I didn't hit her, she fell...

Dear Reader,

As you may know, I have decided to focus my majority of travel sales upon cruises because cruising is the best bargain for your buck, especially for foreign travel and the week dollar. In order to get familiar with the new ships and exotic destinations, I've been taking a lot of cruises lately, including three European cruises. And I have been very impressed by the comfort of the staterooms, choices of bars and restaurants, the quality of the food, outstanding service and more space than you could imagine on a ship. You get all of this for less than the cost of a European or island hotel room plus your hotel room goes with you everywhere without having to pack and unpack. It's a great way to travel.

Last May John and I took our second Greek cruise, this one from Venice, Italy went to Croatia and Greece too. It was a great cruise and we had loads of fun and made some wonderful friends. After the shaky beginning of our trip, I am very pleased to report that all went well and the cruise saved the day.

John and I decided to start our vacation last year in Rome and had a lovely apartment in the Trastevere area across the Tiber River. It was wonderful too. The only problem is that our luggage got lost and my cell phone which was unlocked and supposedly useable in Europe didn't work. We filed lost luggage forms and then had to find a way to call our landlords to let them know why we were so late. As luck will have it there was a cell phone shop inside the airport. I showed them my phone and they studied it and determined it doesn't have enough bands for Europe. European phones have 4 bands. US phones have only two. So I had no choice but to buy another cell phone. At least my sim card worked in it. The nice people at the shop even called my landlord and explained what had happened to us. Our landlord asked us to take the train to Trastevere and then the #8 tram and exit at Piazza Belli and then walk to Bar Belli where we would meet to get our key and directions.

After a super long day we made it to Bar Belli, a cute little corner bar with everything from drinks to cappucino to breakfast cornetos, champagne, and sandwiches. Our landlord, Luigi, was waiting and gave us each a big hug and offered us each a drink. It was sparkling white wine and delicious. I was beginning to feel better already. We explained our luggage situation to him and he said they would deliver it to the apartment and not to worry. We should call the next morning and follow up with Lufthansa though. He walked us out the door to the right and to another door and voila! there was our apartment just steps away. Inside it was beautiful with a loft and air-conditioning and a full kitchen. The bathroom was modern too but had the typical tiny shower. We didn't care. We loved it!

That night we had dinner at a mom and pop Osteria next to Bar Belli which was one of the best meals I've ever had anywhere in Italy. John had their fruitti di mare, seafood pasta, and just raved about it. I had the linguine con vongole which was outstanding as well. We were happy and exhausted having been awake for over 24 hours after flying from Sacramento to San Francisco to Frankfurt to Rome and couldn't wait for bed. The dilemma was what to sleep in? Our street clothes were getting grimy already and it was bad enough wearing dirty underwear after showering so naked it had to be. I didn't even care. Once my head hit the pillow I was gone.

I guess we were both gone for a long long time because we didn't wake up the next day until 2:00PM! Oops. I tried to call Lufthansa but they always put me on hold and never came back. This was a problem. I wanted to go do some sightseeing but John was afraid to leave the apartment. This wasn't good. So we walked over to Luigi's jewelry shop and asked him to call Lufthansa and ask them to deliver our bags to his shop instead. Then we trudged over to the coliseum and forum which were already closed by then. Now the heat was getting to us both. My jeans weighed a ton and my knit top was too hot.So we decided we had to do some shopping that evening. Back to the Trastevere we went and following Luigi's recommendation we walked to a reasonable clothing store. It took a lot of searching but we found some underwear in John's size. I actually bought underwear from a street vendor outside! He had my favorite kind and was selling them for only 1 euro each. Then we bought a couple of t-shirts and were on our way. This was much better having clean underwear and sleep shirts. We had another terrific meal around the corner and slept like the dead once again.

We had only three days in Rome and spent most of our time dealing with Lufthansa begging them to bring our luggage before we had to leave for Orvieto. We did manage, however, to visit the Baths of Diocletian and the Roman Museum, neither of which we had visited before. We also returned to the Spanish Steps and the Trevi fountain, close to where I got so drunk many years before. And best of all, we really got to enjoy being in the Trastevere eating all of our meals there and enjoying every minute of it. One night in the small piazza Santa Maria en Trastevere, there were lots of people milling about eating gelato and drinking and children running around twirling luminescent rings and shooting small fireworks. It was a very pleasant spot.

Once we got our luggage everything was fine again. It arrived the night before we left Rome so we were able to keep to our itinerary which I had designed and the next day we boarded a train for the short trip to the hill town of Orvieto, one of my favorite towns in Italy.

