Nh Liberty Messina

... me ready to go. I started the day by visiting the library. There I leave my paperbacks, and forage for new ones. The swap library here is small, with many of the books in german, but I've found some good sci-fi to get me through.
About the Germans: this cruise has about 400 on board.
On our first sea day, we booked our shore tours. We went to the big theater on board and watched a slide show and heard a speaker tout the various tours. They ...

... Zia Tina’s mother, and then I attended her funeral, being included in the family’s grieving process within her home for three days, this had me experiencing something else intense, buried within another culture.

And yet, here I sit, with one week left, thinking about the departure. Craving it almost. I would like to indulge myself and believe that it would have been different if I came earlier, so that the ...

I just checked out my 'stats' section and I'm quite pleased with my little blog and how much people are enjoying reading about my travels. I have over 20 5-star ratings and over 2,000 viewings. That is so incredibly awesome!

Apparently my photos are also not so bad. Travelpod has selected almost a dozen of them to be included in the daily ...

... I let myself behind the reception desk and found a phone. At first I kept thinking, "Josie, you should be nervous. You should be scared. Your wuh-oh alarm should be going off. You should be wanting to leave. You should be thinking about finding other accommodations." But there's something about Sicily that just sets my risk-taking genes on fire. If I had actually felt scared or uncomfortable I would have done any of those things. But I didn't get that sense and so instead I have just ...

... s a nice change from the hustle and bustle buffet in Horizon Cafe. Although we're not big buffet patrons, it seemed that most people in the buffet line believed their last meal would be this particular lunch. Thus, nothing would stand in their way, not even manners! So, it was best to stay at least two meters away from those people.

After a nice quiet lunch we caught the last half of the ...

After a relaxing day at sea we arrived in the port of Messina, Sicily at 1pm. We sailed past the famous statue that was the last image Tim's grandparents saw as they immigrated to America. This town was double hit during WW ll. Both sides bombed it to make the port unusable by the other.

Our guide, Giacomo, met us and we drove to ...

Today was another sea day. We got a late start and went to sit by the pool. Unfortunately, the weather wasn't so good so everyone was crowded in the indoor pool.l there were absolutely no seats available. So we changed plans and went to work out instead. After our workout we ran into Theresa and Dan and had lunch with them. Then it was time for ...

Messina, Italy - This port has a botanical garden, lots of old churches, quaint neighborhoods and tons of trash. That is a central theme so far in Italian ports in Sicily. I hiked for about 2 hours up and down all kinds of streets and alleys and then headed ...

... and asked if the teller spoke English. A little. We explained that we needed to talk to someone who could call the toll-free number and he pointed us to another section. We then were helped by a charming young woman and an equally charming (but to be honest, not so good looking) middle-aged man who claimed to be able to understand English. We tried explaining, again, that if we could call this number, we could use our card again. He tried phoning the ...

... dat verdacht veel lijkt op een futuristisch machine geweer, vrolijk een autoverhuurbedrijf (angstige blikken alom) binnen en weer terug naar de haven. Blij te weten wat het is. De volgende maandag kunnen we voor de zoveelste keer met Rome bellen om te regelen dat in St Maria de reparatie kan worden verzorgd. We vragen of het niet slim is een nieuwe TP10 mee te sturen, of een kompas en andere onderdelen. Nee, nee, de PCB is de TP10 dus dat zal niet nodig zijn.