I spent the first 5 hours of my day trying to think of a good reason to get out of my pyjamas, and couldn't really think of one. Eventually the siren call of Target lured me out of my apathy, and I braved the drizzling mist to spend a happy hour in the bastion of American consumerism. I'm delighted to see how many tv series have appeared on DVD in my absence, and am seriously considering whether I need to add the first season of Northern Exposure to my collection. I think it will be particularly appropriate to bring with me to Tahiti.
Meanwhile it's three days to Halloween and the kids have their costumes all ready - Halloween in the Northwest is always such a balancing act of finding a costume you want to wear that's also warm enough that you don't have to wear your winter coat trick or treating. My youngest nephew has such a scary mask that he refuses to sleep in the same room with it. Can't say as I blame him. I still haven't discovered the stash of Halloween candy, but it's only a matter of time.
Well, my evil plan to spend the whole of today vegetating in my hotel room did not work quite as planned, as it happened the latest check-out they could give me was 2:00 (since apparently somebody who actually wanted to pay for the room was checking in later), so I arranged my day so I could spend a nice peaceful couple of hours in the lobby bar checking my email. What I neglected to notice, however, was that they are doing a considerable amount of construction at this hotel, and today they're using jackhammers in the room next door. Not precisely conducive to peaceful contemplation, or indeed, accurate typing. If I can just grit my teeth for 30 more minutes I can go somewhere quiet, like the airport...
Well, I can't really speak for Miami - being as I spent much of yesterday in Ft Lauderdale (eating some really nice conch fritters and some fantastic pumpkin beer) and the rest of the time I've barely ventured forth from the Dean Martin suite - which has such a nice view it's hard to leave. I can't speak highly enough for this Hilton, which allowed me not only to extend my stay in the aforementioned suite by a day (even though I'm paying precisely $0 for the privilege) but is allowing me late check out tomorrow, so I have a roof over my head until I leave for the airport at 4:00. That mean two whole extra days by the lagoon pool. And all the free wireless internet that my battery will allow.
I am off the ship after a 5 hour customs and immigration fiasco which involved all those of us who were leaving sitting in a restaurant for 3 hours waiting to be given our passports. By the end we were all just punchy and silly, and it turned out to be fun, but I was never so glad to set my feet on dry land as I was today.
Now I'm sitting in the Fontainebleau Hilton in Miami Beach (thank you once again to all the Hilton Points I collected in my last job) and, well, I'm in the Lobby Bar, since that's where the free wireless internet is... but my penthouse suite is quite lovely too. I'm told Dean Martin used to stay in that very same suite, but I'm not sure I believe it. It's nice and all, but it's not Dean Martin nice. It does, however, have a lovely view of the ocean and three separate doors out onto the balcony....
Caught my first sight of land in 5 days today, and I have to say it gave me a thrill. I've actually been so busy this week that I haven't even noticed we've been at sea. The waves calmed down almost immediately, more's the pity, and we just had a dull slow roll for the last three days. Yawn. Tomorrow is a frenzy of immigration and customs, and then it's vacation, vacation, vacation. Yay. I can't wait to eat land food again.
7 foot waves and gale force 11 winds all make for a really entertaining day at sea. It all started with me more or less being rolled out of my bunk last night at three, and every 15 minutes thereafter. Showering this morning was well, quick, because the water all pooled at the non drain end of the shower, and teaching was a riot today. It was a toss up whether I was going to trip over a power cord, or simply fall over when the waves hit. The open decks are closed, the pools have been drained (since earlier they were sloshing tidal waves and sending spray up to the deck above), and the passengers are divided as to whether this is fun or miserable. As for me, I'm enjoying every second of it. We're all waiting for the real storms to hit. 1 day down, 4 more to go.
Today is our last Sunday in Naples, which is nice, because Sunday means my chances of getting run over as I cross the street are greatly reduced, but sad because the pizza place is closed. So today is just about internet and coffee, and despite the Italian keyboard, thanks to my Gates training, I know how to change the keyboard to English, so as long as I can resist the temptation to look at the keys, I can almost type like a normal person. Today is my last Nociolatto (espresso with some yummy hazelnut fluff dropped in) so I plan to go savor it. Then it's back to the ship and laundry day.
I shall miss Venice. We spent the last night in Venice at the Jazz Bar (hoping to see Heath Ledger, who's filming Cassanova here - but no luck) then wandered over to the Rialto bridge for pictures and gelati, then, being as we were such a large group, got a water taxi back to the ship through all the back alleys and mysterious byways in Venice. It was really an amazing way to see the city at night. I gave up taking pictures after the second one just turned into crazy streaks of light. Managed a last two cappucinos in Venice the next day before we sailed, and now it's back to Florida.
It's starting to get cool and foggy in Venice, which really only makes it more mysterious and fantastic. Still crowded, but last night I had the most amazing dinner. After some 6 months of coming in and out of Venice, I finally got around to eating in one of the restaurants my parents recommended, and, well, they never steer me wrong. We started with crispy little fried zuchinni and red wine, moved on to all kinds of yummy vegetables in olive oil, and on and on. In the end we walked back to the ship because we were so full we needed the exercise. Today is turnaround day and the ship is full of passengers wandering around lost, stumbling through the buffet. Much better to be here in town.
This wins the prize for prettiest port visited this itinerary. I filled an entire 256 mb card just taking pictures walking around the old town wall. It seems to have largely recovered from the fighting in the 90's though here and there you can see signs of shelling, and almost all the roofs are brand new. So it's sort of horrifying and amazing all at once, because it seems quite peaceful and well, placid now. One simply cannot imagine anything bad happening here.
Back to Venice tomorrow, and then begins the long trek across the Atlantic.
Today we declared a moratorium on ruins (though we did ferry out from Mykonos to Delos yesterday to see the birthplace of Artemis and Apollo) and comandeered a taxi in Katakolon to take us to the beach. He pleaded with us to be allowed to take us to the site of the first Olympics, but we held firm, and ended up on an idyllic and almost deserted beach (because it's apparently too cold for the Greeks now) for three hours. Incidentally, Mykonos was pretty fabulous too, and we had some great food.