Colonia, Uruaguay, a quiet little town on the river.

It’s a rainy afternoon back at our apartment in Montevideo.  Doesn’t seem like summer, doesn’t seem like Christmas.  We have just returned from the small but historic town of Colonia del Sacramento.  After living in the Sacromonte for so long it is a little hard to say so I’ll just refer to the place as Colonia.

The first thing we noticed about Colonia was the quiet.  We hiked the seven short blocks uphill from the bus station to our hotel in the old section of town.  Shady tree lined neighborhood streets almost all the way.

Finally we hit a busy road; the main street Gran Flores.  While there is two-way traffic, there are no stop lights or signs.  There is really not all that much traffic.  Drivers simply wait for pedestrians or other traffic to pass.  The main street has right-of-way from the cross streets; simple.

Our hotel was the quaint three-star rated HOTEL BELTRAN.  The public areas are nice although we were disappointed to find that the restaurant and bar were closed except for the continental breakfast offered in the morning.  While our room was a bit dingy, a coat of paint would have brightened it up nicely.  The cable TV and internet worked just fine and as advertised.  The en-suite bathroom functioned nicely and all fixtures and tile work was fairly modern.  Our two night stay cost $136, inexpensive for the rating in the area.

We had arranged to be in Colonia for three days and were eager to go exploring and apartment hunting after checking-in to the hotel.  As is normal for us, we started walking toward the water

.  Colonia, like Punta del Este and Montevideo, sits on a peninsula jutting into the Rio Plata.  The river runs brown here like in Montevideo but to the north of the town there are numerous light sand beaches (not white sand but light sand).

We had heard, and found it to be true that the sidewalk pavement in Colonia is not well maintained.  Broken sections and tree roots are everywhere but unless you have difficulties lifting your feet off the ground or with the occasional need to step carefully, it is fairly easy to walk around this town. 

The very oldest and most historically preserved streets like the Calle de los Suspiros or “Street of Sighs” are an exception to this and one must be very careful not to turn an ankle when walking these few streets but the atmosphere is well worth the small risk.

As is our custom, after an hour of two walking, we started looking for a place to sit and have a frosty beverage and perhaps a snack.  Each café or restaurant offered a bit of cheese or small taste of wine in order to convince potential customers to stop. 

Finally, we stopped at a restaurant right down by the Yachting and Fishing Club.  The parilla (pronounced pah-ree-ja and meaning “barbeque”) simply smelled too good to pass.  We enjoyed a wonderfully seasoned steak with potatoes; a light Uruguayan lunch.

Due to its location, this place was a little on the expensive side and having depleted our budget for the day we decided to acquire some snacks and return to our room to do a little work and to watch a futbol game and movies.  We later discovered, as expected, that if you wander off the beaten path a little when looking for a place to eat, or even move away from the historical part of town (or the yacht club) that the prices do decrease significantly.  The quality does not decrease accordingly and we are convinced that all Uruguayans know how to grill various kinds of meat perfectly.

In general coffee is great in Uruguay.  It is not cheap but it is good.  The next morning we found a little breakfast café with tables on the sidewalk that served the most amazing croissant with slices of real (not processed) ham and melted cheese inside.  This is a rather large croissant, large enough to fill a normal size plate; delicious!

Our first afternoon we had dropped in on a couple of “immobliarios” (rental agents) to inquire about apartments or small houses to rent and we had an appointment after breakfast.  Being December and the beginning of high season in Uruguay, there was very little available.  We did look at a very small (300 sq. ft.) one bedroom but it was simply too small, old and ugly.  The landlord was asking $1,100 per month for January, February and March, the height of the season.  I guess the good news was that all the utilities, cable TV and internet were included.

We were also shown another run down, but more spacious (600 sq. ft.) apartment that was renting for $1,500 per month.  There was no internet in this apartment which is a deal breaker for us because we require it for communications and work.  Back to walking!  This second day we walked the north side of the town covering most of the remaining areas.  Colonia really is a small town with approximately 30,000 inhabitants.

