June 13 – Bon Voyage!

 

Finally, a day of “rest”.   We checked out and walked over to the People Mover which would take us to a bus that would transfer us to Trieste.  The ship was originally scheduled to sail from Venice but after the calm of Covid, the Venetians decided enough and the cruise ships can go sail somewhere else. I can’t say I blame them.  Although cruise ships are great for the economy of the port cities, I kind of doubt Venice needs the business, being Venice and all.  I truly had expected filthy canals – I think probably some years ago this was true before people in general started figuring out we shouldn’t just toss our garbage in our rivers.  It was a pleasant surprise that the canals and everything else appeared clean.  We did not take a Gondola ride but it did look inviting.

Anyhoo, I think Al finally got it this time.  “Right over there” is still too far for me to be schlepping luggage.  Our marriage counselor would be proud as we somehow duked it out with as much patience as we could muster with each other.  It’s all understandable really.  Someone tells him it’s really easy to get to the transfer point.  And it is.  It’s just that a few details were missing like probably those people hired one of the many porters with their carts specifically designed to ergonomically haul luggage over a bridge with low steps.  From here on out I will take responsibility for tending to those details.  Al will tell me where we need to be (of course he needs to know where “where” is which requires some forethought) and I will take care of the logistics of getting there with my body and temper intact.

 Arriving at the transfer point (the People Mover was easy for sure) was a whole ‘nother ball game.  Many buses come and go for various tours, cruise ships, hotels, what have you.  Had to feel bad for the young women reps from Holland America who were handling a large group of foreign people who had been standing in the hot sun for over an hour, watching other people’s buses come and go.  We still don’t know what the problem was (at one point she said “there was an accident that held up traffic” which got a nice laugh out of the mostly older and wiser crowd) and Al and I ended up having to wait for the second bus which didn’t take too long but still. 

Anyway, it gave us a chance to show that we could be loving human beings by not taking out our personal gripes on frazzled young women or each other.  Nothing like a common enemy… This was not the case for at least one man, but I understood his frustration.  The nap I took on the bus was delicious, and I even woke myself up with one of those snores that wakes you up.  Not sure how long I was serenading the rest of the bus…

FINALLY.  Collecting our luggage, digging out passports, vaxx cards, negative Covid test results and boarding passes (I carry ALL of that. I learned long ago that watching Al pat at his pockets in a semi-panic hoping to find his passport was not going to work for me…) and we were in our cabin.  

I really had it together this time.  One suitcase carried all our dirty clothes from the last two weeks and I was going to beat the crowd to the laundry room.  The plan was always to take enough to make it to the ship and then do laundry right away.  We did have some clothes that were for Scotland weather and some for Greece weather, but the – ahem – basics we had just enough.  It was all planned.  I packed Tide pods, bounce sheets.  I wasn’t gonna get caught in that $3.00 for a mini box of detergent scam this time.

All ships are different.  This one has no self service laundry room.  Who knew.  Not me. So all our laundry got sent off to be washed at an outrageous price but what’re you gonna do? On the bright side it will all be clean tomorrow and we didn’t have to do it.

At any rate, we feel like we are home. No more eating ready-made sandwiches from a mini mart. No more fish and chips. No more pizza.  No more “it’s just over here” luggage drags and subsequent public displays of marriage “worse”. (So many obvious honeymooners in Venice and here we are shattering the dream).    I really had tired of cruising before Covid, but I love being on the water.  The ship seems quite underpopulated tonight, kind of weird.  I don’t miss the hubbub but Al the social animal does.

When we arrived in our cabin I looked out over the balcony to see puffy little white clouds in the water. What IS that?  Wait.  Those are JELLYFISH.  Lots and lots of jellyfish. Lots and lots of BIG jellyfish.  Rhizostoma pulmo to be exact, largest jellies in the Mediterranean.  Turns out this is actually the end of what was an invasion of the jellyfish in Trieste back in April.  Local news reports had photos of them piled up on the beach like someone had gotten a little carried away with a bubble bath.  They were so beautiful and mesmerizing, we had a hard time pulling ourselves away from the scene.  This could be the video that makes me pay up so I can show you on WordPress.  Amazing and totally unexpected of course.

At 7 p.m. the big ship horn blew and we were off.  As I say the ship is quiet, the dining room was pleasant, the food wonderful (it’s one thing Holland America does well).  Now Al is asleep and I am finishing getting caught up on writing.  Tomorrow I will enjoy the day at sea, try to get the photos I want ready to upload to WordPress when I get internet again.  

Note to self: The key card has a little slit in in so you can hang it around your neck on a lanyard with a clip. I have about six of them.  In my drawer at home. Haven’t we had this discussion recently? Like yesterday? I’m either bringing stuff I’ll never use (I am NEVER AGAIN buying bug repellant just because some travel guru says “the bugs are bad this time of the year and make sure you pack repellent…”) or forgetting stuff I would definitely use.  

They used to give those lanyards away free at guest services but now you are stuck buying a fancy one in the ship shop.  Except no.  “Fifteen dollars for two”.  How much for one?  “Fifteen dollars”.  She did laugh when I told her I had six in my drawer at home.   I know that the first port we stop at will have them for $2.00 or less at a street vendor. 

The bad news – I don’t think there will be mah jongg this trip.  The bridge crowd has a dedicated room but didn’t see MJ on the schedule for tomorrow. I haven’t given up hope but will check it out tomorrow. If they don’t have a mahj set it’s all but a done non-deal. 

It is the next day and I have spent most of this day realizing I don’t want to be a blog writer for a living lol! At least not on this platform and it would have to be something that I didn’t have to endlessly research to flesh out what I’ve learned and seen.

But before I sign off, I must tell you that in the middle of the night I woke up to the full moon shining in my window, a glistening pathway on the Mediterranean beckoning me to the black horizon. My little iPhone camera did the best it could. Make sure you look at the video after the photos.

Tomorrow is a day at Olympus. Won’t have much internet again, just bought some ship internet today so I could get all this posted. If I can keep up with it nowI should be able to upload in port with my international plan.

Thanks for reading. It makes a difference knowing at least one or two people are enjoying it.