch a plane in the early afternoon. The plane wasn’t heading directly to Moscow but to Yerevan, the capital of Armenia, as there are no direct flights between Europe and Russia. After a sleepless night on the train, I arrived in Paris around nine in the morning. With a couple of hours to spare before heading to the airport, I sought refuge in a cafe to escape the rain. Arriving at the airport on time and having checked in online, I proceeded directly to passport control. However, my jaw dropped to the floor when I pulled my passport out of the bag and saw Julie’s photo in it. Somehow, we had swapped passports a few weeks earlier when returning from Argentina. Oblivious, I failed to check the passport before leaving the house. Now, at the airport and unable to fly, I had no choice but to return home, purchase another plane ticket for a different day, return to Paris, and only then fly to Moscow via a third country. It turned out to be a lengthy and costly mistake.
I didn’t take my bike with me for an obvious reason, at least for me, it’s winter and temperatures are hovering around -20° C. I, however, used Brompton T bag as a carry on. Brompton comes handy one way or another.
Today in numbers:
0 km — distance cycled
$739 — price of the mistake, visiting my mom – priceless