The Failed Mushroom Hunt

A few weeks ago, my housemate, Edwina, and I had been checking out this website she discovered called Meetup. It's a site where people in various cities create different interest groups and go on outings together. We were just seeing what was going on during the upcoming weekend, and there was a mushroom picking outing! Anyone who knows me well knows that I'm a little bit obsessed with food, and naturally I got SUPER excited about this mushroom hunt. I was going. And I was taking Edwina with me. I finally got her excited about it after my rambling on about how fun it was going to be. We were both imagining coming home with bags and bags overflowing with mushrooms. I even researched recipes and went out and bought ingredients. I was pumped.

Of course the day before the outing I came down with a cold, and the next morning woke up with it being even worse, but I was determined. I WAS GOING TO COME HOME WITH MUSHROOMS! So out we went bright and early to catch a train to meet the group.

It started off badly.....the people were kind of weird and we ended up having to wait another hour for the next train because ONE person missed the train. That was a rough beginning, but I still was happy because I was going to be picking mushrooms soon.

However, once in the forest, it became obvious pretty quickly that there were no mushrooms. None. My mood dropped as the minutes passed. After about half an hour Edwina and I were ready to call it quits and head home. I still had a cold and Edwina had a headache, but the problem was we had no idea where we were. Only our "guide" did. There was no escape. What began as a mushroom hunt turned into a 5 hour 20km+ (12+ mile) hike. I was dying by the end, and let me tell you, I was not the only one. The older, out of shape people (most people there), had not realized this was going to be a never-ending hike either. We were not a happy bunch of travelers.

Positive Note:
We did see a 13th century old mansion that was bombed by Germans as they left France at the end of World War II which was a neat thing to see.

The next day, I went to the a produce shop and bought mushrooms and just pretended I picked them. It made me feel better.
:)

With Love,
Christine