Later, we wandered over to a restaurant with outdoor tables on the main street for dinner.  Because we were not in the historic district (or by the Yacht Club), the prices here were fairly reasonable.  I had a hamburguesa and Marilyn had a chivito and we both enjoyed our meal immensely.  In Uruguay, perhaps more so than in other places, we have found that it is important to order carefully or you might end up with far more food than you can comfortably eat.  It pays to watch food being delivered to other tables or to ask your waiter about serving size.  This is also a good way to practice your restaurant Spanish!

I must deviate and make a quick note about hamburguesas and chivitos.  A hamburguesa is rarely, if ever, the same things we Americans know as hamburgers.  They can be made of carne (unspecified type of meat, unless you ask of course), pork, chicken, etc.  On the other hand, as was the case for my hamburguesa, it was made of vaca (beef) and quite a good cut of beef as well (not simply ground chuck) probably sirloin.

A chivito on the other hand, is also a hot sandwich and is considered a national cuisine of Uruguay.  Uruguayans are proud of their chivitos and make them a variety of ways and generally serve them on hamburger buns.  A normal, top of the list chivito will consist of beef or lomo (pork loin), ham, cheese, lettuce, tomato and a fried egg.  Hungry yet?

While we were eating, under a large umbrella thankfully, the skies opened up and poured on the town of Colonia.  We have been in Uruguay less than two weeks, it is the beginning of summer here in December and we have witnessed at least 5 significant storms.  I’m beginning to wonder just how much it does rain here.  After dinner we strolled, through a break in the rain, back to our hotel.  Almost immediately after we arrived it began raining very hard again so we decided to make another early night of it.  It rained all night and we listened to several hours of some very impressive, roof rattling thunder.

Having seen what we came to see and being disappointed in the rental market we had a leisurely breakfast the next morning and made the ten minute stroll down to the bus station.  Arriving at 10:45 we bought tickets for the 11:00 bus to Montevideo which was less than half full and left on time.

The bus to Colonia from Montevideo costs about $12 and takes approximately two hours and forty five minutes.  There are 7 scheduled stops but there can be more if people are waiting at some of the rural stops.  The return bus costs $.60 more, takes the same amount of time and has a similar number of stops.  There are several companies on this route the two largest are TURIL and COT.  Between these companies there is a bus nearly every half hour beginning very early in the morning until late evening.  We rode COT buses in both directions and they were reasonably clean and comfortable with good leg room.  The overhead space was certainly an improvement on the buses we had ridden in Spain and our full backpacks fit nicely.

Colonia is the closest port in Uruguay to Buenos Aires so there is a thriving ferry business.  The buses are part of the ferry service to Montevideo and the combination of ferry and bus takes only slightly more travel time than a direct ferry from Buenos Aires to Montevideo and is significantly less expensive.  American expats can also get new 90 day visas by traveling to Argentina for a day.  For these reasons, Colonia is a very international little town and US dollars, Brazilian reales, Argentinian and Uruguayan pesos are accepted everywhere.  Every restaurant bill we saw was priced in all of these currencies.  I am not sure how favorable the exchange rates are; probably expensive but it is a convenience for travelers.  The bus station is near the ferry port.

Overall, we enjoyed our little trip to Colonia.  Getting there was easy.  The town is quiet and the people are friendly.  Longer term rentals are available at reasonable rates when you include the off season.  There are numerous restaurants and shops and Buenos Aires is only an hour away.  There is “rural tourism” west, north and east of the town including such things as horse riding and wine tasting.  A wonderful place to rest, relax and live slowly.

Peace Corps Invitation

Sure enough, while we were at sea, in a place where, for the next two weeks internet access was going to be extremely expensive and very intermittent, the Peace Corps sent our invitations giving us a week to accept or not.  We managed to squeeze an email out from the ship asking for some additional time which, we found out the next time we decided to spend some of our overpriced internet minutes, was granted.

We had a lot of questions.  Where in the hell is Moldova?  What is the weather like?  When would we be leaving?  What exactly was our program and were we really both in the same program?  Does that mean we would be able to cohabitate during the 8 to 10 weeks of training?

