April 28, 2009
We’ve just about completed our first 10 day cruise. This contract will be made up of the same two 10 day cruises over and over again. So the places I didn’t get to see this time, hopefully I’ll get a chance to see in the next couple times we’re here. I am extremely frustrated with the way things are going with the job and everyday some perk of the job gets taken away which makes me even angrier. So job wise (and the opportunity to get off the ship), things are not going well. However, in this particular email I’m going to talk about just the good things I’ve been able to do and see so far.
We got off in Dubrovnik, Croatia, but I think I already wrote about that stop. Went to the old city. A walled city with big cobblestone streets. Ate lunch, delicious. Drank some local white wine. Not so delicious. The plate in front was a local meat item. Some name I have no hope at pronouncing. It was like a meat ball/sausage with a crispy outside. Mmmm.
The next place I was able to get off the ship was Santorini. It was my first time stepping foot on Greek land. I only had a little over 2 hours so we went for lunch at a Greek restaurant the Travel Guide, Tom suggested. We ordered Oyzo to drink, which is a liquor similar to Sambuka or Jagermeister. Powerful stuff. That was my least favorite part of the meal. But it’s a Greek classic. So we had to try it. I had a local wine, which was delicious and Rienus had their beer, although it wasn’t anything too exciting. Amstel. We ordered way too much and the food just kept on coming, but everything was really good. In the picture is Fava, which is smooshed yellow peas (or maybe chick peas, not sure through translation) mixed with olive oil and onions and served with bread. The other thing is made of tomato and dough and fried. We had calamari, Souvlaki (which was just skewers really with lettuce and tomato and pita) a greek version of a kebab. The other people we were with got Greek meatballs, which are a squished, crispier version than back home, and an order of olives. Greek olives in Greece. Who woulda thought?
After lunch we made our way up the steep, steep cliff to the part of Santorini called Fira town. Your choices are a donkey ride up the switch backing trail or the gondola. We were short on time so we opted for the gondola, but next time I’m going donkey. Once you get to the tip its narrow cobblestone walkways, lots of curved arches. White buildings, old cracks running up the sides. The views were gorgeous and you could see the entire island. The island is a crater rim and is a crescent moon shape. I only had enough time for a quick look around and we headed back down, but it was beautiful and hopefully I’ll get some more time next time we are there to sit down, and enjoy the view and some shopping.
We had one stop in Kusadasi, Turkey. This is the port near Ephesus. I didn’t have enough time to go and see Ephesus ( and I want to do some reading up on it so I know some of the history before I go) so we just walked around the port area. It reminded me of the tourist areas in Morocco and China. You are just bombarded with offers and comments. They all say something about what you’re wearing or “special for you”, “just take a look”. It’s exceedingly obnoxious, but I’ve gotten to a point where it doesn’t phase me all that much. I’ve always known you just ignore them, but I’ve gotten to the point where I can do it AND not feel bad about it. In Kusadasi they have “genuine fake” everything, watches, purses, bags, clothes, everything. That morning the Event Manager and Cruise Director confirmed that I can wear my own clothes in the evening instead of a horrendous blue blazer from the 90’s with shoulder pads and a khaki skirt. So I bought a couple tops when we were out. It’ll definitely be my shopping port. It’s a crew members favorite kind of port. They have all sorts of shop less than a 5 minute walk from the gangway. We sat down at a restaurant for lunch with Mike and Lola, Mike works with Rienus, Lola works in the salon. The girls got Rose wine and the boys ordered the local beer, Effe. Both were delicious and on the way back to the ship we picked up another bottle of the Rose’. I’ve enjoyed trying the local wine at all our meal stops. Lunch was the mixed kebab plate for me. Rice, lettuce, tomate, pita bread, lamb and chicken meat sliced off the massive kebab they have roasting in the back of the shop, and lots and lots of garlic sauce. He brought a huge bowl out for the four of us and we were scraping the bottom by the time we were nearly done. On the way back the boys decided to buy themselves the ridiculous fez hats with the Turkish Lira they had left. Ridiculous.
