The shenanigans of a stolen passport

"What does one do with a stolen passport?"

The lady asked me as I was leaving the District County Clerk office where I had just finished my application process for a brand new passport.  

"I'm not a good enough thief to know." I replied. 

What DOES what one do a stolen passport?  Truthfully, I don't have a clue other than they change the photo and try to use it to help people get into the country.  Perhaps mine would be especially helpful to those south of the border as it already says I was born in Mexico City.  Then again, how many Mexican's have Irish names?  

Nevertheless I wasn't taking any chances.  I sent in a police report, put a 90 day alert on my credit score, check my bank accounts often and reapplied for a new passport.  

Reapplying in a small Texas town wasn't exactly a walk through the park though.  The lady didn't seem to know what to do with me.  It started with my alternate forms of ID.  I had my old passport which had expired a few years prior and my social security card.  She wanted more forms.  My birth certificate is safely locked away in Michigan so I couldn't use that but instead handed her my Michigan drivers license.  This really threw a wrench in the process as she had never seen an out of state license before.  When we got past all the questioning about why I have a Michigan drivers license (which I have no good answer for because you really should have changed over after 5 years of being in Texas...but I can't tell her that) she proceeded to look in her handy dandy state drivers licenses book what they should look like to make sure it wasn't a fake.  

"Since when did they start putting an American Flag on your licenses? was the next question as she looked at me, thoroughly confused.  

I explained that I have what is called an 'Enhanced' license which allows me to travel to Mexico and Canada without a passport as my passport information is already on the license.  Of course those aren't in the book.  So to try to comfort her a little I handed her the only other form of photo ID I had on me which was my Global Entry card.  I figured its another form of government ID so it should work.  

Now I got her though, she had never heard of nor seen one of those and decided that she would just copy ALL of my forms of ID and the passport office that my application would be sent to could figure it out.  

She continued to go through my paperwork and noticed I was born in Mexico.  Right away, without even taking a glance at the expired American passport sitting on top of the application she asked me in the most sincere voice whether or not I was an American citizen.  I could tell she was trying to be helpful and didn't want to interrupt the process with a remark about the passport so I merely said, "yes I am" and thought it was a good thing I didn't try to use my Mexican passport as a form of ID.  

It should have been smooth sailing from here but of course, I wasn't as smart as I should have been and did not bring my checkbook as I knew I had enough cash on me.  They do not take cash or credit.  I wasn't about to drive the 40 minutes back home to grab it so I was sent on a mission to find a store who does Money Orders.  After two failed attempts I was sent to the post office which is probably where I should have just gone in the first place.  

Back at the County Clerk office I was finally done.  The new passport should arrive within 6 weeks and I am crossing my fingers that nothing bad comes out of whoever stole my other passport!

Airport Travel to and from Dublin

Getting There...

From the US, Ireland is one of the easiest overseas destinations to travel to.  The flights and customs are relatively quick and painless which is always nice.  Little things to keep in mind though are if you fly through Boston you will have to switch terminals and go back through security.  So don't make the mistake that I do each and every time and fill your water bottle in the first leg of the trip.  Once in Dublin, you will have to go through customs.  The last two times I have gone through, there seem to be the Haves and the Have Nots.  As in, I would glance around me and notice that half the travelers would have customs cards to hand in and half wouldn't.  It remains a mystery to me how certain passengers on my same flight found those cards...perhaps I was sleeping.  Either way, at least from the US, you do not NEED anything other than your passport.  The agents have never asked me for more than a look at my passport, what I am doing in Ireland, how long I plan on staying and where I plan on staying.  There are money exchanges all over the airport, even in the baggage area if you would like.  They aren't the best rate but they are better than what you find in the US airports.  Still probably best to exchange at your bank back home if you can think that far ahead.  Once you leave the airport, if you are staying downtown, don't bother getting a taxi as it will cost you an absorbent amount of money.  compared to the few Euros you will spend riding the bus to city center.  The ride isn't too bad, the drivers are usually pretty friendly and helpful and if you need to grab a taxi once in the city center, it will still be much cheaper than taking it all the way from the airport.  

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Returning Home...

Be safe and get to the airport about 3 hours ahead.  You MUST get through customs about an an hour and 45 minutes ahead of your flight and there are security checkpoints before to deal with...so give yourself plenty of time.  Ticketing is on the first floor, you head upstairs to the second floor where you can buy food (although there is food available at every security checkpoint so don't worry about that being your last chance to eat)..  Head upstairs one more time to security.  You will see areas to fill out your Customs Declaration card.  You do not need this card for the first security checkpoint so if you want to wait and do it once inside, go for it.  Security is similar to the US other than the fact that you do not need to take your shoes off which is nice and speeds things up a bit.  

After security you enter an area with shops, food and the VAT return area (to your far right).  But sure to have any of the paperwork filled out for your VAT return before heading to the counter or kiosk.  Do your last minute shopping, but make sure you head through customs by the time your boarding pass tells you to (hour and forty five min ahead of boarding).  Through the hallway and down the stairs (twice) is the second security checkpoint for those heading to the US.  You are now on US soil...technically speaking....and it is time to go through security and customs.  Unlike the previous security checkpoint you do need to take your shoes off BUT you do not need to empty any drinks or water bottles.  Make sure you have your passport handy as they will check.  From security you go through US customs.  I love that you can get this out of the way before landing in the US!  You will NEED the Customs Declaration form filled out by now, so be sure to do it before heading to security.  If you have the Global Entry pass like me, head to the left hand side to the kiosk.  Super easy and absolutely no line! 

