We're Canadians, we swear!

- October 12, 2015

As some of you may know already, the morning after I made my last post mom and I ran into some unfortunate circumstances. We were in Northern Ireland, driving north, when we stopped the car on a relatively famous road called "the Dark Hedges". We hopped out of the car for about 20 minutes, taking with us only a camera to take some photos of the iconic road featured in Game of Thrones, and when we came back someone had smashed our rental cars back window and taken our carry on bags. Inside of those bags were our passports, moms wallet, my iPad, moms iPhone, moms DSLR camera, and both of our expensive sunglasses as well as numerous other items. Over the course of the morning we were in contact with local police and the Canadian embassy, as we obviously needed our passports. We had to cancel all of moms credit cards, send emails home, call the rental car company etc. It was a complete shit show.

Unfortunately, having something of that sort happen can really put a damper on your trip. We tried to enjoy the Giants Causeway. We went to the rope bridge and it was closed because of the weather. We missed everything we wanted to do in Belfast because we needed to get to Dublin early in order to have our passports by that Friday because we were supposed to fly out to Scotland. We really did as much as we could have with the time and circumstances we had, but I couldn't help but want to leave Ireland behind me. I needed to get away from the constant crap that was happening. Our passports took longer than they thought they would, and we got them right before the embassy closed the night before we left. I don't know what I would have done if we couldn't get on our flight.

One can't help but feeling like a victim twice in that situation. The Embassy is supposed to be there to help you, which I suppose they did in the end. However, let me explain this to you. Not only were we stolen from, money, possessions and all, we were then slapped on the wrist for not taking better care of our passports (We shouldn't have left them in the car, but if they were on us and we were robbed in person we would have been told to never carry your passport on your body either- lose lose situation), we were also charged just under 800$ CAN for two temporary and replacement passports that are only good for two years. Because of everything, we lost just under 2000$. And it still doesn't end. To get my train tickets this morning I had to call and explain that we no longer have the credit card we booked with because it was stolen. Every time I make a phone call it costs me money. You really don't understand how terrible the situation is until it happens to you.

Let's try to look at the upside though, right? We DID get our passports on time. We DID get out of Ireland. Even though we didn't get to see everything we wanted to in Dublin and Belfast (we had to walk back and forth to the embassy over and over), we weren't hurt and we were still able to get to Edinburgh with no problems. As it turns out, I like Scotland a whole lot more anyways. However, it is possible that Ireland was tainted by by what happened.

Our host in Edinburgh was fabulous. The public transportation is fabulous. The city is beautiful, lively, historic and fun. And the people? I have never been in a country with such kind people in my life. We took two coach tours, one to Rosslyn Chapel and Hadrian's Wall, and the other to the Highlands and Loch Ness. Our guide for the first was amazing, and gave us pillows to make our journey more comfortable (after hearing our sob story from Ireland). She said we could leave them at the Airbnb we were staying at or take them along wherever we went. I think she would be happy to know when we no longer required them we gave them to a couple of homeless families on the streets of the city. We do need to say thank you Angela, you made our time in Scotland even better than we hoped it would be.

And now here we are. On board a train taking us to our final destination of our trip- London. I can't wait to be back, and see even more than I already have.

If there is one thing you can take from my experience and my story, it is just this- be prepared. It doesn't matter how well you take care of your stuff. The world may not be a bad place, but some people are. It's not Ireland's fault we were robbed, it's the fault of shitty person who robbed us. But it cost us ALOT of money, and anxiety, to get to where we are now and carry on with or trip. Always make copies of your important documents. Keep emergency contacts in your phone as well as in another safe place. Don't keep all of your important things in the same bag. Someone, somewhere, thinks they have a right to your possessions, and they will take it if they have a chance! If this ever does happen to you though, don't let it ruin your trip. You didn't come here to play on your iPad, you didn't come here to text on your phone. You came here to travel the world and learn, and there's nothing stopping you from continuing on with that.

Pardon my lack of pictures, or the bad quality ones. I have no way of uploading photos from my camera to my phone for you! Be prepared for some photo posts when I get home though!