Sea This!

Amalfi Coast, originally uploaded by gadgetive.

While the city of Naples isn’t anything to write home about, there’s
so much to do from the port. I’m very fortunate that we go there three
different times so I can have time to do everything I want. We were
supposed to go to Naples a month earlier, but because of rough seas we
had to miss it. Boo!

A couple months ago (June 13, to be exact) I had the pleasure of going
to Sorrento and driving down the Amalfi Coast. I had heard the Amalfi
Coast was the best scenic drive in the world, and at times the
scariest – and both statements were correct! If you are not a fan of
heights (or of very narrow roads) I wouldn’t recommend it, but luckily
we had a professional so I wasn’t too worried. It’s amazing how the
towns along the coast are carved into the hilltop.

One thing that amazed me was that it was quite a far distance from the
road to the shore, but there were beaches scattered along the way. So
to get to the beaches, you had to climb quite a long flight of stairs.
Italy really makes these people work for these beaches, eh? For lunch,
we stopped at this hotel that overlooked the coastline, which is where
this picture was taken.

We drove past the city of Postiano, but we couldn’t stop there since
you can only go with a small vehicle (and we were in a bus). We have
one more stop in Naples and I’d like to try and go next time, but I’m
more interested in going to Pompeii. I’d like to try and do both, but
we’ll see if that’s possible. Either way it’s going to be hot.

The following month, I made my way to Capri which was also gorgeous.
It’s amazing how much there is to do in Italy and how lovely the area
around there is.

Photos

I’ve been meaning to write an entry about my thoughts on breakfast and other ship food, but for now, I have a breakfast dilemma that I’d like advice on.

For the most part, the free food on the ship is pretty awesome. Lunch and dinner is fantastic – almost too good. However, free food is not without its pitfalls, unfortunately. I try to eat a nice balanced breakfast everyday. Seriously, my plate looks like one of those “part of a balanced breakfast” segments of the commercial. I usually have eggs, some fruit, and cereal. They have a somewhat wide variety of choices for cereal, but if you knock out the sweet stuff it only leaves a few choices.

I try to have a cereal high in fiber every morning. I’ve been rotating between the Raisin Bran and the All Bran Wheat Flakes. I thought I was doing fine until, one day, I made the mistake of looking at the back of the box to see the ingredients. Near the top of the list was my good friend, “high fructose corn syrup”. Boo. I’ve been lucky to avoid it in my non-American soda, but there it was rearing its ugly head during breakfast. I try to avoid HFCS in everything that I can as it’s not very good for you. It’s right behind “sugar” on the ingredients list, too. Seriously, if you’re going to put in sugar why do you even bother with more sweetener? I was disappointed to learn that even the straight up All Bran – which tastes like cardboard – also has HFCS in it. How can something that tastes like cardboard have something so sweet?

If I was back at home, this would be much easier. I could just throw out my box and buy some new cereal from a wide variety of choices. On the ship, not so much. So, the way I see it, I have a few options:

1) Suck it up and continue to eat my high-fiber cereal with HFCS in it. This would be the easiest and least-fuss option. Also, HFCS isn’t the first ingredient in either cereal, so I suppose it’s not too bad…

2) Go out and buy new cereal and then bring it to breakfast everyday. This would be a huge hassle but at least I could get what I’d want. I’d also most likely have to find it in small boxes for easy travel.

3) Find something else high-fiber to eat in the morning. The problem is, I’m limited to just traditional breakfast items. Any suggestions? I hear the Brits like to have baked beans on toast for breakfast which sounds in high in fiber, but I don’t know if that’s as fun to eat as cereal ..

Food, Ship Life breakfast, fiber

Wow, I’ve fallen even more behind on my port wrap-ups than the last entry, so here’s an attempt to catch myself up again. Keep in mind I’ve been to a few of these ports more than once, so some of the stuff starts blending together. I will do my best, though. Note that all of these ports were all new to me so I hadn’t been to any of these places yet. Yay for new places. After these two cruises, all my places are repeats.

