Barcelona, Spain (June 10) [3] – I decided it was time to explore Barcelona with someone who actually knew the place, so I tagged along with the Port Lecturer on the ship. It started off raining (boo!) but it turned out to be sunny later in the day (yay!). We went to La Pedrera (the Gaudi house) and poked our head in the Cathedral. Around the corner was a really awesome Comic Book shop called “Continuara”, which means “To be Continued”. Isn’t that an awesome name? We also just walked around the city. It was nice to be with someone who actually studied Barcelona. The guy would point out things I would never notice, like the Gaudi inspired lampposts.

Monte Carlo/Monaco (June 11) – This is the only place I hadn’t been to yet. We were supposed to go a couple cruises ago, but we went to Cannes instead. I went out with a purser buddy of mine and we explored. We went all around the town. Went to a random mall (which turned out to be nothing special), found a random Japanese garden, and eventually made our way into the Casino. It was a bit pricey to get in, and he was happy looking at it from the outside, so we split off and I went inside. Everyone would be so disappointed if I went all the way to Monte Carlo but didn’t go to the casino.

The casino was nice, but small. I was worried they would kick me out because I was wearing a tank top and shorts, but they didn’t. The table games had way too high of a minimum for me to play, but the slots weren’t bad. I put five euros in a machine and wasted a half an hour playing it. There was another part of the casino I wanted to go into, but it didn’t open until 4 (the Casino itself didn’t open until 2). Even though it was cutting it close, I decided to wait until 4 to go in. It was a nice tall room with stained glass windows and even higher table limits. And then beyond that room was another room with even higher table limits that you had to pay another 10 euros to get into – so that I just admired from the outside. It was a nice place and I’m glad I can say that I went. Too bad I couldn’t take pictures (but I got plenty from outside).

Nothing too exciting happened in Civitavecchia/Rome, Italy. I was going to take the train but was worried about protests, so I just stayed nearby. It was my 3rd time going, and I would be back plenty more.

Naples, Italy (June 13) – This was actually my first time docking in Naples; we were scheduled to go a month ago, but because of rough waters never docked. I was debating whether I should just stay in Naples or do an excursion, but I decided to spring for a tour. I went to Sorrento and drove along the Amalfi Coast, which was absolutely gorgeous. I posted a picture in an earlier entry. We passed by the town of Positano but couldn’t stop because our bus was too big. Still debating whether it’s worth it or not to try and go. We did stop at the town of Amalfi though, which was also quite picturesque. I definitely want to go back to this area and spend a few more days, sometime.

Nothing exciting happened in Corsica, France, either. I think I just used the Internet and went around the market.

Gibraltar (June 16) [3] – Didn’t do a whole lot here, either, but I did walk a whole lot. I also saw monkeys somewhere else other than the top of the rock. Tried to get a picture with them, but I’m still too scared to get too close to them.

Skipping Southampton, as well, since nothing exciting ever happens there. I wish I had more time to do something, but it’s tough since I have to get back to my boat pretty quickly and I also have to fight against incoming cruise traffic. Boo.

So I got to check another thing off my list tonight of exciting things to do on my cruise. Warning: I’m probably the only one who cares, but I’m writing this knowing I will go back and read it one day and remember how important it was. All the exciting stuff like “Go to Italy” and “Go to France” I got to check off pretty early on in the cruise.

I’m very fortunate to have a nice amount of free time on the ship to actually be a passenger. I can go to shows quite easily, I can eat in the dining room, and I can take advantage of all the wonderful passenger amenities (including getting brownies at midnight – which may or may not get a good thing). Unfortunately, since I do work during sea days, it makes it hard – almost impossible – to do regular sea day activities. For instance, I’ve never participated in book club, attended a group fitness class, or had the opportunity to attend some of the neat lectures. But, that’s the way it goes. When you’re not paying for your cruises, you have to miss out on some things.

However, there was one thing I always wanted to try and do, and given my sea day schedule, it was very difficult. Every morning, when I go up to the buffet for breakfast, I pass by the pool. Most of the time the waters are calm, but when the ship starts rocking, the water in the pool moves back and forth and creates sort of a “wave pool”. The more the rocking, the more the waves. It’s always looked like fun, but since I grab breakfast shortly before work, I have to just admire the waves from afar. For the past few months, everytime I saw those rocking waves in the pool, I told myself that one day it would be me.

Pulling it off, though, is very tricky. It has to be when we’re at sea, and since I teach a lot of that time, it doesn’t leave much of an option. It also has to be when the ship is rocking a good amount back and forth. We’ve been blessed with relatively smooth sailing this season, so it doesn’t happen to often.

But tonight, the ship was extra rocky. It had been rocky all day but it wasn’t until the night that I remembered one of my ship goals. After dinner, I went upstairs to survey the area to see how the pool was. It was full-o-waves and still open. I’m not a fan of swimming at night (since it was awfully cold out), but I figured this would be one of my few chances, so I grabbed it. I ran downstairs to change and then came back up. Of course I was the only one in the pool, but that was actually a good thing. I hopped in the water (which was quite cold) and finally enjoyed the moment of being in the waves.

If you’ve ever been in a wave pool at a water park it’s very similar, except it’s in an enclosed space. I just had fun being in the waves and going back and forth between the water. Yay pools. I would swim from one side to other, staying in place for part of it, and then letting the waves carry me for the rest of the way. Yay physics. I got a few funny looks from onlookers, but they don’t understand. I even had a couple of people join me for a few seconds, but then they got out because it was too cold.

After being in the water for a good half hour, I decided it was time to leave. As I was getting out, I was very dizzy. It’s not easy going back and forth in the waves during that time.

Anyway, like I said, I’m probably the only one who cares but not at least I can happily knock something else off my list! And as of writing this, the ship is still rocking (which makes me extra tired). For those of you on terra firma, be glad your house does not rock back and forth each day!

My original contract was supposed to end September 4, which is the last day of this cruise. However, I extended my contract until the end of October, so I got a couple more cruises after this, including a TransAtlantic which is going to be extremely hectic (but goes to some cool places).

This is also the last time I will go to some of these ports, such as Cannes, Cadiz/Seville, Livorno/Florence, and Sardinia so I have to make the most of them.  Not that I won’t ever be back again, ever, but I won’t be back for a while. Time to fire up the digital camera and clear off more space on the harddrive!

Port wrap up coming very soon. I’m way overdue on one.

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.

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 ..

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…

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.

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!

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.