Sept 29th
Rome
I had my second visit to Rome today, and let me say, it was great! I did the tour “Rome on your own”, which like Florence, got me a free ride into the city and 6 hours of exploring. I met up with a few friends in the start, but after a couple hours, ended up leaving most of them behind because their pace wasn’t quite where mine was. I enjoy seeing as much of the city as I can, even if it means I’m practically running from landmark to landmark. Pieter was able to keep up with me though, and we were able to see just about everything we had hoped to once free of the original group of five. The pics will tell a lot about where we were, but I’ll list some hignlights. Today was some sort of “Roman holiday”, so entrance fees were free!! This doesn’t mean though that the lines were gone however, and anything that required a long wait was traded to see more architecture. Aside from getting dropped off at the Vatican, we got into the St. Angelo Castle and National Museum, Pantheon, Trevi fountain, S. Maria Maggiore Basilica, the Collosseum, and Forum, among others. It was really great though with the holiday, because we got into the Colloseum for free and were able to spend an hour or so just being blown away by the unbelievable structure. Following that stop and a run by the Forum, we ran southwest (I think) to some pyramid and a completely different part of town. Luckily, we timed everything really well and were able to get back to the meeting point just in time to catch the bus without being officially late. We ran back through this great neighborhood, a really hip part of town with cool shops and not so much overwhelming history. And hence why I run, now I’ve found out about this place and would really like to go back and check it out more in depth some other time. I got a couple espressos while I was there – it’s an Italian thing. You can get what’s called a standing caffe (sp?), where you walk into a small little diner and have your drink without sitting at a table. It means you can be in and out really fast and pay about 70 euro cents for the drink. But needless to say, my legs HURT by the end of the day, but I’d seen more places than probably anyone else that had gotten off the ship. Sure, I might not have been able to appreciate everything to it’s full extent, but that’s something you do when you have a week to spend in the city. I can always go online and read about what I saw, but I can’t go online and experience actually seeing it, or getting a picture by it. So I took the bus back to the ship, uploaded the 585 pictures I’d taken, deleted the duplicates or excessively blurry pictures, and tried to lay down before my jazz set.
So that was my day, and what a great experience it was. I’m so glad I had another chance to get to see Rome and that this time went so well. I have to say, I highly recommend Rome and Florence as places everyone should try to see. They are just so unbelievable and awe inspiring that they can’t afford to be missed. Other cities have been beautiful and fun, but these two just sit so strongly in history and display this importance in such a grandiose way that it’s impossible not to be overtaken by the art and absolute beauty of the generations past. Enough of that, go to Italy!!!
P.S. Yes, I’ve signed on/off about 5 different times now to make these few posts, but it didn’t cost a cent! Brilliant!!!
Saturday, September 29, 2007
Florence
Sept 28th
Florence
Great day today!! I got to make my first trip to Florence, certainly one of the most amazing cities I’ve stopped in these past couple months. I was with a tour entitled Florence on your own, which as the name indicates, allows the group to wander the city on their own. We had no tour guide to follow, just 5 hours of freedom in a great city. Well, I think I pretty much saw everything, or everything that could be seen without paying an entrance fee (excluding me from the inside of most buildings and their long lines). I just followed my map, took pictures of everything, and didn’t really stop the entire time I was there. Check the pictures though to see some of the cathedrals, the Duomo, bridges, streets, sculptures, and other important landmarks. I didn’t see the real David however, the line didn’t exactly fit with my efficiency strategy. There was a nice enough replica that I got a picture with, but that aside, I was able to see almost all of Florence’s architecture. Also…I bought a leather jacket! I’m excited about that because now I have an authentic Italian leather jacket made in Italy. It was 130 euros (around $200), which was a great deal for the quality and compared to the other jackets I found. So today was great, and tomorrow is Rome!!! I’ll have a million new pics to post next time I can sit online. Thanks for reading!!
Florence
Great day today!! I got to make my first trip to Florence, certainly one of the most amazing cities I’ve stopped in these past couple months. I was with a tour entitled Florence on your own, which as the name indicates, allows the group to wander the city on their own. We had no tour guide to follow, just 5 hours of freedom in a great city. Well, I think I pretty much saw everything, or everything that could be seen without paying an entrance fee (excluding me from the inside of most buildings and their long lines). I just followed my map, took pictures of everything, and didn’t really stop the entire time I was there. Check the pictures though to see some of the cathedrals, the Duomo, bridges, streets, sculptures, and other important landmarks. I didn’t see the real David however, the line didn’t exactly fit with my efficiency strategy. There was a nice enough replica that I got a picture with, but that aside, I was able to see almost all of Florence’s architecture. Also…I bought a leather jacket! I’m excited about that because now I have an authentic Italian leather jacket made in Italy. It was 130 euros (around $200), which was a great deal for the quality and compared to the other jackets I found. So today was great, and tomorrow is Rome!!! I’ll have a million new pics to post next time I can sit online. Thanks for reading!!
Villefranche area tour
Sept 27th
Villefranche
Today was my last visit to Villefranche during this contract…kind of sad as it was the first port I sailed to after signing on. I did a tour that took me to Nice in the morning, Eze following that (with lunch), and then another visit to Monaco. Nice was nice and was my first time walking in the city instead of merely driving through it. We walked through the flower market and that older part of the city. It was nice, being in Nice, but the tour was limiting and didn’t allow us a lot of time to see things other than where the tour guide took us.
Then we went to Eze, a medieval city up on a cliff overlooking the Med. It was really similar in design to St Paul, where I stopped last tour in Villefranche. I liked the area, got some great pictures, and then had a really nice chicken lunch that was included in the tour.
Following Eze, the group went to Monaco and Monte Carlo, both stops I had done on a previous tour. So this visit, I just walked around different areas, checked out some gigantic yachts, took pictures of some beautiful cars, and walked along the race track. The weather didn’t exactly favor an outdoor excursion, but I made the most of it and had a great time. Then I just came back to the ship after the 9 hours and enjoyed the remainder of my night off.
Villefranche
Today was my last visit to Villefranche during this contract…kind of sad as it was the first port I sailed to after signing on. I did a tour that took me to Nice in the morning, Eze following that (with lunch), and then another visit to Monaco. Nice was nice and was my first time walking in the city instead of merely driving through it. We walked through the flower market and that older part of the city. It was nice, being in Nice, but the tour was limiting and didn’t allow us a lot of time to see things other than where the tour guide took us.
Then we went to Eze, a medieval city up on a cliff overlooking the Med. It was really similar in design to St Paul, where I stopped last tour in Villefranche. I liked the area, got some great pictures, and then had a really nice chicken lunch that was included in the tour.
Following Eze, the group went to Monaco and Monte Carlo, both stops I had done on a previous tour. So this visit, I just walked around different areas, checked out some gigantic yachts, took pictures of some beautiful cars, and walked along the race track. The weather didn’t exactly favor an outdoor excursion, but I made the most of it and had a great time. Then I just came back to the ship after the 9 hours and enjoyed the remainder of my night off.
Note about posts
Seeing as I now have internet access in my room on my computer, my internet situation has changed. I should be able to make the written posts at least once a week, it'll probably be closer to every other day even (we'll see). But I've worked out a system... On the ship, they charge you per minute that you're online. My strategy is to sign on for 28 seconds, just before the first minute charge point is exercised, and open the web pages that I need. Then I sign off, read or type what it is that needs to be typed without paying for it, and then sign on for another 28 seconds to make the post. This way, The $30 package I have should last a good long time. I've been going the past week on about 80 cents while I tried to figure out just how long I could be on without getting charged. So yeah, I'm the biggest cheapskate on earth, but I'm not going to pay to sit online and type an email, so I'll deal with the incessant Logging on and off to save a few cents here and there, and be darn proud of it too! Pics, however, can't be uploaded in this time frame, so those will have to wait till the appropriate port days, sorry. Anyways, I hope everyone is well and thanks to all of you who keep reading!
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Gibraltar
Sept. 25th and 26th
Gibraltar/At Sea
Gibraltar was nice as usual. After a boat drill at 9:30, I grabbed a quick lunch and walked around the city. I didn’t do a tour because of the boat drill, and thought it’d be nice to just walk the main street again. So after a couple hours of looking through the shops, I returned to the ship. I picked up some blank DVDs to burn my picture files onto, all these photos I’ve been taking have filled my hard drive completely, so problem solved. That aside, it was a beautiful day and I saw the dolphins again as we sailed out of the port. Nice final visit this season.
This sea day was actually great. Our wireless network went into effect today, so after fighting with the system to get it working, it’s been great. Internet was free all day, and maybe, this will continue for a few more days. But I’ve been in my room for a while now just doing online stuff, a luxury I haven’t had for a couple months, so I’m happy. We had a good show tonight with Brenda Cochrane, a singer who I haven’t played for yet. Tomorrow I’ll be in Villefranche, and have signed up for a Monoco, Nice, and Eze tour with lunch. But, I’ll go back to enjoying my free time online tonight…WEEEEEE!!!
By the way, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Daddy-o back at home!!!!
Gibraltar/At Sea
Gibraltar was nice as usual. After a boat drill at 9:30, I grabbed a quick lunch and walked around the city. I didn’t do a tour because of the boat drill, and thought it’d be nice to just walk the main street again. So after a couple hours of looking through the shops, I returned to the ship. I picked up some blank DVDs to burn my picture files onto, all these photos I’ve been taking have filled my hard drive completely, so problem solved. That aside, it was a beautiful day and I saw the dolphins again as we sailed out of the port. Nice final visit this season.
