DO YOU LOVE TO TRAVEL? Part 1. I do not. I am a homebody and distant distances do not draw me. But it happens that I have such a possibility of “suddenly” going somewhere. 🤔 The initiative comes not from me, of course from my husband; he proposes a variant, I agree.
And so, once my computer husband (and he is indeed “computer”! Since for 40 years already he has been “ploughing the computer science of programming and working, and working, mastering everything new and newest in this field) I think of him with pride, that he is a computer genius. So then, my genius, in January 2022 saw an advertisement for “cheap” tickets on a cruise liner with the tempting name Wonders of the Sea, briefly asking me “Shall we go?” I decided not to think long and agreed, asking myself “how old am I” and thinking “what are you, fool, Little Red Riding Hood? to refuse such a possibility” (well, that happens with me, I conduct a “casual” monologue with myself).
And so on 17 May we flew to Rome. By that time the mask regime on planes had already been cancelled, but I took masks just in case and I did right! As soon as we transferred to the Oslo–Rome plane of the Scandinavian airline SAS, the stewardess, “hemming and slightly apologising, proposed that everyone put on masks, since we are flying to ‘Italy frightened by the pandemic.’” (that I already add from myself, since we were quite unused to masks; in Norway I did not notice particular strictness, but we are already people of unbending age, so we received the full set of vaccinations on time)
I, a freedom-loving homebody 😻, had to stifle myself with that mask for almost 3 hours of flight. We took off at an air temperature of 12 degrees; arriving in Rome, we felt a hot reception with a temperature of 26 degrees above zero. It is good that they did not search us and quickly let us out, and a taxi ordered in advance took us to the centre of the city to an old building in which our hotel was.
The old lift in the hotel pleasantly surprised me. I remembered my childhood, how I and a girlfriend rode in such a lift in her new house, nicknamed among the people “the ministerial.” Ivan did not at once “get” how to use this ancient structure of Roman civilisation, but I, coming to life, exclaimed: “Get in! Ah, I’ll give you a ride with a breeze!” (I remember that you have to do everything yourselves — close the iron door well, to the click, then the wooden doors with glass windows tenderly and tightly, and then press the button of the needed floor, and on leaving the lift do the same “in reverse order” (only already without pressing any buttons 😻) And if you do not do that, the people from the first floor who need the lift will think badly of you and possibly out loud.
Yes! And another thing: at reception they gave us a bunch of keys and in English, but temperamentally, explained which key was for what. I, naturally, do not strain myself, I simply make a polite face, rely fully on my husband (he knows English!) 😻 after the receptionist fell silent, I tenderly ask in Norwegian: “I hope you understood everything?” Vanya nods, but I know that Vanya needs a computer screen, not a bunch of keys. I take it one key was for the front door in case we stayed out late, the second for the hotel room, but there was also a third 🤔 … Ah I don’t know for what! In two days’ stay we used only the key to the room.
Waking early in the morning and opening the window, I felt “the painfully familiar smell” of rubbish bins in the hot season. Such an unforgettable smell, it reminded me of peaceful life in Kiev, in the hot season. I also understood that life in the city is round the clock, without breaks for sleep in the dark hours, that is, solid Italian wakefulness of all layers of society, only we — northern Scandinavian inhabitants are used to sleeping at night, which is what we did.