tedwords

“Little Montenegro! He lifted up the words and nodded at them, with his smile." — F. Scott Fitzgerald

Our time in Ravenna was entirely too brief, and because we had to board the bus to head off to our cruise ship, we only had a few short hours to check out the really amazing mosaics there, which was certainly not enough time to do them justice. As it was, we spent some time checking out the "must sees" but it felt to me like we were Pokemon collectors more than anything...gotta catch em all!

After that, we packed up and headed on to our ship, which we remembered as we boarded is actually the first cruise ship we ever sailed on in the Caribbean, years ago! How fitting, I think, and also, it reminded us that this ship is the reason we like to cruise so much (there are little touches that make it kind of unique). How far we have come--as of this cruise we are now Diamond class members.

It was interesting to see how it has changed since last we saw it, and one big difference is certainly in the entertainment. I am not exactly certain European cruises value the entertainment as much as the Caribbean cruises do, because the entertainment on this one (at least, the first two nights) has been...well, kind of second rate? Which actually makes it a bit charming, to be honest. It feels more like a bargain basement variety show than anything else. I dig it.

Our first port of call the next say was Kotor, Montenegro, which is located in the Balkans and is our only non-Greek stop. It was also quite enlightening given our stay in Venice how much influence the Venetians have had over these stops--Kotor's layout had been heavily influenced by Venice's period of dominance and you can completely see that in its architecture, during the whirlwind view we had of the city.

I say whirlwind because most of the visit was spent at an olive grove, to see how olive oil is made. It may sound boring but it was actually most satisfying, especially since I was able to convince the owner to hire me on to help with the olive tending in October, if I am looking for a job.

The best part of the tour was a lovely meal we were served at the end, filled with cheeses and tomatoes and eggs and olives (of course), all fresh from the farm. We had to be careful about who we sat with, though, because at the olive grove entrance, we had noticed one of the American groups included some idiot wearing a "second amendment" cap. We decided to keep our distance from him, particularly given the way we are feeling about the country now in light of the horrific Supreme Court decision reversing Roe v. Wade. It's not exactly a banner 4th and we kind of pretended we are ex patriots for the day.

Instead, we ate with a British couple and their two daughters. The oldest daughter wants to be a writer and certainly enjoyed entertaining us. There was a small girl (probably the owner's daughter) who kept coming in to see the lunch guests, and after the third or fourth time, our writer friend asked her mom, loudly, when she was planning to have another baby. Her mom's "WHAT THE HECK?" was loud and stopped everyone's conversation, and we all burst out laughing. Her mom almost left the writer child at the olive grove, I think.

After that our talked with the parents centered around how conservative politics are destroying both the US and Great Britain and what a disaster Brexit is and Trump was...and why Biden couldn't have stopped what happened this past week and how sad we are about it. It was an enlightening look at how our two great countries are being torn apart by Rupert Murdoch and his spawn....and so many other forces (usually aging) resistant to change and anxious to see diversity and progress destroyed, at whatever cost.

And then, back to the main city...only, it didn't go quite as planned! Two minutes into the return trip, something in the bus broke down, and we were forced to drive at ten miles an hour all the way back. It also made the bus really difficult to navigate and on at least three occasions the cars or trucks coming from the opposite side near collided with us. And, we couldn't get to the cruise ship from the injured bus, so we had to switch buses about ten minutes away at a roundabout.

Which made the visit to the Old part of the City somewhat rushed. Our tour guide, who was very dutiful, tried valiantly, but with only less than an hour before we had to be on the ship, it was a complete rush job. "There's this, this, this and this." All I really saw were a lot of buildings that looked like Venice and immediately made me feel overheated, and a ton of feral cats.

And you know what? I loved that! I loved that the bus broke down, that we almost had collisions, that we had to rush in the end. How much fun is that, to be racing against the clock and to deviate from the standard? Those are the moments I live for on excursions, like the time we got lost in the Caribbean and had to take a local bus back to the port, sitting next to someone carrying a chicken. That's where the fun is!

Life is what you experience in between the flow of usual.