This sea day was actually great. Our wireless network went into effect today, so after fighting with the system to get it working, it’s been great. Internet was free all day, and maybe, this will continue for a few more days. But I’ve been in my room for a while now just doing online stuff, a luxury I haven’t had for a couple months, so I’m happy. We had a good show tonight with Brenda Cochrane, a singer who I haven’t played for yet. Tomorrow I’ll be in Villefranche, and have signed up for a Monoco, Nice, and Eze tour with lunch. But, I’ll go back to enjoying my free time online tonight…WEEEEEE!!!
By the way, a big HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my Daddy-o back at home!!!!
Southampton
Sept 22nd, 23rd, and 24th
Southampton/At sea
There’s nothing real spectacular over the past 3 days to report back about. I went online in Southampton for a while and then came back to do the usual welcome aboard stuff. The next two sea days were similar, nothing too exciting worth your time to read about. We’ve had free email recently due to the ship working on going wireless, so that’s been nice when you can find an open computer. Otherwise, Gibraltar tomorrow for the last time on this contract ☹
Southampton/At sea
There’s nothing real spectacular over the past 3 days to report back about. I went online in Southampton for a while and then came back to do the usual welcome aboard stuff. The next two sea days were similar, nothing too exciting worth your time to read about. We’ve had free email recently due to the ship working on going wireless, so that’s been nice when you can find an open computer. Otherwise, Gibraltar tomorrow for the last time on this contract ☹
Saturday, September 22, 2007
Pics
Ok, we'll try it this way just in case I can't get the direct link set up. Just copy and paste the link over and it'll take you to the same page. Thanks and sorry for the two clicks of extra work ;)
Villefranche - http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i259/jazzn85/villefranche/cannes%20and%20st%20paul/
Cagliari - http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i259/jazzn85/Cagliari/Nora/
Malaga - http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i259/jazzn85/Malaga/
Lisbon - http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i259/jazzn85/Lisbon/Cascais%20and%20sintra/
Vigo - http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i259/jazzn85/vigo/Trekking/
Villefranche - http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i259/jazzn85/villefranche/cannes%20and%20st%20paul/
Cagliari - http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i259/jazzn85/Cagliari/Nora/
Malaga - http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i259/jazzn85/Malaga/
Lisbon - http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i259/jazzn85/Lisbon/Cascais%20and%20sintra/
Vigo - http://s74.photobucket.com/albums/i259/jazzn85/vigo/Trekking/
Hmmm...
Well, I've updated the blog with the journal entries, but the pics aren't getting posted for whatever reason. Right now I'm sitting in Southampton in a cafe working on it, so hopefully I'll be able to get this posting problem taken care of before I have to leave. Otherwise, I'm just hanging out catching up on a few things. Today we'll start our last Med cruise, taking me back to Rome if all goes to plan. Keep in touch, keep sending emails, and have a great day!!!
Vigo
Sept 20th and 21st
Vigo/at sea
For the 20th, I signed up for the “trekking Vigo” tour, a chance for me to get off the ship and go prance around in a forest…or something like that. So that’s just what I did, took a bus out to a trail with my tour group and spent a few hours in a Spanish forest. We walked alongside a waterfall where there was a stretch of old watermills, and the tour guide explained their function and took us inside many of them. I later had a go with some geese, and prior to that with a thorn bush. So maybe I didn’t make it back from the trip unscathed, but had fun anyways. Then, when I got back, I was able to grab lunch with the tour guide from the canoeing trip I did a month ago. We had set it up through talking on facebook and met up after the tour as planned. We invited the canoeing tour escort to come along as well, a girl I know from the ship. So we found a nice place and ordered some kind of fish that I was totally unfamiliar with, but liked. We’re going to try to hook up the next few times I’m in Vigo as well. Otherwise, we had to play for the American Drifters that night, and that was my day…except for one thing.
So we had another medical emergency on the 20th, making it the 4th helicopter evacuation this cruise, more than I’ve seen my entire 2 months aboard. During the procedure, the ship uses bow thrusters and has to maneuver to accommodate the helicopter basket, thus making for a lot of motion down below. I was in the bathroom at the time, but a quick turn threw my computer from the shelf I’d placed it on. Now, I didn’t do the best job of securing it, so I’ll take some blame, but it fell almost 6 feet from my top shelf onto the floor. Well, I’m still writing the blog, so it obviously still works, but I put a hell of a dent on the back corner. So after that fall test, I now stand behind apple computers 100%, it’s unbelievable that this thing survived a fall that large, took minimal cosmetic damage, and still works no problem. I might leave it with the apple store in Southampton for a check up to make sure I didn’t destroy anything internally, but I’m absolutely amazed at the quality of the computer to withstand that impact.
21st, final sea day, farewell show, and not much more to say about that.
Vigo/at sea
For the 20th, I signed up for the “trekking Vigo” tour, a chance for me to get off the ship and go prance around in a forest…or something like that. So that’s just what I did, took a bus out to a trail with my tour group and spent a few hours in a Spanish forest. We walked alongside a waterfall where there was a stretch of old watermills, and the tour guide explained their function and took us inside many of them. I later had a go with some geese, and prior to that with a thorn bush. So maybe I didn’t make it back from the trip unscathed, but had fun anyways. Then, when I got back, I was able to grab lunch with the tour guide from the canoeing trip I did a month ago. We had set it up through talking on facebook and met up after the tour as planned. We invited the canoeing tour escort to come along as well, a girl I know from the ship. So we found a nice place and ordered some kind of fish that I was totally unfamiliar with, but liked. We’re going to try to hook up the next few times I’m in Vigo as well. Otherwise, we had to play for the American Drifters that night, and that was my day…except for one thing.
So we had another medical emergency on the 20th, making it the 4th helicopter evacuation this cruise, more than I’ve seen my entire 2 months aboard. During the procedure, the ship uses bow thrusters and has to maneuver to accommodate the helicopter basket, thus making for a lot of motion down below. I was in the bathroom at the time, but a quick turn threw my computer from the shelf I’d placed it on. Now, I didn’t do the best job of securing it, so I’ll take some blame, but it fell almost 6 feet from my top shelf onto the floor. Well, I’m still writing the blog, so it obviously still works, but I put a hell of a dent on the back corner. So after that fall test, I now stand behind apple computers 100%, it’s unbelievable that this thing survived a fall that large, took minimal cosmetic damage, and still works no problem. I might leave it with the apple store in Southampton for a check up to make sure I didn’t destroy anything internally, but I’m absolutely amazed at the quality of the computer to withstand that impact.
21st, final sea day, farewell show, and not much more to say about that.
Lisbon
Sept 19th
Lisbon
So I forgot to put in the last post, I’ve been on the ship for 2 months now. I guess it’s going by fast, it’s weird though. Thinking about all the places I’ve been to in the past 2 months, or even in the past month alone, is just kind of mind boggling. I’m still glad I’m here and continue to have a good time playing music and making friends. But…about Lisbon…
Like Malaga, I was able to hook up a tour for the first time in Lisbon today. The tour was entitled “Sintra and Cascais”, and took the group to these two areas outside of Lisbon. The first stop was Cascais, a really nice city off of the Atlantic. I hung out for the hour I was there with a friend from the ship who was on another tour bus, and nothing really got accomplished. We just walked around looking for some sort of grocery store. I didn’t get as many pictures as I might have liked of this area, but it was nice. A lot of high end clothing stores which surprised me, and the area I was in was much more cosmopolitan than the parts of Lisbon I’d previously visited.
Following Cascais, we drove to Sintra. Sintra is much more inland, amongst the hills and forests of Portugal. The city was beautiful though, it’s claim to fame being that the royal family has a palace there (which I saw) where the family would spend holidays. Also, there’s a really cool castle at the top of the mountain that I grabbed some pictures of. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to see it, my hour time limit was very constraining. Instead, I met up with my friend again and got lunch, where I had some really good pork. This area is known for having the best port (wine), and one of the shops we went in was selling bottles from the 1800’s for 3,000 euros, about $4,500-$5,000 American. But another nice place I would have liked to grab more pictures at, but between lunch and hanging with my friend, I was distracted. Then I got back to the ship for a show that night, and that’s it. Thanks for reading!
Lisbon
So I forgot to put in the last post, I’ve been on the ship for 2 months now. I guess it’s going by fast, it’s weird though. Thinking about all the places I’ve been to in the past 2 months, or even in the past month alone, is just kind of mind boggling. I’m still glad I’m here and continue to have a good time playing music and making friends. But…about Lisbon…
Like Malaga, I was able to hook up a tour for the first time in Lisbon today. The tour was entitled “Sintra and Cascais”, and took the group to these two areas outside of Lisbon. The first stop was Cascais, a really nice city off of the Atlantic. I hung out for the hour I was there with a friend from the ship who was on another tour bus, and nothing really got accomplished. We just walked around looking for some sort of grocery store. I didn’t get as many pictures as I might have liked of this area, but it was nice. A lot of high end clothing stores which surprised me, and the area I was in was much more cosmopolitan than the parts of Lisbon I’d previously visited.
