I've lost Carol.

Bus 14 surely stops at the next block. I will get off and walk back to Carol. The other passengers see what has happened and want to help. One woman tells me what to do with hand motions. Others give advice in Italian. Others shout to the bus driver. The bus does not stop at the next block.  Over a bridge, across a highway, through a tunnel. It stops. I literally tumble out. Across the street and down the block I find a marker that says Bus 14. Okay, I will take Bus 14 back to the Train Station, look for Carol, and then drag my suitcase to the B & B if I can't find her. I have the address and an iPad with Google Maps. (This is the time to have cell phones that work in Italy.)

I am tempted to sit on my bag in the street. A lady walks by and imitates flagging down the bus. She says the bus won't stop here unless I do "this". Better not sit on the bag. A couple with a toddler in a stroller join me at the stop. About 30 minutes go by. I ask, "Will Bus 14 take me to the train station?" She does not speak English but he answers "Yes." I ask, "How do you pay for the bus?" He answers me with very good English. I detect a German accent. We begin talking and he tells me he studied and worked in California. His name is Thomas. I tell him what happened and he understands perfectly. He asks how they can help.  Does he have a phone so I can phone the B & B and leave a message for Carol? She phones the B & B and leaves a message in Italian.

Bus 14 arrives and we head back to the station. We get off and I thank them as much as I know how but they say they will stay with me until I find Carol and get to the B & B. They insist . . . and I am grateful. Carol is not at the train station where I lost her so we catch another bus to the B & B.

Their daughter in the stroller is content and beautiful.  The host of the B & B returns her call. He is at a different location, just found her message, and will head there immediatelly to meet us. He takes the message for Carol that 'Donna is fine and will soon be at the B & B.'

Before we arrive he phones again to say he is at the B & B but Carol is not there. All this in Italian. They walk me to the door of the B & B. I ring the bell and he answers the door. Carol is here!  She arrived by taxi but no one was at the B & B to meet her so she found a place in the shade across the street. Once he arrived on his bike and unlocked the door, he motioned to the woman across the street sitting on her suitcase - assuming that must be Carol. Good thing we phoned!

Thomas writes down his name and email address in my iPad and and I quickly send him an email with my name, address, and phone number. I invite the three of them to DC and Virginia! I will pick them up at the airport and deliver them to their hotel. . . 

Stop the Bus!

We forgot to set the alarm. GLITCH 2

I wake first and realize it is almost 9am. The train to Florence leaves at 10:15. Panic. Throw on clothes. Zip suitcase. Fly downstairs to pay and grab something to eat. Follow last night's instructions to catch the bus to Milan Centrale train station. 

We get off the bus and must literally run to the train. So very glad Carol thought to get tickets last night.

I am so lucky to travel with Carol. She is like Jim when it comes to travel plans and maps.

But I have to lift this huge suitcase up these stairs. Carol runs up the stairs and leaves me in the dust. Oh my gosh, I am going to lose her. I want to collapse. I can't lose her. ( I am sure this is where the fever blister comes in.)

I get to the top step and see her but she quickly disappears. There are so many trains and so many people. There she is! She knows exactly where to go. We run past the cars that say Business Class.  More stairs into the train. Can I lift this one more time? A man grabs our suitcases and lifts them and puts them in the luggage bin. He wants a tip. I give him some Euros. "Not enough!"  I give him more. Lesson learned. But where was he on the staircase?

Get off the train in Florence. Ahh, back to Plan A without the diversion to Milan. Carol has maps printed out. She has studied them. Her assignment is our transportation in Italyqq. We know the route to the B & B, just not the bus to take. I peek at my charged iPad. Google Maps says Bus 14, and the arrow indicates it is going to the right. I see a Bus 14 going to the right but Carol's map indicates we should catch it across the road and it should be going towards the left. I put my iPad away and cross the road. Lots of people. Sun in our eyes. Electronic sign says Bus 14 in 17 minutes.  Many buses come and go. Bus 14 stops and people crowd the disembarking passengers. Big push to get on. Carol waits in line by the driver but I see the line thinning in the middle of the bus and get on there. No room to sit. No room to put my suitcase. Reminds me of a crowded subway in NYC. Carol seems to be talking to the driver inside the door. The doors close. We begin moving and I see Carol on the sidewalk. 

Stop the Bus!

GLITCH 3

No more Airports, Train Stations, or Bus Stops!

We are on a train from Milan to Florence, traveling through the countryside of old farms and abandoned  buildings mixed with modern buildings and super highways. The red tile roofs and cypress trees distinguish it from Loudoun County or the East Coast. It was very flat but now there are low hills to the west. We are coming to the Bologna Station where we would be getting on had we chosen to spend an extra night in Istanbul and fly to Bologna today (instead of Venice, due to Airport Worker strike in Venice).

