Antarctica - Day 11 - The Final Chapter

1/6/15

Ushuaia – Malvinas Argentinas International Airport, Argentina (USH)

The Final Chapter is all but written, and it has been a wonderful end to a wonderful trip.  After I closed, I headed inside to drop off my laptop, I think.  No, I needed to get my cord for my camera to upload my entry.  My friends were gathering in reception, and Davy told me to meet them at a bar called Dublin.  Beth told me that I needed to get a shore leave pass from reception.  I got the cord, got the card, uploaded the entry, grabbed my cigar, and got ready to start writing #TheFinalChapter.  With my cigar in hand, I literally skipped down the pier to shore.

There was still a little bit of cigar left when I got to the bar, so I left it outside the bar.  Everyone was there, and L---, feisty as ever, made sure we all got our drinks, as we passed her pesos and dollars.  Francis insisted that I tell the “pot” story again, and Danny didn’t even remember it from the other night.  I said that I would need at least three more drinks in me and that it also had to be after midnight before I would tell it.  I was not quite sure about the merits of telling it in mixed company, but I’d never be seeing these people again, and it is a really good story.

I finally got to know Chiara a bit, which was nice, since I had become good friends with her brothers, and I don’t think I had so much as talked to her the entire trip.  The staff joined us, too, and much fun was had by all.  Danny and Dom tried to flirt with the locals, while the rest of watched in amusement.  At some point, someone offered me some “pineapple, olive, cheese” pizza.  “That’s not a thing!” I responded, but she insisted it was.  My drink of choice from the evening was a local favorite, Beagle Channel Dublin, and I had two of them.

I tried once more to rib L--- into teasing me for sleeping all day, and I was not disappointed.  She said that I missed so many lectures with interesting people by sleeping all day, and I responded that I had great talks with people in the middle of the night.  She responded by asking why seals don’t get the bends when they go underwater, and I asked which is a more painful way to die, burning at the stake or being drawn and quartered.  I refused to acknowledge that the question of the seals was more relevant to my life than the question that Francis had asked the other night.  She gave up on the conversation at that point.  A little later, I pulled out my tablet, and she told me to put it away, in the exact same tone and manner as my girlfriend so often does.  Hearing Aliyah’s voice in L---’s request, I said the words that I had been holding back all trip, “You really remind me of her.”  She asked whom I meant by “her,” and I answered, “My girlfriend.”  Did it finally click in her mind?  The reason why I kept wanting her to tease me?

The place was very crowded, and people wanted to get back to the ship, so we left.  I still had most of my beer left, and I grabbed rest of my cigar.  I smoked and drank as we walked down the streets of Ushuaia.  I finished the beer by the time we got to the pier, and I finished the cigar as we got on the ship.  We went to the lobby, where we all hung out for a while.  I was mamash toasted at this point, so I was pretty oblivious.  Once midnight passed, Francis again asked me to tell the “pot” story, but I was reluctant to tell it in mixed company.  I told him to ask Beth if she wanted me to tell it.  He never asked her.

I then asked Francis, making sure L--- could hear me, the question I had asked L--- since he was the one responsible for the debate about the painful ways to die.  That caused me and L--- to resume our conversation at the bar.  I then asked her if he she wanted to know the answer to the apparent contradictions.  As much as she claims not to get me, she is wrong.  She gets me better than anyone else on the ship does.  She could describe me perfectly to anyone she met.  It’s just that she doesn’t understand the why of it.  The what she gets perfectly.  I explained to her quite simply that I have had access to knowledge and lectures my entire life, but these social experiences, having people to stay up with me until four in the morning, were new.  She did not buy that explanation, but it was the simple truth.  As she denied the validity of my answer, she walked over behind me, and I was leaning back over the couch, staring up directly into her eyes.  Once the conversation ended, it basically devolved into a staring contest, until she moved out of my line of sight, and I continued to stare at the same spot on the ceiling for another minute or so.

