Janise and I split again at this point so she could see Venice (I’ve already been) and Babak and I headed off to Napoli to begin the treasure hunt the PB held that would lead us on what certainly would turn into the most incredible adventure of my entire trip…and maybe life.
We get to Napoli the best way possible. No map, no plan for a place to stay, super excited for the quest we were about to embark on in one of the cities we both have been looking forward to going to for years, my laptop—dead, and basically neither of us speaking the local language because they literally speak another language here so not even Babak’s Italian seemed like it was going to help, luckily not too hungry, and plenty of sunlight J. This is going to be awesome!
As headed straight out to Piazza Garibaldi outside of Napoli Centrale and split in search of the ever elusive wifi. I headed straight to the McDonalds and Babak…well, I’m not sure where he went. I could connect to wifi just fine but a dead laptop won’t connect no matter how hard I try so I simply looked around, found a plug, plugged in and it was happy surfing. That’s what I thought. Basically by the time my desktop pulled up and was functional some McD’s rent-a-cop comes up and with his finger shaking in my face says, “That’s not allowed.” No problem. Puppy dog eyes and innocent smile to the rescue! I got a 2 minute allowance…it lasted about 4. Unfortunately without a map we were still pretty lost.
Babak called up our Roman local napolitanita Gina and she sent us the information and some basic directions for the metro for how to get to a specific hostel and we were off. We got off the metro and all we had was the name of the hostel. There was a sign with an arrow in the doorway exiting the metro station, one about 10 yards from there toward the street, and then another further down in the direction of which the arrows were pointing. I mentioned it to Babak just about 8 times but for some reason it just wasn't ever the right answer to his search. The exchanges would go something like this...
Babak: "Hmm, so now where should we go?"
Me: "Isn't Ostello, hostel in Italian?" (pointing at the sign as we walked through the doorway)
Babak: “Yeah, yeah.” (shrugging me off)
Me: "Well, we could go that way." (pointing in the direction of the signs)
Babak: "Uhh...hmm" (looking around and then walking away, usually in the opposite direction)
"I really don't know where to go from here."
Me: "Well, why don't we just go that way, like the signs say?"
Babak: (walking away, again and ask some man sitting on a bench and then a taxi driver, etc.)
Me:"Aren't we going to the Ostello? Ostello mean hostel right?”
"What about this direction?"
Finally, HE DECIDED to go some direction (which happened to be the direction the signs that I'd been recommending we follow pointed) and about 10 seconds into that direction he looks up and pointing to one of the signs (that I'd pointed at like 10 minutes earlier) he goes, "Hey, look! "Ostello" right there!"
Hahahahaha. He claims that he really never heard me recommend following the signs. He just thought I kept asking how to say “hostel” in Italian. Thank you selective, stressed out hearing. Oh the joys of traveling with a man.
Love you Babak!!
We turned to follow the sign. Umm Hello! sidewalkless, tunnel under the rail tracks, barely two lane, high speed limit, racing cars, dirty, liter-ee, graffiti-ee, narrow little road. Awesome. I just started walking as Babak second guessed the signs further and then pulled ahead of me. Little white girl with a pack as big as herself (or so I've been told), in a dress with a big bow tied around my head. Boy do I make Babak nervous. Boy do I love it! From there it was a trek up the side of the cliff face, really it was designed well, though completely under construction and therefore seemed WAY more sketch than it probably will be once it's all done, but like I was saying--the design, it made it much more like it was just a steepish stroll up a little-ish hill. There was a guard box. Did I stop to chat, ask for directions, or permission? Nope. Did they try to stop, question, or seem to even notice our existence? Also, nope. We just walked right around their little barrier and continued.
