Friday, April 17, 2020

Absence

Without you
Spirit ebbs
With aching heart
Your absence chills

Your sillage 
Magnetizes my heart
But
Walls 
But
Absence 
Makes the heart more fond
©️ April 2020
DWP

Thursday, April 16, 2020

What Warmed My Heart

Now I saw your face
In a dream 
Cheeks so supple 
And lips so warm

Kisses of love
Embraces so genuine
Warmed by love
Kindled long ago

But what warmed my heart,
Your eyes spoke my name 
That is how I knew
It was you

©️ April 2020
DWP

Wednesday, April 15, 2020

Sadness

Bleakness 
Heartache
Sorrow

This oppressive shadow
Turning days to nights
To weeks
Months
Years
Decades 
Waning

Sadness
My friend for life

©️April 2020
DWP

Thursday, April 9, 2020

What a Day!

Time:  2327
Date:  06/06/2016
Place:  Somewhere in the Mediterranean

Since Maria is snoring and I can’t sleep yet, this is just to clear my mind.  We talked about it for years but Maria and I finally get to cruise the Med.  The dream was just the two of us.  Oh well, we will make do with the other 18 friends and family.  Our first day aboard ship was a day at sea and today we went to Rome.  What a day it was! 

After going ashore and taking pictures, we took a bus to a bus stop where we took another bus to the train station.  I still don’t get why we couldn’t just take one bus.  It is about an hour train ride to Rome.  Wes went off someplace by himself on the train and napped.  Melissa sat across from me and napped.  We arrived at the main station and took a line to the Coliseum.  The Coliseum was right across the street from the station.  It is just huge.  It is much more than I expected.  As soon as we crossed the street, people started asking us if we wanted tours. 

Maria got in line for a Coliseum tour.  A guy came up and offered me a good deal.  I told him I had to find my wife.  Once I did and told her the price, Maria told me to ask if he could do better.  He couldn’t.  Maria spoke to a guy from Colombia and she took the deal he was offering.  The tour would be in in Spanish.  I know she was thinking of Miriam and family since they didn’t speak English.  Maria said she would translate for those of us who didn’t speak Spanish.  She didn’t. 

This tour kept stalling and more people joined.  Then I realized that must have been part of the plan for them to make money.  Have a bunch of people with one tour guide to minimize their expense and maximize their income.  I didn’t mind too much but not everyone in our group speaks Spanish and I had trouble understanding them.  We eventually split from this group after about an hour and went to The Forum on our own.  Since Brittany and Wesley took 4 years of Latin, they know a lot of Roman history and were able to give us some good facts.  The Forum very much impressed me.  This place must have been amazing to see in all its glory. 

After going through The Forum, we walked back to the Coliseum.  Our tickets didn’t require us to wait in the long line.  The guy who sold us the tour was sitting near the entrance and Maria spoke with him about our tour experience.  He apologized and took us to the shortest line into the Coliseum.  It was nice to be in the shade for a while.  The Coliseum is an amazing place.  I tried to fathom all the people that had been there.  It is mind boggling.  What history!

Lauren wanted to see the Trevi Fountain.  I didn’t care one way or another about going to see a fountain but went with the crowd.  A tour guide from the US was outside when we exited the Coliseum and he showed us on a map how to get there.  It was a mile or so away.  By now it was very hot and the sun was strong.  There was no shade most of the time as we walked.  We went up a side street and split up since Maria, Miriam and family wanted to eat something.  It was nice to be in the shade for a while.  The kids and I continued on up side streets.  Suddenly, there it was! 

The Trevi Fountain awed me.  I am so happy I saw it.  There is a magnitude and beauty I can’t quantify.  It is simply beautiful.  Pictures do not capture what I experienced while there.  I didn’t throw a coin into it for luck like everyone else.  At the time I didn’t think I had any.  Later I remembered I had a bunch in the small pocket on my backpack.  Oh well.  Guess I’ll have to return, won’t I?  

Maria and the others arrived as we started shopping up the street.  I bought three magnets to give away to family back home.  Melissa and Joe bought some things too.  Then we went across the street (it was more like an alley) and bought gelato.  Once everyone else got gelato we started back to the shop where Maria, Miriam and family got something to eat before.  When we got there, someone suggested we connect to Wi-Fi.  Based on the time, I wanted to return to the subway so we could get on the 1:54 train back to the port.  I wanted the extra time to get back.  So began our odyssey. 

