June 6 – At Sea

Last night we sailed through the straits of Messina into the Mediterranean Sea.  At about 2:30am we passed the active volcano of Stromboli at a distance of 10Km. Fortunately there were no fireworks, although that would have been quite a site to see had it been erupting.

We are now heading to Greece and Turkey.  The seas have been calm and it has been sunny and warm all day.

This afternoon we attended a wine tasting put on by Celebrity. Are you beginning to see a trend here in this blog?  We got to try twelve wines from different countries of the world.  There were a couple of wines that I wouldn’t try again because they were too sweet, but the other wines were very good.

I’ve come down with a head cold.  It seems to be the same cold that is going around with a lot of the other passengers.  Heather is just getting over her cold, so I guess I have got a couple of days where I’ll just have to ride it out.

We received a bottle of sparkling wine and chocolate strawberries from our travel agent, Anna Oliva.  This is a nice way to relax before dinner.  Tonight we get to have our picture taken with the captain. This is a tradition on Celebrity.

Tonight was the first formal dining evening. Although it is a pain to pack a suit and evening dresses, it sure was a classy way to spend the evening.

 Rolondo is our head waiter.  We have talked to him about life onboard the boat for the staff.  He told us there were sixty different nationalities on staff.  The staff have their own restaurant and bar and their rooms are meant for two people.  They are paired by nationality or placed together if there is a relationship.

Again we seem to have a close affinity to Australians.  We've befriended a single Australian lady, Tracy, who is taking the cruise on her own.  She will be joining us for the formal dinner tonight.  At the wine tasting we meet two other Australian couples and they have invited us to stay with them, when we visit their country to see John and Ellen Kelly.

Even over here you can't escape reality.  We get a four page Canadian newspaper delivered to our cabin each day.  Today's lead story was another drunken Rob Ford tale.  Who really cares anymore?