Up until this point I had been doing two-week cruises, but now I am going to wrap up my first two ONE WEEK cruises. They are both good and bad. The week cruises are nice in that there are more ports with less sea days, so I don’t have to teach as much. BUT the week cruises can be hectic because we have twice as many embarkation days which means I have to do all the end-of-cruise and pre-cruise prep twice as much. Also, if I like the passengers, I only get a week with them instead of two weeks.

Brussels/Bruges (Zeebruge), Belgium (May 23) – I hung out with some fellow crew members. The original plan was to take the train into Bruges, but that was a little more time consuming than we thought. So luckily, a group of us hooked up with another group and we got a taxi straight into Bruge and back for 50 euros each way (around 6 euros a person). We got door to door service and we didn’t have to bother with trains. Not bad! Once in Belgium I got myself a take-away waffle (with ice cream) which I enjoyed eating on the street. I also got myself some fries with some weird sauce. And of course chocolate. No beer, although I almost bought myself a Frambois (or however you spell it).

Copenhagen, Denmark (May 25/May 26) – This port we were in for a long time – almost overnight and over the span of two days. We were here until 3 AM so I planned to enjoy myself. It would be one of the few times we would actually be on land during the night .. how strange. Some fellow crew members and I went everywhere. We went to Tivoli Gardens, the Danish Disneyland. Since it was early in the day there weren’t a whole lot of people, so we walked around a bit and planned to come back at night, but never did.   We also went to the canal streets where we had different types of herring (a Danish speciality). Then we went to the King’s Library (which was difficult to find the entrance for), the secret garden (which was kinda secret), and the Royal Palace in which I got to see where the Prince and his wife are going to live (they have way too many rooms). I had myself a Danish pastry (of course) and then I went back to the ship for dinner, because Denmark is expensive – yo! The walk back to the ship though was much longer than I thought, and it was raining. Blech.

Normally, that would be it for the day and it was time to set sale. But we had the whole night in Denmark, so I decided to go out again. This time I hung out with a new group of people to see the nightlife. We took a city bus and stopped at a Scottish pub first, but a group of them were interested in a Jazz Club so we set off to find that. On the way we ate a hot dog (another Danish specialty). After a bit of stumbling around, we made it to the jazz club and I had myself an apple cider alcoholic beverage. I know – can you believe it?? I don’t think my friends realized what a rarity this was for me. After the Jazz club we decided to walk back to the ship. We didn’t think it was that far, but it was. The mean part is you can see your ship for a good 30 minutes of the walk, but you’re still not there. Either way, we made it back just in time for the ship to set sail around 3 in the morning!

Helsingboro, Sweden (May 26) – I already wrote a little bit about Sweden with my earlier picture post, but I’ll write some more. This was a tender port (blech) but I was looking forward to seeing what Sweden had to offer. Much to my surprise, it wasn’t very Swedish at all, especially since I was on the hunt for Swedish meatballs. They just happened to have an international food festival which had every country but Sweden, which was still neat. I met up with some fellow passengers and we stopped by city hall. We also climbed this large tour called “The Keep” that I think was once a military fortress or something. It had a very nice view of the city and I could clearly see Denmark from the top across the water – it was amazing how close we were. After much searching, we did find a restaurant that had Swedish meatballs, although I would later learn that too was lucky since they didn’t offer them everyday. If anyone’s wondering, they tasted like regular meatballs to me, but at least I can say that I’ve had them.

** We didn’t go to Norway because of possible protests, which I was very upset about. I had a tour planned and it was a very nice day. Protestors seem to be a common theme throughout this cruise. Boo. Don’t worry, I do eventually get to go, but it’s only one other time this cruise. I’m also going to skip detailing the next port, Southampton, too since nothing interesting happened there (or I can’t remember). I probably just shopped and/or went online. How exciting, I know. **

Vigo (Santiago de Compostela), Spain (May 31) – Well, it’s the start of a new cruise already, can you believe it? And I get to go somewhere new in Spain. I found it interesting the area was called “Galicia” because the now defunct county my ancestors are from is named “Galitzia”. Pure coincidence, but still kinda neat. I actually went into Santiago de Compostela. I went to the St. James cathedral, and since 2010 was a holy year, they also let us into his tomb… ooooh. During this time I hooked up with some other American passengers and we had ourselves a grand time around the city. I also found another pressed penny machine. Woohoo.  The city was very holy – they had crosses on everything including baked goods. And it was weird to be in a place where everyone spoke Spanish and people didn’t know too much English.

