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.