Today I had an hour to walk around Messina in Sicily. My goal was a canoli for Rienus and I and to take some pictures and check out Sicily. Canoli – Check. I definitely learned that the Sicilian’s like to sleep in. I went out at 8:45am and about 1 in 5 stores were open by the time I got back to the ship around 9:45am. I just walked around, saw the buildings, jay walked, took some pictures and walked back to the ship. Hopefully next time I”ll be able to see more. The buildings were beautiful and the canoli and brioche flowed like wine.
Mediterranean April 21st, 2009
I made it safely on my first cross-Atlantic sailing. I’ve now crossed the two biggest oceans in the world on a ship. Not that anyone really puts that on their Life To Do List. The cities here are all so colorful and full of character. There are a lot of oranges, pinks and yellows on the buildings. Today I was able to get off the ship for a couple hours and wander into the old city of Dubrovnik, Croatia. I’d never really thought of Croatia as being part of the Mediterranean, but here it is and looks just like all our other stops. I’m used to the French and Spanish we’ve been hearing, so the Croatian language was an interesting switch.
I don’t have much of a story to tell. We had lunch, where we asked to have something local and ended up with a mixed seafood plate and another local dish that came out looking quite a bit like breakfast sausages. If I get fast enough internet I’ll post the pre-meal picture. It was all absolutely delicious. Then of course topped the meal off with “ice cream” which was an even creamier version of Italian gelato. All in all, I’m a fan of Dubrovnik.
This cruise consists of this stop, 4 in Greece, Ephesus in Turkey and Messina, Italy. We are doing 10 day cruises out of Civitavecchia, the port city an hour outside of Rome. Things with work are really busy. We don’t have enough staff to cover the kids program and the library all day long, unless we work the entire day with little chance to get off the ship. Which defeats the whole point of me being here, since I’m doing this for the travel. So I’ve been frustrated with that lately. It’s almost worst to be here and see it from the ship, but not be able to go, than to be home and not see it at all. That’s the bad news.
The good news is I like this ship and have made some friends and I’m sure there’ll be more to come. Once we settle into the cruises we’re doing and the scheduling gets figured out I’ll know what to expect and can hopefully plan on doing things ashore.
Hopefully I’ll have more exciting stories from the Med for you next time!
Five months abroad is coming to a close, and the place I’ve chosen to do it, London, is turning out to be a great choice. As soon as I got here this city felt good. I flew in to the airport farthest north, and had to get myself to a neighborhood fairly far south of london. So I had a long train ride and soaked up the look of the houses and flats, lots of brick with 8 chimney coming out every which way. What I loved most was the green. Some cities had little bits of green here and there, but it just isn’t enough. Most the days I’ve been here have been really nice sunny weather, which is good, but today was my favorite. It had a bit of sunshine, but sprinkled for most the day. It felt SO GOOD. I cannot remember the last time I was cold! My Seattle blood has been boiling in the heat of Spain, Morocco and elsewhere where temperatures reach way beyond what Seattle has ever seen.
So far in London I have taken in most the major sights. London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guards, London Tower and Bridge, Bangers and Mash with a pint of Guiness near Picadilly Circus, Greenwich to stand over the Prime Meridian. Check, check, and check. And that is only in my first couple days. I still have the weekend and I fly out on Tuesday.
The people have been delightful, everywhere I go the courtesy is outrageous. In the supermarket I was standing practically within reach of the eggs. I coudln’t find them, because I am an American tourist and we tend to be useless. Some nice teenage boy was boxing things until I asked, “Where are the eggs?” He said, follow me, and led me the 7 steps to the eggs. I laughed at myself, but he was taking his job seriuosly and only asked if I needed anything else. Remarkable. And this keeps happening, we/I only pause and someone will come up and ask if we need directions. Plus they have their proper English accents that make them sound even more refined and polite.
I think London is a place I could live, that is if I was filthy rich, or was able to work here. This place is EXPENSIVE. The number looks right, but when you go and do the exchange math of multiplying by two it starts to get painful. To combat that I’ve just given myself a number to spend everyday. And I try to stop doing the math and just stay under the total number.
