In three days my sister-in-law arrives onboard, which I am duly excited about as I haven’t clapped eyes on Alasse in over a year , and her being on board means that I have a dancing, dining and drinking partner again (WOOT!) but her impending arrival has also resulted in Amras steadfastly (and justifiably ) refusing to see Venice without her.
That said this was our last three day stop in Venice (we have one two day stop coming up and then we won’t be back again this season) and no brother of mine was going to sit around on the ship all day when the Venetian sunshine was pouring over the city and neither of us was saddled with IPM.
You’re not staying in. I’m sorry, but you’re not. I know you don’t want to ‘do’ Venice without Alasse, and I won’t make you, but there’s a café within walking distance, I have some Euros left, at least let me treat you to lunch.
Well…
This is not a choice big brother.
Okay then.
He was smiling when he said it though, and god knows I could never force my dear sibling into anything he was really dead set against.
Of course, as is so often the case with ships, things never go quite as planned. I got recruited to run a tour of the ship this morning ,which would have been fine except for a few itty bitty factors: first the tour was for a German corporate group (I speak not a word of German, actually no, I speak exactly five words which translate into “Do you speak German?” “No”), second they arrived a full hour late, so we were starting at the time we were supposed to be finishing. It was nearly noon by the time I was able to ring Amras’ cabin and tell him to meet me at the gangway, but we got there eventually. That said, since he hadn’t eaten yet but had had his morning coffee, he was in full annoying sibling mode.
Are we there yet? Are we there yet?
Do NOT make me pull over!
We’re on a monorail
Whatever!
(and yeah, I know you’re reading this and you know it’s true!)
Thankfully though I had remembered right, and while the café I wanted to find once again eluded me (I swear I can only find that place when I just kind of fall on top of it) , there was one what felt like ten steps from the monorail stop, with typically friendly Italian service and pizza that – while still not as amazing as what we had in Rome – still rated pretty high on the list of meals I’ve had. And, since I’d had a very strange (not bad, just strange) week, I actually remembered I could drink off the ship, and treated myself to a cocktail, something I rarely do in the middle of the afternoon. But when you haven’t been allowed to have anything of the kind for months, that first sip of Amaretto and Coke tastes like heaven.
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it many many times in the future, but there really is no better way to spend an afternoon than with amazing food and the company of someone you really care about, and that days like this are the reason I still – after all this time, and despite the hardships and the ups and downs – adore my job.