Lost on the Way to Armenia

 April 26, 2026   Underway for two days now since our last stop in Italy where we “officially” checked in to the Schengen. The European Union of countries includes a majority of countries that work together cooperatively to maintain security as if they were one nation. US Citizens are given 90 days to visit without a visa. Any time that is spent outside of the Schengen Area is returned back as another day they can return to visit. We had our fingerprints and pictures taken as part of the biometric data that is being used in the new ETIAS system, set to go live in October of 2026. The system is new and, as such, a LOT of time was spent processing 2,000 passengers (give or take). With all of the delays, we simply processed through and returned to the ship. The port town we stopped in is rather uninteresting in itself and we did not want to rush about when we can stop in to Italy (if we stop in at Italy) on the land portion of our travels. Barcelona, Spain was our first st...

 April 21 Two days out of Tenerife, in the Canary Islands. Sometime during the night we transited through the straits of Gibraltar, anarrow passage only a few miles wide that separates the Atlantic and Mediterranean Oceans. On either side of our ship, they say about 3:30 in the morning or so, we would have been able to look out the port (left) side of our ship and see Spain, while a glance out the starboard (right) side would have offered us a view of Africa, specifically the dry and arid lands of Morocco. Now that we are in Europe, we are one step closer to the lands where my great grandparents and grandparents hailed from on my father's side. In five days time we will disembark in Kusadasi, Turkey for the beginning of our land adventure. To say that my feelings similar to that of the average tourist would be the understatement of the year. I'm literally working my way back to the villages they once called home prior to the genocide that saw 1.5 million people literally e...

  April 18, 2026 Overview from deck 16 looking down on 14 Six days at sea Nine days since we left Miami Over 3,000 nautical miles traveled across the Atlantic We are approaching Europe Tomorrow we reach the Canary Islands off the Western Sahara Desert We're looking forward to having some time off the ship to explore a place we once visited before on a trans-Atlantic crossing several years ago. Passing time has been without problem. Numerous bands playing everything from hard rock to Salsa to Disco and more are available throughout the afternoon and evening in a variety of venues. Conversations with casual friendships made throughout the journey allow us time to share perspectives and thoughts as well as to recount our activities on board our ship, the MSC Divina. The food has been much better than I expected it might. Given that our last trip across the Atlantic on the MSC Lyrica was a gastronomic disaster, we are pleasantly surprised with what we are finding aboard this...

  When we are old enough and wise enough to have years of life behind us, we become aware of the fact that we have lived more than one life. Each of us who have achieved this ranking can peer back at their former selves and find that, for the majority of us, we are not the same people we once were years ago. Think of your teenage years, the choices made and the actions and decisions taken. Would you truthfully say that such actions, such choices and such decisions made would be similar to those you would make as the person you are today? If you are, then perhaps you are wise beyond the ordinary, or perhaps you are not yet mature enough or sentient enough to stand in this place. But for most of us, there will be a common thread that we all share in this observation. It is here, again, that I must segway into yet another transition as we slowly find ourselves plodding away across the Atlantic Ocean toward adventures yet to unfold. Life is chock full of transitions: Our first jo...