WRITTEN by JOHN MORRIS
Roatan Island to Milan, Italy
In 1982 the now mostly-forgotten all girl band, The Go-Go’s, released their hit song Vacation with the cover photo showing Belinda Carlisle and her band mates belting the song out while on water skis.
Vacation, all I ever wanted
Vacation, had to get away…
Don’t we all dream of vacation? We work endlessly for the sacred one or two weeks off to literally vacate wherever we are and basically escape our normal lives.
Roatan is a popular vacation spot these days but then there are those of us who live and work on the island.
Previously I wrote about escaping to the mainland of Honduras, but occasionally some of us need to get further away. My off-island friends question me – you live in paradise, why would you want to leave?
Well I have a good excuse. Being married to an Italian, why would I pass up the chance to go to Italy to see family and friends… and just get out and explore?
We go to Italy, not as often as we would like, but this year we booked four weeks in the land of divine food and wines, and well… good ol’ Italian culture.
So this past weekend, our journey began.
A quick uneventful flight to Houston, with minimal questions at customs, although the officer did not quite understand why an American married to an Italian lived in Honduras.
Two hours in Houston (which is barely enough time to make connections), and then off to lovely Newark where we overnighted as the flight to Milan was not until the next evening.
All flights went smoothly enough with us touching down in Newark around 11p.m.
After an endless baggage claim event, we were told to take the Sky Train on Level 4 to Parking Garage 4. The lovely smiling airport assistant told us to head right up. At the top of the stairs stood a big sign saying the Sky Train was down for repair and to proceed to Level 1 to catch a bus.
Really? At Parking Garage 4, our Crowne Plaza bus finally rattled in after six or seven other hotel shuttles passed by.
And a mere seven minutes later we were at reception, now knocking on 1 a.m. One of the reasons we booked the Crown Plaza was the promise of 24-hour food and late checkouts.
Neither happened and Leslie, our charming hotel reception desk attendant simply looked at us when we explained our story… with a face that we just wanted to slap.
Welcome to America. Now I remember why I left.
The next morning we checked out at 12 p.m. and fortunately found a lounge to watch some NFL football until our 6:30 p.m. take off. Touchdown in Milan was seven and half hours later.
The plane was full of people from all cultures. At the dinner service, the flight attendants politely asked each customer if they wanted pasta with spinach or buttered chicken. Most were confused by the entree of buttered chicken that was then further explained as chicken cooked with butter.
Barbara and I decided to give it a try figuring we would save our pasta meals for Italy… but were not delighted when we were served curried chicken. I’m no chef, but curry and butter are slightly different things! And honestly, who decides to serve curry on a flight to Italy?
But the thing that really hit us hard about all three flights was the amount of plastic being used and tossed out after every beverage and meal service.
You see, on Roatan, plastic has recently been banned from the island and the process of replacing plastic packaging is going well. In this day of environmental consciousness, you would think an airline as big as United would lead the way to eliminate single-use plastics. Nothing could be further from the truth.
We made it to Milan, rented a car, got a local SIM card and we were on our way.
Oh… and the Italian customs agent was even more befuddled why an Italian woman married to an American man would live in Honduras. The look on her face was priceless, projecting her feeling of, “Really?”
She actually said va bene (all right) in a somewhat sarcastic way.
So as I am writing this, it is 50 degrees and raining… but hey it’s winter in Italy.
Stay tuned as our vacation from paradise continues…
