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The background to this is that I had been promising myself for 20 years that I would come to live in Cyprus. I went back to the UK in January 09 after my regular month long holiday and was so pee'd off with everything...... the job, the weather, the government, the price of petrol.............you know, all the regular gripes.
Got moaned at in the office on the Monday morning that I started back at work and decided there and then to phone the estate agent.
Had the sign up 2 days later..........had some viewers at the weekend who's offers were frankly a joke and a few more over the next few weeks too. I had decided to stick it out and try to get the advertised price. I finally achieved that at the beginning of July. The sale went well and I had a completion date of 24th July.
I had 3 weeks to get rid of all my gear, give my notice in at work and get out of my house, it went like this........
I had done some research about my travel plans and had already decided to take a Freighter-Cruise with italian firm Grimaldi, they have an agent in Southampton who I found was truly excellent.
Got the boat organised, arranged for the auctioneers to come and empty the house.......I had decided to bring my car over on the boat, so everything that didn't go in the car wasn't going anywhere except to auction.
I gave my notice in at work and was on countdown, my Cruise ship was leaving Southampton on 1st August.
It was a bit of organised chaos but the car was packed and ready to go on Thursday 23rd July. I had arranged to stay with my sister in South Wales until I headed for the boat on 1st August.
Here's where it first got scary, I had a call from Grimaldi that the vessel had been held up in Greece and they would let me know when to arrive to board........I had calls to say it might be on Monday and then Tuesday, we finally got away on the Wednesday
Here's how the journey went............
Escape to the Sunshine
My Freighter-Cruise to Limassol
Well it started off slowly, we were supposed to leave Southampton on 1st August but eventually got away on the 5th August around 6.30pm, and guess what ….. it was raining.
I had visions of being the only passenger on board but late in the day I was joined by an elderly couple from London who were just doing the whole 35 day cruise from Southampton to Southampton and all stops in between.
It was then off down the Solent into the channel and out into the big wide world…….next stop Salerno in Italy.
I had an internal cabin……”Big” mistake if you ain’t ever been on a cruise….. lack of daylight when the door is shut is quite a shock, I’m not normally claustrophobic but this was a little different. I think it’s the only time since I was a kid that I’ve had to sleep with the light on. Fortunately there were 2 vacant beds in my cabin and they each had (like mine) a bedhead light unit so I had one of those on all the time……scary, and I had to do this for another 2 weeks yet.
First and second days out at sea were a little windy but no more than you would expect, night time we rocked and rolled a little but it was really quite pleasant and just rocked you to sleep.
Then on the second night out we hit it………… The Bay of Biscay….. the bit that go’s down past Spain and Portugal before you turn left to get to the Med.
It was 4am and it was like hitting a brick wall…… BANG.
Nobody had told me about Biscay……it’s lumpy to say the least, I remember going across the channel years ago on a stormy crossing to France and having to walk uphill a lot to get somewhere. This was worse than that. This was a brick wall every 40 seconds or so and there was going to be another 24hrs of it……yuk. Fortunately I survived even being seasick which I’m really proud of.
I had wondered why there was a seat in the shower, pretty obvious really when there’s not a hope in hell of standing up for long.
Day 3 (8th Aug) and it’s getting warmer now, we are doing the Straights of Gibraltar and just managed to get a signal on the moby. Another couple of days and we dock in Italy.
August 11th.
6.30am and we’re just pulling into Salerno in Italy. Looks a really pretty place from here. We are only here for few hours so not much time to go anywhere. We can’t get off the ship until 10am and need to be back for 2pm so didn’t bother.
I needed to get to the car to get a few bits so had to get security to come with me, Elf and Safety and all that. Got what I needed and walked away from the car and the damn alarm went off. Had a play about for a while and discovered that the battery was flat…….I think the alarm had been going off for the last 6 days and just drained it. I’ll need a jump start in Limassol ho hum. Better just get a deck chair and just top up the tan.
4pm and we were on our way again.
Another 2 days at sea and we will be in Piraeus in Greece.
I forgot to mention the meals we get on board…… all in all they’re good if you like pasta.
You have to bear in mind that you eat what the crew eat
Breakfast 07.30 – 09.00.
Coffee and Biscuits and Cold Pizza
I’m not a coffee lover but this stuff was excellent.
