Random Musings and Nicknacks

Morning market in Cairo

I woke up this morning wondering how much getting sick on a cruise comes down to luck, and how much comes down to care and attention.

Walking through the corridors to get to the cafeteria I noticed a bad smell outside one of the cabins – later I realized I recognized that smell; it meant somebody inside was really, really sick. The cafeteria is still giving us “silver service” where the staff serves us – we aren’t allowed to touch anything. While lined up for coffee I had a guy in one ear telling me this was all to save money, while listening in the other ear to a lady telling the staff that they needed to cleanup the back deck, and her family had gone downstairs to call medical.

I never thought that heading into Cairo I would be able to relax a little bit about getting sick!
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I’ve always been a bit paranoid about health on a ship, but I have to admit that the current situation has really upped the ante. To make sure I wash my hands completely I find myself doing what we teach kids: saying the ABC’s while I do it. Then I leave the restroom and immediately head to a sanitation station, just to make sure I am clean. To be safe, I am also ensuring I regularly take a disinfectant internally, to keep my stomach clean (its a Chilean version of my favourite internal sanitizer).
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The phone to our cabin rang at 1 AM this morning. When I answered it, an operator said there was a call coming in for Ling Lu, would we accept it.

I was barely awake, but my heart sank – there was only one reason someone would be calling, something had happened. There was some disaster, I didn’t want to think about what.

I said yes we would accept it, and handed the phone to Ling. She told me later the guy on the other line was asking “do you remember me?” She was confused, kept saying this is Ling, and finally got out of the guy on the other end that it was a wrong number – he was looking for someone who’s name sounded like hers. I wonder if he’s been looking for a while – on the first night the phone rang as well, but we couldn’t find it in time to answer it.

I still don’t know what happened – I am sure the operator said the name correctly, I’m wondering if she sound the best match on the ship’s registry?

Once we found that it was a wrong number we both heaved a huge sigh of relief.

But it was hard getting back to sleep after that scare.

House of the Virgin Mary

There was a point today where I realized I was walking down the original marble main street in the Biblical city of Ephesus, carrying a jar of holy water I had just filled up at the Virgin Mary’s stream.

There is no conclusion I can draw from this – it is just a moment where you have stop and realize this is what you are doing. This is the city where St. Paul was arrested and sent to be executed. This is the city where Cleopatra and Mark Antony took their honeymoon. The City where Mary lived her last years. I am walking down its main street.
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The City of Athens

Today we toured Athens. Not knowing much about the layout of the city, less about the language, and even less about how to read it, we decided to go with a ship’s excursion – a bus tour of Athens then a stop to see the Acropolis, Parthenon, and Temple of Nike Athena. The next time we will get a taxi and find our own way through the city.
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Boqueria Market, Ramblas, Barcelona

Doing a Mediterranean cruise has been very interesting. When I first looked at our itinerary, I was upset that pretty much every port included a day at sea in-between. Being in this part of the world, I felt that was a waste of time, I wanted to be off the ship constantly looking at things.
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A very small part of Trevi Fountain

The metro was a quick ride (two stops) to “Colloseu”. I’ve been told about this, it has been described to me, but I still wasn’t ready for it. As you walk up the stairs from the stop you see the Colosseum rising in front of you. It dominates the landscape, and it is right in the middle of Rome.

Standing there, right in front of the Colosseum [1], my first thought was that this is almost an anti-climax. First, it is so big (colossal to be precise) that you really can’t take it all in. Second it is just surreal. You just stand there thinking “I’m standing here in front of the Colosseum. This can’t be real – it must be a model or something.” Then reality hits you when the first person tries to sell you a tour of the Colosseum and the Forums. Since you are still right beside the metro station you know it has to be the most expensive tour there (they catch you before you hear any other prices).
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Inside the Colosseum

When we are travelling, Ling and I seem to think in a fairly similar fashion. If we are exploring a city (like Sidney), we like to find our own way around, take transit, and try to get the feel of moving through it. You can’t see a city through the windows of a Coach.

On the other hand if we are going to see some special sight or historical monument (like the Mayan ruins in Belize), a tour is the best way to go – it is focussed, it gets you there fast, and you get a guide that can tell you what you are seeing.

Rome presents a bit of a challenge to this philosophy, since it is both. As it turns out Rome for us started with a misunderstanding. When Ling was going through the excursions earlier in the year she mentioned that she thought what we would do is walk around Rome. So I did a bit of research into how to get ourselves around Rome (not enough, mind you!). It turns she had been thinking excursion – “Walk around Rome” is an excursion name.
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