Blog Posts, Europe Blog Posts

Day Six: Ups and Downs

Ok, this morning I got off to a bad start. I woke up some time between 4 and 5am to find someone scrambling out of my tent. I jumped out and chased them a short way in my boxer-shorts as they jumped into a car and drove away. I came back to the tent and at first glance thought they had gotten away empty handed. I checked again and saw my camera was missing, it had been in the entrance of the tent in a bag which they had gone through, for some reason they had also taken my toothbrush, toothpaste and a bar of soap. I was annoyed but checked around and my stove and pans were still in place, I got into the main area of the tent and checked to make sure my wallet was still there, it was. Then I noticed my laptop bag was gone, this is when I got a little more angry. The bag had my laptop, external Hard drive and my folder with paperwork. The paperwork included my qualification certificates, Insurance cover note, Motorbike logbook and some other less important things.

I packed my stuff away as quickly as I could and went to the petrol station to call the police. There were cameras around the petrol station so I hoped that maybe the car had been captured on them. The police arrived and took the details, checked the cameras but they were not on there. They said they would send the report to my home address in the UK. I then set off up to Amsterdam, arriving here at about 8am. I managed to find a hostel pretty quickly, locked my stuff in a locker and set off to the library to change all of my passwords.

I’m actually not as stressed about this as I think I probably should be, I figure that there is nothing I can do about it now so there is no point dwelling on it. I have booked myself in to the hostel for 2 nights and have replaced the missing camera, toothbrush, toothpaste etc. The certificates and paperwork should be easy enough to get replaced and posted out to me in Spain. The three or four people I have told about this said that it is fairly common in Holland, the policeman I reported it to even went so far as to say ‘Holland is full of villains’. I’m going to take the next 2 days to relax before I set off through Germany.

3 thoughts on “Day Six: Ups and Downs”

  1. Hi Tony,

    I do hope you will enjoy Amsterdam after having the bad start. It was nice to check you in and hear you talk about your journey. Inspiring!
    I will follow your story and journey and I hope you will meet cool people, nice environments and see, feel and experience whatever this world has to offer! (it’s my wish as well…)

    Take care! 🙂
    Frieda (the woman (or lady) at the Hostel)

  2. sandhya says:

    Hey tony mate! very sorry to hear about what happended !!
    wherever you are takecare of yourself, dont trust any strangers.

    Be cautious..always

    you takecare bye
    sandhya

  3. Gem says:

    What a bollock! Think you’ve got the right attitude though, its just stuff at the end of the day and can be replaced, theres nothing you can do about it now so theres no point dwelling on it… ,little tip for the future though…get a small bag with locks, put your valuables inside and lock it to your big bag when you’re asleep, or sleep with your valuables in your pillow! Xx

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