This is my first post on this blog. Next year on 11 January I will embark on a cruise around the world on this ship, Oceania's Insignia. She is almost 600 feet long and accommodates 824 passengers at 18 knots. We will be sailing out of New York City, heading south to Miami, then Cuba before heading westward through the Panama Canal to the rest of the world: 35 countries, 144 ports. I will be leaving the ship occasionally to ride high-speed trains across Japan, China and Europe and slower ones across Australia, India and Ireland. I will meet and visit with local and railroad cops and play my dulcimer with street musicians around the globe. I will be gone for 6 full months. I will try to post daily on this blog stories of places I went, things I saw, and people I met. There will be some photos as well.
I have been working on this trip for over a year. The final payment was made last July. I have had most of my immunizations. There will be 11 in all. I have my "yellow card" with immunization record on it so I can enter some countries. The biggest worry was getting all my prescriptions for the the trip but, I was relieved to find I can get them through my insurance with a 6 month "vacation exception" before I leave. Thirteen medications including insulin which will have to be kept refrigerated. I had to have special visas for all my side trips across countries which all about done. I got my international driving permit in case I need to rent a car. I have a new Visa card and a new American Express to cover me if my main card is lost or stolen. I have a dentist appointment next week and doctors appointments in December.
I'm shutting down my house for the 6 months and my dog Evy will be staying with my sister and her dog Willow.
I will not be using my cellphone except in Europe (T-Mobile works there) because of the enormous out-of-country and shipboard fees. I will have free internet access so I will be in contract through Facebook Messenger, Skype and my email - mayneverarrive@gmail.com.
All of this is possible because I bought a house several years ago for my kids to live in while they were in college. I'd hoped to break even when I sold it. Through no real estate savvy of my own I happen to buy the house at the rock bottom the market. Then once they were out of school I kicked them out and sold it for a great deal more at the top of a seller's market. Woo-whoo, I'm going around the world!!
