Ouch......

'Tis the season for Krampuss, glühwein, Christmas Markets, and sadly, pickpockets. This time of year people of somewhat desperate circumstances take to roaming the Christmas markets and tourist areas and help themselves to what cash they can glean from someone else's possessions. This hardly explains WHY my wallet was stolen on a four block ride on the bus WAY south of the city center. The only other time my wallet was stolen was at my own church on a Sunday morning.
Having my wallet stolen at home is one thing. It's a bit different when you are in a foreign country. It's a bit different when the contents of your wallet include your student ID, some cash, your check card, a bus pass, your room key, your cell phone and the saddest of all, your passport. It was tough enough to wade through the bureaucracy here in Austria the first time. Now I have to do it all again, only this time there are fees and I have no cash, nor access to any. I must rely on the kindness of friends and they have been very kind, generous and supportive.
I was planning on visiting friends in Nuremberg for the Thanksgiving holiday. They are American, at least he is, so they celebrate Thanksgiving. I went anyway and had a marvelous time. We went to the Christmas markets in Rothenberg (probably the best example of a Medieval city in Europe) and Spalt which I may have mentioned is this charming hamlet of hops houses. While the market in Rothenberg was pretty touristy (I heard WAY more American English than German) the market in Spalt was fabulous. Lots of artisan Christmas things. In a way, it was a blessing that I had no money to spend because I certainly wouldn't have had any to speak of after a visit to that market. All in all, it was a lovely weekend. You really can have fun with no money!
I stopped in Munich on the way back to Salzburg because there is an American consulate there. It is conveniently located quite close to the Orff Zentrum. Munich is pretty big, but I know how to get to the Orff Zentrum. From there, it was an easy short walk to the consulate. That's about all that was easy about the process.
You have to go through airport style security to get in to the consulate. Since I had some knitting in my bag, I had to leave the yarn and needles at the checkpoint. That was okay. The tough part was not having ANY ID of any sort, and not a lot of cash to spend on passport photos that were inadequate the first time! I had to go to this little booth and feed the machine 5 Euro only to be told after the fact that I was too close to the camera and would have to repeat the experience.... with another 5 Euro. My first pictures actually looked semi-reasonable, but in the second ones I was definitely wearing the crabby face. I got a bit testy with the people behind the bullet proof glass and they gave me homemade cookies as a peace offering.
$100 (which my friend in Nuremberg loaned me), two forms and 10 Euro later I was done with the whole process.
I can't wait to take on the residence permit. Ouch.