Spain to Paris - no money, no credit card, no wifi!!


Geez Louise, of all the travelling I have done over the years this was a first. My whole frigging purse was stolen from right beside me. I can only think of three scenarios as to what may have happened. Keep in mind it is 8 am.

1. I left the table and went to the washroom but Tiki was right there.
2. I got up to say goodbye to Tiki and give her a hug
3. I took my sweatshirt off and put it in my suitcase

Either way it is not important - as soon as I realize it was gone I went to the information desk. The women said I had to go downstairs to the Police. Got to the little elevator that said POLICE and the luggage cart wouldn't fit in -ahhh...finally made it to the police and the idiot behind the desk watched me struggle with my bags getting them through the door. He was not at all concerned about my purse missing as I am sure it is a daily occurrence. He told me to wait in a room and about 5 minutes later 3 undercover cops came and got me - we went into another room and they turned on the cameras. Sure enough you can see me and the guy who was sitting there but the camera was at a terrible angle and also the computer kept cutting out. Finally I said to him that I had to go and catch my flight. Thank goodness my passport was not in my purse!! Thank goodness I had my phone and my computer. I went to the lounge and contacted the two credit card companies. CIBC was great and sent me a new card to Paris. RBC was a bit of a hassle as I had my debit card and a credit card and that was two separate calls. I havent called TD yet!!
All in all I figure with the purse, the cash, my new Guerlain lipstick - which I had not even worn - I am probably out 800 dollars!! Not looking forward to having to replace all my ID. Oh well, it could have been worse - he could have gotten my passport!
Arrived in Zurich and was madly trying to get in touch with Tiki but because Switzerland is not in the EU I had no wifi. Made a mad dash to the lounge for free wifi to let her know. I was concerned about getting the rental car in Paris as now I had no licence!
Arrived in Paris and of course they would not give me a car because I needed to have a drivers licence, a credit card and a passport. Tiki cannot drive standard and renting an automatic is really expensive. Plus she has never driven in the EU. I asked if Tiki could rent the car and ad me as a secondary driver as I had a picture of my licence on my phone. Ok she says .....so we got the car - more expensive than what I had booked but what could we do.
We piled into our little Renault Twingo and off we went to Brugge.  About an hour later as we were barreling down the highway the car started to ding at me, I said to Tiki."I wonder what that noise is .....a second later I realized we were sucking fumes!!! OMG
Luckily - as remember, this is my lucky day - we made it to the gas station and filled the car up!

Left the airport with 700+ km and this was about an hour later!

42 Euros and 26 L of gas


We finally arrived in Brugge about 10 pm.













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