After Orvieto, we stayed in Florence, Mantova, Bergamo, Soprabolzano in the Dolomites, ending our visit in Bassano del Grappa, where they make, you guessed it, Grappa. It was a lovely trip and the May weather was balmy and in bloom everywhere. We fell in love with Bergamo, a delightful hill town near Milan with wonderful architecture and views, but were stunned into silence by the great beauty of Soprabolzano and the other villages along the winding mountain road towards the top. This Alpine village filled with chalet homes and hotels, all with flower boxes of geraniums in the windows, all had balconies with amazing views of the green valley below as well as the city of Bolzano deep in the valley next to the river. It was so green, it almost hurt to look at. There are vineyards growing down the steep slopes and flowers everywhere. Surrounding this surreal spot are great jagged snow covered mountains which look close enough to touch. I knew right then that we would have to return here and return soon. There are hiking trails everywhere, a Victorian train that goes along the upper ridge from town to town and 3 very fast funiculars which zoom down to Bolzano at record speed, only 16 minutes from top to bottom. Plus, Bolzano has a world famous sight in their museum, Otzi the Iceman, the oldest mummy ever found dating back 5300 years! You can actually look at him behind glass and see his clothing and belongings on display throughout. This is an amazing thing to see and to learn from. Poor Otzi was shot dead by an arrow in the shoulder but didn't die right away and was trying to cut it off when he bled out. A classroom of school children were learning all about him with their teacher who was handing them items to guess what their use was. Fascinating.

We regretfully left Soprabolzano for Bassano Del Grappa which has a famous Roman covered bridge and their famous grappa distileries. It's pretty good stuff, really. My main choice here was a place to drop off our rental car close to Venice without having to drive into Venice. It was very convenient too. The last day we hopped a train for Venice which took just over an hour and were ready to find the shuttle bus for the cruise port.

No matter how hard you try to be prepared, some information is just impossible to get, even after you use all of your powers of persuasion and follow every link on every website and even call the cruise line before leaving home on more than one ocassion. Nobody knows the answer. It should be somewhere but no one knows where to look. Whenever I have a problem like this, I know right away that this is going to cause a major problem, be a real pain upon arrival and create unpleasantness at the very least. John does not take things like this well. All I knew was that there is supposed to be a shuttle bus at the Piazzale Roma across from the train station that will take passengers to the cruise ship port. Some said it was free. Others said it cost money. None knew for certain but it was moot anyway because we didn't have a clue which bus to take. They were all the same, the same color, same markings, no directions or names on them and they were in a hurry.

John suggested we just walk to the cruise ship port as it was supposedly only about 20 minutes away and I agreed to keep the peace. With our backpacks on and fully packed, we hiked up the walk along the highway into town and then from the top turned left and headed down towards the port. We could see the port sign in the distance ahead and knew we were headed the right way. The shoulder of the road was made of gravel and the asphalt edge of the road was uneven and jagged. John takes such big steps he doesn't even realize I'm dropping behind. I'm wearing my new Sketchers shoes with the very high soles which make them feel spongy to walk on. I love them because your feet don't feel the pavement at all or the gravel.

Just as I was about to catch up with him something strange happened so suddenly that I couldn't even fathom what was happening. My left ankle suddenly twisted all the way to the ground and my backpack slung to the left pulling me down. I had no time to react at all except to not try to use my left hand to break my fall. I was afraid I'd break my wrist. But the force of the fall was totally unexpected. I fell on my side and smacked the side of my head so hard I believe I was unconscious for a minute. When I tried to call out nothing happened and when I tried to sit up nothing happened. But I was aware that my ankle was killing me and my legs were bloody.

John noticed I wasn't behind him and saw me lying on the ground not moving. He said he spoke to me but I didn't respond. I was trying to tell him my backpack was keeping me down. He removed it for me.  I was very quickly surrounded by nice Italians trying to ask me what happened. They all got out their cell phones and called for an ambulance against my protests. John started picking gravel and weeds out of my legs and arms and face. My forehead swelled up immediately into a huge bump which was frightening. I was afraid I had broken my ankle because of the pain. This would have ruined our cruise! The paramedics came and asked questions and wanted to take me to the hospital but I refused knowing I'd probably never make it back to the ship in time for the 5:00PM saililng. So they took me to their little medical building on premises and treated my wounds with ice bags and antiseptic ointment and bandages and then agreed to drive us all the way to our ship. This was great. I could not have walked that far for anything!

Once we arrived they wouldn't let me leave the ambulance until they spoke to a ship's officer. He told the paremedics he would take me so they put me in a wheelchair and up the ramp into the lobby we went. Then a ships doctor asked me some questions and advised that he could not let me on board the ship until I go to the hospital and have X-Rays. This definitely would not do! He said we could always catch up the next day in Croatia. Yeah, right, how? I told him I was going to be on the ship regardless and would sign any waiver he wanted. He finally compromised and made me promise to see him before we set sail and if he wasn't satisfied he'd throw us both off the ship. Yikes! Then to prove a point he made me stand up and walk myself all the way down the long ramp and up the ramp to the ship. This was very painful but I had to pretend it was nothing. John was impressed.