Lisbon, Portugal (June 1) – Another new county – woohoo! Went up yet another tower, had myself some Cod, and went into an abandoned church. I was interested in going to Portugal and it wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t as cool (or clean) as the other Med countries I visited. I heard that taking the cable car up to the older part of the city is better, so maybe next time I’ll do that. Also, it was really hot in Portugal (not as hot as Florida, but still..) What was kinda cool, though, is that as we were leaving, the ship actually went under this huge bridge that looked a lot like the Golden Gate. Not sure why I was so amused by this, but I was. I went up to the top deck and looked up as we went under. Not too many times you get to see the underside of a bridge.

La Rochelle, France (June 3) – This is the first port that I forgot either of my cameras – D’oh! But I did remember my laptop (and my iPhone). We had to take a shuttle into town, though, so it wasn’t worth it to go back.This port wasn’t bad. It was nice and quaint with old castles and streets and buildings. I didn’t go into any of them, but they looked nice from the outside. I also remember buying a particular food item that I really wanted, but now that it’s been over a month I can’t remember what is was. Sorry. It was a sandwich of some sort with cooked meat. I ordered it with a side of fries and they actually put it on the sandwich. I’ll think of it eventually.

Guernsey (St. Peter Port), England (June 4) – Yes, I’m going to England to a different place other than Southampton, woohoo! I had one goal and one goal only in this port – to stock up on some clotted cream fudge. I was really hoping to find a fudge shop that makes them right there, similar to what I found in St. Ives, but no dice. I just found a lot of tourist shops that sold clotted cream things. At least they had it, but I was really hoping for a homemade fudge shop. I went exploring a little more and also found a candy store that was going out of business, so I bought some other kinds of candy. I also learned that not only is there clotted cream, but there is Guernsey cream as well – so even more combinations of candies to be made. At the end of the day I bought too much clotted cream and Guernsey cream treats; not just fudge – caramel, toffee, and shortbreads. But, I can justify it by saying a lot of it were gifts for friends

Southampton, England (June 5) [5] – Yes, this was my fifth time (on the fifth of June) going to Southampton.  This is usually my “errand” port because there isn’t always enough time to really do anything since we have to be back early. This time, instead of going to the mall like I usually do, I decided to be adventurous and go to Ikea (which was 4 floors – huuuuge) and another shopping strip on the edge of town that had stores you’d recognize (like Staples) and stores you might not (like Tesco Extra). One of these days I plan to explore a little bit out of Southampton, but we’ll see…

Ports belgium, bruges, cophenhagen, denmark, england, france, Guernsey, helsingboro, La Rochelle, lisbon, portugal, Santiago de Compostela, southampton, spain, sweden

Dutch Pancakes in Sweeden, originally uploaded by gadgetive.

I actually wrote a picture entry description for this picture, but my
computer ate it – so here it goes again! It’s never as good the second
time around, is it?

This is a picture of me in Helsingborg, Sweden that stuck out for me
through all the hundreds of other pictures I’ve taken. Maybe it’s the
different angle, the fact I’m slightly left of center, or that I look
kinda skinny. Either way, I like it

While there, I met up with a group of American passengers and we
wandered around together. They just happened to be having an
international food festival that weekend so I took full advantage. In
my hands I have some Dutch pancakes with chocolate sauce and
strawberries. Yum. You have to eat them with a tiny little fork, but
they are quite portable.

Underneath that is a bag with a huge ham and cheese pretzel from
Germany. Germany is one of the few countries I don’t go to, so I
figured I would support their food. Soft pretzels aren’t too hard to
find, but how often do you find one with ham and cheese? Don’t worry,
though, I didn’t even come close to eating the whole thing.

Also in my hands is my trusty large bottle of Aquarius Spring Water. I
go through these bottles fairly quickly, especially as it gets hotter
out and I’m wandering around more. You can also see my camera bag
slung around my shoulder.

