Murphy's Law: Anything that can go wrong will go wrong.

     Our daughter flew to London yesterday for a conference/vacation.  Upon arriving at Heathrow Airport her wallet was stolen leaving her without cash, credit cards, or ATM-debit cards.  Luckily she still has her passport and cell phone, so was able to call us early this morning.
     With much difficulty we were able to wire her some money through Western Union, but they do not make it easy!  After an hour of trying we were unable to complete the transaction by phone, although their website states it is easy to do.  We had to wait for our local Western Union office to open for the day.  Then it went okay since we had a debit card and luckily had some extra cash in our checking account, something we normally do not have.
     Hopefully, she has picked up the cash by now and is on her way to her conference and hotel, and has been able to contact all her credit card companies to cancel the old cards and send new.

     This is what makes travel so very difficult.  Having to travel by air is irritating enough, but then theft is a real problem.  While in Chicago on a business trip, Dean's wallet was stolen by a professional gang of pickpockets.  One of my brothers had his wallet stolen in South America.  Our daughter had her wallet pick-pocketed while in Italy.  When Dean and I were in India we were constantly on guard with money divided between different pockets, some concealed inside our clothes, and I carried a slash-proof travel purse.

     Coincidentally, we watched the DVD, "The Way," last night.  In it, Martin Sheen goes to Europe after his son (Emilio Estivez) dies in an accident, to claim the body.  He proceeds to complete the historical pilgrimage, The Way of St. James, (Camino de Santiago), which his son had started.  He travels by foot across France and Spain, meeting some companions along the way, and staying in hostels, or large dormitories by night.  Watching that movie last night I noted that I would have had to sleep with all my belongings wrapped in my arms for fear of theft.  And a theft does occur in the movie.
     The world is a dangerous place, sometimes, and it has given me trust issues.
     "The Way" is an inspirational story and the cinematography is great....all in all, a nice movie.

Traveling is a brutality.  It forces you to trust strangers and to lose sight of all the familiar comfort of home and friends.  You are constantly off balance.  Nothing is yours except the essential things--air, sleep, dreams, the sea, the sky--all things tending towards the eternal or what we imagine of it.  
                                                 Cesare Pavese


Travel is glamorous only in retrospect.     Paul Theroux