As you may have seen over on Instagram, our trip to the UK for the President’s Day long weekend was not as uneventful as we may have liked. Let’s backtrack shall we?
Per our norm, we took the redeye so that we could hit the ground running with a full day and hopefully power through to the evening so we adjust to the jet lag quickly. Four hours after we landed, we arrived in Ely to visit my sister-in-law and our new niece, the primary reason for our trip.
After two nights in Ely, we headed back down to London where we were spending two nights before heading back home. We spent our full day checking out the Diana exhibit in Kensington Palace, hitting up Harvey Nichs and Harrods and just general London meandering.
While we were walking toward The Wolseley for tea, something we really like doing while we’re in the UK, I realized that my wallet wasn’t in my purse anymore. Cue meltdown. Not only did my wallet have the normal things like all of my credit cards, joint cards and my license, but I have the bad tendency to also keep my passport in it when we travel. That meant, with one felled swoop, I now had zero identification. And I was in another country. How in the f* was I supposed to get home?!
Well, I can tell you that every country’s rules are a little different. This is what happens in the UK. You hightail your butt over to the embassy. Two things: 1) You can’t bring luggage into the embassy and 2) be prepared to pay for the application. It’s $145 or the equivalent in pounds. They do not accept a mix of currencies either.
Not knowing either of the above, I didn’t have cash on me when I went Tuesday afternoon so I had to return the next morning. Lines start at 7:30 and the embassy opens at 8. I was in and out a little over an hour and left with an emergency passport to get me back in to the US, good for the next 12 months. I have no idea how people who are traveling alone and go through this do it. If the Hubs hadn’t been around I wouldn’t have had any access to money and probably would’ve had a bigger meltdown than the one I had.
Moral of the story: Don’t carry your passport around with you. Leave it in your hotel room. Or better yet, don’t lose your wallet.
jcrew top {runs a bit big, wearing a 0} // madewell jeans // goyard tote // gucci belt // rag & bone booties
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