After fourteen days I embarked and moored in Izmir later that day. Desperately I went looking for medical help, but I ran out of time and boarded again and showered in vain if only to be able to unashamedly scratch myself. Still three full days to Haifa. Meanwhile the wind was ever increasing and in the middle of the night the engines stopped. We went bobbing and at times so vehemently that an English guy on a Victorian lounge chair slid three times across the lounge, crackingly bounced by the ship boards. When someone said the crew had assembled at the life boat stations I went to see if there was land in sight. But everywhere it was pitch-dark.
My survival instinct appeared to have been needlessly awoken, for with the self-evidence of the non-event the sea calmed, the engines restarted and once more we set sail in the confidence that everything would take care of itself again.

I slept in a cabin that I shared with two other passengers. This was boarded against the hull of the ship, so you heard the water flowing by. Access to the bunks was met with ladderettes. Full adventure style and as snug as a bug in a rug.

At long last Haifa appeared on the horizon, brilliantly nestled against a mountain with as a glorious eye-catcher the golden dome of the Bahai. In many countries the illegal import of plants or animals is severely penalised but I was way past that. First I had to find a doctor and after that a pharmacy to rid my tormented genitals of those blasted crab-lice.
After a firm financial drain I got hold of the redeeming potion. I was to distribute the contents over fourteen days, but the bottlette broke so I used it all at once. Good manners command me to limit myself to say that I was ragged, but not only did I rid myself of the lice, I’m pretty certain I will never get them again.

Karen had gone to a kibbutz that was supposed to be a mere stone’s throw from Haifa. I preferred to take the bus and learned in resignation that she had left for Copenhagen three days ago.

To be continued: 'The land of milk and money'.