Very sorry, but we had to come back :(

Above is the photo from the plane home.  And below, this is me at Sunnybrook Hospital.  Yup, we never did see the actual MRI, but the Greek doctor translated it and sent the results to the doctor on the ship, who shared it with our travel insurance company, whose medical team agreed that I needed to be returned home for treatment in Canada.  The doctor on the ship scared the living daylights out of us, saying that one wrong move and I could be facing permanent nerve damage and potential lameness in one leg or worse.  His position was that I should be flown home Sunday to be in surgery on Monday. When the insurance company said, we will offer to fly you home with your husband and if you decline, you can not make any further claim for this issue, of course we decided to come home.  To put your minds at ease, I seem to be fine aside from intermittent pain down the left leg (sciatica resulting from compression on disks and nerve roots and a thing called spondylolisthesis involving the L4-L5 and L5-S1). To continue to treat this whole situation with the greatest of seriousness, Cassio and I went immediately from the airport to Sunnybrook Emergency (which our family doctor recommended for quicker service).  We were at the hospital for a total of 9 and a half hours only to be told my symptoms were not serious enough even for them to refer me to their spine clinic. The frustrating thing is that the possibility of the worst outcome is actually pretty rare.

In the end, Cassio and I are very frustrated because a trip that we intended to do for another four months has been cut short and we are not convinced that I needed to come home after all.  The problem is now that I am on a waiting list to see a back doctor that could take up to 3 months and I have to be stable for a minimum of 90 days with any pre-existing medical conditon and not travelling against the advice of my doctor in order to qualify for travel insurance for this problem.  So, we can travel in Ontario.  And maybe we will do just that.  If that is the case, we will certainly keep you posted on all our revised travel experiences.  Please read below.  I posted all our other places today, from the one that is headed " the trip from Milan to Reggio Nell Emilia"  You can see where we went and kind of read backwards all of what happened to land us back here in Toronto.  Boo Hoo.

Thanks for reading along with us.  We enjoyed the trip as much as possible and have had a ton of great experiences.  Our plan is to get/stay healthy and go again.

Cruise - Italy - Venice

Venice is really the only place that is like Venice.  Sadly, it is small and ever full to the brim with tourists.  In addition, it is sinking and all kinds of efforts are being made to delay the inevitable.  That being said, one must see Venice.  It is not necessary to have a gondola ride, use the Vaporetto, which is Venice's public transport system - only in this case the bus is a boat!  You take the number 1 vaporetto from Piazzale Roma (near the train station) and buy a ticket to Saint Mark's Square and take the direction that goes down the Grand Canal.  It is lovely.  If you are lucky, you can get a seat right up front and all of Venice opens up before you.  The line to get inside the Church is astronomical - at least an hour wait at the best of times unless you have purchased an excursion or are prepared to pay to get in ahead of the line.  Not sure of the price for this because the view from outside was so lovely it was enough for me.  Cassio and his mum visited Venice about 10 years ago and did go inside.  The most remarkable thing he mentioned is that due to flooding and a lot of foot traffic, the marble floor is exceptionally wavy and there is a large difference in height from one part to the other.  Some stores are considerably less expensive than others for basically the same thing, so it pays to spend some time window shopping first.

Look at the passenger in this gondola.  He really has the right attitude and bearing.

Cruise - Croatia - Split

I wished I had seen Split.  It was another bedrest day for me but I was told it was quite a lovely place.  I understand that Split, and Croatia for that matter, has been occupied by various different cultures/countries over time and is a bit of a mix - Roman, Greek, Italian, and others from the south and east.  I would have liked to have visited and it was on our original plan to see which would have been after crossing on the ferry from Bari to Dubrovnik.  It will have to wait for another time....  Cassio, his mum and her cousin liked the place.

