Retire Early
Lifestyle
Retirement; like your parents, but way cooler
In 1991 Billy and Akaisha Kaderli retired at the age
of 38. Now, into their 4th decade of this
financially independent lifestyle, they invite you
to take advantage of their wisdom and experience. |
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Hotel Bellevue,
Palermo, Sicily
Billy and Akaisha Kaderli
We never had any intention
of going to Hotel Bellevue just outside of
Palermo, Sicily.
In fact, we had never heard
of it, didn't know anything about it, and wouldn't have any reason to go there
to begin with.
But by the end of this
night, Hotel Bellevue was a godsend; A literal miracle infused into the lives of
these 70+ year olds (that'd be us) who were desperate for sleep.
Let me explain.
The empty front desk of BnB La Vucciria Di
Guttuso
We arrive from Bari on Italy's southern coast
to the airport in Palermo, Sicily by taxi
($60Euro) to the city of Palermo about 9:30pm.
Our hotel, BnB La Vucciria Di Guttuso, was
down a teeny tiny vico and we couldn't find it.
We met another young man trying to find his
hotel and he says that he’s been walking in circles for 15 minutes. It’s a total
maze and he can’t find his place either.
We are terribly lost, and there are no signs
anywhere. According to Google maps, it should be “right here”.
I see two women watching the night pass away
having a conversation up on a balcony, and I shout up to them “LA VUCCIRIA?”
They were so happy to help and point to a
door across the way in a corner – not well marked at all.
We walk over and there is no way in.
A man on a motorcycle just dropped something
off in a yellow bucket to someone who pulled it up to the 2nd floor. He could
see we were flustered and tired, so he goes to the entry code box, presses the
number and the door opens.
We thank him profusely and he drives off like
it’s “nothing.”
We walk up several flights of stairs and
Billy is pushing all kinds of doors and turning handles until - finally - one
opens up.
Not much of a welcome, and there is no one at
the desk.
Something isn't right.
The stunning view outside our room in
Hotel Bellevue
We call out at the reception desk, try some
doors, and no one was there.
Then I punch several numbers into my phone
and after the 3rd one, I get a woman who says she can't find our
reservation. After I give her our Confirmation number, she then says
something shocking -- That reservation is not for tonight, October 12,
it's for next month, November 12!!
Impossible.
After sending us a photo confirmation
of our reservation to show that it truly was for November 12th… I meekly
ask if she can do anything to help us.
She said she is fully booked and there
is nothing she can do. There is an event in town, and everything is reserved.
Sorry...
Our jaws drop open.
We’re screwed.
The view outside our window the next
morning
This isn’t like us at ALL, to have made a
mistake of this magnitude…
I mean, seriously. We are "professional
travelers" who have been gallivanting around the world for over 3 decades.
To prepare for this trip we booked a dozen
hotels over 73 days of travel in assorted cities in various countries over
several time zones. There were airfares, taxis, payments online with credit cards
- each meant to be functional like a relay race where we hand off one ticket
only to pick up the next one moments later.
Easy peasy,... except that it wasn't.
The best I can figure out is that the
Europeans mark their days and months differently, putting the day number first, then the month number, then the year.
October 12th to us is 10/12. In Europe, it's
12/10.
Mix in our leaving date, which is the 13th,
and we have a nightmarish mixture of 10, 11, 12, 13, 23... all in different
combinations...
Yikes.
That's enough to confuse anyone.
Regardless of how this happened, we don’t
have a room, and this sends us on a hotel chase.
Buffet breakfast and view from Hotel
Bellevue - a table of fresh pastries is in the center
Completely surprised by this unexpected turn
of events, we walk downstairs and meet a young man of 16 who knows we need help
but doesn’t speak English. He shouts outside the door for his friend – an obvious
body builder with tattoos everywhere - and he is as polite as he can be. A
real gentle giant.
He and the young man use our phones to try
and find something close by, and the body builder is knocking on doors of hotels, calling places and helping us in any way that we can.
Angels in disguise, but there are no hotels
to be had.
He gives us directions to the main street,
Via Roma, and directions to the train station because we thought we might try to
take a night train, go straight to Cefalu and figure things out there…
The last thing he said was “stay close
together.”
Ahh, Jeeze.
It was now pushing 10:00 pm and we were on a
mission.
It was almost laughable - we aren't 20 or 30
anymore, and here we are going down sketchy dark streets and it's getting later and
later at night…
The view from the balcony, Hotel Bellevue
We try a total of 5 hotels in the city,
walking up a bumpy stone street with our luggage then down a bumpy stone street
with our luggage.
Many hotels are not well marked, and some might be
just a single floor of an apartment building. We struggled with this, trying to find lodging
at this late hour.
Concierges at these hotels are calling
other hotels and even AirBnB's to find places for us to stay, but nothing.
We must have looked a sight!
A couple of travel-weary old farts wandering
the NYC of Sicily alone, dragging their luggage late at night with no place to
sleep.
We even tried a plush hotel, the Grand Hotel
Piazza Borsa at $500Euros a
night - which was also booked.
This just doesn’t happen to us, and we are
befuddled by the oddity of it all.
Normally things fall easily into place for
us, and I'm trying to stay open to the good in this situation.