First, we got on the right train but went the wrong direction.  (Does that make it the wrong train?)  Still we had a slim chance to catch the 1:54 to Civitavecchia.  We finally got to the train station but couldn’t find the track to Civitavecchia on any of the monitors.  Also, where I thought we needed to go had no access.  This puzzled me since I remember exiting that area when we arrived.  We asked around and got bad directions from some people.  At this point I knew we missed the train but we still needed to find the next one.  We were told to go different places by people who worked at the stations.  It was very confusing and nerve wracking.  

Finally, we got to a section of the station where we were told to go and there were monitors noting the track to use.  There was a lady who spoke some English that took pity on the confused and exasperated Americans.  She explained there had been an accident between Rome and Civitavecchia.  We were to take this train to a stop and get on busses to another place.  Then we would get to the port on yet another train.  When it was time for the train to leave, the lady got on board and so did we.  I had Joe, Brittany, Lauren, and Melissa with me.  We never saw the lady again.  That made us a little nervous.  Did she purposely give us bad advice?  

I know I speak for the kids when I say it was a scary.  We weren’t sure if we would get to the ship on time.  The ship may leave us.  Worst of all, we were split up.  After a few stops on this train we saw Cam and his mother waiting on the platform.  We knew them from the comedy club last night aboard ship.  We went down to speak with them.  They said they were told to wait about 20 minutes for a train that would go directly to the port.  We decided to get off and wait with them.

After 45 minutes, more and more people were showing up and the platform was getting very crowded.  Then police arrived.  I presume to maintain order in case people got rowdy.  Brittany complained of being thirsty.  At this point, I was out of water and I think everyone else was too.  Then the monitor changed and showed the train wasn’t leaving for 2 hours.  Now we knew it would be very close to get to the ship in time.  Brittany decided to go buy water from the shop on the other side of the tracks. 

It wasn’t 2 minutes later and the departure time changed to leaving in 10 minutes.  I got really scared they would miss the train so I quickly ran to get them.  Fortunately, they were close.  They were down the stairs from the platform but hadn’t crossed tracks yet.  That shows how crowded it was.  We did finally leave about 15-20 minutes later.  It was a full train and we were all split up once on board.  I tried to keep all of them in sight since I didn’t want to lose anyone. 

The train breezed through a few stops and I looked at the sites going by, hoping to recognize anything.  I didn’t.  My terrible dread was we weren’t going to Civitavecchia.  For all I knew, we were headed for Milan or Moscow.  At one stop, an oriental family boarded.  The mother sat across from the man next to me.  The kids, who were in their 20s, stood next to me, talking.  I heard part of their conversation and it was in English.  They didn’t speak English when they boarded.  If they weren’t from our ship, I knew they were going to the port.  I asked if they were on the Vista.  They were. 

From what they said, they were also on the train when we got off to wait with Cam and his mom.  They said it was chaos trying to get on busses to the next (this) train.  It was like the Titanic, women and children first.  Of course, people didn’t’ want to split up and it was a disaster.  Fortunately, we all arrived in Civitavecchia.  We never considered waiting for a bus to take us to the bus stop so we could take a bus to the ship.  We followed other people ahead of us and just started walking. 

The walk was further than I expected and we were already tired.  Lauren was walking fast and I pushed to catch up with her.  When I did, we talked about the day and what happened at the end.  When we got closer to the ship, I said to her, “If mom gets to the ship before us, I’m going to be pissed.”  Not that I’d be mad she made it in time.  With all we went through and knowing they left after us, it wouldn’t make me happy.  Guess who was standing on the other side of security when we boarded the ship? 

Dan and Wes were there too.  Then I learned we were split in three different groups.  The boys just missed the train we boarded from the Coliseum.  Did they go the wrong way too?  They were told someone died on the tracks and it was closed pending police investigations.  Meanwhile, Maria, Miriam and her family all went to the Vatican.  They missed most of the headaches we endured.  They took a cab from the port train station to the ship.  They picked up boys on the way but there was no room for us. 

We were the first to return and the last to arrive.  At least we will have a good story to tell the grandkids someday. 

Munich and Romania

This is the first of a multi-part series based on my observations from a recent Eastern European trip my wife and I took. In each I will sh...