One of the most wonderful treasures of travel are the people you meet. And there’s no better place to find immense diversity than on a cruise ship. In order to be as clear as possible when conversing with the non-Englishers, I always begin with the same three word question, ‘Where you from?’ I omit the bothersome ‘are’ simply for clarity.  

And boy oh boy, has this journey ever been special. On our very first morning aboard the Apex, Elenka and I rushed to the top deck to see the sunrise. We were in such a panic-like state, that one of the staff asked us if we were okay. He had the look, along with an accent I thought I’d recognized, so I fired him a ‘Where you from?’ He told me Guatemala, so I asked him where in Guatemala. Turns out he was from the hill-country town of Chichcastenango, a town we once passed through while on our first ever trip to the world beyond. Chichi (for short) is a remarkable place, where the 16th-century Santo Tomás Apóstol Catholic Church amalgamated with Maya worship rituals, so the conquerers and the natives could all pray together. Where I grew up, in small-town Ontario, the mere thought of a Catholic visiting a Protestant church, meant you’d be required to make a direct visit to the Confessional booth.

During our time aboard the Apex we’ve met many people from places Elenka and I have never been — like Monalisa from Zimbabwe, Anik from Bangladesh and Emmanuel from Kenya, all happy to answer the ‘where you from?’ question, for which they’d respond smilingly, before offering their own, ‘Where you from?’

Yesterday, we did a stop on the isle of Mallorca, then took a bus to the Old-Town in Palma, so we could visit the Santa Maria of Palma, Cathedral. Because I’ve always been a European and Latin American church-freak, this one was an opportunity that could not be missed. And it turned out being well worth the 8€ entry fee … which brings up what this topic is really about.

When Elenka and I first started travelling, entry to all places of prayer was free. My first encounter with pay-to-pray was at Notre Dame in Montreal, some 25 years ago. I argued like Hell when asked to pay, explaining that as a former Catholic in good standing, I went to Confession every Saturday night, followed by the Holy Eucharist every Sunday morning. Perhaps because the entry man’s English wasn’t so good, he may have missed the part about me being a former Catholic. He ended up giving both me, and the atheist Elenka, a free pass.

However, over the years the situation has changed. Except for perhaps Latin America, where Christianity is alive and well, many of world’s Christian populations have backed off. Without congregants to pay for the upkeep of these magnificent structures, they cannot survive financially. So I’ve softened on my pay-to-pray stance. 

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As we were about to disembark in Barcelona this morning, Elenka made a statement that deserves space in the Department of Profound Words Library. She said that spending two full weeks being taken care of on a cruise ship, made her feel as though she was in a cocoon. And as we were about to enter the real world again, it felt as though her cocoon was crumbling — she was frightened. While making our way to our hotel for the night, she suddenly brightened up, threw her arms in the air, and said, ‘I feel free, like a butterfly.’   

Damned if I hadn’t felt the exact same way, but didn’t quite know how to express it.