WANDERING AND WONDERING

 Still in SPAIN on a beautiful Saturday, so off we went to the Harbor and beaches.  We didn’t expect to be in Barcelona this long, so had nothing planned. Luckily for us, it’s an easy town to explore on foot and we were enjoying the gorgeous harbor and mega yachts. Some of the yachts are way bigger than the small ship we had been on, which was 300 ft. I took pictures and when  got back to the hotel, I looked them up on the internet. They were mostly Russian Oligarch yachts! Oh yeah…. Trying to find safe moorage as the war between Ukraine and Russian is going and these guys don’t want their “toys” confiscated.  We saw parties going on….lots of crew, all dressed alike, and unbelievable wealth for these ships. 

We wandered into museums and then made our way to the beach..which, by our standards looked crowded. People told us it looked deserted compared to summer. On the way back, we wanted a bite to eat and went by rows and restaurants, and finally ended up (unknowingly) in one of the few VEGAN restaurants….but it had wine…and beer. The waitress was from Sweden, and she said she was looking for something different Sweden. She got it. 

Arriving back at our hotel, we had news that a NEW Covid test would be taken by us in the am…and everything would be fine. Hmmmm. 

ANOTHER DAY, ANOTHER DOLLAR

 Oh boy! It was looking stormy out side, and it was certainly stormy inside! The next morning, most of us gathered in a lobby area to listen to the phone call, and we were supposed to be able to ask questions.most people just wanted to know who was paying for what, how long were we captive in Spain, and how were we supposed to get our flights back.  The session didn’t go so well, because too many people were butting in and talking all at once and they were trying to resolve this over a cell phone and no one could hear a thing! I finally lost patience and went back to our room.  But, as I was leaving I heard the woman in Rome say, we would all be leaving on Monday. HUH? 

We saw Nan and Bruce and we all decided to would walk around town and look for a place to eat lunch. As we were walking the clouds were thickening and just as we got under a tarp that covered an outdoor eating area….a hail storm hit! It hit hard! But we still managed to order lunch over the din of that hail pelting down and the street turning into a River! After the rain stopped, we went necessity shopping for liquid refreshment and other goodies…and we bought more Covid tests. The Spanish kind. Ha!

Nan was still negative but the rest of us were testing each day hoping for a miracle.

NO HAPPY CAMPERS

 The next day, no one left Barcelona… and there was a lot of chatter, complaints, confusion, and downright anger. What were we supposed to do? We were in a strange city, with language barriers, and no one knew how to contact help, or who to contact, or how long we would be holed up AT OUR OWN EXPENSE. There were mini meetings, gripe sessions, lots of rumors and people were scrounging around for any solution to get them home, except now even more of us were testing positive.

We scurried to our rooms and emailed our tour company, our long gone guides, and anyone who we thought could help. We had to make new arrangements for our car storage, and cancel appointments and notify families and friends who were expecting us home. It was a hot mess, as they say…and desperation had a strong hold on us. And the UGLY American was starting to surface.

We were given a “contact” in ROME ,ITALY! I am not sure how many people sent off urgent emails to this contact, but I sure did. It was strange emailing a person in Italy about our issues with the US

government in Spain. But, she did respond, and at first I don’t think she was aware of how frustrated we were all becoming.  The next day a woman showed up as a facilitator for all of us and it didn’t take long to realize she was well in over her head! But she tried. Mostly she had to listen to complaints, and when she didn’t satisfy our questions, she made a plan to CALL the contact on ROME…..the next morning.

So Steve and I felt pretty good and here we were in a beautiful old city, so we just got dressed and took off on our own to explore Barcelona.

POSITIVE

 Sometimes positive is a good thing…in the case of Covid….NOT. After we all arrived and got settled at our hotel, the staff sent a medical technologist to each person’s room to be tested for Covid. As I said before, Spain didn’t have a problem with Covid status, but to fly BACK to USA …. We all needed a negative test signed by a doctor. As the testing continued during the afternoon…. We rested and repacked for our flts home the next morning.  There was also a farewell dinner to attend. As the afternoon went on, we were notified that quite a few people were testing positive so they decided to have 2 dinners…one for the sickies…and one for the people who were still negative.