Up until now we really didn’t know if the Peace Corps would invite us to serve or just bureaucratically rub us out of the program.  When we got settled in Montevideo, obtained access to a quality internet connection and had some time to do some research we were ready with our questions. 

Our questions really boiled down to this: were we going to be able to live and work together, even during training?   We had embarked on this journey to be together and to enjoy each other rather than return to a kind of rat race where we see each other occasionally, usually while one or both of us are in a hurry.  A wonderful lady in Washington DC gave us all the right answers and told us that we would be in-country in early June 2013.  We were impressed.  It looked like we were going to be together throughout our service and the Peace Corps had even placed us in our first choice region; Eastern Europe.

Then came all the little irritating things.  We had to update our medical information because by the time we were in-country our medical file information would be more than one year old.  This included an exam, blood and urine lab work and a write up.  We also needed to have updated dental exams and a complicated form completed.  We also had to obtain a “no fee” passport for Peace Corps purposes.

Here we were, in Uruguay, with our health care insurance in Spain and we needed to get all this completed in a few short weeks.  Well the first thing we did was question specifically when each item had to be done.  When we explained the situation we were passed to the appropriate medical personnel who worked out the alternatives for us.  In addition, we found that we could apply for our “no fee” passports at the American consulate in Montevideo.

Without health or dental insurance in the US (except for emergencies of course) it was going to be expensive to update our medical and dental information.  In addition, we had no desire to cut our journey short and return to the US earlierthan was necessary to spend some time with our family and friends and make some final arrangements.  Then, an amazing thing occurred.

We were researching the cost to fly back to the states and discovered that the cost to fly to Phoenix from Montevideo was about $1,400 one way and included several nasty layovers taking approximately 21 hours.  We found that for about the same cost, we could fly to Phoenix via Madrid with a 10 week layover in Madrid.  We could visit our friends in Granada, spend time with Kellie and Brit and, better yet, use our Spanish health insurance for a majority of the medical file update, although this included several additional difficulties with translation and the fact that a basic “check-up or follow-up” visit is unknown in Spain.

Whatever!  We scheduled the flight and contacted Allie and Andrew for assistance in acquiring a place to stay for 10 weeks.  We asked them to keep it a surprise for everybody there (which they did successfully).  We felt that 10 weeks would be enough for us to schedule appointments with a doctor, get the lab-work performed and have the necessary follow-up visit and write up completed.  That would leave us approximately 3 weeks in the US to complete our dental file updates, finish our preparations and packing, and, importantly, see everybody we could before leaving for staging in Philadelphia in early June.

This really would work perfectly for us because it allowed us to spend a significant amount of time (3 months) in Uruguay which was, after all, the reason for our being in Uruguay.  We really wanted to get to know Montevideo and other places in Uruguay while meeting and making new friends and learning about the culture. 

From our apartment in Cuidad Vieja, we made the 45 minute shoreline walk to our appointment at the American consulate.  They were very friendly and efficient and processed our very strange request relatively quickly.  Our request was so unusual that a consul came out to chat with us.  He knew the Peace Corps and had served as a Foreign Service Officer near Moldova in Romania for several years.  He told us they didn’t see too many “no fee” passport applications, especially for future Peace Corps volunteers there in Uruguay but that he knew exactly what needed to be done and that he could arrange for the new passport to be sent directly to the Peace Corps staging personnel.  Unbelievably, 9 days later, the Peace Corps had our “no fee” passports. 

Perfect!  We had a modified plan and it looked like it would work.  Now we could really enjoy our time in Uruguay!

The travel day from hell.

It’s the last day of a mediocre 19 day cruise.  The ship is arriving in Buenos Aires early in the morning and we are eager to get a start on our busy day.  From Buenos Aires we are scheduled to take a quick one hour ferry to Colonia del Sacramento and from there an autobus to Montevideo where a car service will take us to the apartment we are renting, after stopping at an ATM for cash to pay the agent…….

Sounds complicated?  It is, kind of.  We are coming from Europe, our ship used the euro and was unable or unwilling to change money, we had spent two days in Brazil, we were going to need money in Argentina, the real estate agent required US dollars and we would be using Uruguayan pesos for everything else (food, drink, etc.)

