El Ferry / The Ferry (part I)

Si algú ha vist els anuncis de Grimaldi lines i està pensant en agafar un ferry per anar a Itàlia, que s'ho miri força bé abans de comprar el bitllet. Al menys per anar a Livorno. No té ni piscina, ni gimnàs, ni jacuzzi, ni discoteca, i evidentment no té casino.
Tot va començar força malament. El ferry havia de sortir a les 23.59 del dissabte dia 7 de juny. Però a les quatre del migdia vam rebre un sms dient que sortiria a les 3 de la matinada, pel mal temps se suposa. Ens ho vam prendre amb força calma, no teníem res més a fer.
Cap a la una de la matinada, vam agafar el Sucio cap al port. I no sabíem per on havíem d'entrar. Li vam preguntar a un empleat del port, i ens va dir que podíem entrar per allà i que anessim fins el final i a mà dreta trobaríem el ferry. Allò semblava més Sospechosos Habituales, al port, ple de containers, nosaltres sols, ningú per allà. Només faltava una limousine esperant-nos i quatre matons amb fundes de violí.
Total, que vam tornar per on havíem vingut, i li vam preguntar a un altre empleat. Molt amablement ens va dir que havíem de tornar enrera. I així ho vam fer. Fins que vam trobar molts cotxes, i un empleat ens va preguntar per on havíem entrat. Però bé, al final ens vam posar a la cua i vam esperar fins que vam entrar al ferry. El qual era força petit. I no semblava tenir gaires distraccions, la veritat. A més a més, el Sucio havia de passar la nit fora. Un cotxe a la intemperie enmig del mar, durant 20 hores. Això no és gaire bo.
I vam entrar a coberta i tal, buscant la distracció. Ja eren quarts de quatre. No tenia res. Dos bars -un tancat- i una petita botiga d'uns 10 metres quadrats. I punto. Sort que vam agafar camarot, perquè lo que era el pont, era el bar. No hi havia cap lloc amb butaques pels passatgers que no en tinguessin.



If any of you has seen the Grimaldi Lines ad and is thinking about taking a boat to Italy, check all details before purchasing your ticket. At least if you are going to Livorno. It's got no pool, no gym, no jacuzzi, no night club and obviously there is no casino.
It all started pretty bad. The ferry was scheduled to depart at 23.59 on June 7. But we got an sms by 4pm saying that the ferry was departint at 3am due to bad weather, apparently. We could do nothing else but taking it easy.
We took Sucio to the harbour by 1am. And we didn't know where the entrance was. So we asked an employee, and he told us we could enter through there itself, straight ahead and do a right, and we would find the ferry. That looked more like The Usual Suspects, on the harbour, full of containers, nobody around. The situation only needed a limo and a few thugs waiting for us holding fiddle cases.
Anyway, we got back the way we came from, and we asked another employee. Kindly, he answered we had to turn back. And so we did. Until we found more cars, and another employee asked us where we got in from. But, in the end, we got in the queue and waited until it was time to get in the ferry. Which was pretty tiny. On top of that, Sucio was sleeping outside. A car in the open in the middle of the sea for 20 hours. That cannot be good.
So we got in the ferry looking for some distraction. It was already half past three. Two bars -one of which was shut- and a tiny 10sq.m shop. That's it. We were lucky we got a cabin, because the deck was the bar. That is, deck passangers had no proper place to sit and rest.