Sea This!

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

Since I have some downtime, I thought I would continue my earlier entry about my ports of call. I still need to write a general entry about ship life, but that will have to come later. I’m already into my third cruise and I still haven’t finished talking about my first yet, so let’s get that out of the way. Also, as of writing this, I have been sailing on the Grand Princess for one month now. Happy anniversary to us! My contract is for five months, though, so I have some time to go. I’m toying with the idea of extending it so I can go to Greenland and Iceland, but we’ll see if that’s even a possibility. Everyone else on board seems to think that’s a terrible idea

Anyway, let’s talk about some ports!

Cork (Cobh), Ireland (April 21) – I already posted a mini photo album in a previous entry about my misadventures in Cobh (pronounced “cove”, fyi), but the short story is I missed my tour bus and so Hillary and I caught a Mercedes cab to the Blarney stone to try and catch it there. Hillary was actually right on time for hers, but she decided to accompany me along for an exciting adventure – thanks, Hillary! We rushed up the stone, and rushed to our bus, but we did eventually make it. From there, we took the bus to Kinsale, went to a pub, got some cider (which I successfully consumed) and then took it back to the port. Before we got on the ship, we stopped at another pub near the ship. You can’t go to Ireland without going to at least ONE pub, right? Both Hillary and I enjoyed our second day in Ireland much better than our first, despite the mishaps.

Cornwall (Falmouth), England (April 22) – I escorted a “Best of Falmouth” ship tour that went to several different places. First, I went to St. Ives (but didn’t meet a man with seven wives – yuk, yuk). I also didn’t get any lotion … But I did discover the miracle of two English delights – clotted cream and pasties! Clotted cream is like a cross between butter and whip cream and it is delish! I bought some clotted cream fudge that I considered sending home .. but, uh… I slowly worked my way through the package and now it’s all gone. Sorry, folks. But man, that clotted cream was delicious! And the pasties (pronounced “pass-tees”, not “paste-tees”) were also good, although I don’t want to think about how many calories were in them, either. They were like a fancy hot pocket – but they were pretty cheap, too! It technically wasn’t lunch time when went to St. Ives, but I bought lunch there anyway. The guide warned me there was a “cafeteria” at our next stop, but after my bad experience in Dublin (see earlier entry), I feel like I learned my lesson and I should buy food earlier. I also bought a crab sandwich to eat later, since St. Ives is on the water and they catch the crab fresh. Yeah, I got a lot of food. :-p

After St. Ives, we went to Land’s End, which after asking around I believe has NO connection to the clothing company. But, it’s known for being the southernmost point in England. The closest point is New York, which is 3,147 miles away. It’s pretty neat to little point, but it’s a lot more touristy than St. Ives was. Also, I’m very glad I had the foresight to buy lunch in St. Ives because the cafeteria in Land’s End was not as good and overpriced. But, the men behind the counter were nice enough to give me two packages of clotted cream for free, so I can’t be too disappointed. I also learned that clotted cream tea does not mean the cream goes IN the tea, but instead it goes on a scone and some jam and the tea is consumed with it. D’oh! After Land’s End we went to St. Michael’s Mount, which is this castle in the middle of an island. You can’t get to it, you can only see it. It was okay, it was mostly just a beach scene, and I see plenty of that in Florida. St. Ives was probably the highlight. I wish I had more time there. But I enjoyed the time I did have.

Le Harve (Paris), France (April 23) – See my earlier entry about how the protestors almost ruined my fun in Paris. But, I did end up going. Unfortunately, we only had two and a half hours, which wasn’t nearly enough. Yes, we took a three hour bus ride EACH way, just to go to Paris for less than that. But, I had never been, and I might not go back for a while, so why shouldn’t I take the opportunity? In Paris I found a couple crew members, and we bought a ticket for the hop-on/hop-off bus. It was 25 euros for a 2-day pass, which is really a rip because they know we’re only there for a day. But, it’s really the best way to get around, especially when you have as little time as we did. We went to the Eiffel Tower (of course!) and we also went outside the Louvre. Unfortunately we didn’t have any time to actually go into the actual museum part, but we got to take pictures around the area (like the giant pyramid). We also ate a café right outside the Louvre and I had a croissant sandwhich and a coffee. I had to have something French and so it was either that or a crepe. But, after the café, we were out of time so we had to go. Would have liked to see Notre Dame and some other stuff, but that will be for another time. We’ll always have Paris We ran to catch our bus and made it with plenty of time to spare, and as we drove away we go to see the Champs de L’eysee (or as I call it – “that big bridge thingie”).

I do have to say, people warned me before I went to Paris that the people were rude and it was very dirty – but I thought exactly the opposite. I thought Paris was very nice and clean and I found the people very friendly (although I didn’t try to speak too much French). I could easily have spent a day or several days in Paris alone. Also, I really enjoyed my time in Cannes, Nice, and St. Paul – which I will talk about in another entry. So, even though the Paris protestors ruined my morning, I still like you France

Southampton, England (April 24) – This was the port for both the end of one cruise and the beginning of the next. Or, as we call it on the ship, “turnaround day”. People asked me before I took this job how much days I would have between when people got off and when more people got on. The answer? Oh, about a few hours. Cruise ships don’t waste any time! I knew we’d be coming back to Southampton every 14 days or so, and I wanted to take the opportunity to explore my new home. There is a free crew bus that goes from the port to the mall. And the mall is friggin’ AWESOME! It’s three stories and there are plenty of stores that I’ve never heard of (but will learn to love). And that doesn’t even include the stores around the area. I was initially bummed when I learned Southampton isn’t that close to London, but since it’s so built up, I don’t think I will mind.

Apparently, according to other crew members, we are very lucky to have an embarkation port that has so many things. They told me about other ports that all they have is a grocery store or the port is very far away. But to have a three-story mall on TOP of a grocery store is just pure bliss. When I got to the mall, I explored a little bit, but I was really in desperate need of wireless. Luckily, I found a free hotspot by the Apple store (thanks Apple), took a seat on a bench, and didn’t move for several hours while I caught up on my internets.

So, that’s a wrap-up of all the ports of my first cruise. Now I have to work on another entry about the ports on my next cruise. And I still need to upload pictures. It’s so hard when I don’t have steady internet. I think I might just upload a few select pictures from each port and worry about the rest later. I just have too many pictures to handle!

Ports cornwall, england, ireland, paris, southampton