"I Need to Get to London as Quickly as Possible"

On the first leg of my spring break trip we got a cheap ticket to Manchester, England. Boy do I have a story for you. To tell my story about England I have to give you a little background information first.  As a few of you reading this may know I lost my passport on the way home from my trip to Sweden. It wasn't stolen I just simply dropped it, because I was going on my trip to Germany just days later I had to file a police report and hurry to purchase an emergency passport. Sadly, just hours later I got a call from the Carabinieri (Italian Police) and they had found my passport. When I picked up my passport I asked what passport I should use from then on out..."Go ahead and use your original passport" they said, "That will work fine" they said, "You won't have any issues" they said. ALL FALSE. 

Getting into the Manchester airport the man in customs says "This passport has been reported lost or stolen." The blonde in me snapped back by saying "Yeah but like then I like totally found it so like it's totally like okay...like" (Atleast that's how I should have sounded making a mistake like this.) OF COURSE you shouldn't use your passport that has been reported lost/stolen, they might think you found/stole it. Oh Emily please tell me you brought your emergency passport just in case... I flash back to packing for spring break, "I shouldn't bring both my original passport and my emergency passport, I might lose both." Oh sweet sweet Emily, nooooooo. 

The kind man in the airport asked me to stay behind while my friends enter freely into England and I glance at a poster that read "IF YOU ARE UNABLE TO PROVIDE A VALID PASSPORT OR VISA YOU MAY BE SENTENCED TO JAIL TIME OR FINED." I tried my best to keep my composure. Here I am thousands of miles away from home with no phone, no passport, and now I'm going to be put into jail. I'll have to learn to be tough, learn to fight for food, and I'll definitely have to get a barbed wire tattoo. This was my future, a young American girl turn British thug by the tough British jail system. 

Obviously, my imagination got the best of me. The security worker gave me a sheet of paper stating I am allotted six months in Manchester to get everything figured out. Because I was gong to Belgium in just 3 days I didn't need six months. The next morning after a few tears and deep breathes I set out on the journey to London, England to purchase yet another emergency passport. Fool me once Europe shame on you, Fool me twice shame on the Carabinieri. All jokes aside, I should have known not to attempt to use a passport that had been reported lost/stolen. 

Thankfully my roommate Jaime was more than happy to accompany me to London which was about a 2 hour train ride from Manchester. We both feel in love with London after only being there for about 5 hours. We made a day of it! 

Jaime's Mom collects pins from Hardrock Cafe's. So After 3 hours of discussing the fact that I actually am Emily Evers and yes I have spent a lot of money on passports recently thank you for asking with the lovely lady in the US Embassy we ventured to the Hardrock in London. Which is in fact the very first Hardrock Cafe! 

Had to get a photo in a telephone booth

Had a pleasant experience with fantastic public transportation in the Tube!

Then Jaime being the Harry Potter nerd she is requested we go to Platform 9 3/4. I have to admit I was also very excited!

The line for pictures was really long, but what else did we have to do?

After a long day of marveling at the beautiful city of London we had a long train ride back. On the train we had long discussions about possible grad school options in London, and finding, marrying, and starting a family with a nice boy from London. Just finding the positives in a bad situation :) 

The next day in Manchester we went to Nando's a spicy chicken restaurant that isn't largely present in the US but all over the UK. 

We were all very excited :) As we should have been too because it was a FANTASTIC meal. 

Because it was so cold, and I had spent tons of money already we didn't do much else in Manchester except go to a few shops, walk around, and naturally..eat Nando's a second time.. 

I'm sorry this blog took me so long to get up but I will try to blog about the next leg of my spring break soon! I hope you enjoyed laughing about my bad luck in Europe thus far! 

Until next time, 

Emily :)