Following Cascais, we drove to Sintra. Sintra is much more inland, amongst the hills and forests of Portugal. The city was beautiful though, it’s claim to fame being that the royal family has a palace there (which I saw) where the family would spend holidays. Also, there’s a really cool castle at the top of the mountain that I grabbed some pictures of. Unfortunately, I didn’t have enough time to see it, my hour time limit was very constraining. Instead, I met up with my friend again and got lunch, where I had some really good pork. This area is known for having the best port (wine), and one of the shops we went in was selling bottles from the 1800’s for 3,000 euros, about $4,500-$5,000 American. But another nice place I would have liked to grab more pictures at, but between lunch and hanging with my friend, I was distracted. Then I got back to the ship for a show that night, and that’s it. Thanks for reading!
Malaga
Sept 17th and 18th
At sea/Malaga
So the 17th was a sea day, nothing special really. We had a production show to play that night, and then a Central American Independence party. I forget which countries were celebrating, but there was free tequila, so I had my introduction to that and called it a night.
The 18th was my third time back to Malaga and first time I was able to hook up a tour for that port. So the tour was really nice, taking us to the two biggest points of interest in the city, some big fort on a hill, and some big Cathedral. Both of which were pretty cool and I’ll have pics up of them. We also drove by the bullring, I don’t think any fights were going to happen while we were in town though. Otherwise, the tour also took us outside Picasso’s birth place, and to a 300 year old fig tree our guide seemed awfully excited about. Otherwise, after the tour, I just came back to the ship and took a nap till the rehearsal and show for the night, some new guy no one had heard of who sang romance songs from the 50’s…meh. I think that’s my last time in Malaga though, too bad.
At sea/Malaga
So the 17th was a sea day, nothing special really. We had a production show to play that night, and then a Central American Independence party. I forget which countries were celebrating, but there was free tequila, so I had my introduction to that and called it a night.
The 18th was my third time back to Malaga and first time I was able to hook up a tour for that port. So the tour was really nice, taking us to the two biggest points of interest in the city, some big fort on a hill, and some big Cathedral. Both of which were pretty cool and I’ll have pics up of them. We also drove by the bullring, I don’t think any fights were going to happen while we were in town though. Otherwise, the tour also took us outside Picasso’s birth place, and to a 300 year old fig tree our guide seemed awfully excited about. Otherwise, after the tour, I just came back to the ship and took a nap till the rehearsal and show for the night, some new guy no one had heard of who sang romance songs from the 50’s…meh. I think that’s my last time in Malaga though, too bad.
Livourno and Cagliari
Sept 15th and 16th
Livourno and Cagliari
The 15th was kind of really lame. I had signed up for a really great tour of Florence, but found out a couples days before that we were to have a change of schedule and I’d have a rehearsal that day. Well, the rehearsal didn’t allow me to get in on my tour, and I didn’t feel I had enough time to make the trip on my own, so I spent the day on the ship. I guess I needed the break though, I had had a busy past few days. We were playing a new show that night, this one with one of the singers on the ship, Cheryl. I don’t know why she’s starting to do shows now, but it went well enough, just not the most fun and made me lose out on Florence. Hopefully, this won’t happen again next time I’m back in 2 weeks.
Cagliari, our Sunday port. I signed up for a tour here that took me to the archeological site of Nora, and 4th century BC city, or something to that extent. It was a good tour and really interesting seeing these ruins and hearing the history behind them. We were shown how the different civilizations built/rebuilt/destroyed the area, and getting so close to all that history was really a unique experience. I had a good time grabbing pics and walking around, and eventually came back to the ship for a big band set that evening. Otherwise, that’s about all. Sea day coming up, then Malaga! Seeya
Livourno and Cagliari
The 15th was kind of really lame. I had signed up for a really great tour of Florence, but found out a couples days before that we were to have a change of schedule and I’d have a rehearsal that day. Well, the rehearsal didn’t allow me to get in on my tour, and I didn’t feel I had enough time to make the trip on my own, so I spent the day on the ship. I guess I needed the break though, I had had a busy past few days. We were playing a new show that night, this one with one of the singers on the ship, Cheryl. I don’t know why she’s starting to do shows now, but it went well enough, just not the most fun and made me lose out on Florence. Hopefully, this won’t happen again next time I’m back in 2 weeks.
Cagliari, our Sunday port. I signed up for a tour here that took me to the archeological site of Nora, and 4th century BC city, or something to that extent. It was a good tour and really interesting seeing these ruins and hearing the history behind them. We were shown how the different civilizations built/rebuilt/destroyed the area, and getting so close to all that history was really a unique experience. I had a good time grabbing pics and walking around, and eventually came back to the ship for a big band set that evening. Otherwise, that’s about all. Sea day coming up, then Malaga! Seeya
Villefranche 7/14
Sept 14th
Villefranche
I had a really great tour to go on today, a 9 hour excursion taking me to Grasse, Cannes, and St. Paul-de-Vence. So I left early that morning to get on my bus and head out to Grasse, our first stop.
In Grasse, the tour took us to a perfume manufacturer, Fragonard. We went inside the factory where we got to see the scientists running tests or experimenting with new scents, someone making bars of soap, and others bottling and packaging the perfume. After the tour, we had an hour or so in their showroom where we were overloaded with smells. It was amazing just walking through this place though for that reason, scents would change in a matter of feet and be just as strong as the last. It was just unbelievable to have that much scent everywhere. My tour guide actually bought me a bottle of shower gel (which I’ve been liking), so that was nice. The bottle was probably free for her, but I really appreciated the gift.
Following that stop, we loaded into the bus and headed for Cannes, home of the Cannes Film Festival that occurs every may I believe. Traffic was awful, so we lost some time staring at the cars in front of us, but eventually got dropped off by the water front and downtown Cannes. Some stores in the area included, Gucci, Armani, Rolex, and many other designers I’m not as familiar with. We had maybe 90 minutes in the area to walk around or eat, or in my case, find bathroom. I was too dumb to take advantage of the Grasse stop, and by the time we were at Cannes and done sitting in traffic, I was about to explode. So I started running around the city looking. Unfortunately, most shops in the area don’t have bathrooms or you have to buy something first. Well, being the Cheap-o that I am, wasn’t about to wait in a line to buy something just to use a bathroom, and was determined to find a place. My first thought after walking down one of the streets with shops was to go in the supermarket I saw, a good idea in the US, not in Cannes. So after that failure, I ran back to the McDonalds I saw when the bus dropped me off, thinking that’d be a foolproof solution. But in Cannes, people are determined to make others pay to be comfortable, and this particular McDonalds had keypads on the bathroom doors, in which a code would be given to you on your receipt after purchasing something. The place was packed, lines long, and I wasn’t about to ask someone for their receipt and left to find another place. I ran all through the area looking for something, a bar or shop that I could sneak into, but nothing seemed feasible. I eventually broke down and went to a bakery and asked to use their bathroom saying I’d buy bread afterwards, but in their broken English, they let me know they didn’t have what I was looking for. They did however point me in a direction, so I went where I thought she was gesturing to. I ended up back where I started the whole thing, but this time, saw signs elevated above the street attached to building walls pointing towards “toilettes”. Followed those, still managed to get confused, and eventually found a small pink building in a corner that the signs must have been pointing to. After that long awaiting relief, I set back out to actually enjoy this beautiful city. I grabbed a great chicken sandwich on a baguette, and just walked around taking pics and looking in the shops. It was a great area though and I’d love to return there and get a better feel for the city sometime.
Following Cannes, we left for St. Paul, a Medieval city outside of Nice. It was a really cool place too, completely different from the other areas I had been in, and the architecture of the city was something you’d only find in medieval Europe. I had a fun time just walking through the city exploring the different side streets and filling my camera, and then headed back to the bus to drive back to Villefranche.
When I made it back, I found my Internet café and was able to sit online for a bit and make some posts until the connection died for what appeared to be the rest of the night. I spent the next 2 hours fighting to revive the connection there and at a different café, but again was left unsuccessful in Villefranche, stupid technology. I went back to the ship then and enjoyed the rest of my day off. Fun day though, and a good tour taking me to see different things!
Villefranche
I had a really great tour to go on today, a 9 hour excursion taking me to Grasse, Cannes, and St. Paul-de-Vence. So I left early that morning to get on my bus and head out to Grasse, our first stop.
In Grasse, the tour took us to a perfume manufacturer, Fragonard. We went inside the factory where we got to see the scientists running tests or experimenting with new scents, someone making bars of soap, and others bottling and packaging the perfume. After the tour, we had an hour or so in their showroom where we were overloaded with smells. It was amazing just walking through this place though for that reason, scents would change in a matter of feet and be just as strong as the last. It was just unbelievable to have that much scent everywhere. My tour guide actually bought me a bottle of shower gel (which I’ve been liking), so that was nice. The bottle was probably free for her, but I really appreciated the gift.
