Sleeping on the ship was great. There’s a constant vibration and gentle rocking. Awoke around 4 am and the ship was really rocking and rolling! I loved it. Apparently B was not impressed and thought our doom was imminent. At one point when it was really rough, I opened my eyes and got super dizzy so I just closed my eyes and enjoyed the ride.
Got up at 9 am to meet G&B for breakfast at 930. We all paid 3 euros or so at booking to get breakfast. It was 2 rolls, jam and butter or a croissant, plus juice and coffee. The rolls were a bit tough, but it wasn’t bad. It actually feels kind of good to not have a giant breakfast. We are now enjoying some time apart to write and recharge. Meeting up again soon. I think that this ferry trip and the train trips we will have between cities will be a good time to reset and recharge. We’ve also come to realize that with our limited time in each place, we don’t have to do it all. A couple of memorable things, some good food, walking around, these are the things that are going to be healthy for us.
Funny memory from Barcelona:
A woman on the Metro in Barcelona standing behind Colin snapped at him and told him, “Hold on to something, it’s not that hard!” So that has become a thing we all say to each other now – It’s Not That Hard!
Thoughts:
The boys are, once again, doing so good. They just go and go. They are chatty with G&B. They are participating and observing.
Physically we are doing well, but we certainly have sore bodies and feet at the end of the day. Thankful to be able to do what we are doing. No sickness except Jude’s one time with his tummy which seems fine now.
We explored the ship, played games, enjoyed our picnic, and had a rest. We sailed between Corsica and Sardinia. It was a beautiful day!
No internet on the Ferry which is strange, but good. It’s nice to have some time to catch up, write and rest. I think the plan for the rest of the day is to eat our meal that we brought, explore a bit more, siesta a bit and prepare for arrival at around 7 pm. Then it will be a rush to get to the convent/monastery before they lock the doors. That will be walking, train, walking. All with our bags!
So… We made it to Civitavecchia, got off the ferry and caught a shuttle out of the port area, then had a bit of a walk to get to the train station. Beautiful sunset. We decided to catch an earlier train in the hope of not having to rush in Rome to get to our Convent. The train set off and we got to within 3 stops and the train stopped – technical difficulties across the system. 45 minutes of delay and we were getting a bit stressed. Graeme thought we could jump off the train a stop early and get there quicker, so we got off and found ourselves in a dodgy part of town. We went to the Metro station – it seemed abandoned. Then we headed back to the train station, found a taxi and Me, Becky, and Zane, plus our bags, took a taxi to the Convent.
One of our best stories from the trip is that when we went back to the train station, all the taxis, except one, that had been there 5 minutes earlier, were gone. So I got out my Google Translate app and approached the one taxi driver – I asked, “Will there be more taxis?” I showed him the phone and he started laughing. Turns out it translated, “Will there be more sexy men?” We were all cracking up. I tried again, “When will more taxis arrive?”, he laughed again, sure enough, “When will more sexy men arrive?” So we gave up and through broken English and Italian, he said that he could take 3 people and 3 bags. It was amazing to drive through Rome past all the amazing monuments right in the middle of the city.
The latest check in was supposed to be 11 pm, we just made it. The porter was super kind. Colin had our passports which we needed for check in. Turns out the guys, Colin, Graeme and Jude all had to walk the whole way with their bags. Everyone finally arrived.
Our room was lovely – basically two rooms joined. Lovely air conditioning, big bed for us. I struggled to get to sleep and when I did, I felt dizzy.
Lamppostings 