Don't get me wrong- I often find "different" just the thing I'm looking for but after spending less than 24 hours in Trieste and back in Naples (okay, MdP) I'm still trying to really process what we found after a short hour-ish flight north. Sure the signs were still in Italian, scooters and mini cars filled the streets, and the caffe bar on every corner confirmed we were still in Italy, however, the politeness of drivers as they obeyed traffic laws, the clean streets aligned by carefully planted flowers, the clear blue sky, and just a hint of "fall" in the breeze sent my brain spinning through all the places I've been to figure out just where I really was. Austria was my conclusion...but it smelled like Lake Tahoe in the fall. Um yeah, neither locations are Trieste, but if you've been to either I guess that gives you an idea as to what Trieste is sort of like.
So what was I doing there? Official work business. Although I refer to it as my crash course in all things N7, it pretty much was a "let's let Katie go see what we actually do." Which was great! I mean, I have a passport and am ready to travel pretty much within a few hours time. Once on site, I was given the tour by both our local engineer (who traveled with me) and the port engineer in charge of this major project. I met the Captain of the ship and was "live on location" when the weekly Tuesday conference call took place. I was also there when my coworker was emailed about funding and was able to mostly put it in non finance terms to make sure there were a few less questions. We spent hours at the dock and I loved it all!
Walking up the gangway I was immediately transported back to my 2 months at sea on the Golden Bear. Well, it was a lot different since this ship was not in water. None. This ship was balancing on blocks and that's it. It was amazing and I was in awe as I was in the dry dock staring up at the huge ship above, yes ABOVE, me. My coworker was awesome as he showed me around the ship and introducing me to the crew since he visits this ship a fair amount. We were lead on an engine room tour and as we climbed ladders, dodged chains, and jumped rails I almost regretted my one time thought of joining the Navy. Of course this was one of those "only thought about it for a few days" things but being back on the ship really made me think about it again. (Don't worry, it's already left my mind...I'm happy just working for them.)
After a super long day that started in the office before catching the mid morning flight we ventured into the downtown area of Trieste to locate our hotel. Side note- I'm really beginning to believe that the GPS has issues and not me since we had major issues locating things. Granted, finding a ship isn't really the easiest thing when you're in a city with multiple ports (or so I've been told) but we made it and it didn't take us that much longer to get there. It was sort of fun asking locals for directions (yes, in Italian...my travel buddy has lived here multiple years) but even with that we ended up just voting on which way to turn at intersections. Hey- I've found my sense of adventure! And yes, we did find the ship.
Once settled in, sort of rested, and cleaned up we ventured around town in search of food but since we had over an hour to kill before dinner really started we just walked around the streets we had previously driven. Being so far north, it turns out that some of the buildings had been built when it was part of Austria (go Katie's brain). There were still plenty of Roman ruins though and churches with bells announcing the hour, half hour, and even quarter hour.
As we walked around town another "oh wow" moment struck me- there were plenty of dogs around but they were on leashes being walked by their owners or waiting patiently next to a table on a patio. They were also not quite our Naples variety of mutts but terriers, bull dogs, and other recognizable breeds. Again, picture Carmel and that was sort of the image but you got to keep in mind that for several months now I haven't seen what used to be my all so familiar sights so it just caught me a tad off guard.
The evening was filled with food and when we thought we couldn't eat any more- we found gelato. So many choices but my final pick was pera and I didn't regret it one bit. The rest of the evening was spent taking in a few more local sights of "Trieste's most important....statue, building, tower, church, lamp post" and just having fun. At some point of the night we realized just how close we were to another ship of ours and thought to call back to the office to see if we could head down there but then figured with the office move it probably wasn't the best thing. Well, turns out the boss kicked himself for not realizing how close were were tot he other ship and said if asked we would have heard "yes." Grr. Oh well! Just saving that travel money for another trip hopefully not before too long.
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