First day in Paris

We didn’t get to do a whole lot today as it was over 100 degrees most of the day and Lexi and I were both exhausted from flying (I flew from Barcelona and she flew in from Chicago), but it still feels surreal to be in Paris. I did have a bit of a travel nightmare on the way to the hotel. I took a cab from the airport and when we arrived, it declined my card. I tried to pay through their app with dad’s card (he sent me the number after my wallet was stolen) but since the accounts are connected both were suspended for suspicious activity (I guess from being in a new country). The driver spoke 0 English so it was impossible to communicate. We ended up going into the hotel to ask the receptionist to help mediate and he ended up saving me by just covering the fare with his personal card and saying I could just pay him back later. I have no idea what I would have done without that! Very lucky. Capital one is the villain of the story, as they sent me an email saying my card would continue to be declined due to fraud until I called their 1-800 number, which was not possible to do from overseas - pretty ridiculous for a card purely based around having no international fees. This is now the 3rd or 4th time I’ve been caught in a bad situation thanks to them randomly flagging my card and not giving me any way to remedy it until dad is awake and able to call them for me. Will not be using their cards in the future!Read more