I've been stuck on a cruise ship in the Mediterranean for over a week and it’s turned into some crazy, wild, once-in-a-lifetime experience

I was on a cruise in the Mediterranean when the COVID-19 outbreak hit. I’m writing this on March 15th, and the ship just extended our stay here for over a week. The port was refused by every country we asked, and now thousands of us are stuck here together. <br><br>We’re getting worried we’ll never go home.<br><br>It’s not great. People are getting hungry, the amenities are shut down, and most of us have spent all our money because we don’t think this will end well. We’ve even had rumors of suicide. <br><br>The craziest thing about all this, though, are the stories I’ve made with the people on here. <br><br>When all this happens, the first thing people do is hunker down and wait. It doesn’t matter if you’re rich or poor, old or young, when your entire life is upended at once, the first thing you want to do is curl up in a ball and wait for things to get better. For most of us, that means going on a solo journey through the ship trying to find comfort. I saw a guy playing piano in the bar until the booze ran out. Another night I saw a guy playing guitar in the pool lounge. The ship has a massive dog area that’s been converted into some sort of massive hangout space. That’s where I met people in the early days.<br><br>I met a guy named Marc who was playing guitar, and I was singing along. We talked and before I knew it, we’d been singing for two hours. He was from Paris, and we decided to meet the next night. <br><br>The next night we were joined by another guy named Christian. He was from Germany. He could also sing, and the three of us played almost every night. It turned into an excellent way to find people. People would hear us play, and come join us. Before long, we had an audience of about 15 people. We called the group “The Quarantined Rockers”. We even made flyers to pass out around the ship to get more people to come. It was a hit! <br><br>One night I met an lady named Maren, and we got to talking. We both realized we’re from Boston, and we figured it was pretty crazy to run into another person from home while on a cruise. We became fast friends. <br><br>A few days ago we were hanging out in the dog den, and we saw an couple having a blow out argument. They were clearly from different parts of the world, but we couldn’t tell where exactly. They were both loud and clearly upset. It was clear they didn’t want to be there, and someone should probably break it up, but the ship crew has pretty much abandoned the ship, and we’re pretty much on our own. I asked one of the Quarantined Rockers to come help me diffuse the situation, and Marc did. <br><br>Marc is an ex-musician who’s traveled the world, and he speaks nine different languages. He used his German dialect to speak to the gentleman, and soon the argument had defused, and they were even laughing. We all talked for a bit, and the couple turned out to be from Turkey and South Africa. They had moved to the US for school, and they were both from Charlotte, NC. We exchanged phone numbers, and now the four of us regularly meet up when we’re in port, or just when we feel like it. <br><br>These encounters are happening every day now. There’s this one guy who plays chess with himself, and the Quarantined Rockers have taken to setting up a game against him to see if anyone can beat him. He’s from India, and he speaks four different dialects. <br><br>Another woman from Sweden, who speaks six different languages, has become Marc’s new “musician in training.” He’s teaching her piano, and she’s teaching him Swedish dialects no one has ever heard before. <br><br>One night when we were in port I was walking with a few people and we saw a guy from the US walking down the street in his t-shirt and shorts. We were on a Mediterranean island. It was only 50 degrees out, and he had no coat. We asked if he was insane, and he said, “No, I’m sick of being on the ship. I walked off.” We asked for about 10 minutes of everyone’s attention, and we made a big group chant to convince him to come back. We told him no coast, no food, and no way of getting home. It didn’t work. He was one of three people to leave the ship, and we haven’t seen them since. <br><br>I saw a guy from China do an incredible backflip off the side of the pool. <br><br>One night in the dog den, a bunch of people from the US and South Africa were playing cards. The ship’s wifi went down, and they didn’t know how to calculate their winnings. A gentleman from France, who claims to be a rocket scientist, came over and did the calculations by hand. Afterward, he played chess with the Indian chess guy and beat him in 15 minutes. <br><br>All these stories, and so many more, are happening on this ship right now. It’s crazy. <br><br>We have literally thousands of people on this ship from all over the world, and I don’t think anything like this has ever happened before. I mean, sure, ships have gotten stranded in the past, but not like this. <br><br>The owners are completely abandoning us. There’s no coordinators, no food delivery, and no medical care. It’s fucking insane. But even though we’re all pissed, and we’re slowly starving, the human spirit is alive and well. We may be stuck here, but we’re fucking making it fun, and it’s a story I’ll carry with me forever.