The ship was an hour late, no problem; we had planned around this by requesting to be in the first departure group.  This is possible if requested 3 or 4 days in advance.  If requested too far in advance the cruise line will typically tell you to resubmit your request later or will simply forget.  Actually, our mediocre cruise line screwed it up anyway but Marilyn was on it and helped them correct this particular error.

All passengers had been asked to vacate their cabins by 7 a.m. so the housekeeping crew could get the ship ready for the passengers that would be embarking at noon.  Breakfast was available so this didn’t pose too much of a problem.  Everybody was then required to be at various disembarkation locations by 8 a.m.  The ship was supposed to have docked at 7 a.m. to handle the required paperwork and begin disembarkation at 8 a.m.  Unfortunately, the ship did not dock until close to 9 a.m. 

By 10 a.m. the lounge we were sharing with 200 or 300 people started to smell rather rank and we were beginning to be concerned.  Finally, the announcement……there’s a baggage handler strike in the port and nobody can leave the ship until the baggage has been delivered to the terminal.  No further information, in five languages.  Things were not looking good for catching our 12:30 ferry.  Good thing we had made the decision to spend the extra few dollars for changeable tickets.

Marilyn located an open bar on another floor of the ship and I spent most of the next hour and a half speaking with a wonderful Argentinian gentleman who tried to apologize on behalf of his country for the strike.  He was good enough to allow me to practice my pitiful Spanish provided he could practice his very good English.  Finally at 12:00 the strike was settled somehow and we all crowded off the ship, through the terminal and into baggage claim where the baggage for 3,000 people on a 19 day cruise was just now being unloaded….what a mess.

We eventually located our four heavy bags, put them on a cart, struggled through the mass of humanity still in baggage claim, and then struggled through a larger mass of humanity in customs and then through more between the exit and the taxi stands.  We had no Argentinian money, a few euros, twenty American dollars and some Brazilian reals.  There was no place to change money at the cruise port or if there was we couldn’t see it for the crush of people.  Thank God the taxi supervisor agreed to accept our last 20 American dollars to deliver us and our bags to the ferry terminal; it was close but a surprisingly long trip in the Buenos Aires port traffic.

We entered the ferry terminal and approached the check-in counter.  After looking at our tickets the lady jumped up and called across the terminal to a gentleman on the escalator who shook his head.  It was nearly 1 p.m. and we had nearly made our ferry!  But no such luck today.  Unfortunately, now we had to change our tickets and wait for the next available ferry at 4 p.m.  Although we would make up some time because this ferry would travel direct to Montevideo, we would still arrive 3 hours later than planned.

This was a problem because we had no phone, limited or zero access to WiFi and therefore no real ability to call another country to reschedule our pickup.  Taking a taxi to the apartment was an option but we would still not have had a way to contact the rental agent in order to tell her what time to meet us at the apartment.

We were able to change some euros into Argentinian pesos so that we could buy some empanadas and drinks in the café while we waited with enough left over for refreshments on the ferry as well.

Changing the tickets was certainly a new experience.  The very helpful lady at the check-in counter rebooked us on the next ferry and printed our tickets, we thought.  She then directed us to line up at the cashier’s window in another part of the building to pay for the changes (the ferry direct to Montevideo is more expensive than the route through Colonia).

After waiting in line and paying the change fee we had to return to the check in counter where we received our boarding passes.  We were then told that we couldn’t check our luggage in until 2 p.m.  So we hauled our luggage into the café in order to have a little lunch.  The empanadas tasted wonderful.  So did the beer.

Meanwhile, the ever resourceful Marilyn, after wasting several pesos trying to call Uruguay from a pay phone, sweet-talked a supervisor at the check-in desk into letting her make a call to our rental agent who agreed to meet us at the terminal since the car service would not drive to the port that late in the evening (8 p.m).