A bunch of us then went upstairs, where we saw [redacted] and [redacted] walking in from the outside deck.  We wasted no time in teasing them, and we went downstairs to let them be alone.  However, [redacted] was more interested in discussing it with us, and he came downstairs.  He was shocked that we knew, and I said that I knew from the day I sat next to them on the bus.  We then basically yelled at him to stop talking to us and go back to her.  We were all quite happy for them, and Claudia made a reference to “Antarctica Loving,” which prompted me to start singing an impromptu parody version of “Summer Loving.”

I do not recall the order in which everyone started to bow out, but eventually it was just me in the lobby with [redacted] and [redacted] playing chess in the club.  I then heard her voice or laugh coming down the corridor.  I opened my door and saw her with, not [redacted] as I expected, but her father.  He and I exchanged greetings, and I knew exactly what had happened.  I headed up to the club, where it was confirmed.  I asked Davy if he wanted to join me out on the 3^rd Deck for cigars.  He appreciated the offer, and I grabbed a pair of Oliva Series V cigars, the #1 rated cigar of the year.  It was very deserving of the rating.

As we smoked, the crew and staff joined us, and they all told us their stories.  It was fun to bond with them on the last night, and when I saw the hotel manager, I told him that I needed to take a picture of him again.  “I know, Russell Crowe,” he said.  If he went to a nice restaurant in Manhattan, everyone would think he was Russell Crowe.  Eventually, it was just us and Reggie, and Davy bonded with him.  I was starting to get cold, so I just wanted to get back inside.  It was past 2 AM by the time we finished the cigars and went inside with Reggie.  I was mamash tired at that point, so I got some coffee, but that didn’t do anything, nor did it negate the fact that I still needed to pack.  Apparently I fell asleep as Davy and Reggie were chatting.

At 3:30 AM, we called it a night, and I knew that I could not pack.  I woke up at 5 AM, and I still had no energy to pack, so I went back to sleep, waking up again a little past 6 AM.  I woke up and packed.  I left my suitcase outside for pickup and headed down to breakfast with Beth and Davy.  We sat down with Francis and his siblings.  As I used my chopsticks for the last time, I asked Francis if he wanted a pair.  He did.  Dom and Davy then got it in on it, too, the four of us eating our breakfast with chopsticks, much to Beth’s chagrin.  She could not finish her bacon, so I picked the rest of it off of her plate, with results just as disastrous as when I tried to take her fried calamari a week ago.

When Vanessa headed up, we said our goodbyes.  I hugged the woman whom I had started to see as the big sister that I had always wanted and kissed her on the check, sad that she would be leaving my life forever.  It was fitting that she was the first person to whom I introduced myself at the beginning of the trip, and she was the first person to whom I said goodbye in the end.  We all headed up to the club, but I was ready to pass out.  We enjoyed each other’s company for the last time, sad that our amazing trip was finally coming to end.  The Final Chapter had been written, and all that remained was The Journey Home.

We took the bus to the airport.  Although all of our flights were at different times, we arrived at the airport at almost the same time.  It was 9 AM, and my flight was not for another 8 hours, so I went to the ticket counter to see if I could get on an earlier flight.  The 1:25 PM flight with a stop in REL seemed to be the main flight that the group was taking, so I wanted to try and get on that flight.  It would only get me to my hotel about three hours earlier, and the flight tonight to JFK was fully booked.  The change fee hardly seemed worthwhile for that extra time, but the extra few hours with my friends was certainly worth it.  Besides, it would go into EZE, which would give me a chance to see if my cell phone surfaced.  I checked my bag and went to pay the departure tax.

I then saw the Chins there.  They were rushing to make an earlier flight.  This would be goodbye.  I said goodbye to each of them in turn, knowing I would miss each of them very much.  As I walked away from them, the first and best of my new friends, the tears started to well up.  If there was any doubt in my mind about whom I’d miss the most it was dispelled in that moment.

I went to rejoin Beth and her family, and we then went through security.  When we got up to the departure lounge, I saw Dom, Francis, and Chiara, and we said our goodbyes.  I kissed Chiara goodbye and joked to her brothers that I would not be kissing them.  Francis thanked me for that.  We hugged goodbye before they headed for their flight.  I sat down with Beth and her family, where I proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close.