Lunch 11.30am
3 courses
1x Pasta Course with Sauce
1x Meat Course with Sauce or Salad
1x Fish Course sometimes with Salad
Dinner 6.30pm.
All 3 courses similar to the Lunch courses
Followed by fresh fruit of the day with also Ice Cream on Thursdays and Sundays.
I have just realised while writing this that the only vegetable that was on offer was potato, and I think that was only once
On 2 evenings we had a Barbi out at sea…..probably the best Barbie’s I’ve been to.
13th August and we arrive in Piraeus in Greece, this was nice, went and had a good look around the place in the short time that was available….topped up on some needed stuff at Carrefour………anything to get away from Pasta for a few hours.
Next stop on 14th August was Izmir in Turkey
Again it was in and out in a few hours but I haven’t done Turkey before and had to go and have a look.
It was very hot and sunny again and very different to what I am used to……. Couldn’t read the shop signs or understand what they were gibbering on about and the cars were all on the wrong side of the road and they were all trying to kill me…….I needed to get back on the boat.
We left early evening on our way to Ashdod in Israel
16th August….not much longer now to Limassol
We pull into Ashdod port around 4.30pm. This is probably the hottest it’s been all the way across, don’t think I could do this heat for long.
We are supposed to have an overnight stop here and go ashore the next day (17th) sightseeing ….Jerusalem, Bethlehem and all that.
Seems that the Israeli’s are having none of it…….
The working day for the crew normally starts at 8am when they start unloading the cargo……they have already started to unload and it’s still the same day.
Myself and two fellow passengers are called to the meeting room by Israeli Security for interview and “Facial Recognition” purposes……they want to check the person against the passport photo and ask a few questions.
I’m first in… This was not an interview it was an interrogation. One officer asking questions and two others watching your every move…with guns……. just like in the movies.
Where are you going…. Where did you join the ship…. Where has the ship stopped…Where did you go ashore….How did you find out about this journey…How did you book it … How did you pay for it….How long has it been booked…Where are you going when you go ashore…Are you carrying any weapons…..and many many more that I can’t remember
My two fellow passengers were very keen to go to Bethlehem and Jerusalem………the security asked how they had heard of these two places……..”have you not read a 2000 year old book called the Holy Bible” did not go down very well.
What is all that about …..they even wanted to see my contract for the rental of my apartment.
We didn’t get to go ashore, we were told that we were leaving at 4am and that the Israeli’s didn’t want us there. We didn’t leave at 4am, neither did we make the 9am or 1pm that we were told. We finally left at 3pm.
One good thing about Ashdod is that the guys from the garage bit on board helped me start my car, so we are now in pole position for a quick getaway next stop.
Next stop is Limassol, we were supposed to be going to Alexandria in Eygpt but they are going to do that after they drop me off.
18th August………Arrived
6.30am and we are pulling into Limassol Port………home at last.
Getting off the boat and doing Immigration Control were a breeze.
Customs was almost a breeze………they didn’t even look into the car to see what I had brought in.
There was a problem with the registration number of the car.
My reg is DU**FGP…….someone in Italy on booking the passage had typed DU**GGP…..and it didn’t match.
It took 4 hours to get things sorted between the shippers and customs via fax before I could get on the road to Pegeia.
So in summary my Escape to the Sunshine trip was like…….
If you can get away from the romanticism of “Cruise” syndrome the reality is as follows. This was a Freighter-cruise, a 4000 mile voyage on what is literally no more that a 10 storey floating carpark with a few beds for people who are not in a hurry and not looking for any luxury. The first 6 days were the worst, by the time we arrived in Salerno I was ready to catch a plane and meet the boat in Limassol…….but I didn’t. That would have been defeatist.
The only entertainment was guessing what the pasta sauce would be at the next meal.
I did see 2 Whales and loads of Dolphins in The Bay of Biscay and there were hundreds of Flying Fish off the coast of Israel
For me it was the only way I could find to do what I wanted to do….. that was to take my car with me, full of the stuff that I needed, drive it on, lock it, and drive it off the other end. Me and it in the same place at the same time going the same way with all my worldly goods intact on arrival.
It worked for me this time but would I do it again ??? NO!!!
I hope I was able to amuse you a little and that you aren't too bored
_________________
Best Regards
Rob
I'm not lost...........just undiscovered.
Last edited by Shropshire Lad on Mon Aug 16, 2010 12:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Great post Rob and very informative for anyone wishing to make the same journey 