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Now we are in the hills and going through tunnels. And I can feel a fever blister beginning on my lower lip, the way my body manifests  stress.

Yesterday's Glitch gave me a taste of independent travel. Charles says "Next time get a travel agent and fly Business Class." I now see the value of traveling with a tour, especially the first or second time you travel to a place that speaks a language other than English. On a tour we might still experience the Venice airport strike but, as Carol says, it would be their problem to come up with Plan B. Our days seem to be consumed with LOGISTICS.

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Plan B involved a day in a very hot crowded Istanbul airport, a 3 hour flight to Milan, making a hotel reservation in Milan, fIguring out how to get the bus from the Milan airport to the hotel, figuring out how to get from Milano Centrale  (bus and train station) to hotel and back for trip to Florence, figuring out where and how to buy train tickets. All this with no street signs (let alone street signs in English or any kind of sign in English) and few people speaking English in a way that either of us can comprehend.  I think we walked in circles pulling our heavy bags for an hour at the Milan airport trying to find the right public bus. We had to find Floor O. And then our escalator went from Floor -1 to Floor 1 as we passed Floor 0 but could not get there. We eventually get on the bus for a long ride into the city. During the ride I email Charles to phone the Venice hotel and say we are not coming. I go to Booking.com and book a new hotel in our price range. We have no phones. 

We arrive at a huge train station, like Grand Central in NYC, after 6pm. Carol wants to buy train tickets for our morning trip to Florence. I sit with the luggage inside one of the huge doors while she searches for a ticket office, and hopes it is open.

She walks forever and waits in a long line, but returns with train tickets to Florence.

The next task is to find a bus to our hotel. Thanks to Google Maps and 3G we can see where we are and where the hotel is on my iPad screen. Carol has paper maps of everything on our itinerary, but remember that Milan is Plan B. It is dark. There are a million buses, and a million people. Do we need tickets? Which bus?

Google Maps says it is 1.9 km to Hotel Aspromonte. I forget what makes us give up on a bus but we decide to drag our luggage a litte over a mile with the iPad showing us the way. But wait! The iPad only has a 5% charge left!

We memorize the street names on the map so we know where to go when the iPad dies. A few times we head down a street from a traffic circle and the arrow on the map moves off the route line. So we try another street. No, still off the route line. Finally our steps are in sync with arrow on the screen as we roll the wheels over the cobblestone and past sidewalk cafés or inebriates. We see no street names anywhere! The iPad dies. Carol remembers it is just beyond a park.

Finally, we arrive and a gentleman asks for our passports, explains breakfast, and says he will carry the bags up 3 flights. I ask if there is air conditioning. It is above 80 degrees with 75% humidity. Yes, there can be air conditioning if we request it. He gets the AC remote.

Carol eventually gets the AC on. We crash.

Venice! No Bologna!

Arrive at the Istanbul airport in plenty of time for our 10:30 flight from Istanbul to Venice. Will more people speak English in Italy than in Turkey? (Mmmm, and I am the one who has " Visit Country that does not speak English" on my Bucket List.)

We already have our boarding passes and line up to check baggage. When it is our turn the woman looks at our tickets, shakes her head, types for a while, and hands them back to us. "No Venice. New ticket. Go behind B." 

"What do you mean? We have Turkish Airline tickets to Venice." She has no more English words for us.

We go behind B and snake again through the line. The young man takes our boarding pass and says,

"No Venice. Bologna? 

I say "No Bologna. VENICE." 

He says. "Impossible."

"But Turkish Airlines sold us tickets from Istanbul to Venice."

"No problem with Turkish Airlines . . . but Venice."

Carol and I both demand "What is the PROBLEM with Venice?

STRIKE. AIRLINE WORKERS OF ITALY STRIKE.

GLITCH 1

But not EVERY city. Just the ones tourists fly to.

We have reservations at a hotel in Venice and reservations for the train from Venice to Florence and then Rome.

"Can you fly us to Florence? To Rome?"

"No. Strike."

At the next counter is an Italian couple trying to get home. They want Bologna, not Venice. But their attendant won't offer Bologna. Something is odd here.

Our attendant starts naming Italian cities to which we can fly, including Bologna. I say we want to leave TODAY and ask which city is close to Venice or Florence.  He knows as much about Italy as I do. He asks the neighboring attendant about the geography of Italy as I try to  quickly find an Italy map on my iPad. Neither know where in Italy any of the open airports are located. 

I pull the Italian gentleman to my counter.

"Which of the cities he names is close to Venice or Florence?"

The attendant reads the names and the Italian listens. But as he reads, some of the named cities suddenly announce a strike too.

"Milano or ???
A map of Italy comes up on my screen. I show my map to the Italian gentleman and he quickly points to Milan and says " Milano. Milano."