At 2 p.m. we returned to the check in counter, checked our bags and headed for immigration.  The Uruguayan passport control clerks conferred over our relatively new American passports (issued in 2010 with a new information stripe across the bottom) and stamped our documents; passport, boarding pass, immigration document.  After relaxing for another hour we noticed a line forming at the ferry puerta (gate).  We wondered about this since our tickets showed that we had been issued specific seat numbers.  Not having traveled in this particular area before we figured we better do as the locals did and got in line.

Good thing!  The ferries operate much like a discount airline, Southwest, EasyJet, SpanAir, etc.  You get on early, find a good seat, sit down and hope that nobody sits between or next to you.  On the ferry the legroom and seats are similar to the first class section on an American airliner but, there is no place to put your carry on luggage except in front of you or in an unoccupied seat.  They pack these ferries full.

The ferry ride was comfortable, had a snack bar and a duty free shopping area on the lower deck.  We actually took short naps and the ferry arrived on time and no baggage worker strike!

The ferry terminal in Montevideo is under construction and it took forever to work our way through the lines at customs which consisted of an x-ray of all luggage.  Finally, we were outside, in Montevideo and, after a little hassle, located our rental agent and loaded all of our bags into her small station wagon.  Off to find an ATM for those US dollars we would need..

The port in Montevideo is located in a part of the city know as Ciudad Viejo.  This portion of the city consists of one way streets and the shops close down completely at a relatively early hour.  Since there is quite a bit of graffiti and the shops have steel shutters rolled down when closed it did not give me a favorable first impression of Ciudad Viejo.  Did I tell you that the apartment we are renting is in Ciudad Viejo?

We finally found an ATM (most are on the pedestrian only streets we found out later), entered the secured area and started our multiple withdrawals.  If this sounds convoluted, it is, here’s why; the rental market is quite complicated in Montevideo and the rental agent insisted on US dollars.  You can withdraw either US dollars or Uruguayan pesos from ATMs in Montevideo.  The banks do however limit withdrawals from their ATMs to $300 per transaction.  We needed $1,100 for the rental agent and a few bucks for ourselves.  This required 5 transactions.

Just before completing our business, the lights in the small ATM room went out and a steel shutter rolled down.  It was 9 p.m. and we were locked in the bank!  The rental agent who had remained outside in the car with our luggage was frantically running up and down the block to find a neighbor to call the bank or find another entrance with a security guard.  Meanwhile we knocked on the inner glass wall and called for assistance.  After about 5 minutes a bank security guard came out and let us into the bank apologizing and explaining that the outside steel doors shut automatically at 9 p.m.  We were just happy to be out and thanked him as he let us out of the security door which functioned like an airlock where there are two doors and one has to be shut before the other can be opened.  I’m liking this neighborhood less and less.

I thought we had stopped in traffic when our rental agent pulled up to the dead end street by our apartment building.  Dead end is an exaggeration because it is simply where the street is closed to automobile traffic near the apartment (30 yards).  Surprisingly, the building is clean and secure and the apartment interior is modern and functional.  The agent showed us how everything worked in the apartment and we went over the rental contract with her (in Spanish), paid the rent (we had previously sent her a deposit)  and were suddenly on our own in a country we had never been in and where we knew nobody for the very first time in our lives. 

The next issue was that we were in a neighborhood where all shops, cafes and markets were closed down.  There were few people on the streets except for the hoodlums (my term, probably not fair) sitting out on the street drinking (probably soda) at 10:30 p.m. on a Friday night with 400 American dollars and no water or food.  We had heard that there is lead piping in the plumbing of most buildings so you don’t want to drink the tap water.

An American 100 dollar bill is a large bill late at night in Ciudad Viejo.  We hiked about half a mile and found a plaza that had some activity and a McDonalds.  We thought surely McDonalds would accept an American 100 dollar bill.  Of course they only accept bills smaller than $20.  We finally wandered into a restaurant with a very nice ambiance and were assured that they accepted American dollars.  The wait staff was wonderful and friendly.  They could tell we were exhausted and really worked hard to help make us comfortable.  After sharing a chivito (local Uruguayan sandwich), a glass of wine, and taking some bottled water (sin gas) to go, we strolled back to the apartment and fell into bed.  

Across the pond westward - Brazil for the first time....