Cruise - Greece - Corfu

Corfu is another pretty and fairly flat town.  Where we ended up was packed with tourist shops.  Still, it is unfair to comment much because we only spent about 2-3 hours walking around the centre where the shuttle/taxi dropped us off.  It looked like it was worth a closer examination but the only really notable things that I can say about anywhere you go in Greece is of course, the foreigness of the language, "It's all Greek to me" which is an expression for a good reason, and the other thing is the Greek Orthodox churches.  They are very specific in their use of chandelier type lighting and silver/metalic relief matting around painted faces of saints etc.  Quite pretty and for some reason, they feel more informal and accessible than most of the monstrous Catholic churches in the rest of Europe.  Perhaps this is in part due to the fact the the priest seems to be just sitting around and talking with people in a seemingly casual way.  Of course, I can only comment on the day to day activities and not the rituals or services which I have only experienced once in Toronto at a Greek Orthodox funeral.

Cruise - Greece - Olympia/Katakolon

Being heavily medicated and still waiting for the results of the MRI, the doctor gave me the go ahead to leave the ship and so I joined our party.  Once again, Cassio and I knew the place and knew it was about a quarter of the price compared to the excursions offered by the ship, to rent our own car for the day and drive from the port town of Katakolon to Olympia and see where the original Olympics were held.  It was a hot day and we three ladies took lots of breaks and sat on ancient stones a fair amount of the time.

If you buy the ticket to the grounds and the museum together, you save about 3-4 euros a person.  And I definitely recommend you see both, so it really is worth it.  The antiquities here are stunning and while the place is not super huge, the museum has some very good examples of early Greek civilization.

Cruise - Greece - Mykonos

Once again, I didn't make it out of the ship on this day, but I had seen Mykonos before so wasn't too terribly disappointed.  It is another glorious destination and should not be missed.  It is a much shallower island and pretty flat.  Again you have lovely sea views and pretty white-washed houses everywhere.  Lots of kitty cats and flowers too.

Cruise - Greece - Athens/Piraeus

No one went "sight seeing" this day.  Instead, Cassio accompanied me to get an emergency MRI on my back. The only picture we have is this, from the inside of the ambulance... Yes, the truth is out.  I had been suffering with severe sciatica for about 3-4 weeks and it wasn't going away, even after visits to a French hospital in Montpellier and an Italian one in Reggio Nell Emilia.

This morning was really bad and the cruise ship doctor saw me and decided I needed to have an MRI to see what was going on.  So more on this later....

Cruise - Greece - Santorini

No wonder it was a dream of Cassio's mum to see this place.  She used to joke that before she went to heaven, she would have to make a stop here first.  Cassio said, now you don't need to make the extra stop!  But seriously, this place is like none other and must be seen in person.  Because Cassio and I had been a few years back on another cruise, we knew the "lay of the land" and also knew where to rent a cheap car.  For 35 euro, we got a decent car for the whole day and drove ALL over the island.  The pic above and the one below are in Oia (pronounced EE-ya), which is at the northmost tip of the island.  This is where you really get to see the white-washed buildings and blue domed roofs and of course, the unmistakable sea view and sight of the caldera.  Santorini is part of a mostly water covered volcano which forms a circle of smaller islands.

Cassio must have included this picture of the sleeping cat for me.  It warms my heart everytime I see these sweet creatures.

We had lunch at this cliffside restaurant whose location and view made up for the overpriced and mediocre food.  It was exceptionally pretty and we got an outdoor table with some shade. 

Below here is what is called "black beach" because the sand and the stones are all dark, volcanic rock.  Very hot to walk on and difficult to manage without those water shoes, but Cassio and I took a dip while Lygia had an icecream and Vilma rested in the shade with a friendly dog.

Cruise - Italy - Naples

Naples was our second port of call but I did not go with Cassio, Lygia and Vilma.  As you will learn more later, I was having more back trouble and we all felt it was best if I took a day of rest.  Imagine needing rest when you are walking at the pace of an 81 and 85 year old, but there you have it.  They decided to take advantage of the hop on hop off bus and pretty much all the pictures were taken from the bus.  They got to see a lot and the two ladies were very happy just to sit and look out the window and watch the world go by.  Interestingly, some parts of Naples are absolutely beautiful and then there is another side that is very worn and decrepit looking.  Again, because Cassio and I had plans to visit Naples ourselves, neither of us felt "ripped off" by not being able to examine it more closely on foot that day.