I like
journeys, and I enjoy the feeling of travelling; of actually going somewhere. Airlines
are expedient and do their job well, but given the option of a train, ship, car
or bus, I will take the surface mode every time.
Edging
toward Montenegro and the railway journey between Podgorica and Belgrade, the
ferry seemed to be a welcome option, and so it was that I booked passage on the
AF Michela on its twenty-seven hour
run from Trieste to Durres in Albania.
The Grimaldi Lines ship in Tunis |
Curiously
for one who lives in The Prairies, this is the third time in the past year that
I have used an overnight ferry. Last year I travelled from Palermo to Tunis on
the Grimaldi Lines ship, and more recently I used the P & O service from
Hull to Rotterdam. Each time I found comfortable surroundings, decent cabins
and all in all, a good way to travel. The common denominator was the difficulty
of finding the ship in the first place.
Now don’t
get me wrong; local taxis know well where they depart from, but ships’
sheer bulk and their requirement for water mean that the docks are where you need to go, and as freight is the primary focus of contemporary harbours, passenger
services are often tucked away as an afterthought.
Helpful signage
Seeking out
and boarding the Adria Ferries' AF Michela
bears little resemblance to either catching a train or a plane, and is a far
cry from the glory days of ocean liners. Passengers are, basically cargo; cargo
that can walk and load and unload itself, but nevertheless cargo, and the
siting of the “passenger terminal” among acres of lumber, railway ties, roofing
tiles and other bulk construction materials makes the point well.
The passenger entrance and waiting room in Trieste
I checked-in three hours early. Other than the small difficulty of spotting the
Adria Ferry office and a functioning building, I needn’t have done for a couple
of reasons. The first was that there were only ten passengers travelling that
day from Trieste, and the second was that having received my boarding pass
within a minute, I sat in a small room for the next two hours before the
remaining nine sauntered in. A car was sent to carry the two foot-passengers,
and having completed the passport formalities we boarded the ship. Ten
passengers on a one thousand passenger ship leaves considerably room to move
around, and having found our allotted spaces and tied down the few vehicles, we
left shortly after noon.
The AF Michela |
The kitchen is enthusiastic, but more of a canteen then a dining room, but they do offer a very reasonable Pinot Grigio to wash down the pasta and salad.
The cabins
are plentiful (offering beds for up to 428 travellers), although
I would suspect that it all gets a bit steamy and cantankerous when it is full
and the summer sun is beating down.
An additional 572 passengers can be accommodated as “deck passengers” apparently, but I gave up counting the available chairs. It would be tight.
An additional 572 passengers can be accommodated as “deck passengers” apparently, but I gave up counting the available chairs. It would be tight.
There is a
bar, a small shop and that’s about all. The ship, built in Limassol, Cyprus in
2001 and displacing 24,481 tons of water as it ploughs forward at about
18 knots, has some quirks to it. Its history is a touch murky; the operating
certificates in its (Otis) elevators were signed in Shanghai, and here and
there are signs written in Chinese and Korean characters. It has served a variety of masters and has been known as the Cartour, the Vinashin Prince, the Hoa Sen and the Stena Egeria before being chartered to Adria Ferries for one year last October. It has done service
in The East, offering cheap booze-cruises to a Vietnamese clientele, and it appears, by the architectural plans evident hanging on the
walls, that it was refurbished in 2014, but from what and to what, I am
unsure.
The Restaurant |
The waters
are calm. This would be a blessing to many, but I do like a bit of strong
water. It seems to be my curse that good weather follows me much of the time,
and while I usually appreciate being a small high-pressure zone, from time to
time, a little storm would be nice. Today, unfortunately, all is calm.
Shortly the
Albanian coastline, just visible on the horizon, will draw closer, and we will
disembark and explore Durres. It is only an overnight stop, and the journey
continues tomorrow by bus, as I head from here to Podgorica, the capital of
Montenegro, and the start of the railway journey to Belgrade.
I know there are a lot of rules on a ship, but this exhibition of fine print was
really a bit overwhelming. The Eastern scripts tell a tale of the vessel's history.
No comments:
Post a Comment