We were also hungry by this time so I headed straight for the buffet while John did his abolutions in our cabin. I knew the buffet would be crowded at that time of day in the middle of boarding so I hobbled there as fast as I could. There was a mob scene going on and people bumped and stopped moving and large groups had entire tables filled. I wandered and wandered and got madder and madder until I noticed a table for four with only two people sitting there. Normally I would never encroach on a situation like that but I was desperate so I just plopped down in the seat without even saying hello or asking for permission. It takes an awful lot trouble for me to lose my manners.

This was the luckiest thing to happen on our entire trip, sitting at that table with that couple. They were a delightful young couple on their honeymoon of all things and were very kind to me. They were quite solicitous over the knot on my head and proclaimed to be doctors themselves. This was wonderful. I told them the whole story and how the ships doctor threatened me and they thought that was ridiculous. Once it was all talked out I felt a lot better and almost my old self and we started having fun. Mike and Brinda are terrific people, funny, charming, full of life and stories that draw you in and make you want to hang out. By the time John found us we were all having a good laugh. The change in me was remarkable. After lunch John and I decided to get a tropical drink and let me soak my ankle in the pool. It felt good and so did the drink. Mike and Brinda said they'd see us around and maybe do dinner.

The mandatory life boat drill was to be at 3:30PM but the doctor had made me promise to see him at 3:30PM. I didn't know what to do and neither did John. The doctor wasn't in his office yet and we didn't know how to reach him but I know if you miss the lifeboat drill you're in big time trouble, so we had another tropical drink and went to the drill. Then the ship started to slowly glide down the Lido looking down on a miniature Venice that I'd never seen before. Each new view was spectacular and it was easy to spot every site, cathedral, tower, piazza as we passed by. What a sight! I wouldn't have missed it for the world. We forgot about the doctor.

That night our phone rang at 10:00PM and it was the doctor. He literally yelled at John for ten minutes because we missed my appointment. John tried to explain what had happened but the doctor was hopping mad. He said if I didn't present myself the next morning at the clinic by 10:00AM, he was going to throw both of us off the ship in Croatia. We got the point and promised.

The next morning I awoke and started to get dressed when John came in and stopped suddenly staring at me with concern in his eyes. He asked if I had looked in the mirror yet and I said I had not. So he warned me that it looked pretty bad and not to cry. I looked and was amazed to see that my entire left eye was black or rather a very bright purple both over and underneath. My eyelid was almost completely swollen shut and my face looked defomed by the huge knot on the side of my forehead. This was scary.

We went to the clinic straightaway and saw a very nice doctor. He checked both ankles because the right one hurt also and checked my head. He said unless I passed out or didn't wake up not to worry, ha. He gave me a brace for my ankle which helped me to walk much better and sent me on my way. The charge for this was 128.00 Eruos, which is steep, but I did later get reimbursed by Blue Shield so don't hesitate to see a ships doctor if you need one.

For the rest of the cruise my eye got uglier by the day. I don't use face makeup and had no means to cover it up except my sunglasses which were fine outdoors. But on board the ship, riding the elevators, so many women just glared at John thinking he had hit me until he explained that I fell. I would flinch when he moved as part of my act to confirm the beating. In the whiskey bar one night I sat next to a fun couple from New Orleans. The first thing the guy said was "You look like you've been in a barroom brawl". I admitted that I had and that he should see the other guy.

I finally bought some coverup makeup from shop on the Greek Island of Mykonos. The sales lady was a true expert with makeup and offered to do it for me. She was amazing and you could not see my black eye at all. I was almost normal again except for the limp.

Lucky for us, we did see Mike and Brinda again. They called our cabin and we arranged to have dinner together. It was so much fun. We all laughed and told stories until we realized we were the last people in the dining room. This became a habit with us throughout the cruise and helped to make it one of the best cruises ever. Meeting people of like minds and having fun is what cruising is all about. You never know who you will run into around the corner, at the bar, in the spa. You just have to be open and accessible and see what happens.

We were having a nice carafe of wine at a seaside bar in Mykonos and eating some delicious appetizers when Mike and Brinda walked by. We started talking and they joined us. Next thing we knew, there was another young American couple talking to us and they joined us too. They were on another cruise ship but wanted to stay in touch. Joe, the husband was on leave from Germany and Iraq and his wife, Erin was getting ready to go back home. They were very sweet and interested in the world. I liked them alot.

Even being decades older, limping around on a sprained and swollen ankle with a freakish giant knot on my forehead and a swollen shut purple eye, people are still willing to talk to me and to make friends. They are able to overlook my differences and see the real me. Travel more than anything I know makes this possible. So if you have an accident during a trip and it's not life threatening or completely debilitating, don't give up on it. You might miss out on the time of your life!
Cheers!