Following that stop, we loaded into the bus and headed for Cannes, home of the Cannes Film Festival that occurs every may I believe. Traffic was awful, so we lost some time staring at the cars in front of us, but eventually got dropped off by the water front and downtown Cannes. Some stores in the area included, Gucci, Armani, Rolex, and many other designers I’m not as familiar with. We had maybe 90 minutes in the area to walk around or eat, or in my case, find bathroom. I was too dumb to take advantage of the Grasse stop, and by the time we were at Cannes and done sitting in traffic, I was about to explode. So I started running around the city looking. Unfortunately, most shops in the area don’t have bathrooms or you have to buy something first. Well, being the Cheap-o that I am, wasn’t about to wait in a line to buy something just to use a bathroom, and was determined to find a place. My first thought after walking down one of the streets with shops was to go in the supermarket I saw, a good idea in the US, not in Cannes. So after that failure, I ran back to the McDonalds I saw when the bus dropped me off, thinking that’d be a foolproof solution. But in Cannes, people are determined to make others pay to be comfortable, and this particular McDonalds had keypads on the bathroom doors, in which a code would be given to you on your receipt after purchasing something. The place was packed, lines long, and I wasn’t about to ask someone for their receipt and left to find another place. I ran all through the area looking for something, a bar or shop that I could sneak into, but nothing seemed feasible. I eventually broke down and went to a bakery and asked to use their bathroom saying I’d buy bread afterwards, but in their broken English, they let me know they didn’t have what I was looking for. They did however point me in a direction, so I went where I thought she was gesturing to. I ended up back where I started the whole thing, but this time, saw signs elevated above the street attached to building walls pointing towards “toilettes”. Followed those, still managed to get confused, and eventually found a small pink building in a corner that the signs must have been pointing to. After that long awaiting relief, I set back out to actually enjoy this beautiful city. I grabbed a great chicken sandwich on a baguette, and just walked around taking pics and looking in the shops. It was a great area though and I’d love to return there and get a better feel for the city sometime.
Following Cannes, we left for St. Paul, a Medieval city outside of Nice. It was a really cool place too, completely different from the other areas I had been in, and the architecture of the city was something you’d only find in medieval Europe. I had a fun time just walking through the city exploring the different side streets and filling my camera, and then headed back to the bus to drive back to Villefranche.
When I made it back, I found my Internet café and was able to sit online for a bit and make some posts until the connection died for what appeared to be the rest of the night. I spent the next 2 hours fighting to revive the connection there and at a different café, but again was left unsuccessful in Villefranche, stupid technology. I went back to the ship then and enjoyed the rest of my day off. Fun day though, and a good tour taking me to see different things!
Friday, September 14, 2007
Barcelona/Montserrat
Sept 12th and 13th
Barcelona/Montserrat
So I’m writing this mid day on the 13th because I want to do my best not to forget any details of last night, which was crazy. We got into Barcelona around 10:00PM and luckily didn’t have any shows to play that evening. I ended up going out with Justin, Thad, Ron, Gianni, and Sebastian, all musician friends of mine. Justin had wanted to go to a jazz club, but after the 2 euro bus trip from the ship into the city, we decided it wasn’t worth paying the cover to see the last 30 minutes of the final set. So we started walking in search of a cool bar to hang at. Thad had been to a place last time that he enjoyed, so we eventually found it off of Las Ramblas, called Q Bar. We stayed there for a bit but the place seemed packed with tourists (yes, like ourselves), and we were more interested in finding someplace more authentic that the locals enjoy. So we left the bar, and after walking around Las Ramblas and quickly checking out a couple places, we decided that Las Ramblas wasn’t where it’s at and made our way towards the water and then east to what I believe was called Olympic Village. It was a bit of a walk, and one accompanied by the most terrible beer that Justin had bought from someone on the street. Apparently, it’s legal to drink on the streets in that area, and they have people every half block selling beers for a euro each as they walk around carrying a six-pack. As we approached the area we thought would be a little more to our liking, we got lucky and walked by a bar with live music. We walked in and found a band with a horn section playing jazz standards over Latin grooves. It was actually a really lucky find and we stayed till the band stopped playing. Justin bought me a drink, a Mohito I think it was called, which was just amazing, look it up. Supposedly we can get them really cheap in Mexico. But as I said, we stayed till the band finished, and talked to the horn players afterwards. Sebastian is from Argentina, so he had no problem communicating, and Thad spent 4 years in Mexico, so he did pretty well himself. We ended up leaving with the horn players, hoping they would lead us to the next cool spot. So we all hoped in a taxi, or three taxis, and made our way further from the ship, to an area way outside my familiarity with the city. We went first to a club where they were supposed to have a jam going on, the musicians kept saying a flamenco and funk jam, but they were closing by the time we got there past 2 AM. Strike one. Then we walked several blocks to the next place were the musicians thought would be swinging. This took us to a club with a 10 euro cover, but no one inside. So we ditched that in search of something better, strike two. The musicians had one more idea, but about half my group was leaning towards taking a taxi out of impatience, a strategy that screwed us in Stockholm, so after some convincing on my part (sure, I’ll claim responsibility for keeping them in the area), we got into this club with Salsa dancing. So we were hanging out there, watching some of these absolutely amazing Salsa dancers, and watching Sebastian get his dancing on with one of the locals (being the only one of the group who might know what he’s doing when it comes to Salsa). So I’m walking around a bit, trying to find where my friends are, and a see Thad talking to someone. Turns out, she’s a friend from Chicago who lived in my dorms while I was there the past two years. So amazed by the unlikely coincidence of running into a friend in the outskirts of some city on the other side of the world, we caught up on a few things, did some dancing (or I pretended to), and eventually got thrown out when the place closed at 4. Then, my group and my Chicago buddy (along with one of her friends in Barcelona) started walking. Eventually, due to our confusion on how to get back, my group split and Justin and Thad went ahead to eventually take a taxi back to the ship, while those who were left, including the two girls, kept walking through the city. After maybe an hour of walking, the girls found a subway station that would take them home, so we said our goodbyes and it was down to us four musicians walking back to the ship. For whatever reason, we just kept walking with no real effort to hail a cab, thinking that’d we’d just get one should we get lost or too tired to walk. Considering, however, the alcohol levels in Ron and Gianni, we should have gotten a taxi right when we left the club, but instead walked all the way back to the ship with those two falling all over themselves. It was pretty funny, and after a certain point, we were determined to make it back unaided, but a full 2.5 hours later when we finally arrived, we were all feeling it in our feet. So yeah, we got back to the ship around 6:30, after over two hours of navigating back to the ship with two guys who were just blasted. And then, considering what time we got back, we decided to go straight to the mess for breakfast, which was just opening. Talk about a well deserved meal! That was a welcome break from an extremely late night of constant walking. It was fun though, and I got some great pics and even better video clips of the night.
So I got to bed about 7:10 or so, but had to wake up to be in the theatre for a tour at 8:00, 50 minutes later. Well, I did it, I took my short little nap and went up to the theatre and pretended nothing out of the ordinary happened last night. After getting on the bus with my group, I tried to sleep on the way over to the Monastery with little success, but the hour bus ride at least gave me a chance to close my eyes. After getting to Montserrat, the group made it’s way into the Sanctuary to see the black Madonna, and following our quick little tour, had about 90 minutes to walk about. Despite my lack of sleep, I took full advantage of that time. The area we were in was absolutely amazing. The setting on this mountain hanging over cliffs was simply unbelievable. I was literally running down the different paths trying to get as many pictures as possible, it was just too good to miss because of sleep deprivation. But I had a great time, and got somewhat lucky because this was a tour that was given to me when my first choice was booked solid. I really hope to go back sometime and maybe hike through that area. We took the bus back to the ship then, I grabbed lunch, and slept till dinner and my shows that evening. Nice stay though in Barcelona, I got some good pics, hilarious videos, and great memories.
I did my best with being selective of the pics I’m putting online to give a good taste of my experience there, but I certainly have way more than I feel I need to put online. The Montserrat pics are nice, the Barcelona pics may not always be family friendly due to some hand gestures from my friends, so fair warning to some of my younger viewers.
Barcelona/Montserrat
So I’m writing this mid day on the 13th because I want to do my best not to forget any details of last night, which was crazy. We got into Barcelona around 10:00PM and luckily didn’t have any shows to play that evening. I ended up going out with Justin, Thad, Ron, Gianni, and Sebastian, all musician friends of mine. Justin had wanted to go to a jazz club, but after the 2 euro bus trip from the ship into the city, we decided it wasn’t worth paying the cover to see the last 30 minutes of the final set. So we started walking in search of a cool bar to hang at. Thad had been to a place last time that he enjoyed, so we eventually found it off of Las Ramblas, called Q Bar. We stayed there for a bit but the place seemed packed with tourists (yes, like ourselves), and we were more interested in finding someplace more authentic that the locals enjoy. So we left the bar, and after walking around Las Ramblas and quickly checking out a couple places, we decided that Las Ramblas wasn’t where it’s at and made our way towards the water and then east to what I believe was called Olympic Village. It was a bit of a walk, and one accompanied by the most terrible beer that Justin had bought from someone on the street. Apparently, it’s legal to drink on the streets in that area, and they have people every half block selling beers for a euro each as they walk around carrying a six-pack. As we approached the area we thought would be a little more to our liking, we got lucky and walked by a bar with live music. We walked in and found a band with a horn section playing jazz standards over Latin grooves. It was actually a really lucky find and we stayed till the band stopped playing. Justin bought me a drink, a Mohito I think it was called, which was just amazing, look it up. Supposedly we can get them really cheap in Mexico. But as I said, we stayed till the band finished, and talked to the horn players afterwards. Sebastian is from Argentina, so he had no problem communicating, and Thad spent 4 years in Mexico, so he did pretty well himself. We ended up leaving with the horn players, hoping they would lead us to the next cool spot. So we all hoped in a taxi, or three taxis, and made our way further from the ship, to an area way outside my familiarity with the city. We went first to a club where they were supposed to have a jam going on, the musicians kept saying a flamenco and funk jam, but they were closing by the time we got there past 2 AM. Strike one. Then we walked several blocks to the next place were the musicians thought would be swinging. This took us to a club with a 10 euro cover, but no one inside. So we ditched that in search of something better, strike two. The musicians had one more idea, but about half my group was leaning towards taking a taxi out of impatience, a strategy that screwed us in Stockholm, so after some convincing on my part (sure, I’ll claim responsibility for keeping them in the area), we got into this club with Salsa dancing. So we were hanging out there, watching some of these absolutely amazing Salsa dancers, and watching Sebastian get his dancing on with one of the locals (being the only one of the group who might know what he’s doing when it comes to Salsa). So I’m walking around a bit, trying to find where my friends are, and a see Thad talking to someone. Turns out, she’s a friend from Chicago who lived in my dorms while I was there the past two years. So amazed by the unlikely coincidence of running into a friend in the outskirts of some city on the other side of the world, we caught up on a few things, did some dancing (or I pretended to), and eventually got thrown out when the place closed at 4. Then, my group and my Chicago buddy (along with one of her friends in Barcelona) started walking. Eventually, due to our confusion on how to get back, my group split and Justin and Thad went ahead to eventually take a taxi back to the ship, while those who were left, including the two girls, kept walking through the city. After maybe an hour of walking, the girls found a subway station that would take them home, so we said our goodbyes and it was down to us four musicians walking back to the ship. For whatever reason, we just kept walking with no real effort to hail a cab, thinking that’d we’d just get one should we get lost or too tired to walk. Considering, however, the alcohol levels in Ron and Gianni, we should have gotten a taxi right when we left the club, but instead walked all the way back to the ship with those two falling all over themselves. It was pretty funny, and after a certain point, we were determined to make it back unaided, but a full 2.5 hours later when we finally arrived, we were all feeling it in our feet. So yeah, we got back to the ship around 6:30, after over two hours of navigating back to the ship with two guys who were just blasted. And then, considering what time we got back, we decided to go straight to the mess for breakfast, which was just opening. Talk about a well deserved meal! That was a welcome break from an extremely late night of constant walking. It was fun though, and I got some great pics and even better video clips of the night.