Six days at sea on a ship with marginal food, slow and erratic internet, no television and a very crowded pool deck.  I guess we could look forward to dressing for dinner every night although I was relying on spaghetti Bolognese as my main course most nights.  I’m not sure Peter and I found a wine on the list that we could appreciate although we tried.

We solved the problem in our normal way; we read a lot and had drinks with our friends.  We had made a few including Peter and Veronique, our dinner table mates, the boys from Salzburg; Augie and Marcus, and Marie and Narush and we spent most days chatting with some or all of them.  The good news was that it was getting warmer every day and while we did enjoy the warmth, there was a marked increase in the skimpy bikinis worn by the over 60 crowd.  For the first time we were looking forward to the end of a cruise.

Finally, land ho!  Brazil!  First stop; San Salvador Bahia.  Unfortunately for us, the ship was unable to give us any historical or interesting information about this surprisingly large port city so; we took a tour hoping the guide might be able to tell us more. 

We wandered around the very colorful and beautiful old section of the city on a gorgeous, sunny Brazilian day stopping for spicy shrimp sandwiches from a sidewalk vendor.

  Of course there was a stop at an interestingly decorated local church complete with nativity scene which seemed strange to us northern hemisphere folks given the summer weather outside. 

Was it really that time of year (almost Christmas)?

We stopped for a drink and some chips (fries) before reboarding the ship a little frustrated that the tour guide had not really enriched our knowledge of the history and relevance of this city on our first visit to Brazil.  In two days we would be in Rio de Janiero which we anticipated with a little trepidation because we had heard it was dangerous, polluted, crowded and filled with poverty stricken beggars. 

Two days later and thirty minutes into our tour bus ride in Rio we were still feeling the same, things looked a little scary.  We only passed by the Sambodromo, the 700m stretch of Marques de Sapucai street that has been turned into the viewing stadium for the annual Samba competition that is Carnival in Rio.

  At the end of the stadium area it opens up into Praca de Apoteose (Apotheosis Square) where there is an interesting arch sculpture, it really looks like a tanga, which is rather appropriate for the venue.  We caught glimpses of beaches as we traveled but alas, the bus turned into the inner city and pulled up to a weird looking cone-shaped building which, we learned, was the Rio de Janiero cathedral.

  We were able to wander around this unique and strangely beautiful building for 45 minutes which for us, was about 20 minutes too long.

Back on the bus for another half hour to the featured stop; Sugarloaf.  This place is really a must on a first visit to Rio.  You take a double cable car system from the station at sea level which stops at a peak midway and then you can continue on to the top of the peak some 1300 feet above Guanabara Bay where the peninsula sticks out into the Atlantic Ocean.

  From the top you can see some of the complicated and interesting geography of this huge city.

There are really several cities on different peninsulas and islands all seemingly with their own beaches.  You can see Impanema and Copacabana beaches from the top as well as the statue of Cristo Redentor (Christ the redeemer) on Corcovado.

Looking back toward the cathedral you can see how the architecture of two tall office buildings near it has been designed and structured to make a cross.

It is also apparent that the poor sections of the city have grown up in the foothills and small valleys of the mountains in the opposite manner of cities in the U.S. where it is usually the well-to-do that build their dwellings in similar locations.

On the way back to the ship we were given an hour at Copacabana to shop or simply walk the beach even though it wasn’t on the schedule.

  As the ship left the harbor that evening we were treated to an indescribably fantastic sunset over the peaks and mountains of Rio.  We came away with a completely different viewpoint of Rio de Janiero than we had arrived with.

The city is absolutely beautiful and certainly worth putting on your bucket list.  Yes, there is poverty, like any large city, and I am sure there are plenty of dangerous areas where you wouldn't want to walk alone at night, like any large city....you get the drift.  Be just a bit conscientious and you can enjoy this beautiful area and come out no worse for wear and very much enriched.

Two more days at sea and we would be in Buenos Aires.  We were looking forward to South America and getting off this damned ship.

Cruising from Venice to Buenos Aires....

On the wharf in Venice, four bags, two backpacks and a new adventure in front of us.  South America!

