Day -1 and Counting

Well, this is it. One more doh-doh, and the trip begins.
Bag is packed, and all the pre-launch checklists are looking good.
Flight leaves Montreal abt 13:00 Apr.13 and arrives in Malta about noon on the 14th. A sixty minute bus ride to Cirkewwa Harbour, a 25 minute ferry ride to Mgarr Harbour on Gozo, a 15 minute bus ride to Victoria (the capital of Gozo), and finally, a 15 minute walk from the bus terminus to Manresa House where I will be absorbed into 30 days of silence. http://www.maltajesuitretreats.com/manresa.htm

Thoughts of the Leviathan (see Job 41, King James version is the best) hover prominently in my head these days, as I am not entirely sure what to expect from this experience, but the time feels right to try this, and I will follow Job's advice if I discover something terribly freaky within.

Michele will pick me up in mid-May, and we'll travel together through Malta, Sicily, Sardinia, Corsica, and Elba before making the mainland at Livorno. From there we'll head up to Milano to attend a performance of Aida in Teatro alla Scala in Milano (a long-time dream of Michele), then to Vienna to cathc some Mozart, and finally we'll wend our way slowly westward towards Antwerp where we are hoping to cross paths with a Fednav ship heading back to Montreal around the end of July.