As we entered the sickie dining room at the hotel that evening, it was apparent that A LOT of our travel mates were also there …. Over 30 of our original 60 shipmates had tested Positive, as Steve and I had….. so there was trouble brewing. Nan was still negative and off with the other bunch to a nice restaurant…but that would change also. So THE BIG PROBLEM was no one was leaving the next day as planned.  We all lost our airline reservations, and our seat assignments…and we didn’t know what the recourse would be or when we would be able to fly home, or how. To add to the dilemma….the tour guides, who were our “go to guys” for everything…were also leaving as they were done with us and had other trips to guide. We were in free fall!

BARCELONA

 Now this gets weird…. After being locked down for a couple days…we docked in Barcelona Spain. The staff put all the Covid people on their own bus….this is where we first found out there were quite a few of us… we felt like we had the “cone of shame” boarding our sickie bus as they took us to our very modern hotel in the heart of Barcelona. We entered the hotel, all masked, and not knowing what the hell was going to happen. We were met my the hotel staff who informed us we were very welcome in Barcelona, and by the way…Spain had done AWAY  with all Covid mandates  and protocol and we were free to go anywhere and do anything we wanted! No masks required. The ONLY issue was the hotel staff would not be available to clean our room, but we were welcome to come to breakfast and go anywhere! Unmasked and in bothered.  Spain had decided it was a flu virus and each person should do what they felt to stay safe.  I felt like a prisoner who had just been let out of jail! It was weird. And since we knew we were leaving in the am to fly back home….we just were happy.

We either forgot or didnt realize that the good ol USA CDC in their hyper vigilance…. REQUIRED A negative test within 24 hours of flying home.

Oh oh…did I already say this a few times?

Covid at SEA

 We were now thru with all things Italian and on our way to Spain. After dinner, we had a little presentation from two Italian guides about “hand gestures”. It’s impossible for an Italian to NOT talk using their hands…so we got a full on demonstration with diagram handouts if we ever wanted to use them.  It was really funny….but you would have had to been there…as the saying goes.

Retiring to our staterooms, neither one of us was feeling normal…. But chalk it up to a long trip. Since we were at sea for a few days, and couldn’t leave the ship….Steve decided to TEST!  We brought 8 of the freebie US tests from home, thinking we may need them…and this was the  opportunity…so after swabbing…Steve was positive for Covid. Oh boy! I was dragging my heels because maybe I just didn’t want to know….. but after a few hours, I relented…and OH BOY! AGAIN!  So our little stateroom was clearly in the COVID zone. We reported to the ships doctor, who promptly showed up and tested us again with her own version of the quick test…spitting in a tube. And yes…. We were among the newly infected…..little did we know how many were in that group. So they slapped the QUARANTINE sign on our door and we were instructed to STAY  in our room and food would be brought to us…but we were not supposed to leave our room…AT ALL! Bed-making was suspended…oh whoa is me!  Dr came by again and tested us once more just to make sure…so 3 tests each in a few hours….I was finally convinced we had the ‘RONA.  Nothing to do but stay in our stateroom and wait it out. We did however feel good enough to eat, and I asked them if I could have wine with my meal….. they must have felt very sorry for room 508… because I got a  whole Carafe and slept like a baby. 

ARBATAX

 Because of a predicted storm and rough seas, our captain elected to skip a scheduled port and visit a more protected site the next day. We docked at a very small port called ARBATAX. Every single person went on an excursion except  for the Covid positive people, who were stuck in their rooms….and STEVE and Nan and myself decided we did not want to go on the excursion. So we not only had the whole ship to ourselves, we had the whole town to ourselves … so we explored.