Aboard AR 1897, En route REL-EZE

In two hours, my new friends will be out of my life forever.  In two hours, #TheFinalChapter will be fully written, and I will be #OnMyOwn.  It is so ironic that, when I left Kennedy on Day 0, I knew this trip would be similar to my trip to Israel.  I just had no idea how eerily similar it would be.  From the new continent, to the new water bottle, to the new friends, this trip has basically been Taglit in the Antarctic.  Just like with Israel, where I expected the new countries and the new WHSs to be the highlight of the trip.  I expected the last four days in Israel #OnMyOwn to be the best part of the trip.  No, I did not expect to meet the woman who would later become the love of my life.  No, I did not expect the new friendships I formed to be the best part of the trip.

Here, it was the same.  I expected setting foot on the mainland, smoking my cigar, and taking my Official picture to be the only part that mattered and then spending the rest of the time working on my philosophy.  I got through 10% of one book, and I only did 10% of the writing I had hoped to do.  I did not expect these new friendships.  I did not expect to constantly choose new friends over old philosophers.  I did not expect to meet people that I liked so much.  I expected my New Year’s celebration to be a private one, my traditional picture at midnight with the cigar and sparkling wine.  I did not expect to choose to socialize at midnight and postpone the picture until I could take it two hours later with my new best friend.  I did not even expect to meet a new best friend, someone who will be moving to New York in a few months.  I do not know to what extent the new friendships will be maintained via Facebook or email or whatnot.

Of the 40 or so people on the bus with me in Israel, other than one or two isolated reunions, a date I went out with another girl from the trip, and occasionally bumping into others here and there, my girlfriend is the only person from the trip that I still see.  I message with two other people from the trip about once a month.  A bunch of them frequently Like my Facebook posts, but that’s it.  What will come of this group?  None of them live in New York.  Almost everyone from Israel lives in New York.  Will we maintain Facebook friendships or will we quickly fade out of each other’s lives?  I do not know.  Only time can tell.

Anyway, after I closed in USH, I was starving.  As my readers know, when I get hungry, I get tired and cranky, which was how I started to feel.  I looked around for some food, but all they had that I would have wanted was a big bag of chips, too big for me to eat in one sitting, and that was hardly a meal.  Besides, Davy and his family had bought like three bags of chips among the seven of them, and I had little faith in their ability to finish all of them.  I was right, and it was not long before I was offered the rest of a bag of chips.  Shortly, thereafter, I heard Davy saying to Beth, “Give it to Steven.”  Beth walked over to me and asked if I “wanted the rest of this sandwich that I bit into?”  Perfect, between the chips and half the sandwich, it would keep me satiated until we got onto the flight.  I gladly accepted.  I think she thought it odd, but I had been eating off of her plate the entire trip, since we shared that ice cream a week ago, up until the bacon I picked off of her plate this morning.  It didn’t faze me.

I went back to my tablet, and I looked at some random stuff.  I saw John Frick talking with Steve, Claudia, L---, Beth, and Davy.  I was going to keep looking up more stuff, but then I remembered that I reason I changed my flight was so that I would have these extra few hours with my new friends, not so that I could spend it buried in my tablet.  I put my tablet away and went to join them.  It was soon time to board.  Again, I had priority access, so I could have boarded earlier, but I chose instead to spend those precious last few minutes with my new friends, to let L--- tease me one more time, to hear Beth’s laugh one more time and see her huge ear to ear smile, to exchange one last moment with Davy.  How could I possibly rather spend that time sitting on the plane?  I had the exit row.  L--- and her grandmother were sitting in the front, Beth’s parents in business class, the rest of her family a few rows behind me.

We all went to our seats, and I was asleep before we took off.  When I woke up, I was hungry and thirsty, and I saw people had drinks and snacks.  I pressed the call button, but it was to no avail.  I fell back asleep.  When I woke up, I saw some snacks next to me.  Were they always there?  I didn’t care.  I scarfed down the snack box, and I went back to sleep.  When we landed in Trelew, I told Beth and Davy that there were open seats in the exit row, if they wanted to join me.  They said that they would think about it and see if anyone else took them.  I joked that they would know if they saw any little heads sticking up above the seat backs next to mine.  Molly was the only one who appreciated the joke.