What’s funny about this picture is that even though it was taken in
Sweden, there’s absolutely nothing Swedish about it. You can’t even
see anything Swedish in the background. I remember it being tougher
than I thought to find a Swedish restaurant around – even though every
other nationality was represented. It was still a fun day, although
hotter than I expected, as you can tell from my rolled up jacket
sleeves.

Photos

Scavenger Fun in Seville!, originally uploaded by gadgetive.

I’m very behind on my pictures, but I thought I would share one from a
while ago. This picture is from my first visit to Seville, Spain (I’ve
now been there twice). While on a guided tour, I was approached by
these four girls who were on a scavenger hunt for school. The goal was
to find one of each nationality. They needed an American so I was
happy to oblige. They asked me pressing questions like – What is your
favorite food? What is your favorite country? I tried to answer in
Spanish, but eventually I gave up and answered the rest in English.
Afterwards they wanted a picture, so they took one with their camera
and I asked for one with mine.

This is actually in the main square of Seville right by the Alcazar.
Somehow I was able to break away from my group, answer these important
questions, and get right back to my guided tour as though nothing
happened.

A month later, I would be approached in Barcelona by another group of
girls on a similar scavenger hunt. So apparently, these things are
very popular in Spain!

Photos

I’m way behind on my port wrap-ups, so I thought I would catch up on some more ports so I don’t fall too behind! This list covers both the second half of my second cruise, and all of my third cruise. The number in brackets [] denotes how many times I’ve been there (if more than once).

Cannes, France (May 2) – Went to both Nice and St. Paul de Vence. I think I liked Nice better, because in St. Paul de Vence there was a huge hill to get up to the city! But both were very cool ports. I did a tram ride through Nice, and I think next time when I’ll go I’ll just explore on my own. There was a big market there and I think the president of France (?) just happened to be there making a speech. In St. Paul de Vence, I went to the Museum of Death Penalty AND the Museum of Torture. They were as gruesome as they sounded, but I had to go just because it was so bizarre. I really like Cannes in general and it’s one of my favorite ports that we go to.

Barcelona, Spain (May 3) – This day wasn’t the best. I got locked in the bathroom (see earlier entry), it was raining really badly, and I lost my group. Just when I was about to leave, though, I ran into a couple passengers I knew. Together we walked around to the good part of the city (Las Ramblas). It’s just one long giant street that sells everything you can imagine – including pets! Also, they have 20 different variations of everything in Barcelona. For instance, want your portrait done? They have 20 different artists ready to do it.

Gibraltar (May 5) – At the last minute I got a tour – woohoo! I got to ride the cable car up and see monkeys. They’re like pigeons. They’ve everywhere and just come up right next to you! Afterwards, we went to the WWII tunnels which were neat but involved lots of climbing. After the tour, they dropped us off in the city where I proceeded to find a decent internet signal near the Cobacabana Restaurant.

** Nothing too exciting happened in Southampton or Malaga, Spain so I’m going to skip those **

Barcelona, Spain [2] (May 13) – Yes, we came back to Barcelona relatively quickly. We go there a lot, so I’ll get to know it well. This time it was nice and sunny. Ahh.. what a difference the weather makes. This time the market was even more crowded than before. Found more internet and just wandered the city. I found really fast internet in this giant market square, but it kept on cutting out – how frustrating. So eventually I just gave up and went to McDonald’s for internet. I don’t like to, but reliable internet is best.

Cannes, France [2] (May 14) – Originally this was supposed to be Monte Carlo, but I think because of the Grand Prix they changed it. Today it was the film festival and I knew I had to get out and see what I could see.  Unfortunately, I didn’t see any big BIG stars, but I did get to see a lot of red carpet and security. I also met up with a paparazzi photographer and friends and hung out with them for a couple hours hoping they might know the best spots to go. I did see as couple of French stars, but since I don’t know French movies, it wasn’t that impressive. I also saw a couple behind hounded by the paparazzi with cameras down the street. That’s something you don’t see everyday.

