Kylajane37's travel blogs:
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Lost Passport in Paris
Entry 34 of 35 | show all | print this entry |
To add a little excitement to the weekend, when I began packing up on Sunday to leave, I realized that my passport was nowhere to be found. We searched everywhere, packed and unpacked the bag without any results. I had the passport when I went through customs on the Eurostar and am sure I zipped it in my bag and didn't think of it again until we got ready to leave.
We were already planning to stay in Paris for an extra night. That one night was extended to two when we discovered that the embassy would be closed on Monday because of Memorial Day. Luckily, Eurostar moved our tickets until Tuesday afternoon with no charge. So we looked at the bright side of things and decided to enjoy our extra time in Paris. On Saturday night the MBA Olympics organized an evening excursion into Paris. Either because we were all so exhausted or because it is really difficult to get 2,000 people in and out of Paris....the whole thing was a total disaster. They had arranged to have a club play music. We did go into Paris that night and ended up in the Monmatre area after stopping at the Eiffel Tower at sunset. We saw the Moulin Rouge and had dinner and actually saw Sacre Couer at night. But it was kind of too many people to really enjoy the evening.
So Sunday and Monday were a much better Parisian experience. Our friends Mike and Kelly McFadden were also in town. On Sunday we strolled from cafe to cafe having drinks and dinner and ended up in front of Notre Dame which was beautiful at night.
On Monday, Pierce and Mike got some work done in an internet cafe and Kelly and I visited the Louvre. All of Europe, but Paris in particular, and the Louvre specifically is in full "DaVinci Code" mode. The promotions are endless. They even give you the opportunity to pay five euros to take the DaVinci Code tour which involved seeing everthing that you can see with your 8.50 entrance fee. I guess you get some kind of exciting audio guide.
We opted out of the DaVinci tour and just strolled through the galleries. We checked out Mona. Overall, the museum is so overwhelming. There is so much to see and so many miles of exhibits. We tried to focus mostly on the paintings, but got lured into some sculpture and Egyptian artifacts.
We met the guys in front of the Louvre, enjoying that magnificent space. Then we all strolled up the Champs Ellysees, stopping for crepes along the way. We reached the Arc d'Triumph and climbed to the stop for amazing views of Paris. We made our way back to the Latin Quarter for dinner. After our active weekend we were all pretty exhausted.
The next day our experience at the embassy actually wasn't too bad. I think it was extra crowded because of the holiday the previous day, but since we were scheduled to travel at the 3 o'clock that afternoon, I think they expedited my passport. Also when you get there you're suddenly surrounded by other Americans who have also had their passports lost or stolen so you don't feel like a complete idiot. Or at least you're in the company of other complete idiots. I was able to get a new passport in about an hour.
If I don't sound too brokenhearted about losing my passport it could be because I wasn't a huge fan of my old one. I've decided there was a little bit of bad luck associated with that passport and several black marks in it. Since my name is off the computers for being denied a visa back in July, the only way anyone every asked me about it at immigration was by looking through my passport. Now that the passport is gone, it's like having a clean slate. I had no trouble entering England; no one even asked me any questions even though my passport was issued the exact same day! When we arrived home yesterday evening we did feel that we'd spent the day being shuttled around underground. First the Paris metro, then the Channel Tunnel, then to the London tube, and finally a train back to Oxford. It was nice to stop moving!
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