SUNDAY - OCTOBER 17

Sunday, October 17 – Memorial of St. Ignatius of Antioch, 2^nd bishop of Antioch after St. Peter. I was awakened at 6:55 by a pounding on the door – one of our group with a ticket for the day’s excursion wasn’t going to go and did I want to go? Had he pounded on the door at 6:30, I would have been off in a flash. But the group was supposed to gather at 7 for a 7:10 departure. Shower, brush teeth, dress, get food – not gonna happen in ten minutes. So I passed. Sigh – another life-changing opportunity lost.

When I did rouse myself – which was not too much later, because having been awakened, I could not go back to sleep – rats – the sun was coming out. Had breakfast with some folks from Honolulu who had boarded last night. Flight from Hono to Atlanta, and Atlanta to Istanbul, There were a trifle jet-lagged. Took coffee up outside – weather very nice, and lots of sun, although there are grey clouds that could be worrisome. Met another couple of New Brunswick and we chatted for a while. I went to the stern where there are chairs and tables for a quiet read of the morning hours, and found someone already in the Jacuzzi. I was immediately tempted but he told me it wasn’t hot – tepid even. I sat to read/pray, but somehow someone thought that the environment of a beautiful harbor with gorgeous scenery was enhanced by having loud, thumping music playing. Sigh. I disagreed, so I got up and wandered elsewhere where the ambience was less inviting but the silence infinitely greater. OK, I admit it, I am not a crowd person. Unless they are audience. Then the more the merrier.

We are twenty in our group – three are off on their own, meeting a friend in Istanbul. Two others are also on their own – one had been a flight attendant, and had visited the city a lot. Thirteen are on the tour, the one person who decided (at the last minute!) not to go and me – so there are only the two of us on the ship at the moment. Yanni says I can do internet at Mykonos on Monday, so depending on the weather I may go ashore later just to walk around – but it seems a day for going over the material for the calendar, reviewing the music for the CD recordings, working on the speech for Buffalo which I to deliver the day after I land, and of course, it’s never too early to work on the concerts for November and December – and at least two of those are new material, so I have to write a script and coordinate music. Yeah, that will keep me occupied. There is a Captain’s cocktail party tonight, dinner, and then Mass, since everyone will have been away all day. There is another show tonight – we’ll see. We sail at 7, so heading out the straits and back into the open sea is also fun to be on deck for.

It turned out to be a quiet sort of day. I spent some time on deck sitting in the sun (watched the crew paint the smokestack, and watched a large cruise ship dock in front of us) and the went to get a drink – a nice Sunday morning Bloody Mary. I had had one yesterday and it was very nice and included in the drink package I had opted for. This morning I was told there would be an extra charge. I will not bore you with the back and forth but while the staff was very nice and polite and wanting to be helpful, it was “the policy” and there was nothing they could do. Fair enough. So I told the bar manager – quietly and gently – that I was going to visit every bar on the ship several times a day, and at each bar I would buy a drink, stink my finger in it, and move on. I figured by the end of the cruise I could cost them between 400 and 500 euro. 

Suddenly he found a way to change the policy so I could get a Bloody Mary. The bartender and the waiter are Filipino, and they had said, before the bar manager got involved, that they could “take care” of me. But I told them if someone caught them, they they would get in trouble, and that was not what I wanted either. So we ended up with everyone happy. Well, maybe not the bar manager, but he should have been, because you know me, I would have done the visiting the bar routine.

I had lunch in one of the sit down restaurants. In the evening we have reserved seating – in fact our group has a small private dining room, which everyone continues to enjoy very much. But breakfast and lunch are open seating, and there are buffets and special food stations, and you get to try out all the different eating areas. Chatted with a retired teacher and his wife, who is an art teacher, from Minnesota. And went to lie down for little in my cabin. Spent some more time on deck in the sun, and then it was time for a shower and a change of clothes for the Captain’s cocktail party.

The “invitation” in the daily newsletter said dress for the event was “Elegant attire”. Closest thing I have is clerics, so I put on a black shirt, Roman collar and the black suit. Wore my silver cross for emphasis, put a Xavier Society for the Blind button on my lapel and off I went. As I got off the elevator, I found a long queue, so I followed directions and went around and discovered that the queue was even longer – and the reason was that before you approached the room where the ”party” was, there was a station through which everyone went where they took your picture against a moonlight backdrop. The gangplank picture was 12 euro – I can only imagine what this one costs. At the top of the stairs one is introduced to the captain – and the question, “Do you want a picture with the captain?” My answer – Sorry, I can’t afford it. Probably not what they were expecting.

