Musings from the Ozone

DOMVS MEA DOMVS ORATIONIS EST

My laptop is going to run out of battery power, so I had better get my notes on here fast!   We are on a flight  to Madrid, and I have already gotten over the thrill of a nice lengthy take-off from JFK airport.  We left an hour and a half late, but I felt sleepy enough to not care.  However, once airborne, I suddenly felt the urge to pull out my laptop.  No sooner had I pulled it out,  the gentleman (gentleman?) in the seat in front of me pushed his seat back and nearly knocked my laptop into my stomach.  I still am managing to write with a laptop scrunched over.  I hardly ever put my own seat back, but in this particular case it was necessary to join the' push back' crowd, and push my own seat back!  Now, folks, that was from necessity, less I stopped breathing here. 

Airplanes….my third trip in  5 days.  You think I would be used to being cooped up by now, but going to Spain is a 7 hour trip, more or less.  I am already feeling claustrophobia at 35,000 feet and no where to go.  I thought I was adjusting, when the guy (why are guys so obnoxious at times?) behind me, took off his shoes, and the sweaty foot syndrome is blowing fitfully through the air…sigh…..or should I write "choke!" 

 I am going to have to put my notes aside, since my laptop  battery is so low, and pull out a book to read, until I get sleepy.  The smell is about to knock me out….but I will try to hold my nose or spray some perfume!  That's it…..I will get them back with a nice smell of my own.,  Too late, dinner has arrived.  Averridici.   The girl that had set between my husband and , I asked me if I wished to switch places.  Of course!   She curled up against the window (usually my favorite spot on the plane) and  promptly went to sleep.  Suddenly, I felt at peace again, as the foot smell was not behind me anymore. Well,  I just have to close this laptop down, before it  goes black on me. 

When we finally landed in Madrid, waiting for the flight to Venice, we realized that we were more than confused; just because one speaks another language, which was in this case, Spanish, it  didn't mean that we would be totally free of confusion in their airport.  We kept getting mixed messages from people, about where to go to get to the plane for Venice.  Little did we realize that we were not just passing from one gate to another.  No, we were having to go through customs, and security checks again! We hadn't even left the secure part of the airport!   My dear husband had bought me a huge bottle of water, only to have it confiscated by the security guard.

 That tiny bit of travelogue happened on our way to Venice.  Upon our arrival there, we would catch up with 10 other members of our cruise-gang- members.  We are now called a "gang," as we have been on several trips together over the years.  This trip was the most memorable of all the cruise-trips we have taken!  Glad to get out of Madrid, we finally arrived in Venice, where the real trip would begin.  It was fun meeting up with everyone who had more stories to tell than we did at that point.  We learned that the restaurant at our motel did NOT  want to serve us!  With the economy in such a low state, why a restaurant would  turn away customers is beyond me, but we soon found a more accommodating restaurant down the street.    Now, this was to be the night before the cruise, and we wanted to celebrate our safe arrival in Venice, and our soothe our pre-excitement jitters as well as our tired minds.

Travel is hard.  The restaurant was so pretty, the table was large enough to seat 12 people, and we began to peruse the menu.  Alas, we had to use our Spanish to try to figure out an Italian menu.  To make life more interesting though, was the fact that our waiter spoke no English, nor Spanish.  How we made it through the order was more than crazy.  Our order was completely mixed up!  Fun had just begun! 

The cruise is the place to gather your sanity back, if you had lost it before getting to the ship!  Most cruise lines are aware of the American style of living, and they display their expertise in grand style!   There weren't any surprises to speak of, and in fact,  I was delighted to find I could get on the internet in my own cabin! I never liked to go down to the 'Internet room' on other cruise ships.  I like to get online before I go to sleep at night, and on it early in the morning.   I wasn't concerned by the hourly fee; rather, I would just get on the Internet, download my e-mail, then close it down.  Later, I would send out my own e-mail, receive more e-mail, and that was the way I would handle things.

First stop: Dubrovnik, Croatia.  What a fantastic place!  Set in the 13th century, the little town, decided to stay there in the 13th century. There was a newer part to the city, of course, but the tourists all headed for the old city.   Stone walls, old buildings, ancient churches and the world's oldest pharmacy made one feel as if they were lifted back to the middle ages!  The braver ones of our 'gang' decided to climb the steps to the wall that encircled the city.  My husband, who had a back operation only a year ago, decided those steps weren't for him.  I, too, didn't much care for a long climb up those old stairs.  I would rather go through the little museum, where that ancient pharmacy was displayed, and we were wonderfully surprised, once we entered those tomb- like doors. 

 Inside the museum was a garden square, where  the sun poured down on the lovely flowers and stone benches and through huge stone pillars.  At one end was an ancient fountain, spewing forth its ancient waters.  Exiting the lovely area , with the huge pillars surrounding it, we noticed some doors that had Latin words written above them; DOMVS MEA DOMVS ORATIONIS EST. (See picture above)  With the  tiny bit of Latin I know, I knew that the word 'orationis' was' prayers,' ( as it also is in Spanish.) DOMV was close to the word domicile, and I came to the conclusion that it meant a room or chapel for prayer.  Doing some research on those words, I found that in the Latin Vulgate bible, it meant exactly what the scripture in Matt: 21:13 calls God's house; a house of prayer.  For some reason, this ancient Latin inscription struck a high note with me.  Hidden from the path on the street, this room had been dedicated centuries ago to prayer.  It was very touching.  I longed to enter those doors to see and feel the atmosphere.  I wondered if the room was only open to the priests, or did the  laity have access to a room of prayers?  Continuing on in the museum, we discovered  it  also housed ancient priest cloaks, bibles from the 15th and 16th century and many old articles used in catholic services.  We made the trek around the museum, feeling the difference that 600 or 700 centuries can have on the world. 

 Stepping out of the museum and back into the very bright sunlight,  we discovered an ancient church right next to the museum.  The door was very simple, and as the walls were all plastered together from the museum over to the church, it wasn't immediately obvious that the simple doors opened into a church.  Going inside, we realized, that although the church did continue to serve the people even today, it was as much like the museum as the museum itself!  People were just sitting in the pews, looking up and around at the huge paintings and artwork all around the walls; it was like they were visiting an art museum rather than a church. 

So much for the first leg of the journey.  A visit to the 'old' world, makes one feel rather young and insignificant in the world.  So much has gone before us; a good look at the history of the world, makes us  appreciate the struggles of mankind up to this point.