So I got to bed about 7:10 or so, but had to wake up to be in the theatre for a tour at 8:00, 50 minutes later. Well, I did it, I took my short little nap and went up to the theatre and pretended nothing out of the ordinary happened last night. After getting on the bus with my group, I tried to sleep on the way over to the Monastery with little success, but the hour bus ride at least gave me a chance to close my eyes. After getting to Montserrat, the group made it’s way into the Sanctuary to see the black Madonna, and following our quick little tour, had about 90 minutes to walk about. Despite my lack of sleep, I took full advantage of that time. The area we were in was absolutely amazing. The setting on this mountain hanging over cliffs was simply unbelievable. I was literally running down the different paths trying to get as many pictures as possible, it was just too good to miss because of sleep deprivation. But I had a great time, and got somewhat lucky because this was a tour that was given to me when my first choice was booked solid. I really hope to go back sometime and maybe hike through that area. We took the bus back to the ship then, I grabbed lunch, and slept till dinner and my shows that evening. Nice stay though in Barcelona, I got some good pics, hilarious videos, and great memories.
I did my best with being selective of the pics I’m putting online to give a good taste of my experience there, but I certainly have way more than I feel I need to put online. The Montserrat pics are nice, the Barcelona pics may not always be family friendly due to some hand gestures from my friends, so fair warning to some of my younger viewers.
Gibraltar
Sept 11th
Gibraltar
Today I made another return trip to Gibraltar. This time however, I was signed up for a dolphin safari tour, taking the group out into the bay to go looking for dolphins. And to my surprise, it was really fun, I saw a lot of dolphins. I believe they were “common dolphins”, or at least that’s what I understood the tour guide to be saying. They were a lot smaller than their bottle nose counterparts I’ve seen in Florida. But it was really fun watching the group jumping out of the water, swimming under and right next to the bow, and just having fun being dolphins. My camera’s battery unfortunately died due to my miscalculation of time remaining, so I didn’t get half the pictures I wanted to. Some of the pics or videos I would have liked to take were when there was a group of 4 of 5 just off the bow, and as they swam at the same speed of the boat, they would weave above and below each other, do barrel rolls over the other dolphins, or just crash into them, all with the bow just inches away. After that I just headed back to the ship, I didn’t really feel the need to go back into the city, we’ll be there one more time anyways. Maybe I’ll try for another monkey tour next time, we’ll see. Otherwise, we had the Elton John show again that night, and then I hung out with some friends till late that evening. We had another alpha emergency today though, and another helicopter was flown in. According to the announcement, it was too large to land on the ship and dropped a basket to haul the person away, who I believe passed away. In addition to which, has delayed our arrival to Barcelona by 2 or 3 hours. It’s really odd that we’ve had so many medical emergencies recently, when over the past 2 months that I’ve been here (almost), I’ve heard of maybe one or two. Well, my prayers go out to their families, and I hope this streak doesn’t continue.
Gibraltar
Today I made another return trip to Gibraltar. This time however, I was signed up for a dolphin safari tour, taking the group out into the bay to go looking for dolphins. And to my surprise, it was really fun, I saw a lot of dolphins. I believe they were “common dolphins”, or at least that’s what I understood the tour guide to be saying. They were a lot smaller than their bottle nose counterparts I’ve seen in Florida. But it was really fun watching the group jumping out of the water, swimming under and right next to the bow, and just having fun being dolphins. My camera’s battery unfortunately died due to my miscalculation of time remaining, so I didn’t get half the pictures I wanted to. Some of the pics or videos I would have liked to take were when there was a group of 4 of 5 just off the bow, and as they swam at the same speed of the boat, they would weave above and below each other, do barrel rolls over the other dolphins, or just crash into them, all with the bow just inches away. After that I just headed back to the ship, I didn’t really feel the need to go back into the city, we’ll be there one more time anyways. Maybe I’ll try for another monkey tour next time, we’ll see. Otherwise, we had the Elton John show again that night, and then I hung out with some friends till late that evening. We had another alpha emergency today though, and another helicopter was flown in. According to the announcement, it was too large to land on the ship and dropped a basket to haul the person away, who I believe passed away. In addition to which, has delayed our arrival to Barcelona by 2 or 3 hours. It’s really odd that we’ve had so many medical emergencies recently, when over the past 2 months that I’ve been here (almost), I’ve heard of maybe one or two. Well, my prayers go out to their families, and I hope this streak doesn’t continue.
Sea days
Sept 9th and 10th
At sea
As usual, we had two sea days from Southampton to Gibraltar. Nothing all the eventful happened on either day. The 9th we played Jacqui Scott’s show, the roadway singer, and the 10th was a production show. This cruise has gotten off to a strange start though. We’ve had three “alpha’s” in the past two days. Alpha is our code word for medical emergency. I know we’ve had at least one person pass away and another get flown out by helicopter (there’s a heli pad on the bow of the ship). So that’s been unusual. For the 10th though, we were given a crew appreciation dinner up in the dinning room on deck 11, known as the “Windjammer”. That was a nice little change, and provided a good meal before our jazz jam that night, which was packed. But I guess that’s about all for now, seeya!
At sea
As usual, we had two sea days from Southampton to Gibraltar. Nothing all the eventful happened on either day. The 9th we played Jacqui Scott’s show, the roadway singer, and the 10th was a production show. This cruise has gotten off to a strange start though. We’ve had three “alpha’s” in the past two days. Alpha is our code word for medical emergency. I know we’ve had at least one person pass away and another get flown out by helicopter (there’s a heli pad on the bow of the ship). So that’s been unusual. For the 10th though, we were given a crew appreciation dinner up in the dinning room on deck 11, known as the “Windjammer”. That was a nice little change, and provided a good meal before our jazz jam that night, which was packed. But I guess that’s about all for now, seeya!
Southampton
Sept 8th
Southampton
Nothing special today really, just an early wake up to get to an Internet Café. I made my posts and got a lot of work done that I was hoping to get finished. After my battery died, I walked around the town a bit and in the mall with Peter. Then back to the ship for the usual first day routine, a passenger boat drill, welcome aboard show, and the parade. Now for a couple sea days taking us back to the Med, first stop, Gibraltar.
- why did I even bother writing a post for this day? whatever….
Southampton
Nothing special today really, just an early wake up to get to an Internet Café. I made my posts and got a lot of work done that I was hoping to get finished. After my battery died, I walked around the town a bit and in the mall with Peter. Then back to the ship for the usual first day routine, a passenger boat drill, welcome aboard show, and the parade. Now for a couple sea days taking us back to the Med, first stop, Gibraltar.
- why did I even bother writing a post for this day? whatever….
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Your next helping
Yet another mass posting completed. There are some cool pics in this set, it was really great getting out of the Med for a bit. As a side note, the album cover gets picked by whichever photo is last uploaded, which always ends up being my last phote of the port, usually of myself. So as much as I ejoy seeing my face on all these album covers, it's simply the default of the program and not a narcissistic desire, though some of you might like to argue that, ha. I'm in a cafe in Southampton right now, about to take off for my next Med cruise. I'll probably be back with pics in a week and a half or so. Have a great one and good luck to all those back in school!
Copenhagen/Oslo
Sept 4th through 7th
I didn’t realize I haven’t written anything for so long, so I’ll do my best to recall these past few days.
4th – a sea day. Nothing really happened, we just had a production show and that was about it. That night though, we did go under a bridge into Denmark. It’s a lot cooler than it sounds, but we had to pass under this bridge that ends up being about 3 feet away from the top of our ship, so it’s kind of cool watching us come so close. And “three feet” were the Captain’s words, so it’s not me exaggerating. But other than that, not much.