I fell back asleep as we took off again.  They brought more snacks, and I finally got my water.  Afterwards, I realized that my tablet was missing.  I checked the seatback pocket, no.  I assumed it was in my computer bag.  I think I took another nap, and then I checked my computer bag, not there, either.  Hmm, this wasn’t good.  Aha!  There it was.  It had fallen out of my pocket and was against the seat divider.  Well, the minor panic of not being able to find it precluded any further sleep, so I proceeded to write this entry, which I will now close, and maybe take another nap before we land.  When I next write, #TheFinalChapter will be completely written, and I will be #OnMyOwn.

Buenos Aires, Argentina

“Bye, Cathy.”  “No...”  “Sorry, Catherine, I’ll get it right eventually,” I offered, knowing that I would never see her again.  If there had been any doubt in mind about which goodbye would be the most painful, it was dispelled by the time I was in the taxi to my hotel.  It was, of course, the first goodbye at the airport, the first new friends I made on the ship.  When I was saying my goodbyes in Israel, I said to Em, “I’ll miss you most of all, scarecrow.”  I meant it.  I have not seen her since, even though we live in the same city.  I’ll travel halfway across the world to see some tomb, but I won’t travel to Queens to see an old friend.  I will never see Sam and Danny again in my life, but I will remember them for the rest of my life.  That did not make the other goodbyes any less painful, and I did not prolong them any longer than necessary.

With nothing to do today, I could have waited with my friends until the last possible minute.  I could have stayed with them until they had to go through emigration.  I could have had another hour with them.  Due to my elite status, I knew that my bag would be one of the first ones out, and I resolved to say my goodbyes and see if my cell phone had shown up.  Besides, I was eager to get to my hotel, maybe even take a nap before dinner.

While we were waiting for the bags, I asked Beth if she would “take a picture with me and Davy.”  The grammar was perfect, but the meaning did not quite convey itself.  She reached out her hand for the camera.  “No, with.”  She still didn’t understand.  Davy was my buddy, so didn’t I just want a picture of me and Davy.  No, I wanted the picture to be of the three of us.  She was no longer the girl I ran away from after lunch in Ushuaia.  She was no longer the girl with whom I practiced my flirting skills as we made our way through the Drake.  She was no longer the girl whom I had forced myself to talk to as much as possible so that I could overcome my fear of talking to beautiful women.  No, somehow over that process, I had grown to like her, to count her as one of my friends.  I had plenty of pictures with Davy, but I wanted to be able to remember the three of us together for the rest of my life.  Molly understood my meaning, and I handed her the camera.  Soon enough my bag came, I hugged Beth goodbye, shook hands with her parents, and gave Davy a couple of hugs.  We promised to see each other again when he came to New York.

I then walked over to Andy and Molly and shook their hands.  I had grown very fond of them over the past week or so, though I guess I really didn’t get to know them as well as I did Davy and Beth.  I then made my rounds, everyone else still waiting for their bags.  I shook John’s hand, and, as I write this, I remember our first dinner together, when we joked about who John Dory was.  He was definitely one of my favorite people on the ship.  That was the exchange with Catherine that I used to open this entry occurred.  I said goodbye to Claudia exchanged my final simultaneous “Bye, Steve” with Steve.  I said goodbye to L---, and she said that it was nice to have gotten to know me.  For all of her teasing, I think she actually meant it.  One day it’ll click for her, and she’ll figure out that tiny missing piece, how she got me so well without quite understanding me.  I turned to her grandmother and said, “Bye, Grandma!”  The look she gave me was either annoyed or amused or somewhere in that range.

That was it.  I tried in vain to search out my cell phone.  I found the kiosk where I had taken the cab on Day 1, but it was no luck.  Without that ticket they couldn’t help me.  Alas.  I took a taxi to my hotel, but the driver didn’t know my hotel.  I told him to just drop my off in front of Parliament, trusting my ability to find the hotel based on my memory of Google Maps.  I lit up a Cohiba for the drive, and, as soon as I got out of the cab, I relished the fact that I had Officially set foot on South American mainland for the first time in my life.  As I was retaking my pictures of the National Congress, my cigar fell out of my mouth, forcing me to use one of the ones that I had already had taken.  I think it might have been after sunset, and I will probably take some more in the morning.