It’s been a delight staying with Melissa’s (friend from the vb team) cousin and her husband. Really great, kind people that have an adorable flat with a backyard. We had a game night the other night and have just been enjoying each others company.
Montpellier was a trek to get to. From La Spezia (Italy) we spent about 14 hours in transit. And 3.5 of those hours were spent on the cold hard floor of a train station in nowhere Italy in the middle of the night. But well worth it. We got in on the morning of the last home game for the Montpellier rugby team. Rienus’ friend from back in NZ plays for them so we got to go to the game and sit in the VIP seats with his girlfriend and some other players and family. I loved it! The game is so much more fun than American football because it keeps moving. No stopping and starting every down. They just bang each other up and keep on going. I kept bugging everyone around me asking questions and figuring out all the rules. After the game we sat around drinking wine and eating the nibbles until the players came up to visit families and wives. Got to stand around with a whole bunch of BIG boys and listen to them joke and talk rugby. Afterwards the four of us went down to a bar just below the stadium where the fans all hang out. Mone, Rienus’ friend is quite the all star in Montpellier so it was fun to watch him get bombarded with fans and things to sign and people coming up and telling him how much they love him. We danced around tot he live music, which was oddly ALL in English, stopped at McDonald’s on the way home and called it a night.
The last stop on my Italian trek was in La Spezia. Although that wasnt the real destination. id heard from a couple of travellers about Cinque Terre. The five small villages on the cliffs of Liguria. La Spezia turned out to be a great stop too. I havent seen the water (other than dirty rivers) since leaving Venice so it was nice to be in another port town and stroll along the water and listen to the dirty Italian sailors. The day after arrival we hopped on a 15 minute train to the first city, Riomaggiore, of the Cinque (5) Terre (Lands). We walked from Riomaggiore on the Via Dell’Amore until we reached Manarola. Both were tiny places made up of a stazione (train station), tabacchi (place to buy cigarettes and tickets), and square pastel houses built right into the sides of cliffs. The views were gorgeous and the water was clear. We hiked on to the third village, Corniglia, then hiked down to the water from the cliffs. Rienus decided to jump in but there were a bit too many sharp rocks and big waves for me. By train we visited the most northern village of Monterosso, but were pretty tired from hiking and laying in the sun, so after a quick walk around we headed back to La Spezia. It was a great way to end Italy. We had good weather, got some exercise, but the couple days in La Spezia were really laid back. Currently we’re killing time in Genova while waiting for our train(s)-we have three different connections to make–to Montpellier.
I also have bought my flight back home. Well sort of. Flights to Seattle were all ridiculously expensive, but flying to Canada was much cheaper. So I’ll be arriving in Vancouver, BC on August 5th in the evening. I might stay a night or two if my friend is going to be around, but then catch the train to Seattle! Home Sweet Home.
Life is good: I have been in Italy since May 14th and it has been fantastic: Started in Venice; zhere is was gorgeous and stayed with so,e friends Id met working on ships: (this keyboard has switched the w and the z so zhere you see z I mean w: Also they switched m and , so adjust accordingly) drank zine and had ,y first real italian piwwa: then on to ro,e zhere ze did so,e ,assve sightseeing: colosseo; ro,an foru, vatican city: i had ,y first real italian capuccino; saz the pope live and saw so,e ro,an soldiers taking s,oke breaks: next zas siena for a short stop: ze rented a scooter and zent out to so,e vineyards and s,all castles in the tuscan countryside: very cool: i took a millin pictures of the gorgeous rolling hills: then on to florence o see the uffuzi and mikeùs david: all very impressive: now in bologna zhere they love there food: ze just had lunch of aweso,e bread and thinly sliced ,eats: ze tried ,ortadello zhich they are knozn for zhich is just a type of sausage: but bologna style: to,orroz ze are on to La Spezia zhich is right by th eplace I really zant to go zhich is Cinque Terra: Five s,all cities right on th ecoast built ito the cliffs:
The zeather is fantastico noz after it has rained off and on: finally feeling like su,,er: happy june!
