Earlier this week I asked Mark what he thought would “go
wrong” on our trip, and he immediately responded saying we would miss a
train. I don’t think either of us could
have predicted the unfortunate thing that went wrong on our first day.
It was quite
chaotic going from the airport to our hotel, as we were trying to figure out
the bus and train system in Berlin. We
fortunately found a family who helped us know which bus and train we needed to
be on. Through the excitement of
arriving and making the switch between the bus to the train, I accidentally
left my backpack on the bus. I didn’t
realize it through the excitement until we got off the train a little bit later
and started panicking and crying. In my
bag I had all of our rail tickets for our trip, itinerary/hotel and tour
confirmations, both Ipads (ours and the mini Mark just got for a gift from a
student), our old digital camera as a backup, among a few other items. My main concern was our rail tickets. I was so upset with myself.
We saw two police
officers and asked them what we should do. I think I was nearly
hyperventilating while talking to them.
They were so sweet and had us get into their big Police van and began
driving us to different bus stops and calling different people to see if anyone
had turned in the bag. After taking us
around for nearly an hour, we were dropped off at our hotel without the
backpack around 11:00ish. We were so grateful for their help, as they exceeded
any expectation I would have had for them when we asked what they thought we
should do. They were very friendly, but
honest and told us they weren’t hopeful it would turn up.
So, the trip
started off pretty terrible yesterday (as today is now Sunday). I felt sick to my stomach most of the day realizing
how much I just lost and the annoyance of trying to figure out what to do about
our rail tickets. Throughout the day I
would continue to apologize to Mark, as I was in disbelief as to what had
happened…and still am. He never once
made me feel bad about what happened and definitely showed me a lot of
grace. He continued to ask how I was
doing and reassured me that it would be okay.
We prayed quite a bit throughout the day, and feel as though I was in
constant communication with God asking to return the bag or just to allow this
to not ruin our trip.
We e-mailed our
travel agent Dave to see what his suggestion was regarding our rail
tickets. He was great and responded at 2
in the morning his time, as he lives in New Zealand and they are 10 hours ahead. He unfortunately did not have a lot of home,
but told us he would call the train stations Monday morning to see if there was
an alternative to repurchasing all of our tickets. He mentioned he looked into the tickets just
to Krakow (our next journey) and that would be 200 euros, which made my heart
sink a bit realizing how much more we would have to pay for this trip. We had been saving since before we left, and
was so upset with myself to carelessly lose my bag that would cost us quite a
bit to replace.
While reading my
e-mails from Dave, Mark is attempting to talk to our hotel receptionist who
doesn’t speak English. We had another person help translate, but the guy
indicated he hadn’t heard anything about our bag. Mark was trying to ask him to borrow his
phone to call the number the police gave us in the morning (its now around 7 at
night), which was a lost and found number.
While this was happening, someone called the hotel and the man confirmed
our names and room number with Mark and then instantly got excited. His face lit up and was gesturing the phone
call was for us. Mark and I couldn’t
understand a thing, but recognized through his expression this was a good
sign. He got off the phone and we were
able to figure out that SOMEONE HAD FOUND OUR BAG!
I was freaking
out and after a figuring out how to get to where the bag was, we were out the
door and excitedly on our way to get the bag.
We didn’t know if everything was in it, but I was just praying for at
least the rail tickets. We get to the
lost and found place via train about 30 minutes or so later and the man hands
over our bag for me to sign off on. I
opened it up to see the rail tickets and everything was still in it and just
began crying. It was such an emotional
day and was so relieved and grateful to find the bag. I am still getting teary eyed as I type this
the following morning.
The driver of the
bus found our bag and turned it in, but we didn’t get a chance to thank him
personally. We went back to our place to
quickly e-mail family and Dave (it’s around 830 pm at this time), and then
finally went to get some dinner and watch the Germany World Cup game. It was the best way to end our horrible and
unforgettable start to our trip. From
now on, I am putting Mark in charge of the tickets and will be very cautious
while traveling.
Needless to say, we
are both feeling very grateful to have our stuff back and hope that is the main
issue we will have this trip. Now, off to go explore Berlin!
Love,
Kristin
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