Wiser and Poorer

So today was a new experience for me. One of those things you read about happening to other people, but never really quite think it will happen to you. I had my purse stolen today. And with it pretty much everything else.

Late last night, a man came into our room. We're staying in a co-ed room in a hostel, and before he came, it was us and three other girls from Spain. He came in around 2am, which is quite late. He immediately went to sleep.

The next morning, I woke up pretty early and check things online. Everyone got up and started getting ready, except the guy, who was still asleep. We were eating breakfast in the kitchen, but were in and out of the room a bunch of times. The other girls got ready and left at 10am. I went back into the room to get some granola bars. I also took a few seconds to look at the guy because Amanda and I were having a discussion on how old he was. We couldn't really figure it out.

No more than two minutes later, we went back into the room. The guy was gone. I was really surprised. Cause we hadn't seen him get up or dressed or anything. Right after that, I realized my purse, which had been on my bed, was gone. Unfortunately, because we were just about to leave, it had everything in it. Just before breakfast, I had put my camera and iPod, as well as my travel book, into the purse. It also had my money, passport and credit cards clipped inside. (I sleep with it at my head.) The only money I had left was the Czech money that was still in my pants pocket from the day before.

Amanda went to talk to the receptionist and then out on the street to see if we could see him, but really, we are about half a block from a subway station, and he wasn't remarkable in anyway except the duffel bag he was carrying. The receptionist said he never checked in, so they didn't have a name, or even a description of the guy.

I got online to see if I could cancel my cards, but they only had numbers and I don't have a phone. Thankfully, I had some friends who were up, and one of them called my dad for me and he managed to call the numbers and get things cancelled. (Thank you both!)

Then Amanda (wonderful support that she is) and I had to go to the police station to file a report, and then to the embassy to get a new passport. (She had a copy of my passport, thankfully.) The first station we went to told us to go to another one, so we did. That one, no one spoke English. The English speaking officer was in court or something, and wanted us to come back that afternoon, but we weren't sure we would make it, because the embassy is all the way across town.

We walked to the embassy, glad it wasn't as cold as the day before. The embassy is only open from 8 to 11:30, and it was now after 1. Because we were planning on leaving tomorrow, they let me up up, and I got the paperwork, but I hadn't been able to file a police report yet, so I couldn't do it anyway. We will have to go back tomorrow.

So instead we went to the police station right down the street. These people spoke an okay bit of English, though they didn't seem at all in a rush. We filled out a form, explaining what was stolen. Then we went into a back room where 6 other English speakers were waiting as well. They were from England, and one of their members had had her purse stolen as well. We waited, cramped without enough seats, but quite warm. After about 30 minutes, they left. We waited. And waited. It was over two hours we got the report back. It's all in Czech. Hopefully that's okay.

Overall, we lost all the cash we were planning on spending on the mainland of Europe (Amanda had the money for England), my passport, driver's license, credit and debit cards, my iPod, travel book, and a few other personal things (like earrings). But one of the biggest losses is the camera. Actually, cameras. Amanda's camera appears to have been taken as well. (It had been on the top of her bag.) That's my second camera gone in a year. And mine had all my pictures from Prague on it, so the only images I'll have are the little watercolors I bought.

I feel so stupid, mad, and upset. It was a terrible twist of luck, literally, a two minute chance. And of course it had to happen right at the beginning of our trip. We aren't sure what's going to happen right now. We are going to keep going, cause we have our rail passes still, but we are trying to figure everything we can cut out. Skiing in the Alps is off already, and going up the Eiffel Tower. And the Ghost Town tour in Prague. But hopefully we will still manage to make it to the Louvre. We are hoping to get a lot of night trains, and thereby not spend money on hostels. We'll just have to see how it works out.

Really, I'm amazed at the audacity of that guy. He slept in the room the whole night, and then we were in and out of there all the time. And mad. Mad he could do that. Especially because he took more than just money.

However, we will go on, a little wiser and poorer. We're both safe though, and warm. It was warmer today, which was nice.