First, Dave it like 30-40 minutes late to come pick us up. Like by the time he came and had walked halfway up this major road that leads to the north end of the village. He just trotted down like nothing happened.
Ok, that's fine. They are taking care of us to I'm not gonna complain. By that point the wind had eased up and the rain had stopped so other than the pitch darkness that we were surrounded by we were totally fine.
Have I mentioned I'm like totally afraid of the dark?
He leads us up the road and we stop off at an adorable little market to grab a couple items to add to our evening. He had insisted on carrying my pack but it didn't exactly fit through the doorway of the grocery store so being that we were in like the safest little town in the world, no one was out, it was super dark, and we weren't really in a touristy part of the town we just left it at the doorway...you know, like 5 steps away from where we were standing. We were greeted almost with cheers by the owners. (It was interesting to me that he'd been in Italy for like a week and he didn't even know like "thank you" and "you're welcome" or some of the other like super basic stuff...we've been so blessed to have been staying with people that speak with Italian so we could learn...I spoke with them a little and understood basically everything they were saying. it was fun). The store didn't have the specific wild strawberries that he wanted so the lady, Emilia, took us down the street about 20 yards to her brother's fresh produce store and picked out a bunch of fruits to send us home with...and she definitely didn't charge us for them. On the way over I checked for my bag. Still there. And again on the way back...check.
We brought our stuff to the counter, they rung us up, we paid, and of course I had to go and keep talking with them. They were just so nice and cute and friendly I couldn't help it. Next thing I know Dave has walked back in and looks at me with wide eyes and says, "You picked up your bag right?" I was like "what?" And he said, "You came and moved your bag from the entrance right? "
ummm, no.
Oh yeah, it's exactly what you think. My bad was gone. Totally stolen. Yes, the entire thing. Like EVERYTHING. My whole life, money, cards, clothes, scriptures, driver's license, books, gifts, everything. Luckily I had all my electronics, my laptop, camera, chargers (randomly), and glasses with me in my messenger bag which was still slung across my chest. I yes, I had a panic moment about my passport because there's this secret compartment that I have kept it in EVERYDAY of my trip up until...today. What the random?!?! Heavenly Father loves me! For some reason I took it out...oh yeah! When we checked out of the hostel in Sorrento the guy needed it for something and I had let Janise hold it in her little passport pouch that she hangs around her neck 24 hour/day. This one day. Wow. Talk about divine intervention. Dave felt so badly. The entire store and neighborhood came out to help look for it. To no avail.
You see, as Dave was paying there was this creepy, stoned looking, 6'6", broad shouldered, prematurely graying, almost handsome but not because of how sketch he looked...and the vulgar aroma of being doused in alcohol didn't help either, that just kinda stood there and was staring at me--very intently and strangely actually. I noticed him right away and even before I saw him staring at me I felt a really bad vibe coming from him. I actually had walked away to the other side of the store until he left because he had such a dark spirit about him. He walked out, walked back in, staring the whole time, and then left just before us. And actually had I not been chatting it up with the store keepers we would have walked out ahead of him, but no, I had to go and run my mouth in my broken Italian and get to know the lady selling me my eggs and water and find out about their Easter traditions and the large chocolate egg sitting next to me that I could fit inside.
We headed up to their villa and Dave just apologized the entire way up. I tried to assure him I was fine, and really I totally was. I mean come on, so I have to buy some new clothes when I get home and make what I was wearing last for like 5 more days. Big deal. So I lose some money and my driver's licence and a couple credit cards. I can earn more money. Buy another pack. Report and cancel my credit cards. And everyone wants and excuse to take a new DL picture. I might have had a bit of fatigue and joint pains and I would probably have to invest in some new sunscreen but otherwise, I really didn't need anything in there. I wasn't stressed about it at all. I had the PB, my passport, the laptop, my other credit cards, and my camera. What else do you need when traveling. This just meant that my load just got way!!! lighter.
But seriously, now this trip is like so perfect and cliche. I mean come on of course my bag get stolen while I'm backpacking through Europe. That's totally normal. People have been telling that's gonna happen all the time. Shoot, if I'm gonna to this, I'm gonna do this right! No halfway for this little adventure seeker.
We got there and explained everything that to Jess, who by the way was sitting with an ice pack on her foot because she "rolled her ankle on their way out of the restaurant"--which turned out to be a lie, she later told me that he wasn't being careful and they slide out on their way back from dinner and she got thrown and wrecked her ankle...and I actually talked to her today and she said it turned out to be broken when she got home...but she lied about it because he made her swear she wouldn't tell us...weird.
Then...wonder of wonders! a miracle! a miracle!! We get this phone call. It was Emilia, the store lady...they found my bag!!! We're still not too sure how they got the number for the villa but whatevs, we wrote it off as "small town" and Dave ran down and got it and the story.
Apparently some old lady found it on tossed on the side of the road somewhere near around the corner or something. It was opened and gone through but not very well. He must have just been looking for money and valuables and only found clothes. Haha! Had he looked harder, like in my toiletry bag he'd have hit the jackpot but alas, he really was just a dumb oaf.
See? I'm telling you, Heavenly Father loves me! You all need to just stop worrying about me so much. I got this :)
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