This is June 8, Day 13 – Sea Day

            Well SIR! This is June 8, Day 13 of this vacruisation. We got a good night’s rest – after we had a hunting expedition for Joseph’s C-Pap Machine chin strap and the TV remote. Apparently, they got bundled up with the sheets when they were changed yesterday! Oh well, we survived without either.

            Today is a Sea Day and never has one been more anticipated. This has been a grueling trip – we had chosen too many excursions for old fat people! Joseph awakened early and I asked him to go by the spa and double-check the time of my appointment. He did, called me and said, “it’s not until 9:30.” He told me that it was 8:05 and that I could take a snooze before heading out. I snuggled up in the bed and suddenly, my eyes bugged wide open. I remembered a tiny piece of paper on our bed the past evening telling us that the time was changing and to turn our clocks forward one hour! Like Spring all over again! For some reason, my iPhone had not updated this time change. I realized that I had 25 minutes to shower, get dressed and get to the spa – at the end of the ship! I took a speedy shower and dressed without certain undergarments that I would be required to remove anyway and got out the handy dandy rollator. I was going to be practically running, so I didn’t want to take any chances with the drop foot dropping, taking me along with it! I made it to the spa with 30 seconds to spare! You must fill out all sorts of papers and sign away all your rights to any information that you provide to them. Nope. Not happening. Not that I have any scandalous or criminal information on my form, but they don’t need to publish anything about me! I wrote on the form that “… does not have my permission to publish anything about me to anyone!” I doubt that it did a bit of good, but at least the spa technicians would look at me and wonder what is in my past instead of just seeing an old lady having a massage and a facial! Both were glorious and if they weren’t so expensive, I’d have both every day! That would be the perfect cruise!

            As I was lying on the massage table in all my unadulterated glory with the curtains wide open, I spied a boat! They are not rare; I just didn’t expect to see one and hoped they didn’t have good binoculars. As I was pondering this, the captain came on the loudspeakers and told us that we were changing courses to help rescue a boat full of people in distress. Well, that’s different. Of course, I was thinking that it was MY BOAT in distress. After I finished in the spa, I met up with Joseph and he told me that it was a sailboat on the other side of the cruise ship from where I was. The Oosterdam had sent a fast rescue boat to the distressed boat and that the Italian Coast Guard was on its way. I wondered if the chef cooked something special for the sinking ship (not really sinking), but Joseph said it was food and water shrink wrapped in crates. I didn’t know the Mediterranean had a Coast Guard, but then, I’d just never thought about it. Our ship stayed in the area until the Italian Coast Guard said it was OK to leave. All the excitement over, we got on course again.

            We went to the Lido deck and had lunch, then back to the room for a short nap. We got up in time for High Tea. What a disappointment! There were very few people there and usually, they have servers walking around with a multitude of trays and you got your choice of goodies in addition to a pot of tea. Under the new cut-back bare-boned procedures, each couple got a LITTLE 3-tiered plate with 3- one-fourth size sandwiches, three scone-like things and three other sweets. All very TINY. We got one cup of tea! It’s a good thing supper was coming soon! We returned to our room, rested a little and got ready for the second gala dinner. That, too, was a disappointment. I had evening dresses to wear at the galas and Joseph brought his 3-piece suit. I guess people just don’t do that kind of thing anymore. The others at our table were dressed as normal, except for one guy who wore a sports coat. Getting on the undergarments necessary for me to wear my dress was a Herculean task. Joseph had to give me a wedgie! After succeeding at the art of fine dressing, we went to the photo booth. Naturally, since we had bought the “whole package” we were going to get our money’s worth. The photographers did an excellent job and took photos of us at dinner, too. None of the other at our table wanted photos- either. Times, they are a changing.

After dinner, we went to the “show”. It was four guys called “Unity”. They were OK, that is until one of them sang Puccini’s “Nessun Dorma,” my most favoritist!!!, wondefullest aria EVER!!! And he did a wonderful job!

            Once the singing was over, we headed to our little piano bar and danced a some. Joseph danced with some other ladies, and they were so appreciative. There were a lot of single women on that ship, I’m a lucky woman – in more ways than one!

Exhausting all our cha cha cha dance moves with “Smooth”, we went back to our room and Joseph proceeded to pull out the biggest suitcase we have, and I began to pack souvenirs wrapped in dirty clothes. That’s the way we keep things from getting broken, and it works! It sure tidied up the room a lot, Joseph put away the suitcase, and we no longer looked like someone had broken in and burglarized the place!

