When we left our fair heroine...

.... she was frantically dealing with the blood pressure issues caused by the Lying Awkward Yogurt Stealer. Happily for our heroine, she had two whole weeks of vacation to look forward to starting the next day, as she would be skipping school to go see her jerk specialist doctor in Paris and then stay overnight with Leesa before jetting off to Eastern Europe.

Somehow I managed to finish packing before midnight, so I was able to get some sleep before getting up for the 8h22 train into Paris. I was slightly agitated because of my upcoming appointment with the jerk. You never know if the appointment will disintegrate into a screaming match where I tell him what a jerk he is and he calls me non-compliant. Actually, none of that has ever happened except him calling me non-compliant (which is not exactly true, I just happen to think he gives incorrect medical advice and so I do what I think is right). So I got off the train at 9:40, thirteen minutes late for whatever reason, and as I'm walking into the main hall of the Gare du Nord I stop cold in my tracks and my jaw drops open in shock.

I had forgotten my passport!

I have no idea how I forgot that I needed a passport. It honestly never crossed my mind when I was packing, despite the fact that Leesa had reminded me to pack it, I just never at one single point thought that I would need my actual passport. I checked twice for photocopies of my passport, but never the actual passport!

I was very calm about the whole situation. You can't do without your passport, so the only thing to do was to go back to my town and get it. No point in being upset over the situation, it just has to be dealt with. I stored my luggage and went to my appointment, ready to return to the Gare du Nord afterwards and get back on the train.

The funny part about the passport debacle is that because I was so calm and focused about going back to get my passport I was in the perfect mindset to see the jerk and ended up having a completely painless appointment with no yelling or name calling. At least one good thing came out of it, right?

Then I spent a couple hours doing the aller-retour to my town to pick up my passport. Unfortunately they are doing work on the train tracks so the trip took much longer than it should have, but it was my own stupid fault for forgetting the passport so I can’t really complain.
And so the passport debacle finished with me 20 euros poorer and having wasted an entire afternoon, but it was all towards the purpose of vacation, which I am enjoying very much. We're currently in Vienna and leaving for Budapest on Saturday. I can’t promise any pictures, since I also didn’t even think about bringing my camera USB uploader connector, but whatever, I can blog about it and add photos later. In the meantime, you can check out Leesa's other blog for pictures.

Seriously, how stupid do you have to be to forget your passport before going on an international vacation?!?!