This is one the worst feelings in the world. My palms are sweating and I’ve got shivers going down my spine. I’m nervous and edgy. I get restless feet and a restless heart. My heartbeat quickens just for the thought of it:

My passport just passed it’s expiration date.

Ok, maybe I was exaggerating just a little bit with those feelings. But expired passport is a big deal for me – especially because it is this peculiar passport that’s expiring. It is the passport that includes my working holiday visa to Australia. It’s the passport with my visa to visit Russia. It’s the passport that travelled with me on my Interrail-trip in Europe, it’s the passport with stamps from Thailand, Malaysia and Fiji. It’s the passport with my working holiday visa for New Zealand.

Working Holiday Visa, Australia plus some stamps

And you have understand something about those visas and stamps. When you are an European citizen living in Finland, you just don’t get that many stamps or visas in your passport. It is not easily done. It’s been just about ten years since you got a stamp when visiting Estonia. Now you don’t even need a passport to pass the gulf of Finland. And that was about the last country nearby that would even consider stamping your passport! (Except for Russia but that hasn’t been a desired destination for Finns no longer than just a couple of years now).

Don’t get me wrong, it is absolutely fabulous that the borders in Europe are so easy to cross, it is absolutely fantastic to have that freedom. But it means no stamps or visas on my passport!

Working holiday visa, NZ

And now I have to give up the few that I did have, that I traveled so far to get.

I love this passport.

It reminds me of so many adventures and brings out so many memories from my travels. And I look so young and innocent in the picture!

But what troubles me the most I suppose, is the fact that my passport expired and I’m not in any rush to get a new one. I have travel plans for the future, actually quite big ones as well, but not for the immediate future. At the moment I have no need for passport. Dear God, that sounds so depressing but it is true. If I travel within Finland or to Estonia or Sweden (which would be the cheap, nearby destinations to choose for a weekend stay for example), I’ll travel by car, train or boat and all of the countries are within EU. No passport needed.

Hmph…I think I’ll head to the police station to leave an application for new passport pretty soon anyway, just in case. Maybe I’ll go tomorrow. Or in the afternoon. Or…

Bye!