I made my way to the hotel, which had a four star rating.  I was very unpleasantly disappointed with the hotel.  It was a dump.  Sure, it was clean, but it was not a four-star hotel.  No matter, I just needed a place to sleep and recoup, and it had Wi-Fi.  I quickly changed out of my suit into shorts.  I was starving, and I knew that I needed Argentinian steak for dinner.  I looked for the best steak within a mile of my hotel, and I found a promising candidate and uploaded the last of my Antarctica photos.  However, my laptop was dying, and I did not have the proper adapters.  I went to the grocery store next to the hotel, and I got Doritos, a Coke Zero, a big thing of water, some chocolates, and an adapter.  The total price was less than I typically spend on my lunch in Manhattan.

After I plugged in my laptop, I headed out and lit up a Partagas for the walk.  I was reliant only on my memory of the Google Maps directions.  I knew that getting back would be no problem.  Once I walked by Congress, it hit me.  I was in Buenos Aires, and I had 24 hours to myself.  I could do whatever I wanted.  All thoughts of Uruguay disappeared.  I chose enjoyment value over fulfillment value.  As I was walking, it being night now, I came to a street that was poorly lit.  I would say that I felt that I was in danger, but I certainly felt a need for heightened awareness.  I cannot remember the last time that I felt that.  In Bethlehem, maybe?  As I was walking, I realized that I had forgotten the chopsticks.  I didn’t feel like going back.  The chopsticks has started to run it course.

I found the restaurant easily enough, and they seated me on the upper level.  I looked at the menu, and it said cash only.  Hmm, that could be a problem.  I certainly did not have enough pesos on me for a steak dinner, or did I?  I looked at the prices, and I was shocked how cheap everything was.  I had more than enough to get whatever I wanted.  They brought over an empanada, and it was so good, the first Official food I had eaten in almost two weeks.  For dinner, I ordered a quarter bottle of Malbec, steak, and fries.  The first sip of Malbec was such a welcome relief from the swill I had been drinking on the ship all week.  The steak, too, was delicious, but it was so much food.  I don’t even think I finished half of it.  I paid my bill and got the rest of it to go.

I lit up a Davidoff for the walk back.  On the way, I saw a pharmacy.  I had run out of Nexium.  Actually, I had run out yesterday, but I found a pill in the bottom of my bag for this morning.  I don’t know if I had miscalculated, or if I had misplaced another bottle, but I was out, and tomorrow would be absolutely miserable without it.  I asked if they had anything for heartburn, and he brought me some sodium bicarbonate.  No, that would not do the trick.  I tried to make myself understood.  Eventually, I just asked if they had Nexium.  They did.  This was one thing that was not any cheaper than in New York, so I just got the smallest size they had.

I retrieved my Davidoff and made my way back to the hotel, stopping in front of Congress to finish the cigar.  However, apparently Buenos Aires has a roach problem that is as bad as Manhattan.  Sitting on the steps of the statue was no longer an option, so I stood up.  I then decided to head back to the hotel.  There was a place where I could sit with a view of Congress and still access the hotel’s Wi-Fi.  I finished my cigar out there and headed up to my room.

I was dead tired, but I still needed to write this entry and smoke my 2014 Christmas Pipe.  I allowed myself a nap or something.  I’m not sure if I actually fell asleep, but I almost just wanted to save this for the morning.  I forced myself out of bed, rubbed out my tobacco, filled my pipe, and headed back to the other statue across from Congress, where I lit up my pipe and proceeded to write this entry.  Where will I be the next time that I light up this pipe?  Well, the next time will probably be in New York or Scarsdale, but I mean for the next New Year’s trip.  Will I be smoking this pipe in Macau or Tapei or Seoul?  Will that be as wonderful as a place as Buenos Aires?  I don’t know, but I do know that I need to close this so that I can get some ice cream, publish, and get to sleep.