Odd day today that turned very, very bad at one point. Left New York and took the uneventful train journey down to Philadelphia. Got to 30th Street Station (which is almost as pretty as Grand Central in New York it has to be said) and had some dinner in one of them Taco Bells. Irrelevant details really. Jumped in a cab round to the hotel and got to the check-in desk only to discover that the bag containing the laptop was missing. Panic. I couldn’t quite believe what had happened and was searching furiously amongst our plethora of bags and then out in to the street even to find the bag. No sign.
The bloke at reception was pretty helpful and even managed to track down the cabbie’s phone number using the receipt we’d got. Still nothing. At this point I’d got myself into a bit of a frenzy because my phone was in there (uninsured as usual) and my mobile broadband thing (likewise). I just had visions of someone striping up a huge bill in my name (not the first time this has happened), whilst rifling through all our personal files on the laptop. It’s funny how things feel worse when you are so far from home.
Called the UK off Small Irish’s phone to cancel said contracts which took an excruciating 15 minutes (I’m scared to think what calling an 08 number from the States is going to cost) before calling the station's lost baggage people. Again, no luck. Small Irish insisted on going back to the station for a search (two hours had passed since our arrival at this point), which we did and found nothing. Went to the lost property desk; nope, nothing. Gutted. I then filled out a form detailing what we’d lost and as we walked away the woman called us back to say “oh I didn’t realise it was a laptop you’d lost.” The bag description must have thrown her or something (blue rucksack!), but upstairs she went and down she came with our possessions. I actually jumped for joy, sheer elation stamped out the extreme disappointment and desperation that had clouded over us.
So much for ‘Kiladelphia’ and being America’s ‘Crime Capital’, there are still good people out there and it’s nice to know someone, somewhere is watching out for us.
Wondered out into the Streets of Philadelphia (couldn’t resist Boss reference) and bought sightseeing passes for the next couple of days. The city looks beautiful from what we’ve seen so far, so looking forward to getting to grips with this City of Brotherly Love.
