Though I’ve been publishing a lot of my writings, I haven’t really told any of my personal experiences. To put a face on my blog of the girl behind the keyboard, I’m going to tell you the story about the time I lost my wallet in a foreign country and the search that ensued to find it.
My boyfriend, Zach, and I were taking a month long adventure to Europe, starting in Amsterdam and ending in Barcelona. We flew into Reykjavik, Iceland and caught a connecting flight into The Netherlands. Our first night we were staying in a hostel called Cocomama.
We quickly dumped our bags in our room that was themed with Van Gogh paintings covering the wallpaper and headed out on foot to explore the colorful city of Amsterdam. We were starving after all the travelling and decided to stop at a pizza place near our hostel for a meal. Zach, being the gentleman he is, covered the meal for the both of us. We packed up our leftover pizza and octopus salad and headed out with no particular destination in mind.
We walked around taking in the sights and layout of the city. It began to rain, so we decided to head back a little early so we could have an early start the next morning.
“Where is the map?” Zach asked me.
A sense of panic fell over me like a winter chill. The map was nowhere to be found, we forgot it on the table at the restaurant.
“Oh well,” I said, “I don’t mind walking in the rain anyway, it’s not a very large city, we’ll find our way back.”
As we were backtracking, we came across this small, grassy park.
“Look at that!” I exclaimed.
There were nearly 50 bunnies hopping around this one single area in the city. We had no idea where they came from or why they were there, but it was certainly an interesting sight. After about an hour of walking, we finally made it back to the hostel where we discovered our octopus salad spilled all over the leftover pizza.
As I was unpacking my bag, I once again felt that sense of panic. I couldn’t find my wallet anywhere. All of my credit cards, cash, and my ID were in there. I started to hysterically cry.
“Calm down! We’ll take an Uber out to find it.” Zach said.
After backtracking everywhere we had been, nearly 100 euros for the Uber, and being soaking wet from the rain, we couldn’t find it anywhere. I paid the price for an international call to have my mom cancel all of my credit cards. Zach, always the calm one, said not to worry.
“We still have enough to enjoy our trip, don’t let it ruin the rest of the time we are here.”
He was right, all we needed was some sleep and a fresh start. When we went down to the front desk the next morning, I asked the receptionist if any wallets happened to be turned in, thinking of a one-in-a-million-chance. To my surprise and sheer relief, I had dropped my wallet in the waiting area the day before and nothing was missing.
I learned that with travelling, things don’t always go exactly to plan. But by going off the beaten path with no place in mind, adventure will find you. And oftentimes, those are the ones you remember more than anything.
The rest of our trip went smoothly, for the most part; except when we missed our flight to Barcelona and had to spend the night in the airport. But that’s another story for another time.
Walkaway Words 