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James and Ellie in Europe
Day 12:
PLEASE NOTE THIS ENTRY HAS BEEN UPDATED - SEE END.
The first thing that happened to us today was being woken up at around 3am by the border control peoples.... we unlocked the door and sleepily searched for our little bag containing our passports.
Problem.
Bag wasn't anywhere to be found....we were properly worried when an official turned up and said "are these your passports?" cue lots of relief (and confusion) but still concerned about the whereabouts of the bag.
Then another official said "are you missing a bag?" and said he'd be right back.
We were very very worried by now and our worst fears were confirmed when the bag came back missing several things. Our digital camera (including memory card with more than 150 pics on), all opf our remaining foreign money (around 600GBP's worth) Ellie's jewellery, her phone, and the contents of her wallet including cards... plus other very sentimental pendants and stuff.....as well as a bracelet we had bought Ray (Ellie's sister) luckily for us my phone was in my shoe under the seat so we still had that and despite going thru the bag they'd missed my bank card too.
We got to Warsaw and were met by some fluent English speakers who worked for the local hostels. One of them took us to the local police station and explained the situation.. we were told to come back at lunch time when a translator would be present.
To cut a very long story short, we were in the police staion for two hours recounting our story (with no water or anything). The British Embassy told us that they couldn't help us with money and that basically we had to rely on Western Union and a family or friend to help us!!!!! Thanks a lot for that. No really.
Jan (Ellie's mum) managed to wire us some money and Angie (James' mum) transferred some money to his account for thereafter. THANK YOU SO MUCH MUMS!!!!!! MUMS RULE!!!!!!!
The people of Warsaw were amazingly helpful (including letting us stay in the hostel for free until we got money together) but there wasn' a whole lot to do. We sat and got upset, angry, frustrated etc and decided whether to continue with our journey...
James and Ellie
EDITED:
We must also add that everyone in Warsaw seemed to know that this went on but as tourists/travellers we had no idea. We will make it our mission when we get back to let everyone know as much as we can!!!
Also we were told that the bandits use gas to make sure we wouldn't wake up and carry copies of the keys to all the compartments. We strongly suspect that the Czezh Police are either in on it or just don't care thinking that anyone that can afford to travel can afford to get robbed - similar story with the train staff too we think.
We must also thank Marta at the Warsaw hostel for putting up with us being skint and moaning for two days and to Kimberley and her fellow Aussies for giving us 100 Zlotychs (about 15-20GBP) so we could afford to eat for two days...
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