Rome (Civitavecchia), Italy [2] (May 15) – This was the second time we went to Civitavecchia but the first time I went to Rome. The roommate and I took the train into the city even though it was raining. We went to St. Peter’s Basilica, which has officially spoiled me as far as churches go – everything else just can’t compare. We also waited an hour and a half to get into the Vatican Museum to see the Sistine Chapel. Even when you’re in, it’s still a long walk to get through! But, it’s a very cool sight and it’s amazing how much depth everything has.

We didn’t go to Naples because of rough seas, which stinks – but it happens. Also, when a port day turns into a sea day, I have to teach. So, it’s a double whammy. But the nice thing is, classes are busy, which makes things more fun.

Corsica (Ajaccio), France (May 17) – I really like France, and this was no exception. It was another quaint port town with lots of little shops to walk around in.  Also, it had amazingly fast (and free) internet. The only downside was that you could only go on for twenty minute increments, but it was still amazingly fast. I found a nice little café, had myself a weird flavor of Nestea I had never heard of before, and enjoyed myself. I also stopped in the casino, but since everything was in French, it was hard to play.

Gibraltar [2] (May 19) – I had my heart set on finding a pillow. Not just any pillow, but a pillow that allows you to lean against it for support and has “arms” on the side to rest your elbows. I found every other variation I possibly could, but none quite like the one I had in mind. I even went to a pillow specialty store. But, I guess it wasn’t meant to be. So, I gave up and went back to the Copacabana for some internet.

Southampton, England [3] (May 22) – This was the day everyone gets off and the day new people get on, so I thought I would try to find a pillow one more time. I had a huge mall just waiting and I figured it might just be here. I found something very close to what I had in mind, but it just wasn’t exactly what I wanted. Plus, it was kinda pricey, so I didn’t get it afterall. I figured that IKEA might have what I’m looking for, but that’s not close, and by this time I wasn’t sure if the large pillow I was searching for was really worth it.

So woohoo – glad I’ve caught up a little bit on my ports. I’d love to write more, but they just come up so fast. I still have two more cruises I still have to talk about, but I’ll do that sometime later.

Ports barcelona, cannes, corsica, france, gibraltar, italy, rome, southampton, spain

I’ve had a lot of people ask me about what a typical teaching day is like for me, so I thought I would go into some detail on my downtime. Now remember, I only teach on sea days. On port days I can offer classes, but I can take the day off and go see the sights if I want to, as well (which I usually do).

On a typical sea day, I get up in the morning and have a proper breakfast in the officer’s dining hall (usually Raisin Bran and/or an omelette with ham and cheese – the menu doesn’t change). Then, I head to work. All of my classes take place in the Internet Café (the spot where passengers go to use the internet), which can be both a good and bad thing. It’s good in that my venue never changes; on other ships you have to teach classes in different places since there is no dedicated spot. It’s bad, though, in that a lot of people think I am the person that runs the internet, so I say “I’m just the computer instructor” a lot. Sometimes people even come up to me while I’m teaching classes!

I usually teach 5-6 classes a day (with a break for lunch). Before my classes start, I may offer a complimentary lecture or have office hours. The complimentary lecture is usually called “Discover the Magic of Digital Photo Editing” and it introduces people what a digital photo is and all the things you can do with it in Photoshop. It also talks about all the other classes that we offer. Sometimes a lot of people show up, sometimes only a few. It really depends. I notice the smaller classes are more fun, because people are more likely to ask questions and interact with me.

After the lecture (or if I’m not doing one), I start teaching my computer classes. There is a fee for each class, but they actually get to work with the computer programs (in the lectures, they do not). I teach all different kinds of classes: Photoshop, Microsoft Office, Windows, Movie Maker, etc. and I teach them for all different skill levels. Eventually I plan to offer internet-based courses, although those are a little trickier. You can check out the schedule I posted from an earlier cruise to get an idea of the classes.

The most popular classes – by far – are the Photoshop classes. People take a lot of photos on their vacation and they want to learn how to edit and organize them for when they get home. It’s really fun to watch the progress people make in just a short time. One woman started off having never used Photoshop in her life, and by the end she was using Layers and Selections like a pro.