We lined up our bags in the proper line and put the tags we were given on them.  For the first time we were traveling in an inside cabin … because it was inexpensive of course and our bags weren’t going to receive any priority.  We were prepared for this.

Check in was done efficiently and only took about 40 minutes.  We boarded and decided to have a drink in one of the bars before heading up for lunch.  Our first shock was the price of the drinks.  We’d cruised before but hadn’t seen prices like this.  Our second shock occurred at lunch.  The food was awful at the buffet and there was no lemonade or iced tea with which to hydrate yourself.  Searching for something to drink, like say …..  juice, we discovered what had happened to the world’s supply of Tang.  MSC Cruise Line had bought all of it!  No matter what flavor you asked for it was yellow.  Oh boy!

Our next disappointment was that the ship had no observation bar.  What?  We always sip some exotic, stupidly sweet drink while we watch the ship sail out of the port.  Apple vodka martinis have been my choice.  This particular ship couldn’t even make one.  A quick and efficient lifeboat drill and we were off.

About six hours after boarding and four hours after sailing, two of our four bags showed up (they were left haphazardly outside our cabin door).  We wandered down to dinner where our waiter fouled our order (there were only three choices) and the food was, well, less than ordinary.  We were astonished, this was an Italian cruise line!

We returned from dinner …. still missing two bags in the cabin.  Where were the damned things?  We found ourselves on the observation deck, leaning against the rail in the cold windy weather watching the spectacular trip from the port in Venice, through the islands to the open sea.  Thought I would catch pneumonia.  Returning to our small but adequate room, we found our bags in front of our cabin door.  Only ten hours after checking them in.  We went to sleep sure that tomorrow would bring a fresh outlook.

Breakfast at the buffet was, well, terrible.  We won’t do that again.  What to do today?  First task, sign up for internet service.  It cost what??????  Minimum 50 euro plan was for 120 minutes of internet access.  No wireless in the cabins - you could rent a cable if you did not bring one for only another 10 euros.  There were two or three areas in the ship that had wireless access but you still had to buy one of the expensive plans in order to use it.  We went a head and got a minimum plan because we knew we would need access at some point.  

After that trauma it was off to a bar for a late morning pick me up.  We find that they don’t have half of the things listed on the drinks menu …. and won’t have  during this cruise.  The prices of the drinks were worrying as well but, salvation is at hand.  The ship offers drink packages and we bought three packages of twelve; one for bottled water, one for juice (they had three or four flavors to choose from) and one for beer (two or three choices as well).  This would save us some money!

Wandering around the ship we discovered that most of the bars were actually show lounges.  Not our thing but we were told the entertainment was pretty good.  This was going to be boring for us in a hurry.  Definitely geared for the sedentary crowd.  We checked out the gym.  The limited number of machines were filthy and crowded.  An exercise ball?  What’s that?

Our television worked but the remote had no batteries in it.  Our lamps had no shades and we thought that was normal until a week into the cruise they suddenly appeared.  Hmmm.  The blanket on our bed was a little threadbare and was replaced several days into the cruise as were the batteries for the remote.  Well, we were going to be in Malta the next day so we’ll just make the best of it.

We thought we’d take a shore excursion in Malta and booked one without really knowing what it was.  The shore excursion booth was generally unoccupied and when it was manned, the person manning it really didn’t know anything about the excursions, they just took the orders.  There seemed to be a trend here.  We dressed for dinner and met our table mates for the first time.  Turns out we were the only Americans on this ship of 3,000 passengers and we sat with an expat Englishman who lived in Switzerland with his Belgian wife who was very unsure of her English language.  Lovely couple and we enjoyed several evenings with them although we sampled the wine list up and down finding nothing but mediocrity to our mutual frustration.

Malta was wonderful although the shore excursion in Mdina moved a little slowly and we found ourselves wandering off to find a local café for some coffee and pastries Malta style.

  Returning to Valetta the shore excursion picked up a bit and allowed us a little more free time, in fact, we were able to leave them and walk back to the ship on our own schedule. 