5th – Copenhagen. This was a fun day, Copenhagen is a great city. This s another one of those cities that I’d describe as “hip”. You can find a lot of cool stores and it has a very modern feel and some great history and architecture. Where as Gdansk and Tallinn seemed more like a historical place to visit, Copenhagan (like Stockholm) is a living, breathing city where stuff is really happening. I spent the day walking around, which was unfortunately cut a little short by a rehearsal I had. But in my 4 or 5 hours of walking, I covered a lot of area and took a bunch of pics. I stopped in a couple great churches, went in a few stores, and got a baguette that was amazing. Unfortunately, I miss timed my lunch, because when I was hungry and looking for a place to eat, all the cafés had closed their kitchen’s till 5, after the ship had left. But I did see a lot of cool stuff and was glad to be able to walk through the city. Copenhagen would be another one of those cities I’d love to return to. Like Stockholm, most people speak English, so that makes it really nice for communication. Check the pics though! I left out a few pics because they might not have been exactly family appropriate, but between the Museum Erotica I walked past and a couple clubs, I came back with some humorous shots. I guess you’ll just have to grab them when I get back in January.
6th – Oslo. Oslo…a port I was really looking forward to, kindof let me down. I had signed up for a tour entitled “Norwegian Adventure” cause it sounded like fun. Well, t turned out to be a tour group that got rushed through 3 different Maritime Museums. They were ok museums, but we didn’t really have a lot of time to appreciate them, and the tour guide wasn’t exactly the best either. So I got to see a lot of model ships, a short film that showed different parts of Norway, a few Viking ships, and then head back. It sounds like it almost could have been cool, but my head wasn’t in the right place to really appreciate it all, good thing I had a camera. The time spent in port was extremely limited anyways, so I was bummed that I couldn’t walk around the city afterwards either. So it maybe didn’t go to plan, and the less than adventurous tour didn’t really do it for me, but I got some ok pics here and there. We had the Elton John show that night though, which isn’t bad.
7th – Sea day. I’m writing this on the 7th around 3:00 PM. This morning I slept till my rehearsal at 12:00, and really don’t have anything else of importance till the farewell shows tonight. After that, I’ll probably end up in the Dungeon as usual for the last day of the cruise. I doubt there’s going to be much going on because of the average age of the guests. Tomorrow we’ll be back in Southampton, so I should probably get my pics together and try to get online. We’ll see what happens, but it’s been so long since I’ve been able to get online with my computer. Anyways, Thanks for reading, seeya!
I didn’t realize I haven’t written anything for so long, so I’ll do my best to recall these past few days.
4th – a sea day. Nothing really happened, we just had a production show and that was about it. That night though, we did go under a bridge into Denmark. It’s a lot cooler than it sounds, but we had to pass under this bridge that ends up being about 3 feet away from the top of our ship, so it’s kind of cool watching us come so close. And “three feet” were the Captain’s words, so it’s not me exaggerating. But other than that, not much.
5th – Copenhagen. This was a fun day, Copenhagen is a great city. This s another one of those cities that I’d describe as “hip”. You can find a lot of cool stores and it has a very modern feel and some great history and architecture. Where as Gdansk and Tallinn seemed more like a historical place to visit, Copenhagan (like Stockholm) is a living, breathing city where stuff is really happening. I spent the day walking around, which was unfortunately cut a little short by a rehearsal I had. But in my 4 or 5 hours of walking, I covered a lot of area and took a bunch of pics. I stopped in a couple great churches, went in a few stores, and got a baguette that was amazing. Unfortunately, I miss timed my lunch, because when I was hungry and looking for a place to eat, all the cafés had closed their kitchen’s till 5, after the ship had left. But I did see a lot of cool stuff and was glad to be able to walk through the city. Copenhagen would be another one of those cities I’d love to return to. Like Stockholm, most people speak English, so that makes it really nice for communication. Check the pics though! I left out a few pics because they might not have been exactly family appropriate, but between the Museum Erotica I walked past and a couple clubs, I came back with some humorous shots. I guess you’ll just have to grab them when I get back in January.
6th – Oslo. Oslo…a port I was really looking forward to, kindof let me down. I had signed up for a tour entitled “Norwegian Adventure” cause it sounded like fun. Well, t turned out to be a tour group that got rushed through 3 different Maritime Museums. They were ok museums, but we didn’t really have a lot of time to appreciate them, and the tour guide wasn’t exactly the best either. So I got to see a lot of model ships, a short film that showed different parts of Norway, a few Viking ships, and then head back. It sounds like it almost could have been cool, but my head wasn’t in the right place to really appreciate it all, good thing I had a camera. The time spent in port was extremely limited anyways, so I was bummed that I couldn’t walk around the city afterwards either. So it maybe didn’t go to plan, and the less than adventurous tour didn’t really do it for me, but I got some ok pics here and there. We had the Elton John show that night though, which isn’t bad.
7th – Sea day. I’m writing this on the 7th around 3:00 PM. This morning I slept till my rehearsal at 12:00, and really don’t have anything else of importance till the farewell shows tonight. After that, I’ll probably end up in the Dungeon as usual for the last day of the cruise. I doubt there’s going to be much going on because of the average age of the guests. Tomorrow we’ll be back in Southampton, so I should probably get my pics together and try to get online. We’ll see what happens, but it’s been so long since I’ve been able to get online with my computer. Anyways, Thanks for reading, seeya!
Tallinn
Sept 3rd
Tallinn Estonia
Today brought me to the country of Estonia, a place that I don’t believe I knew anything really about until today. I went out on a tour early this morning entitled “The best of Tallinn with Concert and Lunch”. The tour was good, and the tour guide really did a nice job. She was able to tell us stories of when the country was under soviet power and what it was like living in a communist society. Now I never really liked history, but hearing it from someone who actually experienced the effects of communism in such a way just blew me away. Her stories of waiting in lines for hours to get a pig ear, and if lucky, low grade sausage, were just so eye opening to our freedoms. She talked about needing a visa to even go to the beach back then because the government was afraid of people trying to swim the 60 miles to Finland. And then hearing her talk about how much the country loves having their freedom now, despite the poor economy, they finally have a choice on what to do and have to opportunity to make and save money. I was really glad to have heard some of those stories, and the guide had a great personality and could make a joke out of most everything, so it made the stories less harsh to hear. But anyways, we stopped at the music festival grounds (a big band shell), a bunch of churches, and had a great lunch of pork, potatoes, and sauerkraut. The city was really nice though, it had more of a traditional European vibe to it. The concert was lame, 15 minutes of two people performing medieval music on hand drums, a lute, or the herty gerty (I think they called it). It was interesting, but not the “concert” I had in mind. We made it back to the ship then, I got some rest, and had the rest of the night off. Good deal right? Tomorrow is a sea day while we travel to Copenhagen, I think.
Tallinn Estonia
Today brought me to the country of Estonia, a place that I don’t believe I knew anything really about until today. I went out on a tour early this morning entitled “The best of Tallinn with Concert and Lunch”. The tour was good, and the tour guide really did a nice job. She was able to tell us stories of when the country was under soviet power and what it was like living in a communist society. Now I never really liked history, but hearing it from someone who actually experienced the effects of communism in such a way just blew me away. Her stories of waiting in lines for hours to get a pig ear, and if lucky, low grade sausage, were just so eye opening to our freedoms. She talked about needing a visa to even go to the beach back then because the government was afraid of people trying to swim the 60 miles to Finland. And then hearing her talk about how much the country loves having their freedom now, despite the poor economy, they finally have a choice on what to do and have to opportunity to make and save money. I was really glad to have heard some of those stories, and the guide had a great personality and could make a joke out of most everything, so it made the stories less harsh to hear. But anyways, we stopped at the music festival grounds (a big band shell), a bunch of churches, and had a great lunch of pork, potatoes, and sauerkraut. The city was really nice though, it had more of a traditional European vibe to it. The concert was lame, 15 minutes of two people performing medieval music on hand drums, a lute, or the herty gerty (I think they called it). It was interesting, but not the “concert” I had in mind. We made it back to the ship then, I got some rest, and had the rest of the night off. Good deal right? Tomorrow is a sea day while we travel to Copenhagen, I think.
Stockholm day 2
Sept 2nd
Stockholm/at sea
We left Stockholm around noon today…unfortunately I slept till we left. I didn’t really need to go out in the city though, between the bad conversion rate and all the walking the night before, it just wasn’t worth it for me. I watched as we sailed out of the area though, slaloming through the islands. It’s a really great place though that I’d like to return to. The rest of the day was just spent sailing to Estonia, and I had a big band set that night. The set actually went really well and we had a lot of guests dancing, even despite the less than calm seas. I think that about covers it though… till next time!
Stockholm/at sea
We left Stockholm around noon today…unfortunately I slept till we left. I didn’t really need to go out in the city though, between the bad conversion rate and all the walking the night before, it just wasn’t worth it for me. I watched as we sailed out of the area though, slaloming through the islands. It’s a really great place though that I’d like to return to. The rest of the day was just spent sailing to Estonia, and I had a big band set that night. The set actually went really well and we had a lot of guests dancing, even despite the less than calm seas. I think that about covers it though… till next time!