At the top of the hill and to the left there were two apartment type buildings and a kinda constructiony, STAY OUT! feeling type place with wired fences to the right. O-K, left it is. The first building looked kinda hostel-ish so I started in that direction as Babak still kinda stood there working on the "Left or Right?" options. It’s been a long day. My approach was swiftly and actually quite aggressively crossed by a couple of large rodent size dogs that seemed to come out of the inside of an old rundown car. Ok, ok. I served a mission in the number one country for stray dogs in the world. I've had my fair share of encounters with ravenous, foaming at the mouth, come out of nowhere, heading full speed ahead (ahead being me of course), type dogs. I can handle this. Just. Stay. Calm. and friendly of course :) Babak about freaked out. Honestly, it was totally no big deal and I had it completely under control. The older, more freaky, sickly looking one eventually decided to keep its distance, and the other younger baby black lab looking one just reminded me of my dog Sage and I just made her feel like a welcomed friend (without touching her of course...all my health classes have ruined me as far as petting animals that aren't mine or that live outside are concerned...I know, I know, I'm a public health dork). I let her smell me and jump up on my legs and eventually she just lead us to where we were actually wanting to go. It was quite cute. What a smart little puppy. She must encounter a lot of lost travelers that know exactly where they are and where they are going, but not exactly how to get there.
The hostel. Interesting place. Clean. Well furnished. Quite a few steps up from what I'd anticipated. Bright. Spectacular view of the coastline (probably because once you got up the hill and then the million steps to the entrance we quite literally were on the cliff face well above the train track. Sounds nice huh? Welp, it was. All except for the jerk owner. I’m sorry that’s not nice…but totally true. Lame. Apparently being from Iran means you can't stay in a hostel. No, he wasn't really that racist, although he almost seemed to be totally ok with not being able BY LAW to house us. You see, in Italy in order to stay ANYWHERE you have to present your passport and Babak didn't bring his. I'm not going to comment on that. Let's just say that the man even said like, "Well, if she had just come in and reserved for the two of you, you would have been fine, but since you are here at the counter I cannot accept you, especially because you're Iranian. Sorry."
Ummm, ok. Stupid.
And as if that wasn't cool enough, he wouldn't give us information about other hostels other than "there're tons of hostels in Napoli"...like that's gonna help. He wouldn't allow me to log into the wireless or even pay to use their computers even for just long enough to find a couple more addresses and/or phone numbers. Super lame. He barely let us sit in the lobby to rest and if it weren't for my "but I'm just a poor poor lost little girl traveler with a larger than life pack" face I probably couldn't have convinced him to let me use the RESTROOM! Meanie!
We left. Tired. Without a clue where to go. No clue where we were. Babak pretty ticked beyond all imaginable reason. And me? Well, I was using everything in me to not laugh at our current predicament. Come on, how can you not laugh at a situation like this?...not gonna lie it was better than the alternative easy negative responses. This was the first time I had firsthand experience with such blatant rude Iranian discrimination. Little did I know, this was just the beginning.
We got back to the train station and Babak just stood there listless and distraught. Ok, time for me to take over. Without real warning I just headed across the street. Complaining and cursing wasn't going to get me any closer to a bed than I was already and it was getting late...and yeah, we're in Napoli and I've been given my fair share of lectures on how dangerous Napoli is, particularly at night, by friends and family. I’m adventurous but not stupid.
We walked up hills, back down them, down long streets, through short passes, through crazy intersections, and all along the way I would ask if anyone knew where an internet café or another hostel was.
" You're in the wrong part of town."
"There isn’t anything like that around here."
"Huh?"
Finally, Babak was so put out and frustrated with walking or whatever and not wanting to just take the train back to the main station and find somewhere closer to there, (I'm dead serious, I think it was now more because he was following a girl around than anything else) that he just up and took charge and went and got us a taxi to take us who the heck knows where hotel. Fine. You can pay for it. A train would have been cheaper. :p
The ride started out a little awkward so...I started talking to the driver. We could kinda communicate. But in the end, at least it broke the below zero chilled tension that filled the cab. Eventually, he and Babak started chatting casually as he drove us to this "perfect little place" that he knew of right on the water...and like 15 minutes away. I understood probably 25% of the conversation and definitely understood the topic stream when I paid attention, which I wasn’t really doing because I was falling in love with Napoli. But the best part was after he took us to the first place, it was full, so now he felt bad and called some taxi buddies that figured out an "even better, more beautiful spot" and took us there. On the way there he asked what we were doing and, the infamous question, "So are you guys newlyweds?"(with a knowing smile) to which Babak of course responded, "Yes, yes we are."
WHAT!? I mean I know we’re Persian and all and we have a long history of inter-family marriages but…Bahahahahaha! When I figured that one out, it took everything in me to hold in my laughter.
As a result of that, the guy decided he'd give us his favorite taxi tour of the Napoli coastline, etc.
Napoli really is enchanting.
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