Crisis Management

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Oh dear. As 'regular readers' may have noticed, its been some time since we updated the blog. There is a valid excuse...apologies in advance for the lengthiness of this torrid tale.

So as our bus to Klaipeda, a Lithianian coastal town, wasn't until quarter to eight in the evening, we decided to spend some time browsing round the uber-retro shop in the Hotel Fontaine. Full of soviet-era trinkets and dubious second hand baseball jackets, we predictably became rather enthralled. Having checked out of uncle toms cabin, our luggage was downstairs in the breakfast/common/eighties record room, quietly sitting on the sofa.

We spent a reasonable - but by no means ridiculous - amount of time in the shop...returning downstairs, the horrible realisation slowly dawned...a bag was nowhere to be seen. My (adams) small and very recently bought backpack, had, we eventually decided, been callously swiped from its temporary resting place. A few nice-but-not-very-important things were lost, including my cherished football shaped notepad, my 'found' sunglasses, and an mp3 player which admittedly had served me well beyond its years...but it was the departure of the slim reddish-brown pocket-sized document closest to every travellers heart that caused my gut to wrench. Passport. Gone. Oh.

Unlike myself, fiona managed to stay reasonably calm in the situation, as did - and for this I will be eternally grateful - the staff at the hotel. What followed was something of a emotional rollercoaster. After staring at the floor in disbelief for some time, I began to accept that the passport was lost for good, and things needed sorting out if we were to have any hope of continuing the trip - my lost passport enclosed a much-needed visa for Belarus. The hotel receptionist Ianna very unselfishly helped out by ringing the police (and translating for me throughout), finding out about forms I needed to fill in, speaking to the embassy, etc etc...and even offered us a free room at the hotel for the night. Fiona kept me calm and dosed me with coffee while she scoured the immediate area for traces of bag. Admittedly I was pretty useless in the circumstances. With time dragging on, we resigned ourselves to the fact that we would be heading back to Riga in the morning to consult the British Embassy.

Despite the fact we were given a rather fine room for free, the night was predictably uncomfortable as it slowly sunk in that our trip may have to be significantly altered. I awoke and prepared myself for the trip to the police station to collect the much-needed report. Ianna again came with me - I continued to express my undying thanks. A surprisingly cheery looking policeman told us that the details had reached him 2 hours late (some things don't change wherever you go) and he would bring the report to the hotel later. We spent the next few hours working on our contingency plan, and had just about made the decision to fly over Belarus, when Ianna burst in, telling us there was both good news and bad...

The good news was that my passport had been found - bizarrely, some 50 km away in a latvian backwater named Priekule. The bad news was that the Liepaja police, in all their breathtaking efficiency, may have already reported it stolen to the relevant authorities...meaning I would have to replace it anyway. Keen to be reunited with my immigration stamps from various exotic destinations, we picked up my passport from an official looking building down the road. I rang the British embassy to ask about the state of play - i'm sure the lady on the other end of the phone was trying hard to be helpful, but she categorically wasnt. So, it was still back off to Riga. We bought Ianna some chocolates to say thankyou - to be honest, she deserved a 3 course meal and a magnum of champagne - and trotted back off to the bus station from whench we came, having seen little of Liepaja but a snazzy hotel, a shopping centre, and a very tasty burger bar.

Fortunately the story takes an upward turn at this point. We had found a cheap deal at a 4-star hotel in Riga (to make ourselves feel better) and plodded in, looking very unsuitable for the surroundings with our bulbous rucksacks and general flustered appearance. Wonderfully, we were greeted with the news that we had been upgraded (!) from the 'superior' room we had got for quite a reasonable price online, to a full-blown junior suite! We spent some time rubbing our hands with undeserved glee at the free soaps, vast bathroom and - joy of joys - the availability of bbc news. After taking in the sumptuous view from our 5th floor balcony - thats right - balcony - we went for dinner at a fantastic restaurant, with a very-cool hospital theme (sounds weird, trust: awesome)
Hospitalis is currently still under construction, but will eventually detail said awesomeness. The food was absolutely magnificent - and waitresses in nurses uniforms!?!

After the best nights sleep of the whole trip so far (they don't skimp on bed comfort in the junior suites) I trotted off to the embassy to sort out the passport situation once and for all. Irritatingly, they told me I should speak to the Liepaja police - politely and firmly I explained that I had already done so, and for goodness sake, what good would that do, they don't speak english, and i'm a British citizen and i've come to my embassy for you to help me, and so on. Eventually I was told that everything would probably be ok. Relief, and the end of quite a distressing saga. I remain saddened by the loss of my sunglasses, music, etc...and we still quite need to replace lost guidebooks to Belarus and Ukraine...but ultimately, things could have been worse.

On that positive note, we treated ourselves to the first McDonalds meal of the trip so far, and caught an evening bus to Vilnius...

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Comments

[jim]

goods news then
phew thats good news, i met fionas mother on tuesday for a chat and she seemed jolly concerned as she relayed this tale of woe. at that point all she knew was that the passport had gone etc so its good to hear things sorted themselves out...on another note we thrashed fionas mums team, who had pub quizzed as a last resort due to mamma mia being sold out and were lamenting over a bottle of blossom hill.