Road to Elsewhere, Excerpt #6: The Longest Walk of My Life

Mitigating factor: I was in Paris, France, after all.

On Fridays I run excerpts from The Road to Elsewhere, my coming-of-age-travel-memoir-with-funny-drawings. (You can find the first entry here.) It tells the story of my road through Paris, London, and Zagreb, in search of the ultimate destination: a life worth living.

I WAS LADEN WITH LUGGAGE, but without much baggage, when I avoided the most justifiable cab fare of my lifetime. But I couldn’t imagine coughing up my undergraduate French, or fielding inquiries about why I was here in Paris, or paying 10f, or facing the tip-or-not-and-how-much? decision that would punctuate any taxi ride. I was guarding my grandfather’s $6,000 as if it were my lifetime allotment. 

I turned the corner onto the Rue de Varenne, 200 yards into the two-mile walk ahead, and my wrists, upper arms, and back were already throbbing. By the time I passed by the portal of the Musée Rodin, I'd sweated through my L.L. Bean tattersall-check shirt, and miles to go before I sleep. The more I ached, the less likely I was to…