We found Malta to be as lovely as we remembered from our previous trip there and were delighted to absorb the stunning amount of history this little island nation can boast.

The next day we discovered that during breakfast the other passengers, consisting mostly of Italians, Brazilians and Argentinians, did not inhabit the gym.  In fact they proceeded directly from breakfast to the pool area.  Now we knew when we were going to work some of the softness we’d acquired during our lazy summer in Spain but, although we were feeling a little out of shape we sure did see plenty of “that person is old enough to know better” swimwear on this particular voyage.

On our fourth day after another “at sea” day the shipped docked at Barcelona.  We liked having the gym almost to ourselves and the pool deck was a little less crowded when we were in a port. Interestingly, many of the passengers never did not get off the ship.  We were starting to understand that this cruise line operated for passengers that like to shop, sunbathe and watch lounge entertainment.

We did finally realize that paying several hundred euros for an unlimited drink package was actually the best way to go if one intended to drink a little bit and didn’t want to go bankrupt.  These packages included beer, wine, cocktails, juice, specialty coffee, and ice cream so we purchased two.  For the rest of the cruise we tried our best to beer, espresso, juice and ice cream the ship to death (we needed to get our money’s worth).

There was one haven on the ship though.  Surprisingly it was the cigar bar.  This bar was open around the clock and while fully half of the pool deck was open to smokers this room was the only indoor smoking area on the ship.  The bar had a powerful but quiet air exhaust system that really kept the place from being too smoky and many people liked being there.  The furniture was comfortable and the conversations engaging.

Here we met Augie and Marcus from Salzburg, Austria.  We also met Narush from Serbia and Marie, also from Austria.  The usual attendant was Neer from Nepal and he provided some of the best service on the ship.  It quickly became the place to meet for a drink before dinner and of course, a place to enjoy a drink and a cigar after.

We didn’t have any interest in Casablanca, Morocco having been there before and seen the sites, and we  decided that the nearly 12 hour round trip for an hour with our friend Wahdi in Marrakesh was just not worth the travel time so we didn’t get off the ship again until Tenerife.  Sitting in a café enjoying a tapa and a drink with Marcus and Augie we realized that the previous Thursday, when the ship was docked in Barcelona, had been Thanksgiving.  Wow!  It had completely passed us by and turkey was definitely something we missed!

We left Tenerife, in the Canary Islands in the late afternoon and began the long, six day Atlantic crossing with nothing but the ship to entertain us.

An Irish Pub in Venice.

An Irish Pub in Venice; weird right?  Nonetheless, there it was; the Devil’s Forest Pub, and it looked authentic.  We walked inside and found Harp, Strongbow and Guinness on tap and the ambience was decently Irish for Venice with quaint sayings on the walls, pictures of wild Irish landscapes and the odd mounted animal head.  The Devil’s Forest Pub claims to be the oldest pub in Venice and, although we haven’t covered every inch of the city, we think it might be the only one left.

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There wasn’t much of a crowd since it was only noon; too early for lunch but the bartender spoke English and was friendly.  Unfortunately, he wasn’t Irish; he was a true Venetian living only a few blocks away.  The owners were Venetian as well but the beer (and the cider) was excellent and the food wasn’t bad; it just wasn’t Irish.

The menu was a little disappointing starting with spaghetti and continuing on the Italian theme throughout.  We had a small snack; a panini or something, and while it was pretty good, it wasn’t what you look for in a pub like this.  Although the incomplete Irish pub set-up disappointed us a little we won’t hesitate to drop in again for a wee drop after a busy day of sight-seeing.

Devil’s Forest Pub is awarded 2 points for ambience; they almost got it right.  Although this particular pub strikes out and receives 0 points for the friendly but not Irish bartender we must award the maximum of 3 points for the taps which included Harp, Guinness, Strongbow and Kilkenny.  We also award 1 point for the food quality and another for entertainment value because the television had the appropriate sporting events on and the bartenders were enjoyable to talk to. 

The total for Devil’s Forest Pub is 7 points which ranks it in third place behind Hannigan’s and O’Reilley’s all of which are worth stopping by if and when you’re in the neighborhood.