We’re finally home from our Mediterranean cruise and Poseidon and Zeus didn’t like us from the first day of our cruise. Poseidon rained on us letting us know that we were invading his homeland and Zeus used his thunder to scare us away, but we braved it and got to see a magnificent past of our cradle of civilization.

I know this site is about my journey with my cancer, but my journey to other countries made me realize how lucky I was to survive so that I could see these relics about a land of mythical legions with their Gods from the past. I won’t bore you to death with all the details, but I would like you to imagine being there with us. I am going to take you to each city we visited with each post so that you will anticipate the next port.

One thing I didn’t count on was how tired I would be getting ready for the trip. Thank God, our niece Karen picked us up at Horseshoe Bay, BC after getting off the ferry and drove us the 1 1/2 hour trip to the airport. I fell asleep along with Marcus (the baby) so the trip was fast for me. Bernie had agreed beforehand to drag the 2 large bags behind him and I would push the blue bag beside me. Even still, I noticed that the blob ( the name I have given that extra piece of flesh hanging under my arm) seemed to grow bigger. I was starting to think people were staring at a woman who had her breast tucked under her arm until I found out it was only my imagination, but the blob did get sensitive whenever I did too much.

Let me begin from our plane trip. If any of you have experienced a stop-over at London Heathrow Airport, you will understand when I say OMG. Is that place nuts! You have no idea what terminal you get out of when the plane lands and when you do find the right one you are suppose to go to, you go through at least 2 scanners after you have gone up a couple of escalators, after you show your passports, into the train to take you to the right terminal, down the escalator to the long walk to where the gate is (which won’t show you on the board until about 1/2 hr. ahead of leaving) walk on a vertical escalator for what feels like a mile and – you get the picture. It took us over an hour to go from one plane to transfer to another.

We arrived in Rome and Bernie rented a car. If you have ever driven in Italy, you will understand why I was so impressed by his driving. He had gone on Google and done his homework how to get to Civitavecchia, Italy to where the cruise ships are. The next morning, we went for breakfast and 2 wonderful couples introduced themselves. They were from Los Angeles and invited us to join them at their table on the cruise ship called “Celebrity Reflections”. Little at the time did we know how much fun they would be.

We were lucky and got to explore the ship before all of the 3400 passengers arrived. We were on the 15th floor and I asked Bernie to sit on one of the lounges. Being Bernie, he laid down instead and a Chinese fella next to me started to laugh. When I looked at him, he said “See my bum”? I replied “I’m not going to look at your bum”. He then turned around and I finally understood. He was trying to tell me that he sat in one of the lounges too and got a wet seat. Bernie got one too, but I warned him not to ask another lady to look at his bum.

The first night we couldn’t sit together so we all asked for a table to accommodate the 6 of us the rest of the trip and a friendship started with Geri and Doug, and Marie and Joe. How lucky they took us under their wing because the first night I started to get a bit of a sore throat and I went downhill after that. We had a beautiful room with a balcony, but the air conditioner was above our bed and both of us caught a cold which didn’t help my asthma.

The next day we landed in the port of Santorini, Greece. Santorini is one of a small, circular group of volcanic islands located in the southern Aegean Sea, about miles southeast from Greece’s mainland. It is also known as “Thera”. Santorini is essentially what remains of an enormous volcanic explosion. Black-sand beaches and whitewashed villages that cling to volcanic cliffs. Many go to uncover the mysteries of the lost kingdom of Atlantis.

They warned us ahead of time that we could go uphill by tram, walk up the 600 steps or take a donkey. I really wanted to go, but the cold made me weak and I had reached my wall of resistance so Bernie went with our new friends. I laid down and rested while he was gone, but was too weak to do it in the solarium. Because Bernie was worried about me, he came back to the ship early and decided to walk down. He said the steps were positioned to take 2 foot steps on each of the steps so in reality, there were 1200 steps instead of 600. He said the donkeys left their donkey patties all the way down and they were slippery because they urinated as well so he visualized himself laying in a sea of feces and mixed with urine.

I was never too sick to eat (too bad) so that evening, we went to the formal dining room and got a table with our friends, went to the show afterwards (amazing talent) and hoped our colds would get better along with many others who were getting sore throats too.

See you at the next port.