The Office classes, while smaller, are also fun to teach. While I have a curriculum of things to teach, I almost always go “off” it based on the skill level of the class or the student. It can be tricky, though. One time I was teaching an advanced Excel Data class. One guy had used Excel for many years and knew it inside and out; the other guy had just started to learn what a spreadsheet was. Because they were both in the same class, I had to teach in such a way that the advanced user could still learn something, but the beginner wasn’t left in the dark.

Teaching computer classes may sound easy, but it’s not. It’s not really a question of “skill,” but more of patience. You have eight different people, eight different skill levels, and you’re trying to make sure that everyone learns something but also that no one is left behind. I show people how to do something in the front of the class, but then I walk to each person’s computer screen to make sure everyone is on the same page (so no one gets lost). It’s also helpful to learn how to not use a program. For instance, a student may get an error by clicking the wrong button or having the wrong properties set. It’s good to know how they got there and how to get them back.

When I’m not teaching classes, I also have the option to offer private classes. Those are one-on-one and can be whenever the person wants about any topic the person wants. For instance, I’ve had people ask me specific questions about how to use their personal computer. I’ve also taught people how to use a computer for the first time. The private lessons can be fun, but they also can be challenging since I don’t have a curriculum I can “stick” to.

Remember, I’m a one person department, so I do it all. I teach all the classes, and I am responsible for all the paperwork. When people register for classes, after the day is done, I have to process the charges and figure out how much money was made for the day. The more classes and students I have, the more work there is to do. I also have to spend time preparing for the next cruise. I’m still learning what classes, times, and combinations work and don’t work. It’s hard to gauge what each cruise is going to be like, but I’m still learning.

I hear a lot of my friends ask, “Who the heck would want to learn computer classes on a cruise ship?” And the answer is – plenty of people. Like I said earlier, people are taking these vacation photos, but they really want to know what to do with them. Also, a cruise ship is a place where you learn how to do lots of things you might not otherwise learn to do on land – meringue, paint ceramics, learn to play bridge.

So, now that I’ve talked about what my teaching days are like, are there any other specific questions?

Classes, Ship Life Classes, teaching

It’s time for another port wrap-up. This marks the start of my second cruise (right now I’m on my third) and the voyage number was A010. This cruise was a roundtrip from Southampton, so 90% of the passengers were British. Definitely a sharp contrast from my first Transatlantic which most of the passengers were American – and from Florida. But, it was still a good time. There are a few Americans on the ship, and when I do find them, I gravitate towards them like a magnet!

Anyway, let’s talk ports:

Cadiz (Seville) – April 27 – This was my first time in Spain and it was absolutely gorgeous. I loved the architecture and the general feel of the city. – I got picked for the biggest and best tour: “Best of Seville”. Woohoo! As soon as I got off the ship we were on our way to Seville. The busses were fantastic and probably the highest quality I’ve seen. They had TV screens and nice luxurious seats! On our tour they took us to the Cathedral of Seville, the Royal Alcazar (which had a ton of rooms), and the Santa Cruz Quarter. I can’t believe how luxurious the churches were, although I hear they are quite a dime a dozen in Europe. For some reason, they put two crew members/escorts on one bus, so I got to hang out with one of the videographers. Man, even when they get to go on fun tours, they still have to work hard and film! I just take pictures with various strangers

Lunch was fantastic. They took us to what was called the “Hotel Macarena”. Yes, we did the dance of the same name by the hotel and it was on film. So somewhere, there is a Princess DVD of me doing the Macarena – albeit very poorly! During lunch, we were treated to a Flamenco show. I never realized how much stomping there is in a Flamenco show. They seem so mad! It reminded me a lot like “stepping” from high school. The only downside of this day was I didn’t get to spend any time in the port of Cadiz, so maybe if I don’t get a tour, I will go out and explore.

Alghero (Sardinia) – April 29 – Didn’t get a tour today, which was a bummer. Also, because it’s a tendering port (i.e. the ship anchors and we have to take a boat ashore), I have to wait until all the passengers get off before I can leave the ship. Because things were behind schedule, I didn’t get off the ship until close to 1, and since we had to be back at 4, it didn’t leave too much time. But, I tried to make the best of it. The town was very nice once we got off the tender. To get myself acquainted, I took this little train around the city just to see everything there was. I saw a lot people riding bikes and I think this would be a fantastic place to take a bike for the day. I will have to consider that, since the ship does rent bikes to crew.