Stockholm
Sept 1st
Stockholm
Today was our overnight in Stockholm, so I was pretty excited for this port. I started out with a bicycle tour in the afternoon when we got in, which took us through Royal Djurgarden, the island originally set aside by the Royal Family for hunting. The Island is really just a giant park with some palaces and other houses scattered about. It was a nice ride and I got a lot of pics and video clips while riding. We stopped at a café type place in the park for snacks, and not having any krona, or whatever their currency is, didn’t buy anything. But, someone in the group was actually nice enough to buy me a pastry thing an a coke, which was really nice of her. I was just sitting down somewhere and she brought it over as a surprise, so that was great. We all made it back to the ship by taxi, I was in a car with an older couple and the tour guide, which was nice because we could continue learning stuff on the drive back. I came back to the ship, got some food, and then waiting around for a bit till I went out with some other guys from the orchestra for our night on the town. Well, our high hopes for finding something really fun to do weren’t entirely satisfied. After walking in for a bit in the direction my tour guide told me to go, the group got impatient and called a cab to take us to the other side of town where they knew something would be going on. So six of us piled into a cab for four, Peter and I in the back of the station wagon, and took it into old town. After walking through that area and running into some friends from the ship, we were unable to find exactly what we were looking for. So we kept walking to the next place someone though something would be going on. We did however wander down into a bar that had a Swedish blues group playing, but left in the hopes of finding something better…dumb mistake. So as we moved on, we came into a very trendy part of town, where I remembered seeing a Bentley dealership and Gucci store earlier. This also didn’t quite work as planned. We were looking for a bar that wasn’t too expensive and had a crowd that we thought looked fun. However, most fun crowds were in clubs or waiting in the gigantic lines outside the clubs, or paid there way into other nightlife areas. We were hesitant to pay for things because of the currency difference, which made a simple beer cost around $8 US. We didn’t want to pay 150 kronos (I think) to get into a place we weren’t sure of, because after the exchange, we would have been paying $20-25 just to get in the place. So after walking for 3 hours or so, we found ourselves at a McDonalds back towards the ship. This was, however, the hippest McDonalds I’ve ever been in. For whatever reason, I didn’t take pictures, but it had a really modern décor with hip tables and stools, and the crowd was unlike anything I’ve ever seen in the US. First, some of the girls walking around the city were just gorgeous, some really slutty looking as well, but I’ve never seen so many good looking blond girls in one place, and the McDonalds followed suit. I didn’t buy anything because they were out of receipts, making a credit card purchase a little more risky than I’d have liked. Then, a couple people from the group walked back to the ship, while a few others and myself took a long way back through a different part of town. This took us back through the area towards where we had originally started, and it was packed with people. As we got a little excited about actually maybe finding a place to get into, but quickly realize that everyone was on the streets because all the bars were closing down. This left us with only the nightclub option, whose lines just got longer. We eventually made it back to the boat as it began raining, and in trying to maintain good attitudes about our outing, congratulated each other on our ability to save money. It was a nice walk though, and we really got to feel out a large portion of the city, so it was well worth the walk. I’d love to come back sometime though, there’s so much going on here and the area is great. Also, many people speak English, so that’s helpful. Look up the city online if you get a chance, it’s a gorgeous area and probably my favorite city so far.
Stockholm
Today was our overnight in Stockholm, so I was pretty excited for this port. I started out with a bicycle tour in the afternoon when we got in, which took us through Royal Djurgarden, the island originally set aside by the Royal Family for hunting. The Island is really just a giant park with some palaces and other houses scattered about. It was a nice ride and I got a lot of pics and video clips while riding. We stopped at a café type place in the park for snacks, and not having any krona, or whatever their currency is, didn’t buy anything. But, someone in the group was actually nice enough to buy me a pastry thing an a coke, which was really nice of her. I was just sitting down somewhere and she brought it over as a surprise, so that was great. We all made it back to the ship by taxi, I was in a car with an older couple and the tour guide, which was nice because we could continue learning stuff on the drive back. I came back to the ship, got some food, and then waiting around for a bit till I went out with some other guys from the orchestra for our night on the town. Well, our high hopes for finding something really fun to do weren’t entirely satisfied. After walking in for a bit in the direction my tour guide told me to go, the group got impatient and called a cab to take us to the other side of town where they knew something would be going on. So six of us piled into a cab for four, Peter and I in the back of the station wagon, and took it into old town. After walking through that area and running into some friends from the ship, we were unable to find exactly what we were looking for. So we kept walking to the next place someone though something would be going on. We did however wander down into a bar that had a Swedish blues group playing, but left in the hopes of finding something better…dumb mistake. So as we moved on, we came into a very trendy part of town, where I remembered seeing a Bentley dealership and Gucci store earlier. This also didn’t quite work as planned. We were looking for a bar that wasn’t too expensive and had a crowd that we thought looked fun. However, most fun crowds were in clubs or waiting in the gigantic lines outside the clubs, or paid there way into other nightlife areas. We were hesitant to pay for things because of the currency difference, which made a simple beer cost around $8 US. We didn’t want to pay 150 kronos (I think) to get into a place we weren’t sure of, because after the exchange, we would have been paying $20-25 just to get in the place. So after walking for 3 hours or so, we found ourselves at a McDonalds back towards the ship. This was, however, the hippest McDonalds I’ve ever been in. For whatever reason, I didn’t take pictures, but it had a really modern décor with hip tables and stools, and the crowd was unlike anything I’ve ever seen in the US. First, some of the girls walking around the city were just gorgeous, some really slutty looking as well, but I’ve never seen so many good looking blond girls in one place, and the McDonalds followed suit. I didn’t buy anything because they were out of receipts, making a credit card purchase a little more risky than I’d have liked. Then, a couple people from the group walked back to the ship, while a few others and myself took a long way back through a different part of town. This took us back through the area towards where we had originally started, and it was packed with people. As we got a little excited about actually maybe finding a place to get into, but quickly realize that everyone was on the streets because all the bars were closing down. This left us with only the nightclub option, whose lines just got longer. We eventually made it back to the boat as it began raining, and in trying to maintain good attitudes about our outing, congratulated each other on our ability to save money. It was a nice walk though, and we really got to feel out a large portion of the city, so it was well worth the walk. I’d love to come back sometime though, there’s so much going on here and the area is great. Also, many people speak English, so that’s helpful. Look up the city online if you get a chance, it’s a gorgeous area and probably my favorite city so far.
Gdansk
Aug 31st
Gdansk
Today I received my introduction to Poland. I woke up early to get on a tour into the city, and was soon enough in the heart of the City. Gdansk is a nice place, some of the architecture was just spectacular. There’s so much personality to these cities in comparison to being home, not to mention the history. We saw some cool building though, including a huge Gothic style church. The area is known for it’s amber, so oddly enough, no matter where you are in the main part of the city, you’re likely to see a stand or shop that sells the rock. I took a good deal of pics, so be sure to check those out. There’s gold leafing everywhere, which was quite a sight on some of the buildings, but I guess that has something to do with the word Poland. And I did refrain from making Polish jokes, just out of fear for my well being. That night we had a surprise show that no one knew we actually had to play. We were needed for a comedian, and needed to do little more than play him on and off…at least he was funny. Then we had a jazz set that night, followed by a Trinidad Independence party. So yes, I have now celebrated Trinidad’s independence, have you??
Gdansk
Today I received my introduction to Poland. I woke up early to get on a tour into the city, and was soon enough in the heart of the City. Gdansk is a nice place, some of the architecture was just spectacular. There’s so much personality to these cities in comparison to being home, not to mention the history. We saw some cool building though, including a huge Gothic style church. The area is known for it’s amber, so oddly enough, no matter where you are in the main part of the city, you’re likely to see a stand or shop that sells the rock. I took a good deal of pics, so be sure to check those out. There’s gold leafing everywhere, which was quite a sight on some of the buildings, but I guess that has something to do with the word Poland. And I did refrain from making Polish jokes, just out of fear for my well being. That night we had a surprise show that no one knew we actually had to play. We were needed for a comedian, and needed to do little more than play him on and off…at least he was funny. Then we had a jazz set that night, followed by a Trinidad Independence party. So yes, I have now celebrated Trinidad’s independence, have you??
Southampton
Aug 28th, 29th, 30th
Southampton
28th - Nothing big today, I didn’t even get off the ship. We had a welcome show and a parade to do tonight, big waste of time. Tomorrow is a sea day as we make our way to Poland.
29th – Sea day, Captain’s Cocktail jazz set, and a couple shows tonight. We have a new trumpet player in the band who is unfortunately not exactly of the caliber we’ve been used to. He can make it through the shows, but it’s not as clean as it was with the past lead trumpet, Lex, and he doesn’t sound like a lead player. So that’s kind of a drag, but hopefully he’ll start getting these parts done soon.
30th – Another Sea day, but Mike Doyle was back on the ship for the show that night. I like his show because it has some nice flute parts. But aside from that, I don’t recall anything important from the day. Tomorrow is Gdansk though, out first port on this cruise.
Southampton
28th - Nothing big today, I didn’t even get off the ship. We had a welcome show and a parade to do tonight, big waste of time. Tomorrow is a sea day as we make our way to Poland.
29th – Sea day, Captain’s Cocktail jazz set, and a couple shows tonight. We have a new trumpet player in the band who is unfortunately not exactly of the caliber we’ve been used to. He can make it through the shows, but it’s not as clean as it was with the past lead trumpet, Lex, and he doesn’t sound like a lead player. So that’s kind of a drag, but hopefully he’ll start getting these parts done soon.
30th – Another Sea day, but Mike Doyle was back on the ship for the show that night. I like his show because it has some nice flute parts. But aside from that, I don’t recall anything important from the day. Tomorrow is Gdansk though, out first port on this cruise.