So we get new airline tickets to Milan for 3 pm.  5 hours to wait and hope the airport workers of Milan don't decide to strike.  They don't list a gate for our flight so we look for a seat in a very crowded hot un-airconditioned airport in Turkey.

I look at my Italy map and see that Bologna is closer to both Venice and Florence.  Carol reminds me that all flights to Bologna from Istanbul leave late tomorrow. (More time for their airport workers to strike!)

Adhan - Muslim Call to Prayer

Last night, after dark, I thought I heard a loud radio outside. Then I realized it must be the Muslim call to prayer broadcast from the loudspeakers of the minaret in the city. Just heard it again about 5:30 am.

The adhān (Arabic: أَذَان [ʔaˈðaːn]), (or azan as pronounced in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan,Bangladesh, India, Iran, Malaysia, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan, ezan in Turkey,Bosnia and Herzegovina), azon in Uzbekistan, and bang in Kurdistan , is the Islamic call toworship, recited by the muezzin at prescribed times of the day. The root of the word isʾadhina أَذِنَ meaning "to listen, to hear, be informed about". Another derivative of this word isʾudhun (أُذُن), meaning "ear".

Adhan is called out by a muezzin from the mosque five times a day, traditionally from theminaret, summoning Muslims for mandatory (fard) worship (salat). A second call, known asiqama, (set up) then summons Muslims to line up for the beginning of the prayers. The main purpose behind the multiple loud pronouncements of adhan in every mosque is to make available to everyone an easily intelligible summary of Islamic belief. It is intended to bring to the mind of every believer and non-believer the substance of Islamic beliefs, or its spiritual ideology. In modern times, loudspeakers have been installed on minarets for this purpose.

The adhan sums up the Shahada, the statement of faith: There is no deity but God, andMuhammad is the Messenger of God. This statement of faith, called the Kalimah, is the first of the Five Pillars of Islam.

Nice breakfast at the Doubletree Hotel. It included lots of cheeses and olives. Good coffee. I got in the elevator, which is not air conditioned, closed the door and pressed floor 9. I kept pressing 9 until I thought I would die of the heat. Got out and did the same thing in adjacent elevator. No movement. Got out and went to Front Desk. You must show your room card to the black dot in the elevator to make it move.

Turkish Airlines

It is 11:25 pm and we are sitting in a Turkish Airlines Plane at Dulles (Washington D.C.) waiting for take off. An infant is screaming, screaming, screaming. It took an inordinate amount of time to get our boarding pass. I believe the woman at the desk is in training and she needed help from her supervisor. Finally, after 40 minutes, she asked, "And you will pick up your suitcases in Venice?" I said "No, we have a 16 hour layover in Istanbul and want our luggage in Istanbul." "Why didn't you tell me you had a layover? I already tagged your luggage for Venice." (The change was made and we have our luggage in Istanbul.)

Carol has her notebook and is making notations about the time we leave the terminal and the time we get in the air and the times we reach different altitudes.

I feel the most organized for a trip I have ever been. Gwen Frazier gave me the Grand Circle Tour Handbook for Tuscany which was extremely helpful. Charles gave me a great REI roller bag and small pack combo. He also added International 3G capability for my iPad. Diane told me that AAA will exchange currency for you before you go at no charge. Because I had to prepare for Carol's arrival 2 days before we left Dulles, I was forced to clean the house and get organized. Soon I will see what is unnecessary and what I should have packed.

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It is now 5:41 am Virginia time , or 12:42 pm Istanbull time. Carol is asleep in the window seat. Although it is lunch time, they want all the window shades tightly closed. According to the map on the screen we have not hit Europe yet. I am having my typical 'can t sleep on a plane struggles' and feel so tired at the moment that I feel sick. I am dreaming of that hotel room in Turkey.

Oh, looks like we are just approaching the coast line of France.

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It is now 2:30 pm Istanbul time and I see that we are north of Venice. The baby is crying and the lights have just come on. Soon the window shades will open and they will serve us breakfast. Dinner last night was with real silverware and an elegant menu, just like I remember in the mid sixties. They gave us a travel kit with toothbrush and supplies, a pillow and blanket, a pair of slippers, a heated washcloth, and dinner and breakfast. We have an iPad likescreen on the back of the seat in front of us and can see where the plane is on the map or watch all kinds of movies. I watched Nicole Kidman as Princess Grace of Monaco and a 1980's Turkish film with no subtitles, Kemal Sunal in Postac

 We eventually found the Turkey Tourism booth after showing our passports and visas. They put us on a hotel van and drove us to a Doubletree Hotel. It was rush hour in Istanbull and what usually takes 15 minutes, took over an hour. We have a great room overlooking this part of Istanbul and the Sea of Marmara. Most people we have spoken to in Turkey can speak English but neither Carol nor I can understand their English .

The van will return us to the airport at 8 in the morning to fly east to Venice.

Carol & I fly from Dulles to Istanbul to Florence