While I was packing, Joseph was up in the puzzle room. He told me that the red tractor puzzle was finished and there was one piece missing. Bummer!

Sweet Dreams! Next chapter –

June 9, 2022 – Day 14 – Corfu, Greece

           We are headed to Corfu, Greece today! Several years ago, there was a TV show called the Durrells of Corfu. It was about a family from from England who migrated to Corfu before WWII because they had heard that the cost of living there was low. (Funny part – watch the show.) This show was based on an actual family – members of whom eventually became well-known for various activities “hatched” while they were on Corfu. Anyway, I loved the show and when I saw that it was on the itinerary for this cruise, I knew this was the one!

The island of Corfu is beautiful. It has gorgeous plants everywhere. I had not done proper research to determine which city the Durrell’s lived in – I guess I thought Corfu was just an island-city kind of place. So, we took the hop on hop off bus to see the island. Our first sector was the blue line. It took us to the most unpopulated part of the island, but by the castle where the “Executive” of Corfu resides. We could not go onto the grounds because we had not purchased tickets for the tour, but the grounds were gorgeous!

We got off the bus near the town center and walked around admiring the beauty all around us. We found a small shopping district – and it was great! They even had clothes that fit me! I bought loads of items with the Grecian Key design and many Corfu dish towels and magnets for my sister and nieces – they were bigger fools than us about the Durrell’s! I also loved the “eye” of Greece- see the umbrella?

We had lunch at a Corfu “diner” – outside, of course. Joseph loves Greek food – me – not so much. But he had his beer of the day and Greek Salad with that weird Tzatziki sauce (I don’t like it, so I call it weird.  I guess I am a fussy eater.) I ordered chicken salad sandwich on a croissant. I got a green salad with grilled chicken on top and pita bread. Oh, well, that little repast cost us forty-three euros.

Then – we decided to do the red line route of the hop on hop off bus. There was a lady directing “traffic” for the on and off the buses. We told her we had done the blue line and that we wanted to do the red line route. She said “yes, yes, get on this bus” and pointed to a bus. We got on and soon realized we were going the same route as this morning!!! It was too late; it doesn’t overlap with the blue line anywhere! We turned this misfortune into a well-needed rest period and took naps!

            One really funny thing about Corfu – everywhere I went, I asked where the Durrell’s lived, NOT ONE person had ever heard of them! I tried to tell them about the TV show, and they looked at me like I was a doddering old aunt from the back country.

            When we finally got back to the docking area for the ship, we had to about walk three hundred meters back to the passport control and security at a large building before the dock. It took forever because there were several cruise ships there plus other tourists. The line was out the door and down the sidewalk! After finally getting x-rayed and checked out, they let us through, and we still had to get a shuttle bus to get us back to the ship. A lengthy process for such a little place! Of course, Greece is big, I was just thinking about that one island.

            We unloaded and headed out for a much-needed libation. None of the bars in the ship were open except the one way up on the lido deck – outside in the smoking area. We just returned to our room where Joseph put on his breathing mask and took another nap, and I started writing in the journal for the day. Abruptly, we heard the captain speaking – telling us that we had to wear masks for the duration of the cruise when we were in public spaces because some passengers and crew members had tested positive for COVID. Bummer! We had left the mask mandates as soon as we had left Canada daaaaayyyyys ago!!

            We met up with four of the others in our dining group, and the staff made us ladies paper birds. They were cute, but no replacement for the cute towel animals that had been missing throughout the cruise!

            We tried to call our new Mexican Train Domino friends, but Janine was already in bed watching a movie, so Joseph and Brian smoked their cigars, and I went to bed, too. Suddenly, I heard the most gosh-awful loud blaring siren-sounding noise – coming from my make-up desk. HUH??? I got up and looked and it was a thunderstorm alert for Geneva County coming through my phone! What a way to get your heart pumping in the middle of sound sleep! I was awake, so I called room service for a Coke Zero and started writing, again. Joseph came in soon after and we both tried to go back to sleep. Fun times coming tomorrow – so rest needed!

New day – June 10, 2022- Day 15 – Dubrovnik, Croatia

            I was writing the wrong date in my journal!  Wow, do my days ever get confused-even though the day of the week is in foot high letters in the elevator every day!

I had awakened about 2 AM suffering with a case severe heartburn- probably from overeating at dinner last night and from the two glasses of Moscato! I don’t drink very much, but since we had purchased the “full package” and the drinks were included, I attempted to “get my money’s worth! “. I think I got more than I bargained for! I searched and searched for the Tums, finally found them in the way back of my nightstand; unfortunately, they were hermetically sealed, and I could not get them open. I swear, they could wrap the space shuttle in some of this packaging and get it to the moon without a scratch! Finally, after fumbling around and waking up Joseph, I found the little scissors that I always carry in my checked baggage. I was able to open the Tums, damaging the scissors only a little. I took four and returned to bed.