This event was in the room where they do the shows, so everyone was herded in – past a trio of waiters with trays of drinks, and into seating areas. I slipped off and stood in the back. Nuts on the table, and waiters passing trays of hors d’oeuvres. It was interesting watching people come in. For some, “elegant attire:” meant shorts and a sports shirt. Chacun a son gout, and so forth. One couple in our group was shown in, met the Captain, not asked if they wanted a picture and shown to a table in the very rear of the facility, while there were lots of seats down front. Do you think that the fact that one of the couple is blind and carries a long cane had anything to do with this change in routine? After a bit the captain was introduced, in several languages, and then he introduced his executive staff, everyone applauded and the “party” was over. Sigh. Disappointing at best.

Dinner with the group was interesting. I asked how the day had been and the response was, “The tour from hell.” Apparently the guide, Ahmet we had met yesterday, moved at what one person described as “glacial speed,” and effectively kidnapped the group for almost 3 hours in a department store, where there was a real hard sell to buy things. I’m sorru I wasn’t there, I would have put an end to that in a hurry. Also apparently he was given to telling “Pope” jokes – one of the group if it was then ok to start telling Mohammed jokes, and that seemed to cool his jets a little. And everyone in the group was happy that someone had spoken up. Because of the marathon the group could not return to the ship so lunch was downtown – and (on a 105 euro tour!) they charged for water! And extravagantly. Many of our group are not longer young (and I would have to include myself in that description, of course) and in a day filled with walking, there was no opportunity except lunch to sit down. One of our blind members was ushered to a spot and Ahmet’s idea was that she should sit and wait and he would return later to collect her. Rather like a library book. She, quite rightly, protested, and went her way. All in all – not a successful day.

The one member of our group who had decided at the last minute not to go (remember the pounding on my door at 6:55 episode?) – he announced at dinner that he had spent yesterday afternoon and today at a free wifi place at the harbor. Now you’d think he could have mentioned that to someone? I have been off internet since Friday – I am hoping to find a place tomorrow – and I spent the day on the ship, as he well knew. A note? A message? Ah well – he was happy doing his thing, and apparently his distance from the group is more than just physical. He has said several times what a great trip it is – and when he is around, everyone enjoys him. But he is a slave – dare I say an addict? – to this connection business, and other human or group relations seem to fall away.

The rest of the group is learning about one another, and everyone seems to be having fun. After dinner we had Mass in the library. Very nice, and because it was Sunday, the readings for Mass are in the Mass Propers in Braille, and so three of our blind members took turns doing the readings. At the end of Mass there was a request that we might sing parts of the Mass the next day – and then folks headed off for assorted activities, including the evening Show “From NY to Parish.” I stuck my nose in – after changing out of the clerical suit – didn’t want to scandalize anyone any further when I showed up at the bar – but I sat in the rear, not having great expectations about the show. This time I didn’t stay until the end. Even things as basic as tempo – at once point they started New York, New York – and it was the slowest tempo I have ever heard with that particular piece of music. The amplification is REALLY LOUD – and the singers had the same problem with staying on pitch I had suffered through the night before. Maybe their hearing has been damaged with all the loud music? Again, costumes were lovely, choreography simplistic and awkward, and the soloists seem unaware of the repetitive mannerisms. One of the men has one gesture – he moves his hand (the one not clutching the mike) in front of him and to the side, and then he repeats it – virtually with every phrase of the song. That’s it – his whole repertoire of movement, except that at the very end of the song, he raises his hand a little.

I wandered off. The bar where the young lady plays classical music is just outside the theatre area, so the sound from the stag almost drowned out her playing. And if I had started to sing with her, that sound would (knowing my voice) I feared be heard within the other space. So instead of having another drink, I went back to the cabin, did a little reading, and to bed.

IDLE OBSERVATIONS

Of course, it is not high season, but we are an older group. There are few at the disco an night, and one can always find a spot at the gym. I have seen two children – the ship holds 1200 and my new best friend at the Rendez-Vous lounge tells me that there are a little over 800 on board. No wonder they are so busy hustling money at every opportunity. In the newsletter for Monday there is a note that we will be charged 8 euro a day for tips, unless we want to go to reception and change that to something else. I heard one distinguished gentleman talking about that and the word “Disgraceful” was used several times and with passion. I suspect he will tip more than the total when he is done, but the idea of having it automatically added to the bill really got under his skin. And I don’t disagree with him.

The cruise line is not coming away with high marks.

See the guys painting the smokestack?