So …
It’s 12.30 am and I’ve just boarded
the ‘ferry’. But, WTF. There was no-one at the bag screener so I
hung around for a minute or two and no-one came so I just walked up the walkway
and onto the boat. Just like everyone
else, and anyone else who has a bomb in their bag. Or a gun.
Or anything else they want to bring with them.
I’m in my cabin, in my bed that
has a mattress about one inch thick – for cm people it is about two cms
thick. I have an outside cabin so at
least I have a porthole that I can look out of.
My room number - it was between 9211 and 9215 ...
My cabin
I’ve been for a walk and had a
hot chocolate and spoken with the barman, I was the only person in the whole
room. I asked where the other passengers
were and he said they were probably still boarding but I only saw two other
people at the port, so maybe it’s a thee person cruise...
All the other people on the boat in the lounge area with me
Everybody in the dining room for lunch and dinner
I went up two flights of stairs
to walk around the outside and there was a girl sitting outside with her
dog. Then as I was coming back to my
cabin coming up the stairs were about twenty loud as teenagers, yelling and
carrying on. Yay! I’m hoping they haven’t booked a cabin and
have no need to come down this way. Or
that they at least have a cabin on a different level. There are three or four levels of cabins, you
don’t have to book a cabin, you can just hang out on the ferry which is what I
am hoping they are going to do. They
will do that upstairs, hopefully in the bar, that was empty except for one
person, and he was the entertainment. He
was singing to an empty room. Good on
him.
One of the passageways of cabins on my deck
I don’t know what the story is
with Barcelonian taxi drivers though.
The taxi driver spoke to me in English when I got into the cab, he
confirmed that he knew where he had to take me at the port because there are
about five different places apparently, and off we went. As we got to the port we had to stop at the
security gate and he was talking to the police in the booth and I was asking
what the policeman was saying, the driver suddenly did not understand or speak
English but pointed in the opposite direction while saying ‘No English’. He had taken me to the wrong place. When we got to the right place he was very apologetic,
and I was as nice as I always am, the fare was 16 euro even though the meter
showed 24 euro – 24 euro because he had taken me to the wrong bloody place.
Anyway, I am here, I am on my
skinny bed, it is quiet outside my cabin so I’m going to try to go to sleep…
Next morning …
I slept but not the sleep of the
dead. Every time I turned over I woke up
because I had to stop myself from falling out of bed because the 2cm thick
mattress has a lean on it, leaning towards the outside!
It took ages to get to sleep, it
didn’t help that there were announcements every half hour or so right up until
4.30am when we finally left Barcelona – 6 hours late. I have asked at the Information desk what
time we will be in Italy, she didn’t know but she will make an
announcement. I think she likes the P.A.
system.
I was right about the lunatic
young people, I didn’t hear any yelling or carry on during the night (what an
old person – ‘carry on’) and when I came into the dining area there were three
other people at a table and me. I don’t
think there are too many others on this ferry!
It runs every day/evening/whenever time it wants to and during the
European winter I can’t see too many people wanting to do this trip. Plus, I am discovering in Europe, tourism is
not big on people’s agendas at the moment, people have no money to travel or go
on holidays, the terror attack in Barcelona has slowed people down apparently
and the political situation isn’t conducive to coming to Barcelona. That was Spain. Italy may be different.
It’s very calm waters but very
overcast right now, it is 9.30am. I am
about to go and see if I can find out where I get my internet time from. I’m guessing it is going to be slow internet
so won’t bother trying to load this blog today, I will wait until I arrive in
Italy and have wifi coverage. I just
want to touch base with home and get some messages.
So … having issues with the
internet package I bought, I keep getting the message that I have used all my time,
but I can’t even get connected … the chick at ‘Information’ isn’t a whole lot
of help, she stuck me in a room on my own and told me to wait and she would get
someone to help me … half an hour later I left and said I would come back. The ‘room’ is like a movie theatre. All the seats were empty. I’ve been to the top outside freezing cold
deck and couldn’t even get connected
there so about to go back to the “non-information” chick … this is where she
told me to wait, again with all my friends …
Waiting with all my friends
So … got a new sign in number and
it worked, have read messages from home and hopefully have disconnected so I
can sign in again later and catch up again … it is horrible being so far away
from home and disconnected when stuff is going on … but everyone is ok so no
dramas.
I’m in one of the bars on the
ferry/ship/sailing vessel now. This is
where the wifi is the strongest apparently.
The radio is on, all the chatter is in Italian but the music is English
so that’s ok, I can make out some of the Italian chatter, but I don’t know
where it is from so doubt I will get any Aussie news, might get some world
news, haven’t heard any for over a week, that’s not always a bad thing though. There are three others here, I am about 20
meters away from the closest person but I can hear every word he is
saying. I had forgotten how loud
Italians are. I feel sorry for the
staff, there are no people to need them and to keep ‘busy’ they are walking
around polishing things and readjusting the Christmas decorations.
So, just had lunch, the meal was
ok considering I paid about $10 and have pilfered some into my bag for a snack
later this arv. I didn’t pilfer as much
as the man sitting two tables away from me,
I pilfered an orange and my bottle of water, I was watching him as he
took the chips off his plate and was putting them into a small plastic
container beside him on the chair, next in went the salad, then in went the
bread. Not sure what famine he is saving
up for because dinner is also served on this floating vessel in about six
hours.
Lunch - Koby would be horrified, it was orecchi pasta with broccoli (green poo)
I’m back in my cabin, I’m going
to have a lay down and a snooze I hope because I am tired, laying down on my
bed is a duel purpose. 1) to have a
snooze and 2) so I can do my core muscle exercises while trying to stay on the
mattress and not roll off! The water
isn’t rough, just a slight chop, so it’s not even that rocky, it’s more the
mattress situation …
So … we have passed between Corsica and Sardenia
and I have A “Welcome to France” message on my phone so I guess I can
cross France off my list of places I’ve never been to! We’re on the downhill run now, we are about
2/3 of the way to Rome. Its 5pm so by my
calculations if we left at 4am this morning which was what the last
announcement was, then we should hit land in Italy in around another seven
freaking hours, around midnight …
Corsica
Sardenia
I haven’t minded cruising from Barcelona
to Rome, the boat is like a small cruise ship, it has more than enough things
on board, there is a casino, a movie theatre, a few bars and lounges and a
couple of dining areas and a café. The
couple of things that have spoilt it was the bloody delays in leaving Spain, no
explanation given just kept getting told another two hours, another two hours,
another four hours … so not leaving until 4.30am … and the mattress. Otherwise I don’t think it’s a bad way to
travel at all. Much better than the ferry
I took from Palermo in Sicily to Salerno on the Amalfi coast last time, that
one was filled with men all except me and another woman, we stuck to each other
like glue. That was a day sailing so I
didn’t have a cabin booked then, we both had a lounge chair booked, that was
exhausting. That ferry was also late, we
left about 5 hours late that time too.
WTF Grimaldi Lines, get your act together!!
I have just found out we are
expected to disembark around 9pm, the captain has pushed the boat through because
we left so late. It’s advertised as a 22
hour trip and it has taken 17 hours so I’m happy with that! So much better than
midnight or later which is what I was expecting. Naturally my panic/worry kicked in and I was
starting to think about what to do if the hotel isn’t open at that
time but I think it is one of the biggest hotels in Civitavecchia so it will be
fine. I’ve emailed them to let them know
I’ve been told I will be disembarking around 9 – 9,30, hopefully my transfer is
there. I’m about to pack up my stuff
then go for a wander, dinner in a couple of hours then we will be arriving –
woo hoo – I will be glad to get there.
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