thoughts, chaos & other happenings
MSC's newest ship — and one of the biggest things currently floating. I'm in a promenade balcony, which means my stateroom looks directly down over the indoor promenade deck. I have been thinking about this strategically since the moment I booked it.
My niece and nephew are on this sailing. My brother is coming too, which I am very excited about. Genuinely thrilled. Cannot wait to see him. (The niece and nephew are the real reason I'm excited and everyone knows it.) I have already begun researching what snacks are lightweight, non-damaging, and can be deployed from a second-floor balcony railing with plausible deniability. Popcorn is currently the frontrunner. It travels well, causes minimal damage, and gives me something to work with if questioned.
The ship is brand new, the balcony is perfect, and my niece and nephew have no idea what's coming. This is going to be a very good trip.
This one is different.
I'm going to Europe with my mom. It'll be my first time — I've never crossed the Atlantic, never seen the Mediterranean, never stood somewhere that old. Eleven nights, forward-facing ocean view, which means I'll watch the continent arrive on the horizon before we dock each morning.
My grandfather served in Italy during World War II. He came back home and spent decades talking about it — not the war itself, but Italy. The way it looked. The way it felt. The sheer beauty of the country even in the middle of everything that was happening there. He told those stories so consistently, for so long, that Italy became part of how the whole family understood who he was.
He's gone now. But my mom grew up listening to those same stories the same way I did. So the two of us are going to go see what he saw. Walk somewhere he walked. Stand somewhere he might have stood and looked out at the same view and felt the same thing.
I don't know exactly what that'll feel like when we get there. I think I'll figure it out in the moment. But it matters more than most trips do — and doing it with my mom is exactly the right way to do it.
First time in Europe. Somehow felt like the right trip to make it.