After I took a tour of the city, I sought out Internet, even though it was mostly a bust. I couldn’t find any dedicated internet cafes, and since it was France, I didn’t really know how to ask for them. I just gave up and went to the one place I knew would have internet – McDonald’s. I really hate going to McDonald’s, but when it’s the only place that has usable wifi, you have to make do. The internet speed wasn’t great (and I’m not even sure if I was actually on the right network – I was on someone’s wifi). After sitting there for a while, I started to get hungry; because I didn’t want to move, I really had no choice but to eat at McDonald’s. With my broken French, I managed to order a salad with sliced meat and some Coke (although it took a couple tries). I really think the Coke was American (i.e. not sweetened with sugar) so that made it worse – boo.

All in all this day wasn’t so great. Wish I would have gotten a tour. Didn’t have much time out, didn’t really find that great of Internet, and I broke down and bought McD’s. Next time I think I’ll just rent a bike (unless I get a tour).

Civitavecchia – April 30 – While I really wanted to go into Rome that day, I had to do various things on the ship, and so by the time I got out, it wasn’t worth it. It’s about an hour and a half to get to Rome, and since I wasn’t familiar with the train station, I didn’t feel like chancing it. So, I just walked around the town (which took me forever to learn how to pronounce – Si va cha veck ee ah, by the way) to see what I could find. I ran into some new crew members, one of which was also from Florida. We all sat at a café, ordered pizza, and bonded over the fact we were eating a meal off the ship. Afterwards, the other Floridian and I wandered around to find Internet. We found one place, but it smelled weird, there were people everywhere, and the prices weren’t so great. We remembered there was a place closer to ship, so we went there. While there were many computers there, there was only one space for you to plug in your own laptop. The nice Floridian gave it up to me since she was going back to the ship anyway to take a nap.

I sat down at the one and only internet terminal (which you also had to plug in) and I got to Interneting. Oh my gosh, the speed was so incredibly fast, I couldn’t believe it! I was getting 1 Megabit down for speed, which is really good. It’s probably nothing to all of you folks with your readily available high-speed internet, but to me and my internet misadventures it was wonderful. The chair for the internet was extremely uncomfortable, but I didn’t care. I wanted to stay there forever, and I almost did. Bless you high-speed and it was only 1.50 euros an hour – not a bad price. So far on all of my adventures, this has been the best internet I’ve found. If I could, I would always come back to this port and use this wonderful internet. But, it’s really the port to see Rome, and I can’t justify turning down Rome for internet, no matter how fast it may be. Also, there’s only one spot, so if someone sits down or hogs it (much like I did), you’re really screwed.

Florence/Pisa (Livorno) – May 1 – Okay, enough internet talk. I managed to snag a Tuscany tour this day, so I was once again excited. At first I was disappointed that I wasn’t going to either Florence or Pisa on my tour. But then, when I read the description closely, I noticed I was going to Volterra. Fans of Twilight should recognize how cool that is – it’s the home of where the vampire royalty live (and an important place in the second book). For those of you who aren’t fans, though, it’s still pretty cool. I really like Volterra and wish we could have spent more time. They gave us a tour and let us wander on our own, but there was so much to do there’s no way I could do it all. Or maybe I just thought it was so exciting because I read about in Twilight first. Either way, it was neat. At first, I didn’t see much Twilight stuff around, so I figured Volterra downplayed the whole thing – but I was dead wrong. While wandering on my own, I went into the Tourist office, and they had New Moon stuff everywhere. Then, they gave me a map of all the places they talk about in the New Moon book. It was a Twilight fan’s dream come true. I only wish I had one of my Twilight friends there to squeal with. None of the passengers seemed nearly as excited as I was.