The funny part was we went to have lunch and we were literally the only 3 people in the dining room. After lunch we walked up a hillside and discovered a very beautiful beach and some hotels and airB&B’s and we all thought in another time, this would be a beautiful place to visit . After an afternoon of hiking all around we went back to the ship and sat in the sunshine on the upper deck, and just relaxed. 

Steve said he wasn’t feeling that great and I felt a tiny scratchy throat. Nan was A-OK. Well, we had a couple days at sea, so we figured we’d rest up and get ready for one day in Barcelona before we flew home. Little did we know, a new adventure was about to start.

SARDINIA

 Well, I must address the Covid issue. We were all being careful, especially on the ship where we were mandated to be masked everywhere except,our rooms. It was really getting old. I had never even seen some of the crew’s faces. Then I would notice a few people “disappearing” from dinner or side trips. At first it was just an ominous feeling that things were changing.

We we got to Sardina, we were in a locked down port, as reported before. To go anywhere, one had to get on a bus,  be checked by port staff  both ways, so we didn’t have the freedom as we had had in other port stations. Steve and Ali got on a bus and found our way to a big Sandy beach. One could tell by the messes of coffee shops this was a busy place when weather was good. The next day, I talked Nan and Bruce to go8ng back to the beach for a few hours, as it was Sunday and they whole island was on time out! Steve went on an excursion  and I finally got to walk and walk and walk….

After we got back from a morning spent on the beach…..Bruce really took a down turn and went to bed with the chills and headache.  After he rested, Nan made him take the 15 min PCR test. POSITIVE. ON the ship they have an honor system and if you do your own test and it is positive, you are supposed to report it to the ships Dr. She was from Ukraine, and she would come to your room and retest. So Brucie baby was quarantined and Nan was moved into another room on another floor. She was Negative and didn’t want to get any more exposed than she already had been. Lockdown on the ship was REALLY locked in your room with no cleaning services and food brought on trays to your door..and basically one could not leave their room for any reason.  The trip was changing.

On another note, since it WAS still the Easter holiday, we got big chocolate bunnies on our beds, and there were Easter treats in the cocktail lounge and entertainment by the crew and staff.  None of these guys are singers or dancers, but they sure had fun pretending to be….. I had to slip off  my mask to laugh and sip my drinks….oh oh

Ohoh

ISOLA di FAVIGNANA

 Still moored in Trapani , Sicily. we elected to take a day trip on a highspeed ferry to an island called Favignano. It was a old tuna fishing village, and still is, but not as important as in the old days. Now, people are building summer homes and using it to get away from the crowds. We got our tickets and boarded the commuter ferry. …masked up . Bruce was complaining about cold symptoms…. But he seemed ok, so off we went. The main town was small and easy to navigate, so we all just went out own way as it stated raining! So far on the trip, we have had very nice weather. It’s shoulder season so crowds are small and weather is mild.  We met our fellow travelers at an outdoor restaurant for another loooong lunch. Seems to be the norm in Italy. We were hungry! Bread is always first…and wine, of course, and we ended up having a local special pasta and cannonelli , which was delicious and totally traditional. 

We walked down to the harbor and boarded a little mini train that took us all,over the island, sightseeing. Let me say, it was cold, and windy, and outside….and we were freezing. I finally put on everything I had in my back pack and even my mask as it kept my face warm. After this excursion we were happy to board the ferry and get warm, and also return to the ship. 

We had interesting program where an Italian activist priest presented his life history about discovering endemic poisoning from a petroleum plant and he has been on this crusade for years,trying bring awareness. This trip as a program called “controversial topics” and most of them are interesting and presented in small gatherings where we can ask questions.

SARDINIA

 After the big HOLIDAY a weekend in Sicily, we set sail for the 2nd largest Island in the Mediterranean…SARDINIA.  We docked in the historic capital of CAGLIARI.  We got off the ship and joined a local guide for a walking tour on a very hilly and picturesque town. After the information and getting our bearings, Steve and I did our own things and walked all over exploring… we ended up in an area of the town that was definitely an immigrant relocation area, and many many N. African immigrants were there.