People everywhere - young, old, on the
street, in hotels, at shops - are trying to help and it’s heartwarming.
But we still have no place to stay!
Looking out at the sea from the balcony of
Hotel Bellevue
We have to make a decision as we were running
out of time and energy.
So, we go to the train station in order to
purchase evening tickets to Cefalu and try to find something there.
Or perhaps eat in a restaurant in this
beachside town and watch the sun come up, who knows, just get us out of here.
Our
apartment reservations aren't until tomorrow. We just need to get through the night.
Billy takes a look at the TrenItalia app on
his phone and it says that a train is due to leave at 10:15pm.
It’s 10:08 now, so we have time.
We make it to the train station and we try to
purchase a ticket
but there is no train ticket to purchase.
We are trying everything.
Billy asks some maintenance men if we can
sleep there at the station for a few hours, and purchase tickets in the morning
at 6am.
They say we can’t sleep there, the station
closes at 1am. But there is a hotel across the street from the station and we
might try them.
You guessed it. It was booked up too.
Breakfast buffet (all along the wall and
to the left) at
Hotel Bellevue
The woman at the desk tries to call an AirBnB,
but they are full as well.
In exasperation and fatigue, Billy puts his
head down on the counter there by the concierge, and we eventually walk out and
find this café next door.
They are closing for the evening, and we
start asking around.
One man speaks English and we tell him our
story.
Our phones are about out of charge, so we ask
if we could charge them. We order something to show our sincerity and
in gratitude for their hospitality.
On our computers we try and find a 24 hour
restaurant where we might have a meal, a drink, and just kind of wait it out.
We even ask about the police station - maybe
we could stay in a cell for the night? And the men in the café say it’s closed.
A police station is closed?
I keep reminding myself that something good
will come of this.
It has to, as this has been so awful,
out-of-the-norm, and unexpected.
Billy and I discuss going back to the airport
where we might be able to hang out, eat, and put our head on a table for the
night. Then we
can take a taxi in the morning back to the train station to go to Cefalu.
I don’t have any other ideas, but something
will
come through. I hold onto that perception, and I don't give up hope.
We are starting to get tired and it’s now
after 11pm.
The beautiful Hotel Bellevue the next
morning
The young man who speaks English says that
the owner is trying to find a place for us in a seaside town outside of Palermo
which might have a room.
It’s OPEN.
They have a room for $80Euro for the 2 of us
and as it turns out, the cafe owner will drive us there.
Everyone in the shop is saying this hotel is
BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL BEAUTIFUL.
It's right on the sea. There are restaurants
everywhere, and a harbor!
This hotel has a GREAT VIEW of the sea and
the seafood is fabulous.
I can hardly believe it, we are pooped and
just want to crash for the night.
This man puts our luggage into his trunk like
a real taxi driver and off we go.
He doesn’t speak English so it’s kind of
quiet in the car. We head out back towards the airport and then veer off towards
the sea to a town called Via Plauto.
As we drive through town, the driver shows us
restaurants, stores, the harbor, views we must make time to see. Of course it's
midnight and everything is shut down. Finally he goes up to the hill and gets to the hotel.
A Casa Blanca kind of hotel out of a movie.
A man meets us on the steps, and
he carries our bags up to the counter. We check in, I pay for the room $80Euro +
city tax and it comes to $86Euros for the night, including breakfast.
After all we have been through, it feels like
the bargain of the century.
We thank the man profusely and go up to our
room. Up some stairs, then some twisted stairs, now up an elevator, then even more stairs…
where the heck are we going? I’m just hoping the room isn’t horrible and that
the bed is decent.
It’s morning hours by now and WE. ARE. BEAT.
We get ready for bed and I peek out the window and see the night
view of the Sicily coastline and the town across the little bay all lit up. It's
breathtaking.
We simply crash for the night, and get up 5
hours later.
We shower, come down to breakfast and the
hotel is stunning.
I write on Google Translate to the man at the
desk who
helped us check in last night and told him he was an angel of God to take us in
so late.
I explained about the mix up we had with our
hotel in Palermo, and said we had nowhere to go. He really helped us and we were
most grateful.
The man who drove us there was also an angel
and to please thank him for us.
As it turns out, because of this snafu, we
found a place just outside of Palermo that is much closer to the airport and
much less hectic than the gritty city. If we ever go back to Palermo, we
could choose to stay several nights here at the Bellevue and explore this little
seaside town. Then it's a quick drive to the train station and on to Cefalu or elsewhere to continue our travels.
So it really did all work out for the best.
Would we recommend Hotel Bellevue?
ABSOLUTELY!
__________
Hotel Bellevue
Via Plauto 40
Sferracavallo 90147 Palermo, Sicily
http://hotelbellevuepalermo.com/
Email:
bellevuepalermo@gmail.com
Tele: +39 091. 53. 0083
http://bellevue-del-golfo.palermo.hotels-sicily.net/en/
Editor's note: Our room was adequate and
small, but the rest of the hotel was spectacular.
Retire
Early Lifestyle appeals to a different
kind of person – the person who prizes their
independence, values their time, and who doesn’t
want to mindlessly follow the crowd.
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