In between our next stop, we went to a nice little farm (which really looked like a garden to me) for lunch. It actually turned to be a combination lunch and wine tasting (which surprised the passengers, too). I’m not much of a wino, and there was so much wine, and so much was wasted on me. But they also served us lots of different types of food to try with the wine, including a lasagna that was the best. It was soft, chewy, and extremely cheesy. Of course Italy would make the best lasagna, right? I also tried a sweet balsamic vinaigrette and my eyes are now open to the possibility of balsamic vinaigrette beyond what they give you at the restaurant table. I almost bought some, but it was so expensive, so I decided to leave it as a pleasant memory.

After that, we headed to San Gimignano which is on a really big hill. I had a bit of trouble walking up the hill, so I can only imagine how the passengers were struggling. If you want a workout, you should definitely go here (or San Fransisco). They let us on our own for an hour here and so I went and explored more. They had two interesting museums – Museum of Torture and Museum of the Death Penalty. It was so bizarre I just had to go. And let me just say, it was very graphic and hard on the stomach at times. I never realized there were so many different ways to kill or torture someone, but there are. It was hard being in there, but it was a part of the history, and it’s also something they would never have in America. I saw mothers take their kids in as though it was no big deal. It was an interesting experience to me how unaffected these young children were. After the museum(s), I went shopping for a bit, but the prices were high and it was just a little too touristy. I think I liked Volterra better. I tried to get gelato, but there just wasn’t enough time, so I made my way back. I’ll be in Italy plenty of times, with many opportunities to get gelato, so I wasn’t too upset. 

On our way back, I asked our Italian tour guide various Italian phrases. I’ve forgotten most of them, but I do remember a lot of them sounded like Spanish, so maybe if I just talk in Spanish, they might be able to make out what I’m saying.

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And that wraps up part one for my ports of my second cruise. Never knew I could talk so much about the internet, eh? It may seem silly to you, but remember that internet is hard to come by on the ship, so we do what we can when we’re in port. I’ll talk about the next few ports in a later entry. Hope you all enjoy these wrap-ups, even if they are a little bit delayed.

Ports alghero, Civitavecchia, florence, livorno, pisa, seville, spain, volterra

Finally finished uploading all of my Scotland pictures to Flickr. That only took a month. It’s harder to find good upload speeds than download speeds, unfortunately. Click below to see the full gallery.  I had to do it in stages

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fork/sets/72157623920765990/detail/

I’m in the process of uploading my Ireland pictures, although there are quite a lot of those, too. I think what I may eventually do is pick a few “highlight” photos and upload an album of just that. Whenever I have time, though. For now I’d like to work on just getting my photos uploaded. Hope you all are enjoying them.

Photos, Ports scotland

Pressed Penny Success!, originally uploaded by gadgetive.

When I went to Land’s End in England (as mentioned in the previous entry), I
found something marvelous … I found a pressed penny machine! Those that know
me well know that I love pressed penny machines. They have them everywhere
in the states. For those who have never heard of them before, a pressed
penny machine takes a penny (and your two quarters) and pressed a design of
wherever you are into the penny. They are really my favorite souvenir to get
because they are cheap, small, and abundant. I have several books filled
with pressed pennies that I’ve collected from various places.

I was disappointed to learn that pressed penny machines are almost
non-existent in Europe. However, when I went to Land’s End and I was
browsing the gift shop, I found a familiar face. It was a machine hidden in
the corner. I actually had to turn it around so I could see it in its full
glory. I have no idea why someone was trying to hide it in the first place.
At first I thought it was a mirage – but it really was a pressed penny
machine – complete with a wheel to turn and everything! It even had
instructions in several different languages. I didn’t have correct change,
so I went into the store with my five pounds to get some. I had no idea what
I was doing, so I told the lady, “Show me whatever I need to get a pressed
penny!” I felt like I was back in grade school learning how to count my
money.

Eventually, I got my money in the machine and decided on my design – the
infamous Land’s End sign post that marks how many miles it is to New York
(3147, if you forgot). I turned the wheel and out popped the oh-so-familiar
pressed penny. It’s a little larger than it is in the States, but I’ll take
it. I was so excited, I asked a nearby unsuspecting shopper to take a
picture. I haven’t found another machine since. Land’s End may have been
extremely touristy, but it was touristy enough to have a pressed penny
machine to make me happy!

Photos