For Every Thief There is an Anna

This is a blog about traveling, and while on the whole traveling is amazing, it can have an occasional set back. For an honest idea of what traveling is like, I’ll tell both. Which means that I’m about to tell you how I got scammed.







Some days go down in history as the best days of our lives. We wrap their memories with large bows and beautiful boxes; memories that we hope to unwrap time and time again.

Not today. Today can be starched, ironed, and put in the deepest, darkest, corner of the most un-used closet in the house, and stay there- indefinitely.

We woke up early and were all packed and ready to leave Berlin. We were heading to Warsaw, Poland, and had some logistical things to cover at the information booth at the central train station. This sentence sounds vague, which is exactly what it was. A very vague miscommunication between Erik and I. He thought I print screened our route with three stops and three different trains. I thought that the information we needed to figure out at the train station was how we were going to travel to Warsaw with a German rail pass.

It’s 9:15 a.m. and our train is set to leave at 9:30. Erik looks at me as we approach the departure board. There are two trains leaving at 9:30, with neither destination looking familiar. “Well, pull out the print screen, we’ll see what’s up”. ….. Silence. I didn’t print screen it. I thought we were coming here early to talk over our options at the information center.

Okay, we’re scrambling to figure this all out. I pay 2 euro for ten minutes of internet. We get on the itinerary planner, only to find out that we were suppose to be at a different station. The length of the next available train went up by almost 4 hours and two additional stops.

Of course, I’d like to say it wasn’t really my fault….. but technically, it pretty much was. So I went to the ticket center to sort things out. I got us a new train, that was faster and arrived only 30 minutes after the one we missed. Great! I got the whole traveling in Poland thing figured out, and assumed that collateral damage would be left at a minimum.

We had three hours to kill, and all the choices of fast food restaurants you could ever want. Both of us just needed/wanted some cheap coffee, so by unanimous consent- McDonalds it was! Erik wasn’t really mad at me anymore, and all was well. We happily sipped our cappuccinos and talked all about how excited we were to meet Mark in Warsaw (a good friend of ours).

*Side note- I left for Europe with a large sum of American money. A heft three digit number to be exact. I never converted it, because I hoped that the exchange rate would at some time be more in our favor. This money was unaccounted for in our budget. It was splurge money- the one fancy dinner on the Italian coast, the beautiful French winter wool jacket, a sail boat excursion, a trip to Corsica for the day, a hot air balloon ride.. you name it, we thought of it. It was our money that was going to be for the best ‘too expensive’ adventure we both knew we deserved.

So la de da, talking with Erik, searching through my purse, wasting time. I brought two wallets that I’ve divided my personals between. I picked the brown one out of the bottom of my purse, which is the one that is used less of the two. I haven’t really had an reason to look at it since Amsterdam, which is around 5-6 weeks ago. I opened it up, and found 6 dollars. S.I.X dollars.

Gone. All Gone.


Searched again, this pocket, that pocket, closed the wallet. ‘This can’t be’. Opened it back up. Gone.

Rage surged through me. An anger so deep, I felt helpless to it. The kind where there is so much of it, all you can do is cry. WHY?!!?!? WHEN!?!?! WHO!?!?!?



………H.O.W.?!?!?!




A million thoughts at once. I am trying not to be too hard on myself, because I don’t know what I could’ve done differently. I know I wasn’t pick pocketed, I am WAY to aware for that. My purse is always tucked so well under my arm, a steel trap would open sooner than my grip. Plus, a pick pocketer would have done me the service of letting me know their crime, as the absence would’ve tipped off the entire thing.

Which makes the next conclusion even harder to swallow. Someone at the hostels we’ve stayed at took my money. But they were only concerned with the extremely large bills, and were clearly ever so kind to leave me the smaller ones. Because, please, they aren’t THAT desperate.

But again, WHO!?!? WHEN?!?!? WHERE!??!! HOW?!?!

I locked my purse up EVERY night. Could they have seen my code? Who was it that I mistook for a friend- that I smiled at, conversed with, gave maps and advice to? What despicable mess of a human being does something like that?

The worst part is, I honestly have no where to start. No finger to point, no city to go off of. I haven’t looked in that wallet in such a long time, and take such diligent care of my purse, that it would have NEVER crossed my mind that someone could do that.

Cross scan of McDonalds. Me, crying, sipping the cappuccino I no longer want… and Erik. Poor Erik. Erik is sitting quietly beside me struggling to find words for something that really are none for.


So I pull myself together, and we get to our platform. Loud German starts to pour through the mega phones. People are looking at each other and conversing. What? Please say this in English! This is an international train, why aren’t you giving these instructions in English? (That’s thankfully standard protocol).

Thank goodness for Anna. Of near angel status to us now, a then random girl our age walked up to us. You’re going to Warsaw? Yes, so we thought. You need to get on this train, she said pointing to one no where near us. We turned around and saw a train on a different platform. “I’m going there too. We need to get on that train. Our train is late, and is meeting us at a different station.”…..Uhhh? So, what do you do? We had just paid a hefty price for this Poland ticket, the train didn’t look like it was coming…. but this is a one way- limited time only ticket. We can’t screw this up. We really can’t afford for her to be wrong.

Well, luckily Anna was just there to show me the ying in the yang. I really can’t put into words how much she helped us. Her kindness saved us a LOT of money, because we otherwise would never have made it to the new train station. We would’ve missed our 6 hour train to Warsaw, and only received a compassionate smile from a clerk refusing to refund our money. Her goodness also saved us a lot of time. We would’ve been back at square one, finding a new train, at a later hour, with more stops… Ohh Anna, you couldn’t have came at a better time.


The new trainstation was FREEZING. We were waiting for our original train when a load German voice roared across the loudspeaker. NOT AGAIN. This time our train was delayed for 80 minutes. Eighty very long, cold, minutes.

Again, Anna translated for us. She told us our platform, and gave us advice about German travel advisories. She forewarned us about not really believing the 80 minutes- it could be 50- it could be 3 hours. We shouldn’t go to a store to look for warmth, we very well might miss the train. I wanted to hug her so badly!

Once we got on the train, I took a deep breath. Our seats (by reservation) were located in a car with a broken door. The automatic door was continually closing, would get part way open, and close again. Hard.

BAM.BAM.BAM.BAM. 6 hour train ride.


I think that there is a standard 3 slam policy. An average person can probably stand a door being slammed around 3 times, before turning around, agitated, to see what in the heck is going on. Hour increments? This is an undocumented form of ancient torture.




Every time I can take my self to a place of neutrality, I get half way through a thought that goes something like this: “That money was suppose to …….” and tears well up in my eyes.

Why did they take that money? They have no clue of the true value of that particular sum. They will forever be clueless at how carefully *I* would’ve spent that money. How that was some of the most thoughtful money I’ve ever owned…

But, I suppose if they were callous enough to steal it, I can probably assume that these thoughts haven’t entered their pea size brain.





So as you can see, I have no need for this day. Freezing, exhausted, WAY over caffeinated, and perfectly scammed, I am now on my way to Poland, happy to put closure on a day that I will starch, iron, and put into the deepest labyrinth in my brain, hopefully to never rehash… But, (there is always a but)…. if I were ever to recall this day, as I’m sure I will, I hope that I remember for every ying there is a yang. For every thief there is an Anna.



…… For every thief there is an Anna…








…… For every thief there is an Anna…