Cruise Wrap-up

 Here is the promised but delayed wrap-up for our last 2 days of cruising.

On Thursday, May 5th we were in Koper, Slovenia.  When we docked in Koper we were greeted by many jellyfish.  I'll just say here that you ain't seen nothing yet!

We toyed with doing some kind of excursion but eventually decided that it would be best to take it easy and just stay in town.  I would describe Koper that day as sleepy.  We walked into town and, yes, stopped for coffee.

We then continued to wander the town until it was time to sample the local pastry and wines - a good malvasia and rose.

That was about it for Koper until the aforementioned surprise dinner party for Linda's birthday.

On Linda's birthday we were in Trieste, Italy.  Check out the plethora of jellyfish that greeted us there.  I've never seen anything like it.

Trieste was more lively and interesting than Koper.  We set our sights on a few highlighted places such as a church with beautiful mosaics and the bakery that dated back to something like 1836.

We then continued to wander and came upon a restaurant that had great looking pizza that would be perfect for Linda's birthday lunch.  And, so, we eventually returned there.  When we did return, who should we find there eating a pizza?  Agnese, the server from Baristas who had recommended the good pizza restaurant in Naples.  We knew we were in the right place.  We had wine, lovely stuffed squash blossoms, a terrific bufalo mozzarella pizza, all topped off with dessert and fruit liqueurs.  All for the whopping price of 31 Euro.  Do I know how to treat a birthday girl!

After lunch we walked a bit more and came upon the large Italian market, Eataly.  They have these in many places and I believe we've been in the one in New York City.  It was fun to browse and made the perfect spot for our final coffee stop on this trip.

That wraps up the cruise, but I wanted to say a few things in conclusion.  Mainly, I can't praise Oceania enough for the way we get treated on board their ships.  It always amazes us.  It runs from the General Manager throughout the entire crew.  I'd like to give an example of this.  In Red Ginger, the Asian restaurant, we were usually served by a waitress named Khriza.  She was terrific and I loved the special hot sauce she made for me, her K-sauce. She disembarked a few days before the end of the cruise but before she did, she asked the chef to make us the special seafood dumplings that she knew we liked when we went there the day she had left.  What a doll!

But then it gets even better.  The next night when we ate in Red Ginger the special for the night was a beef dish - not for us!  Before we could order, the Red Ginger chef, Suguri, came to our table and said that he knew we did not eat beef so he wanted to make us a very special silk noodle seafood dish.  It was amazing, maybe the best dish I had on all of the cruise.

There are amazing people working for Oceania!  I have great respect for them.  Which brings me to today's Rule of Civility: Rule #1. Every action done in company ought to be with some sign of respect, to those that are present.

Til next time, peace and blessings,

Linda and Larry