Tiredness crept in mercilessly the other night; I slept in a taxi on my way home. The cab driver already missed two toll exits when I woke up. I had shut eye for merely five minutes and by then we were so far away heading for Bandung.
Grouchily, I asked the cabbie to find the nearest exit and look for a return way home. I felt I’ve explained it clear enough about our destination. Alas, he claimed he is new. That is like the joker card in the Taxi world, what more can I say. It was also partly my fault to fell asleep at the wrong time.
I ended up paying four times the usual fare. I couldn’t stop kicking my self later that night.
I remember when we’re just arriving from Paris in Milan. It was three in the morning due to Easyjet excellent service; we arrived at the airport and used a bus for Central station. For a city as big as Milan, the Central was peculiarly dead at that early hour.
Some random Albanian refugees wandered aimlessly from bench to bench. We briefly chatted with a few of them. They seem harmless yet we were alarmed. My wife and I found a bright enough spot and sat there for a while, waiting for the Metro to start operating.
We had three suitcases packed full of the gifts we bought from our previous trip. There were several other passengers sitting around us.
Suddenly someone screamed something in Italian, and as if out of nowhere, three cops came barging in towards our location, and grab a suspicious looking young Albanian. They took him into custody in handcuffs. People were pointing angrily towards the thief and some chosen Italian words were flying towards the man.
I remember thinking in Jakarta he’d be beaten to pulp, or he would not get caught at all (no disrespect to Police here).
We felt safe afterwards. Amazed by the quick reaction of those cops and were pretty sure no one would be dim-witted enough to try anything funny. Lulled by that false sense of security my eyes were getting heavier by the minutes.
I am so sure I was dozed for no longer than one minute, when suddenly I realized one of the suitcases was gone. Anxiously I scrambled towards the exits looking for any sign of the perpetrator but they have disappeared.
With a lot of difficulty, I talked to one of the cops explaining our situations. He shrugged his shoulder in that famous Italian way and believed there’s no hope at all for us to find that bag. He was full of empathy assisting us en route for the Metro when it’s opened.
What a pity really, that bag was full with goodies. Although, in retrospect, we are still thankful that it was not the other bags, which held our laptop and personal data.
It was an annoying blip of an otherwise wonderful trip. Note to self: be careful where and when you’re sleeping.
Grouchily, I asked the cabbie to find the nearest exit and look for a return way home. I felt I’ve explained it clear enough about our destination. Alas, he claimed he is new. That is like the joker card in the Taxi world, what more can I say. It was also partly my fault to fell asleep at the wrong time.
I ended up paying four times the usual fare. I couldn’t stop kicking my self later that night.
I remember when we’re just arriving from Paris in Milan. It was three in the morning due to Easyjet excellent service; we arrived at the airport and used a bus for Central station. For a city as big as Milan, the Central was peculiarly dead at that early hour.
Some random Albanian refugees wandered aimlessly from bench to bench. We briefly chatted with a few of them. They seem harmless yet we were alarmed. My wife and I found a bright enough spot and sat there for a while, waiting for the Metro to start operating.
We had three suitcases packed full of the gifts we bought from our previous trip. There were several other passengers sitting around us.
Suddenly someone screamed something in Italian, and as if out of nowhere, three cops came barging in towards our location, and grab a suspicious looking young Albanian. They took him into custody in handcuffs. People were pointing angrily towards the thief and some chosen Italian words were flying towards the man.
I remember thinking in Jakarta he’d be beaten to pulp, or he would not get caught at all (no disrespect to Police here).
We felt safe afterwards. Amazed by the quick reaction of those cops and were pretty sure no one would be dim-witted enough to try anything funny. Lulled by that false sense of security my eyes were getting heavier by the minutes.
I am so sure I was dozed for no longer than one minute, when suddenly I realized one of the suitcases was gone. Anxiously I scrambled towards the exits looking for any sign of the perpetrator but they have disappeared.
With a lot of difficulty, I talked to one of the cops explaining our situations. He shrugged his shoulder in that famous Italian way and believed there’s no hope at all for us to find that bag. He was full of empathy assisting us en route for the Metro when it’s opened.
What a pity really, that bag was full with goodies. Although, in retrospect, we are still thankful that it was not the other bags, which held our laptop and personal data.
It was an annoying blip of an otherwise wonderful trip. Note to self: be careful where and when you’re sleeping.