Cork
Aug 26th and 27th
Cork/At sea
The 26th was spent in Ireland, and was my first time to the country. I signed up for a tour that took me through the city of Cork along with a stop at Blarney Castle. The city was nice to drive through, it had a really nice general feel. But, it’s amazing to think it’s the 2nd largest in Ireland, because compared to a place like Chicago, Cork was tiny. The castle was phenomenal though, and I got my chance to kiss the Blarney Stone! We were lucky enough to get a gorgeous day in Ireland, which I’m told is rare this time of year, but all the rain that the country is used to getting means that on the nice days, everything is a vibrant green color. The gardens around the castle shared this vivid green coloring, and it really made for a nice walk. The stone itself is kind of a funny thing. The belief is that when kissed, the stone blesses you with eloquence of speech, as in a type of flattery that’s much more refined and classy. The stone itself is a part of the castle wall, all the way at the top of the building, hanging out over a substantial drop. In order to kiss it, you must lay on your back, grab onto two metal rails, pull yourself back and down towards the stone, pull your neck back and pucker up. The stone itself doesn’t look like anything special, and I didn’t feel especially different afterwards, but maybe it works gradually. After that experience, I made my way to a pub before getting back on the bus. I just had to order the drink of Ireland, a Guinness, and got to watch a Man U soccer match. That was a nice time before taking the bus back to the ship to play a couple shows. Then, that night, I headed out with some friends to go to a local dance club to see what the party scene is like in Ireland. Well, the club sucked, and the people in it were nothing special to look at. Half the girls there were literally twice my age, so that was awkward. I had a Murphy’s there, a local beer (dark like Guinness), and stayed till they kicked everyone out around 1:30. I then walked around the port for a while before making back to the ship.
The 27th was our sea day spent traveling back to Southampton. I didn’t have much going on all day, and just a jazz set at night. It was Lex’s (Lead Trumpet) last night on the ship, so most people from the Orchestra hung out that night. I bought a case of Corona’s for the party, something I owed for missing an entrance, and after hanging there for a while, made it up to the Dungeon for some dancing. And that was my night. It was a fun little cruise, but now we’re off to the Baltics for the next 11 days!
Cork/At sea
The 26th was spent in Ireland, and was my first time to the country. I signed up for a tour that took me through the city of Cork along with a stop at Blarney Castle. The city was nice to drive through, it had a really nice general feel. But, it’s amazing to think it’s the 2nd largest in Ireland, because compared to a place like Chicago, Cork was tiny. The castle was phenomenal though, and I got my chance to kiss the Blarney Stone! We were lucky enough to get a gorgeous day in Ireland, which I’m told is rare this time of year, but all the rain that the country is used to getting means that on the nice days, everything is a vibrant green color. The gardens around the castle shared this vivid green coloring, and it really made for a nice walk. The stone itself is kind of a funny thing. The belief is that when kissed, the stone blesses you with eloquence of speech, as in a type of flattery that’s much more refined and classy. The stone itself is a part of the castle wall, all the way at the top of the building, hanging out over a substantial drop. In order to kiss it, you must lay on your back, grab onto two metal rails, pull yourself back and down towards the stone, pull your neck back and pucker up. The stone itself doesn’t look like anything special, and I didn’t feel especially different afterwards, but maybe it works gradually. After that experience, I made my way to a pub before getting back on the bus. I just had to order the drink of Ireland, a Guinness, and got to watch a Man U soccer match. That was a nice time before taking the bus back to the ship to play a couple shows. Then, that night, I headed out with some friends to go to a local dance club to see what the party scene is like in Ireland. Well, the club sucked, and the people in it were nothing special to look at. Half the girls there were literally twice my age, so that was awkward. I had a Murphy’s there, a local beer (dark like Guinness), and stayed till they kicked everyone out around 1:30. I then walked around the port for a while before making back to the ship.
The 27th was our sea day spent traveling back to Southampton. I didn’t have much going on all day, and just a jazz set at night. It was Lex’s (Lead Trumpet) last night on the ship, so most people from the Orchestra hung out that night. I bought a case of Corona’s for the party, something I owed for missing an entrance, and after hanging there for a while, made it up to the Dungeon for some dancing. And that was my night. It was a fun little cruise, but now we’re off to the Baltics for the next 11 days!
Southampton
Aug 25th
Southampton
Today we started our three-day cruise to Cork Ireland and back. I’m excited to see Ireland, not to mention I’m signed up for a tour that goes to Blarney Castle. In port today, I walked to the mall that was near the ship, and came back with Plato’s Republic, and a hope that I can at least pretend I understand what it is I’m reading. But I figure if I spend these six months doing nothing but reading these sax parts, I’m going to forget how to think entirely. So there’s my intellectual stimulation for the time being. Otherwise, a couple shows tonight, including a stupid parade, and then we’ll be in Cork tomorrow.
Southampton
Today we started our three-day cruise to Cork Ireland and back. I’m excited to see Ireland, not to mention I’m signed up for a tour that goes to Blarney Castle. In port today, I walked to the mall that was near the ship, and came back with Plato’s Republic, and a hope that I can at least pretend I understand what it is I’m reading. But I figure if I spend these six months doing nothing but reading these sax parts, I’m going to forget how to think entirely. So there’s my intellectual stimulation for the time being. Otherwise, a couple shows tonight, including a stupid parade, and then we’ll be in Cork tomorrow.
22nd -24th
Aug 22nd
Lisbon
So I’m writing this a few days late, I guess I forgot to make my entry. Lisbon wasn’t anything special though, I was offered a tour, but turned it down to get online and make some posts along with send out emails. So I simply sat in the terminal till my battery died trying to catch up with my online to-do list. I had a production show that night wich went well, but aside from that, nothing too special.
Aug 23rd and 24th
Vigo/at sea
The 23rd brought me back to Vigo, I guess making it the 3rd time there. I signed up for a tour though, a canoeing trip that took me down a river which formed the border of Spain and Portugal. The trip was fun, I came out with a couple bad blisters on my thumbs, but had a good time. I had gotten paired up with this guy from Whales who didn’t have a clue what he was doing, despite his claims of experience. First, he couldn’t get comfortable in the seat, which was legitimate because it was the most uncomfortable thing ever, but between him moving around, complaining about problems in his groin, and paddling 80% of the tip laying on his back, I was about ready to jump ship. We would have done the route in half the time had we not zigzagged the entire way. He was in the back and in control of the turning, but because he couldn’t get timed up with my strokes and his need to paddle the opposite way to make turns, I received my workout pulling him the 8km, not to mention my blisters (which he escaped by some miracle). But, keep a good attitude and an eye on the cute tour guide and all was fine. No show that night, but I went up to a lounge and sat in with one of the piano players I know. Sometime during that evening though, I got a good feeling about where I was and what I’m doing (being on a ship), so I’m still glad to be here being able to play music.
The 24th was the last night of the cruise. I had nothing all day and a couple farewell shows at night. I got some laundry done though, so that’s makes it a good day (Mom, be proud). The shows were the same as always. Except I missed an entrance for the final tune because I was sitting back stage reading a book (thanks Shannon). So after jumping to my feet after hearing the band begin without me, I quickly got to my seat and started playing. Luckily, there’s a curtain in front of the group so no one could see I ran to my seat, but I now owe the band a case of beer. But that’s cool, it means I’ve earned enough respect to not get reamed. Otherwise, I went to The Dungeon at night, which was kindof lame compared to last time I was there, so I came back to my room to get some sleep before Southampton. So that’s my story…
Lisbon
So I’m writing this a few days late, I guess I forgot to make my entry. Lisbon wasn’t anything special though, I was offered a tour, but turned it down to get online and make some posts along with send out emails. So I simply sat in the terminal till my battery died trying to catch up with my online to-do list. I had a production show that night wich went well, but aside from that, nothing too special.
Aug 23rd and 24th
Vigo/at sea
The 23rd brought me back to Vigo, I guess making it the 3rd time there. I signed up for a tour though, a canoeing trip that took me down a river which formed the border of Spain and Portugal. The trip was fun, I came out with a couple bad blisters on my thumbs, but had a good time. I had gotten paired up with this guy from Whales who didn’t have a clue what he was doing, despite his claims of experience. First, he couldn’t get comfortable in the seat, which was legitimate because it was the most uncomfortable thing ever, but between him moving around, complaining about problems in his groin, and paddling 80% of the tip laying on his back, I was about ready to jump ship. We would have done the route in half the time had we not zigzagged the entire way. He was in the back and in control of the turning, but because he couldn’t get timed up with my strokes and his need to paddle the opposite way to make turns, I received my workout pulling him the 8km, not to mention my blisters (which he escaped by some miracle). But, keep a good attitude and an eye on the cute tour guide and all was fine. No show that night, but I went up to a lounge and sat in with one of the piano players I know. Sometime during that evening though, I got a good feeling about where I was and what I’m doing (being on a ship), so I’m still glad to be here being able to play music.
The 24th was the last night of the cruise. I had nothing all day and a couple farewell shows at night. I got some laundry done though, so that’s makes it a good day (Mom, be proud). The shows were the same as always. Except I missed an entrance for the final tune because I was sitting back stage reading a book (thanks Shannon). So after jumping to my feet after hearing the band begin without me, I quickly got to my seat and started playing. Luckily, there’s a curtain in front of the group so no one could see I ran to my seat, but I now owe the band a case of beer. But that’s cool, it means I’ve earned enough respect to not get reamed. Otherwise, I went to The Dungeon at night, which was kindof lame compared to last time I was there, so I came back to my room to get some sleep before Southampton. So that’s my story…
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