The internet connection on the ship was so slow that my brother and I gave up after 10 minutes. The entries made on the ship will be posted now that we are back in Marseille. I will post some pictures after I gather them all from our 3 cameras.
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My brother arrived in Paris around 1am and we talked with him, planning the continuation of his journey the next day. We finally went to bed around 2am.
We woke up around 8am and went down for breakfast. Afterwards, we walked around the hotel for a last sight of Marseille. We checked out and took the metro to go to the port. More surprises were in store for us. I don’t even want to relive that by talking about it. It was a stressful morning. Paolo’s phone ran out of “time” while we were talking to him after he landed in Paris. My sister’s died last night, and mine was almost out too. The cell phone system is different from ours and you “charge” your phone with a certain amount of minutes that gets depleted as you use it. You then have to “recharge” it. You need to buy more “time”. It’s not that complicated but it’s really not the most convenient system either.
Anyway, I was afraid I would have no way to reach my brother once he arrived in Marseille. I told him I would be waiting for him at the train station, but the crazy circumstances seemed to dictate that he would have to get to the port on his own. To quote my mom: “It was easier to give birth to 4 kids than bring Paolo here”. But after stressing for hours and probably a stomach ulcer, he made it to the ship in time and we’re just happy he’s here.
We checked in and boarded the boat and settled in our cabins. We watched Marseille disappear as the ship sailed out and spent some time talking and laughing. It is exactly how I imagined it. I feel like I’m back in time, when none of my siblings were married with kids and it was just us and mom. We make each other laugh with silly things, make fun of one another, and tease each other. We are all carefree the rest of our families thousand of miles away. We walk all over the ship, discovering where everything is, checking each deck (there are 7 decks).
At 5pm we have the mandatory safety drill and we all gather in our respective evacuation spots. This allowed me to have an idea of the rest of the crowd. The boat left from Genoa, Italy, so a big portion of the population is Italian. However there are also, Germans, French, Spanish, British… There are a few beautiful kids (and I mean from kids to teenagers). I know roommie, 16 will get me 20!!! There are a few cute men, with ugly wives and I don’t think I’m being bias; I know a pretty girl when I see one
We then have a meeting to know about all the excursions planned on this cruise. The only thing I learn was that it’s just incredibly expensive. We decide to do most of our tours on our own
We have dinner at the second seating (9pm). We have 5 tablemates, who are French as well. We meet our waiter Dennis, who is from the Philippines. My mom in her usual logic says: “Our waiter reminds me of Norman. I like Norman, so I like our waiter”. Quite some shoes to fill. Dinner goes well, until our tablemates annoy Dennis. At first this made me think he was gay, because he went from nice to prissy bitch in 6 seconds (I know something about that) but he’s married with children (although this has never stopped anyone before). It’s impossible to know if there are any gays on the ship. All the guys (well most of the younger ones) dress well and have “man purses”. Next to them, Ryan Seacrest looks butch and macho. It’s so much easier in the US.
After we went back to our cabin, Paolo and I talked for hours before finally falling asleep.
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