            We got up rather early and Joseph forced some of that 24-hour steel cut oatmeal on me, and I must admit, it made me feel a little better.   We proceeded to the gangplank where we caught a taxi to old town Dubrovnik, Croatia. The taxi driver tried to sell us on many types of tourist packages, with him serving as tour guide. He assured us that he could get us the best prices, the best food, the best exchange rates, and the best narrative in town. We took his number but told him we had already purchased packages. We were to meet our tour guide there in city Center, but we had about 30 minutes before the start of the tour. We found a lovely restaurant where Joseph had Apple Pie ala mode and cappuccino and I had Coke Zero. (Joseph tried to order crème Brulé, but the waiter insisted the apple pie was divine.)  The pie weighed about a pound! It was about 9:30 AM and the people all around us were ordering milkshakes, pastries, and smoothies. My kind of breakfast-when I am feeling well.

            The tour guide finally rounded us up and introduced us to the lady who was going to give us the old town tour. Once we were introduced, we left the new lady and “our group” (consisting of first lady and us) began the march downhill through Old Town. She marched us to the pier to meet our boat captain. We had scheduled a panoramic view boat ride in a glass bottomed boat. It’s a boat capable of holding 15-20 people and the glass bottom had not been cleaned since the Soviet era – and we were the only riders! We and the non-English-speaking Captain, that is. We had a lovely ride around part of the walled city and pulled our hands through the warm, beautiful, blue Aegean Sea.

We returned to the city center to meet our other tour guide after slowly walking back up the hill from the pier. She thought she had lost us and was freaking out! I told her I had to go to the ladies’ room before we started. She begrudgingly agreed and I went into the restaurant where we had had apple pie earlier. She and Joseph were to meet me “under the big tree.” I came out, went to the big tree and No One was there! I looked and looked for Joseph and the tour guide- finally finding my red rollator abandoned beneath the big tree! Duh, Finally, Joseph comes running out of the restaurant saying he had been waiting there and the tour guide was gee, who knows where? Who’s on first? We finally got our ducks in a row, and she just kept apologizing to the others who were waiting (but were early, anyway.) We began the long march back down the same hill we had just climbed. She told us about the wall of the city and the history of the wall. She showed us an old church, and you know how I feel about a thousand old church on the 15th day!!! I kept wandering off to look at things for sale. Joseph finally explained to her that history was not my thing, but shopping was. Just let me lag behind and I would catch up. I found an old lady in a corner who had all handmade items and bought a beautiful short table runner from her.

The guide explained a little about the head of the city “Council” who served 30 days, were to live in the equivalent of City Hall during that time and serve as “Ambassador.” They had one guy who was caught stealing his first day. This was about 800 AD. Things never change! One interesting story was that of the destruction of the city by an earthquake and fires. The council put a tax on everyone entering the city. They were required to bring in four bricks to help rebuild the city. I thought that was good problem solving. The wall was actually started in the ninth century and continued until the 17th century.

Dubrovnik loves cats and they are everywhere. People leave food for them, and they lounge around in the sun. Another interesting thing in Dubrovnik history was that the small island a few meters from shore was used to quarantine ships for 40 days during the Black Plague. Sound familiar? The tour guide thought Joseph was a history professor/genius because he knew all the answers to the questions she asked.   We found it fascinating that Dubrovnik was the cleanest city we had seen on the entire cruise.   Croatia was a very pleasant surprise.  I’d love to go there again.

            We had lunch, I wandered back to a Christmas shoppe I had found and proceeded to lose my sunglasses!

We had been about to get tickets for the sky tram but decided that we were tired and that we were ready to go “home.” We stood in line for the ship shuttle, but it didn’t come for over 30 minutes. We had struck up a conversation to another couple waiting for the bus and they were from OZARK, ALABAMA! We decided to cast our lots together and hire a taxi. Once we were in the taxi, we realized why the shuttle bus had not come. GRIDLOCK! It took almost an hour to get to the ship.

            We got to the ship, got ready for dinner, and met our group. Afterwards, we went up to the smoking deck and played Mexican Train Dominoes with Brian and Janine. Joseph was having lots of leg pain, so he kept enjoying Knobb Creek libations. We played until almost 1 AM. He hobbled back to the room, took a muscle relaxer, and collapsed. Sweet Dreams.