We met Simone for a typical Sardinian lunch, and as all the food in Italy…we were not disappointed. It doesn’t hurt that they always bring wonderful wine with the meals. It was a warm afternoon and we sat outside and people watched.  We could see our ship easily, but because of the heavy marine patrols and rules, it was not easy to get back to the ship. We had to pass thru customs and regulations each time we went ashore….it got old. 

Bruce had been feeling like he had a bad cold coming on, so he was staying aboard the ship. I was also feeling a little scratching throat…. But we had been so careful on this trip…Covid was not on my mind. The ship had strict rules and basically we were masked everywhere except our own staterooms….still, there were always some who didn’t quite mask up or were loosie goosie with the whole protocol….

Hmm…stay tuned.

EASTER PROCESSIONS

 Before I go skipping along to the next days adventure, I need to back track to Trapani Sicily. We happened to land here on Easter weekend. It’s a VERY big deal here.  Because of Covid, the big Easter celebrations had been put on hold for 3 years and Sat eve was the first time the town hosted the big religious parade.  Our hosts at the family dinner explained the importance of this celebration and after hearing about it, Steve and I wanted to experience it.

Churches from all over Sicily make these elaborate religious floats, bring bands…yes bands….but even tho they are marching bands, it’s NOT like we think in USA. These are like funeral processions with slow “heavy” music.  This procession goes on for over 24 hours non stop! People walk slow. There are many priests walking along the processions. People are dressed in suits and modest clothing. After hours and hours of parading down the main STREETS..(yes it crawls along different avenues)..the floats and processions end up at a MAIN church and are judged…but I am not sure what the parameters were.  The townspeople take it very seriously because it’s all about Jesus and the resurrection, but I got lost in the pageantry and swept up with so many people walking for so long. Steve and I went together , but got separated in the crowds….it was a teeming mob….and finally after taking enough pictures….I found my way back to the ship.  I saw Steve a few hours later!

MOTHYA ISLAND

 Off we go this am to explore  Mothya Island. Over 3000 years ago the Phoenicians la died on this place and built a community. They had fresh water and could see forever if enemies approached. We walked all over and saw the remains of the old Phoenician settlements. We had a very nice outdoor picnic under the trees, and then drove to the salt flats of the Stagnone Lagoon and had a tour and demo of how important these last flats have been for centuries. 

Tonight after dinner, we had an interesting talk from the hospitality manager about what goes on behind the scenes on a ship. 
We pulled up anchor and set sail for the island of Sardinia, which we will reach in the early am. It was a very calm sail.

TRAPANI

 Well, I guess the good weather just couldn’t last.  our capt explained we would have to completely bypass our next stop, because of a coming storm and the wave action was getting a bit dicey for landing. So after dinner this evening we headed for Trapani. We were rocking and rolling most of the night, but I had a seasick patch and others took advantage of the free Dramamine to get them thru.

We woke up to a really nice port and an easy walk onto a very lovely city of Trapani…also one of the Mafia Capitals of the world.
After breakfast we gathered to hear two men talk about what it is like growing up with fathers who were involved with the old time Mafia. It was really Interesting and we also learned how the Mafia has morphed into modern day operation . Still the Island of Sicily is heavily involved with all things Mafia…it just runs underground and affects the government and all lives….. just not overtly.
Steve and I did a couple long walks in town and stopped for lunch to eat a real Sicilian pizza…which we enjoyed a lot! We walked all over the sea wall and also went to to a huge Catholic church, where preparations were under hand for the giant religious processions the next day. Good Friday. Or as it is called here, Settimana Santa.  Tomorrow we will go to the parade.
We were invited to have a traditional Sicilian dinner with a host family tonight. Francesco met us at the dock and took us to his mother’s house , where I am sure she had been cooking all day!we had such a fun time and since there were just 6 of us we enjoyed great conversations, and wine! And fabulous food. We left stuffed,  but happy!