EU Diaries - Where do i begin

(getting this out in parts, since i have given up on being able to chew it whole)

Let me start by telling you what we saw in Rome. In order of appearance, the Indian Embassy, the Swiss Embassy and the French Embassy. Some Italian &^@%!^ stole my handbag on the train from Milan to Venice and that handbag had both our passports. [Pause for effect]. So. Most of the time in Rome was spent in persuit of new passports and Visas. Our hotel in Venice was the worst possible under the circumstances – it had neither a phone nor Internet, so we couldnt reach information and people with information couldn’t reach us. We finished off Venice in one evening (walked to St Marks Square and got back on a Vaporetto) and reported early Tuesday morning at the police station to file our report.

The policeman started out looking like a man with an attitude but turned out to also have a sense of humour. The dude was filling out the forms and hesitated while filling out my birthday. “Isnt he supposed to know that”, asked the policeman and even air-slapped him a couple of times for me :D The keys to my suitcase were also gone with my handbag so basically I didn’t have any clothes to change into. We asked him for a plier and broke into our own bag, with the policeman looking on encouragingly. By which I mean of course that the dude went at it with the plier while I looked on in awe.

With the police report we pushed off to Rome. I felt happy and light, I thought we were at the end of all the troubles. HA!