The Roma set sail towards the Romanian port of Constanza to unload the young Jewish men and women. The ship arrived shortly before nightfall. We were told we were going to stay in Romania for two days and those who wished to visit the capital, Bucharest, should catch the high-speed train, leaving the Port area at 8:00 am.

A -mass of Jews descended from the ship. The rich headed for Bucharest and the “dervishes” remained in Constanza. We set out on our sightseeing trip. Cherries had just begun to ripen and were large and delicious. We saw Romanian women clad in traditional costumes selling cherries in small beautifully-crafted baskets on the streets. I bought one and kept it as a souvenir of Romania.

We made many tours around the city and drank Romanian wine, in the company of the two Turkish girls, before returning to the ship in the evening.

From Romania, we went back to Greece. We passed through Corinth and headed from there to the port of Athens. Together with the two Turkish girls, we climbed the Acropolis rewarded by the view. We had been introduced to the glory of Athens during our philosophy and ethics classes. The hill of the Acropolis had bestowed upon human civilization an unparalleled legacy. We paid tribute to the memory of Greek philosophers and returned to the ship which continued to Palermo, a beautiful city where we spent the day. A guide came to us saying “do you not want to see the remnants of the Arab antiquities?” We lamented about past Arab civilization and headed back to the ship.

From Palermo, the ship sailed towards Algiers, a magnificent city with a French-speaking population. It was the cherry-picking season here too but Algeria’s cherries were much tastier than Romania’s.

At the Algerian port, we saw wine boxes piled up on the quay. Fine Algerian wines were bound for the US. We spent the night in Algeria and in the early morning, the Roma departed for Barcelona in Spain. On the Spanish quay, there were bags of onions also awaiting shipment to the US. The smell of wine and onions permeated the cabins of the ship and we thanked God that the Roma was a small ship for we were by now fed up with waiting around at all these ports. We were eager to see the Statue of Liberty in the New York Harbor.