In search of a Hotel

My last few posts have been cold (not cold per se) and impersonal, so I figured I'd post a few egocentric notes for some reading enjoyment. I thought before I lose more notebooks and render scribbles to unreadable scrabble, I’d like to write about the last leg of our European trip.

Our TRAVEL JOURNEY continues to the cradle and heart of the Renaissance.

As we were driving through Monaco with Lamborghini and Ferrari on our side, the night gradually started to descend. Soon, we were driving in the moonlight. There were streaks of pink sunset in the sky over the lagoon. I really have to admit that the scene was very beautiful but we really were not prepared to what was going to happen next.

It was almost about 10:00 when we left the border of Monaco and entered France and within the next 15 minutes, we entered Italy. We started out apprehensive, having heard bad stories about the Mafias. Our night started with the ominous sound of silence. The streets were quiet and empty and there was almost no one on the streets.We were excited to be in Italy.

We had left for St. Tropez, France around 10:00 in the morning.This means Prasanna had been driving for almost about 13 hours now. Slowly, I could see him feeling exhausted. I made a suggestion about taking an exit in the next town and looking for a hotel. (Yup! that was another adventure, not booking our hotel!!) Prasanna kept on insisting to drive to this city called “Savona” which looked quite far away in the map. I really wanted to take the exit on the next stop. While debating on whether or not to take the next exit,we accidently missed the exit that I wanted prasanna to take. We had no choice but to keep on driving and sadly, that it what we did. After couple of meters, we saw the sign for "gas station" and both agreed to make a stop and freshen up and also ask about the hotels.

Bearing in mind that we were in a country called Italy where "Bonjour,” or “Hola” would not work, we were bit confused starting our conversation. The journey turned out to be rather uncomfortable for us, the anxious travelers. For other trips we were quite well off with our “Lonely Planet," however, in this one we were totally clueless.Finally with a help of little English and sign language a young lad at the convenience store was able to give us some suggestions on the hotel. He told us to take the exit on the next city.

We bought some sandwiches and headed to our car and drove towards “Imperia,” the next city. We then took the exit. The city was crowded with youngsters and the tourists. It was almost 11:30 now. This looked liked a happening place. Restaurants and bars everywhere.As we drove by we also started seeing Hotels. Since there was no parking I decided to get off the car and find out the roon rates to compare with other hotels. “ No room,” the gentleman said in his hoarse voice. I smiled and left. We made a stop into the next on, “ All booked,” was the reply, and then we tried the next and the next one and so on.

The scene was quite ugly. In an unfamiliar place, horrible nightmare lurked in front of us and we were totally hopeless. After making a stop at the 14^th hotel, we decided to make a move to the next city. It was 2:00 in the morning. The night was cold, and we had nowhere to go. We were both in havoc and I really prayed for a room for us to rest.

While driving, we saw a police car and even asked his help. “Next 5 minutes, 2 hotels,” he murmured ogling at us in his so-called English language which was very vague. At this point, we were willing to do any this to get somewhere to rest. The clock was ticking and the long hand was now at 3:00. It was almost morning. We had been driving for almost 18 hours now.

Made the stop over at those two hotels.

I froze with horror. You guessed it right everything was booked.We opened the window in our car to let the cold wind in from letting us falling asleep. Both tired and frustrated, we still made an effort to talk to each other and kept on driving. I also made a suggestion about sleeping in the car. Prasanna was ready to drive all night rather than sleeping in the car in this country where we were a total strangers.

Another toll machine!

As I was about to duck to get my wallet to take out the credit card, I saw the sign of a hotel. Ok, this is it! This is the hotel. There was a hope at the end of the tunnel.

We followed the sign and kept on driving. Soon we were in the middle of nowhere. Our ONLY friend was the DARK night. Prasanna then began to doubt our decision. Feeling Helpless, Prasanna rolled down his window and raised his hand for “HELP.”

A big SUV stopped.

“Hotel?”

The young gentleman in the car tried to explain but I guess he could make out from our expressions that we were totally lost and helpless.

He signaled us to follow him.

We kept on driving in the dark night, in the deserted road.

I started getting eerie feeling. Prasanna was quiet. Is this stranger going to rob us? Is he a part of the mafia group? Does he have a gun?

Soon the big SUV made a stop and we were in front of a hotel.