MAR-GOES

Well well well, do I have a blog for you today. Remember that one post where I was laughing at Greg for forgetting his passport on that bus.. yeah well let me tell you, karma is REAL. If you are close with me, you already have every idea about what this blog will be about, if you don’t know, you can guess from this intro, and if you still don’t know, read on.

Let me start from the beginning. Thursday night, Greg, my friend Claire, and I happily headed to the Prague airport for Geneva, Switzerland. Considering the fact that Switzerland was #1 on my “Countries to Visit” list, I was ecstatic. All went well at the airport and we got to our wonderful Air Bnb by 10pm. We quick headed out on the town to find food. When I tell you there was no food to be found… there really was no food to be found. We walked around for an hour looking for any restaurant that was open. It was a complete ghost city at night. Discouraged, we headed back to our Air Bnb preparing for a night of empty stomachs. Somehow we stumbled across a hole in the wall convenient store. We searched the store for things to eat and left with pasta, red sauce, frozen pizza, chocolate, and a drink for each of us. We went back, made the food quick, and got to bed right away. We had an early Friday morning. We left the Air Bnb at 630am to get on a 7am bus to Chamonix, France. Chamonix, France is a small ski town nestled within the most beautiful mountains I’ve ever seen.

Ok rewind quick… all was good, we showed the bus driver our tickets and passports and walked onto the bus. We had the bus practically to ourselves, picking up a few more people at a stop about an hour out of Geneva. The views from the bus were gorgeous (at least those of the last 20 minutes of the ride… #sleeping). We got off the bus and I couldn’t wait to explore the small town we pulled up to. Greg went left to snowboard for the day and Claire and I went right to see the town. (I have never skied and the first time was not going to be on the French Alps if I wanted to return home in one piece.) We found a small cafe and get some cappuccinos while we planned the day  ahead of us. After a relaxing sit, we got up to pay. I opened my wallet, paid, and did my habitual “passport check”. I just put my finger in the slot my passport sits in… empty. Immediate stomach drop. I frantically checked all other slots in my wallet, my whole purse, and my pockets. It was nowhere to be found. Trying to stay calm, I tell Claire, “I think my passport is gone”. I quickly thought of all possibilities, calling Greg and asking him to check. I always hand things to him to hold for a minute so I figured that could’ve easily happened. He had to stop on the middle of the mountain to check, again nothing. Well, my original “calm” was now gone. Poor Greg ended up immediately getting off the mountain to 1. help calm me down 2. help make phone calls and 3. come up with a game plan. At this point I felt so bad about the fact that I now ruined Greg’s snowboarding in the French Alps and Claire’s day.. but hey what’s a little dramatic turn of events going to do to you. I nervously called my parents and told them, once I dialed this call, my non-crying streak ended. I couldn’t help it and I’m not going to lie on here. BUT, although tears were shed throughout the day, I did keep a calm to me and stayed as relaxed about the situation as possible. We couldn’t reach the bus company which is the only place my passport could be (on the bus floor, stolen from someone on the bus, or stolen by the bus driver). I don’t know and I don’t think I ever will. After many calls and a few hours, we came up with 2 options. 1: Get on a 8 hour bus to Paris where the US Embassy is, leaving our luggage in Geneva, and staying in France until Monday when the Embassy opens. 2: Try to get over the Switzerland-France border without being stopped, stay in our Air Bnb with our luggage, take a 2 hour train to Bern, Switzerland (the Capital and US Embassy location) Sunday night, and leave Switzerland Monday night. Although crossing the border nearly put me into a panic attack, we chose option 2. We had a helicopter ride planned for 5pm, and although my parents wanted me headed towards an Embassy as soon as possible, I was not going to take the helicopter away from us. If you ever get the chance to take a helicopter ride over beautiful views, please do it. It was an amazing and unique experience. Our pilot took us to Mont Blanc, the highest mountain in the Alps and the second highest in Europe and through the snowy mountains getting there.

 Is it possible to have one of the worst days ever but still fly over the French Alps in a helicopter? Yes.

The bus company we went to Chamonix with would not let me back on the bus without a passport so we called a private car service. The driver was awesome. As we approached the border, I swear Greg’s hand was going to break by how tightly I was holding it. We got in line at the border and the car 2 cars in front of us is briefly stopped by the officer. Ok heart rate was at 200 at this point. We pulled up and THE OFFICER WAVES US FORWARD. It was a huge, huge, weight off my shoulder. At this point, I knew I would be fine. Other than missing class on Monday (no really, not a big deal AT ALL), I was okay with staying the extra day to get this figured out. We had a day in Geneva ahead of us and I was not going to let this horrible day take that from me or the people I was with. I am going to write a different blog about my experiences in Switzerland since they were wonderful. I had a successful morning at the US Embassy this morning. I went in and figured it out all by myself, the ladies there were extremely nice and helpful though. I got my temporary 1-year passport in about an hour and we had the rest of the day to explore Bern. I am currently on a bus back to Prague. It’s hour 4 of 11 and I just want to be back. And that concludes my story of how I lost my passport/potentially got it stolen. I was told everything happens for a reason, and whatever the reason for this speed bump, I agree. Perhaps, it was that I got more time in a beautiful country. I just want to remind anyone reading this that, if you are traveling, please please please take extreme care of your passport. I know that goes without saying, but you can never be too careful. This is coming from the girl who is constantly checking that she has her passport safe and with her; it could happen to anyone.

Quick end note: I would like to thank anyone who helped me in this situation. While it might seem small to you and even to me now, I was in a tough situation and I came out with a learned lesson. Greg was literally there for me every single second of this. From calling the embassies/consulates (Paris, Lyon, Geneva, and Bern), bus company, private car, and many other necessary calls, to getting off the mountain from his snowboarding, to adventuring to Bern with me, and finally to sitting on this 11 hour bus, I can’t thank him enough. Claire, who came along on the trip, dealt with me breaking down and helped me stay calm. My parents, answered the phone immediately and did all they could do to help from the States (which was a lot). (I even got to the Embassy and the woman goes, “oh yes your Dad is the one who has been emailing with us back and forth. He was worried about you.”) Typical. And to anyone else who checked in with me, thank you thank you thank you!! I am so incredibly blessed with an amazing support system.

P.S This was written yesterday on my long bus ride. As I publish this, I am sitting comfortably in my bed in Prague. Wahoo!

xx