«Do you love to travel?» Part 4 — the concluding and joyful one! Of course joyful for me; I always, very much, strive to get as quickly as possible to my permanent habitat, i.e. home, home to the «little burrow», to my little bed, to my «rags». All the same I am a dyed-in-the-wool homebody, and it is good that my Norwegian husband does not know this (or perhaps he does? 🧐).
Today is already 19 January 2023. I have just eaten a tangerine that I hung two days ago on the tree. Our tree is an ordinary artificial one from IKEA. But since in January there were rains and greyness, I decided not to take it down and every dark morning to switch on the garland on it and go on cheering myself.
«I return to the ship with the beautiful name Wonders of the seas.» There are many floors: 18 🤣. I did not notice at once that the 13th floor was not marked in the lift. That my husband told me later. It turned out that we used the touch «buttons» and at times I paid no attention to the floors. Now I cannot remember on which floor our hotel room was, and I cannot call it a cabin, because the huge enclosed ship space looked like a city in miniature.
We — that is, 7,500 holidaying inhabitants — fitted in there, served by 2,300 trained staff. The lifts, of course, made an indelible impression on me at once. Transparent lifts — you see everyone and everyone sees you. You feel like a travelling frog. 😄
Food: «all inclusive!» except alcohol. Alcohol at your expense and … that is understandable. A menu for every taste. The first two days we went to the restaurant to eat. They «assigned» us a table and as many as two waiters! One named his name and his native country — Honduras. In my head at once surfaced an old joke from distant Soviet times about events in Honduras. That joke sounded approximately like this: two Jews meet and one says to the other: «listen, lately Honduras has been bothering me so much!», and the second Jew answers him: «then don’t scratch it!»
After two days I felt exhausted from such attention from the serving staff and decided to look for another eating place; luckily there were more than enough of them on the vessel. Having observed the «inhabitants» of our little town, I understood that for many the «Nutrition» mode was switched on round the clock; it remained only to find out where this round-the-clock point worked. The non-stop buffet was on the fifth floor. In the buffet the same set of products was presented — sandwiches, éclair cakes (little ones like that, but eat as many as you want), coffee, juices, drinking water you pour yourself «from the tap».
I confess that I feel loneliness in my habit — I can eat often and a little at a time; my husband eats only twice a day: in the morning — breakfast, and lunch at 3 in the afternoon. This habit of his — to eat a solid meal in the daytime — more than once let him down on trips around Western Europe. Restaurants open late, from 18:00, and only in the evening do they cook a full lunch. So he walks–rides the whole day hungry, but, strangely, with a kind face. In all our life together he has never once admitted that he is hungry. What a unique person next to me.
So, I return from thoughts to the realities of the cruise. We did find the place where the ardent majority ate — «people of different nations». There it was very filling and interesting! You could choose a place by the window, eat everything you wanted and look into the distance and at the waves below, since this dining room was placed as high as the 10th floor!
Oh, and why am I going on and on about food and food? Like that soldier «closer to the kitchen — farther from the bosses!» After all, our cruise provided for travel through countries and cities in only 6 days! «a life like a dream» when every morning you wake up in another city! Ha-ha! You go to sleep in one city, and wake up in another and, possibly, in another country! A fantastic reality of which I never dreamed, never guessed, never thought.
Well then, it is time to announce our route: start in Rome, Naples, Palma de Mallorca, Marseille, Barcelona, La Spezia, and the end of the route — Rome.