Passport? I don't need no stinking passport!

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Slept through the night (which was a blessing in disguise) got up, showered and off to breakfast. I remember mentioning to Hippie I need to do my OCD organize thing - and he was questioning why? We are heading on a coach for a city tour in the morning, nothing to organize really. Good point, I thought, let's eat!

So we had a delicious breakfast, then joined the group to head off on our city tour. Being as this was my third trip to Budapest, I knew I would be familiar with the sites, but always interesting to see it from a different set of eyes, and looking forward to seeing it with Hippie as well. The usual suspects were on the list, Hero Square, Buda Castle, Chain Bridge, St. Stephen's Basically, Vaci street and more. After Hero's Square I noticed my passport purse was slightly open and feeling 'thin' and to my horror my passport wasn't in there. I quickly tore my backpack apart searching for it, with Hippie in his oh-so-calming-manner telling me it's all good, no need to panic until I know it is missing and even then we will deal with it (I'm loving traveling with him even more at this moment, keeping a hot head like me calm is impressive). So I chewed away at my soon to be hangnails and decided to save the panicking until I got back to the hotel.

Our guide was wonderful, however to my amusement she really liked to say the word 'capital' (enunciating clearly the 3 syllables) and/or "Hungarian Ca-pi-tal" when referring to Budapest. Which made me giggle and devise a game. So I leaned over to Hippie and suggested every time she says 'capital' we need to take a drink. *snort* If we actually had booze we would have been hammered by the time we crossed the bridge over to Buda side. Capital. Capital. Hungarian Ca-pi-tal. It was like an album with a perpetual stutter, funny but cute at the same time.

Back to the hotel and I raced to our room did my best impression of a Tasmanian Devil but no luck. I just 'knew' it was gone in my gut, can't tell you how - wasn't sure if it was lost or stolen but the end result was the same. My 10 year valid passport I had gotten less than a year ago was missing in action, and I was supposed to be embarking on a river cruise crossing into 4 countries in total in the next 28 hours. Not good. I consider myself an 'aware' traveler, so if I was pick-pocketed it was very impressive, or perhaps traveling with a companion I let my guard down. Or, I just lost it - which can happen. Either way I was devastated, and despite Hippie's efforts to keep me calm I felt myself slipping into a deep vortex of panic.

Went down to the Avalon desk in the lobby and told Istvan (local rep) what had happened he started to question me "Are you sure" which I quickly shut him down in my oh-so-blunt Ned way (do you think I would be here if I wasn't sure???). So he was a godsend and immediately went into action; phoned the Canadian Embassy for me, got me an English speaking representative who explained what I needed to do. Once I realized that I couldn't board the ship without my passport is when I nearly lost it (ok the tears started flowing I will admit) but Istvan was trying to help by explaining even if it did take 48 hours, that I could train to Pecs and catch up with the ship 24 hours later as we were still in Hungary. At least it was an option.

Istvan wrote down the address of the Embassy, contacted the police station, gave me their address and got us a taxi. Hippie (my hero) came with me, so he could be my guarantor. I had already phoned Joel at 04:00 Edmonton time (being a pilot on call thought he would answer - surprisingly not but left him a voice mail) - as I needed someone to take my birth certificate to the Canadian Passport Office in Edmonton to prove who I was. Plus I needed 2 references (non family). Yikes. So we got to the Embassy; filled out paperwork, paid over $350 for a temporary passport, a new 5 year passport (which I get when I go back to Canada) and gave her Selena and Errol's names and told her to call them and wake them up. I needed to get this done ASAP or I would not be boarding the ship; and knowing my friends would forgive me for the emergency situation, had her start phoning. We took or taxi (who was waiting for us) to get passport photos done (the Embassy had called ahead for me in Hungarian), did those up, Hippie took those back to the Embassy for me (signed the back as a guarantor again) and I had the taxi take me to the Police Station to file a report. (they would not give me a passport unless there was a police report).

Meanwhile I phoned Lisa (who was cat/house sitting for me) at 06:00, to see if she could do my birth certificate for me, remembering that A: she's in my house and B: works almost next door. Got her voice mail as well but found out later both had gotten my voice mails and had jumped into action. The Embassy in Budapest had given me a code to give to them to expedite the procedure; and told me to tell Lisa/Joel to not take no for an answer and make the Canadian Passport office do it ASAP.

After the police station (which was done with a lot of hand gesturing, one English speaking person over a phone who explained what I needed to the local officer) I walked back to the hotel and collapsed in the lobby knowing we had done everything possible and now had to wait and see. Istvan was floored we had gotten all of that accomplished, and we also met Hendrik our Cruise Director and he was impressed that I wasn't a babbling mess on the floor of the hotel (he missed my earlier meltdown!). Regardless all we could do was wait, pray if we were religious and hope for the best. I chatted with everyone back home via email who was involved on the process, and did what I do best; drank coffee.

Then Hippie and I went for a bit of a walk, then found a bottle of wine, and retired to our room for the evening. Emotionally and physically spent running around we were done, and I just hoped it would all work out in the morning.........

MORE PHOTOS BELOW

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Photos

Mr. Pickles
Can't do a trip without Mr. Pickles, even if I do have a traveling companion!

Buda Castle
I had dinner in here 3 years ago with Trafalgar!