Vendetta

I was walking home last night, minding my own business. I was on Alba Iulia Street when two guys close to my age jumped out at me and squeezed a little squeeze toy at me. I jumped and gave them a strange look. They burst out laughing.

"What the hell...?" I wondered out loud.
"Furious chatter in Italian"
"Siete Italiani?"

So we started talking. My Italians skills suck but I can get by. They were from Puglia and came to Romania for a few weeks vacation. They wanted me to take them to a place where they can dance. Since we were already downtown, I took them to Firestage (the former Discoland). It's hit or miss, as there are dance nights along with midget transvestite festivals.

We go in and they only have big bills. The first guy manages to pay the 30,000 lei cover charge. The next guy only has 20,000 lei so I give him 10,000 lei, and then pay my own entrance.

Once inside, they buy me a drink and we sit and talk. They're obviously not too bright as I have to explain numerous times the conversion rate between leis and euros.

"How much is 10 euros?"
"About 370,000 lei"
"And what about 20 euros?"
"About 740,000 lei"
"And 50 euros...?"

You get the idea...

They want to know the good clubs, bars and restaurants in the city. I suggest we meet up Saturday afternoon and I could give them a quick tour and point out some good places for them. And also get them a better hotel, and they're being overcharged for the hotel where they're at now. We make plans for 10:00 am Saturday morning.

They want to dance so we put our coats in with the coatcheck. Only problem is that they have a video camera which they don't trust leaving it with the lady in charge. They suggest we go to their hotel so they can change and drop off their stuff. After clearing everything with the bouncers, I find us a cab.

They say they won't be long in their room so I wait in the cab, even though they insist I come inside with them. After five minutes, one of the guys comes back and says they'll be another two minutes. Meanwhile, the taximetre is clicking. Lucikily, it's only about 1500 lei a minute. Ten minutes later and still no sign of the guys. I go to the hotel reception and ask the concierge what room they're in. I only know their first names. He's reluctant to give me any information as I don't know their last names.

He says that they're not here and that he has their key. He also says he hasn't seen them since they left at 9:00 pm that night. I tell him, in Romanglish, that I had met up with them that night and that we all came together in a cab. He doesn't believe me. He keeps insisting that he hasn't seen them all night. I had no idea what to believe. He spoke no Italian, and they spoke no Romanian, so I can't imagine that they could have convinced him to tell me this story.

I go back to the cab and wait another five minutes before I tell him to drive me home. I ended up paying the cab fare. Not much, but it would have been better spent on groceries. They have my email address and telephone number, so if I don't hear from there before tomorrow, I won't go to the cafe. This annoys me because I was just trying to go a nice thing for tourists as I had no one to show me around the city when I first got here.

So now I've got a personal vendetta against Italians. And I'm wondering if they were ghosts.