If you happened to buy duty free liquor and have a layover in the US where you have to go through security again, technically you should be allowed to go through with the still completely sealed duty free package.   If your TSA agent isn't quite up to date on his/rules you may have a bit of an issue though so be prepared to discuss options.  From there on its smooth sailing.  

Environmental, Economical or merely Cultural?

Is life in Ireland really any different from the US?  True, at first glance it may be quite similar.  I mean, there is a reason why Ireland ranks among the top countries to visit for US travelers. They speak the same language, you can find similar food....its relatively easy.  But when you get down to it, there are so many small differences to look out for.  Here is a list of what I have noticed thus far from my few days in Dublin and Balbriggan (just north of Dublin Airport) that are a bit different from what I would find in the US.  Not sure if these are for environmental, economical purposes or maybe they are just cultural: 

• Toilets- Attempting to be more environmentally friendly than we are in the US, many toilets here have two buttons to choose from after you do your business.  A larger one and a smaller one, each controlling the amount of water that is flushed depending on what is needed.  
• Shower heaters- In many of the houses if you want hot water there is a button to push or string to pull to turn the water heater on.  Give it a few minutes to warm up and you will have a nice hot shower.  
• Outlet switches- If you want to plug into the wall, you will want to make sure to flip the button to turn the power to the outlet on....another energy saving device I have seen in other areas of the world that I wish we would adopt in the US.  
• Transportation- Obviously they drive on the 'other' side of the road (left), and cars are much smaller, but if you live anywhere near a city you will find yourself walking, biking or taking the LUAS (Dublin Light Rail System....Luas is Irish for "speed"), train or DART (Dublin Area Rapid Transit) systems.  The routes may not be as easy to figure out for foreigners (or maybe its just me) but when you get the hang of it, their public transportation system can get you pretty much everywhere you need to go.  Students get cheaper fares and the elderly (over the age of 65) ride the public transport for free.  If the buses go on strike like when I was in Dublin, you hope for good weather and take the long walk into town.  
• Refrigerators- Small and compact by American standards with the freezer and refrigerator typically being about the same size.  With the limited space, you will definitely not be doing any Costco shopping to stock up.  
• Burning wood or peat turf- Depending on where you live (west or east) you may burn wood or peat turf taken from the peat bogs.  There is an interesting paper examining the security, competitiveness and environmental impacts of burning peat.  
• Recycling- In Balbriggan (it varies a little by county) where my cousin lives, she has three garbage cans.  Two are free for the city to take but you can only fill them with recyclable food waste or other recycled products such as paper and plastic (though Teresa throws "Pure Pak" paper products in her wood burning stove to heat the living room).  The third bin is for regular every day trash which costs 7 Euros for 240L of trash.  
• Grocery Shopping- This obviously varies per family but Teresa, being in the farming industry, is careful to buy local foods which are clearly labeled as a product of Ireland.  Being out in the country she is able to have chickens and grow some of her own fruit.  

Travel Journals....My First

A few months after turning 8, my family moved to Graz, Austria.  My mom, always thinking of our future and the fact that when we return to the US, our English grammar would likely be atrocious thought it would be a good idea to have us write diaries.  

Not sure how much it helped me as my use of the English language is still pretty poor, but I can credit her for my love/hate relationship of keeping travel journals to this day.  One of the last things I want to do at the end of an amazing day is sit down and write a journal, then again I absolutely love reminding myself of the ridiculous adventures I have had and amazing people I have shared those times with.  

I wanted to share my very first profound words of wisdom I wrote when I was 8 years old after landing in Europe for the first time in my life: 

“FIrst I got on the plane and it took off and then my ears hurt so I had some bubble gum and then I had to go to sleep. My mom woke me up because we were going to land soon and then we landed.”

— Caitlin's First Travel Journal

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In the Beginning...

The last Friday of August, 2014 I was making my daily 45 minute commute to work daydreaming about life as I tend to do, and listening to the radio.  There was a story about somebody who had traveled quite a bit and I started thinking about everywhere I had been and yet all those places that I know nothing about.  Considering I have been to almost one country for every year of my life, I would say I am pretty fortunate.  I have seen and experienced things that many people won't have the chance to...some may say they never want to.  But while I feel I am lucky to have these experiences, I am not alone in saying that traveling gets into your blood.  The more you travel, the more you want to travel.    

So as I was sitting there driving to a not so exciting desk job,   and I started to wonder how many people have actually been to every country in the world and how amazing it would be to be on that list.  Of course, in order to do that, unless you are independently wealthy, you need some sort of funding and a purpose for the funding.  My mind went in a variety of directions, thinking about who in the world would sponsor such an endeavor and how one would go about it.  

For weeks after, I couldn't get this idea out of my mind.   But talking to friends and family, it hit me that a large percentage of people have very little knowledge of foreign worlds.  

I began to wonder, what do I like about traveling??  It isn't staying in ritzy hotels and being catered to...it is about meeting the locals and stepping into their worlds.  My favorite and most memorable experiences are getting to know my guides on a personal level, or staying with local families who have taught me so much over the years.  Every life, every country is completely different and I want to share that.   And truthfully, what better time to start a crazy project like this than when you need a career change and you have no roots to tie you down.  It is going to be an unbelievable amount of work, but nobody is going to blame me for not trying.