July 20th-22nd
Sea Day/Sea Day/Gdynia, Poland
There really isn’t much to talk about for any of these three days. I had In Port Manning for Gdynia, so I didn’t get off the ship. Probably the only somewhat exciting thing happened on the 21st.
I had woken up early on the 21st to go up to the gym for a spinning class, an idea the tenor player had. We both knew the instructor and Ben had been told he could go up and sit in on the class without paying the $18 fee. So we showed up at 9 am, pulled out a couple bikes, and joined the class. I’ve never done a spinning class before and considering I like biking, I thought it’d be fun. Thankfully, for once, I wasn’t dead wrong. I did enjoy the class and can certainly see its benefits – but that’s not the exciting part. The exciting part was when, after about 25 minutes into the class, the middle-aged woman ahead of me fainted. I had overheard at the beginning of the class that she was new to cycling as the lady next to her was giving tips (obviously to no avail), and right as we got into the more difficult part of the course, she started swaying and feel backwards off the right side of the bike, pretty much into my spinning wheel. I didn’t even really notice what was happening until her neighbor let out a cry of concern as the lady fell in my direction, at which point I stopped the wheel and got out of the way as she laid on the ground with slight shaking movements. The instructor rushed over and helped her as she came around while some other spa staff were notified, and within a few minutes, she was helped out of the gym and into a room where she could lie down. Last I heard she was alright, but falling off a bike never did anyone any favors (probably like tripping over cobblestones, a running theme for this cruise?). Anyways, I figured it was just another blog worthy story, thanks for reading!
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Southampton/Bruges
July 18th-19th
Southampton/Bruges
Southampton was a much needed internet day. After getting off the ship around noon, I made my way to one of my usual internet cafés and got to work. Following that I simply hung out in the city at the market sampling cheeses and buying bread (a really nice Mediterranean style loaf). Then it was off to the grocery store and followed by the bookstore, which left us just enough time to get confused about the bus pickup point and make it back to the ship just late enough that we didn’t get in trouble. The rest of the day went as usual.
For Belgium, I was really excited for a beer tasting tour that I was first on the list to escort for, but then found out the day before that the tour was cancelled. So instead of what would have been an awesome tour, I ended up going on a tour to Bruges which was only kind of awesome. Bruges is a lovely city, which became accented in our minds by the chocolate distributed to us in the bus on the way into town. The tour was mostly a walking tour with a boat ride through the canals thrown in, which was great. I saved some of my chocolate especially for the canal trip, I figured what could be more appropriate on a canal in Belgium than eating chocolate?
Anyways, the tour was all going according to plan until the last hour where we began walking towards the bus pickup point. We were going to have about an hour to shop around on our own before being taken back to the ship, something I was looking forward to, that is until someone had something else in mind. With about an hour left, as the group followed along behind the tour guide, I noticed an older couple slowly getting left behind. I slowed my pace to keep an eye on them, when suddenly, the elderly man flat out fell on the road. Concerned, I ran over to see that everything was ok, and as the man stood up with some assistance from his walking cane, told me “yeah, this happens all the time.” Yeah right that happens all the time and he’s ok! Like an 85 year old man walking with a cane who just collapsed onto a cobblestone road is going to be just fine. So I told the couple to wait there and that I’d be back, at which point I ran ahead to catch the guide and inform her of the situation. Seeing as I had a map of the city on me, I told the guide I’d walk the couple to the bus while she went ahead with the group, then returned to my “OK” old dude.
It was pretty obvious he was shaken up by the fall as he’d lost the color in his face and now walked with a concerning uneasiness – but at least he was walking. I honestly can’t believe he got up and kept walking after that fall, and considering his slight embarrassment, it seems the only thing injured was his pride, of which he was determined to regain by making the trip (haha, a pun) to the bus. So we started walking, slowly, and I navigated my way through a city I’d never visited with a map I’d never studied, and with a couple that never should have gone on that tour. They were really a nice pair though. The wife, who was younger and in better shape, was supportive and patient with her husband, and each were pleasant to talk with. We had a nice walk back to the bus, considering the circumstances, though I was in a state of nervousness just waiting for what seemed to be his next inevitable fall. But after a few stops, many shuffled steps, the city, park, and a bridge, we arrived at the terminal where we were to be picked up. They then thanked me for my help and I ran off to enjoy what little time I had left to explore.
In this small amount of time I happened to run into my friend Patrick who had taken the train into the city. I believe I’ve written about him before, the piano player, I probably described him as a bit weird. Anyways, we run into each other just as the rain starts; I have a broken umbrella I found on a bus a few tours ago, he has a hood. A sudden gust of wind comes up and blows an open umbrella from a shop door right to Patrick’s feet. We look at it and consider the oddity of this rogue umbrella landing at his feet, and after a look around for witnesses, Patrick picks it up and puts it over his head. I then directed him into the city and he walked off with his new accessory. I thought it was hilarious, mostly just because my friend is such a character, but also just out of the coincidence that this open umbrella flew right to his feet. It was time for me to get back to the bus though, so I turned and headed back.
Nothing more really happened with the tour from that point out. The old man was alright for the trip back and everything else went smoothly. Back at the ship, I met up with the tenor player, Ben, and decided to get off the ship again to make a quick trip to Zeebrugge. After being disappointed about not getting on my beer tasting tour, I had talked Ben into taking a trip into the city with me to buy some beer of our own (because I wasn’t leaving Belgium without some authentic beer). We bought about $30 of various beers, all of which will be enjoyed slowly over the next month.
At the set that night, I asked Patrick about the umbrella he walked off with. In true Patrick fashion, he expressed “I hate umbrellas” and let me know that he had left it randomly somewhere in the city. I guess, it was the zen thing to do, leave it where it came from for someone else to find, like an umbrella that is now just one with it’s community. I guess I’m satisfied with that answer.
Lastly, we had a nice treat in port today. We shared the dock with the Queen Elizabeth II, for what would be the last time the ships met. It was a bit of a historic moment, celebrated with huge water guns, a band, and a long exchange of whistle blows at sail away. I stood at the front of the ship on deck 9 to see the farewells, which was surprisingly sentimental to someone indifferent to which cruise company he works for. I guess that’s just the romantic in me. Anyways, it was a lovely sail away and great experience being there to wish the QE2 farewell before it’s retired toward the end of this year and sent to Dubai to become a floating hotel. So that’s about it for Belgium, thanks!
Southampton/Bruges
Southampton was a much needed internet day. After getting off the ship around noon, I made my way to one of my usual internet cafés and got to work. Following that I simply hung out in the city at the market sampling cheeses and buying bread (a really nice Mediterranean style loaf). Then it was off to the grocery store and followed by the bookstore, which left us just enough time to get confused about the bus pickup point and make it back to the ship just late enough that we didn’t get in trouble. The rest of the day went as usual.
For Belgium, I was really excited for a beer tasting tour that I was first on the list to escort for, but then found out the day before that the tour was cancelled. So instead of what would have been an awesome tour, I ended up going on a tour to Bruges which was only kind of awesome. Bruges is a lovely city, which became accented in our minds by the chocolate distributed to us in the bus on the way into town. The tour was mostly a walking tour with a boat ride through the canals thrown in, which was great. I saved some of my chocolate especially for the canal trip, I figured what could be more appropriate on a canal in Belgium than eating chocolate?
Anyways, the tour was all going according to plan until the last hour where we began walking towards the bus pickup point. We were going to have about an hour to shop around on our own before being taken back to the ship, something I was looking forward to, that is until someone had something else in mind. With about an hour left, as the group followed along behind the tour guide, I noticed an older couple slowly getting left behind. I slowed my pace to keep an eye on them, when suddenly, the elderly man flat out fell on the road. Concerned, I ran over to see that everything was ok, and as the man stood up with some assistance from his walking cane, told me “yeah, this happens all the time.” Yeah right that happens all the time and he’s ok! Like an 85 year old man walking with a cane who just collapsed onto a cobblestone road is going to be just fine. So I told the couple to wait there and that I’d be back, at which point I ran ahead to catch the guide and inform her of the situation. Seeing as I had a map of the city on me, I told the guide I’d walk the couple to the bus while she went ahead with the group, then returned to my “OK” old dude.
It was pretty obvious he was shaken up by the fall as he’d lost the color in his face and now walked with a concerning uneasiness – but at least he was walking. I honestly can’t believe he got up and kept walking after that fall, and considering his slight embarrassment, it seems the only thing injured was his pride, of which he was determined to regain by making the trip (haha, a pun) to the bus. So we started walking, slowly, and I navigated my way through a city I’d never visited with a map I’d never studied, and with a couple that never should have gone on that tour. They were really a nice pair though. The wife, who was younger and in better shape, was supportive and patient with her husband, and each were pleasant to talk with. We had a nice walk back to the bus, considering the circumstances, though I was in a state of nervousness just waiting for what seemed to be his next inevitable fall. But after a few stops, many shuffled steps, the city, park, and a bridge, we arrived at the terminal where we were to be picked up. They then thanked me for my help and I ran off to enjoy what little time I had left to explore.
In this small amount of time I happened to run into my friend Patrick who had taken the train into the city. I believe I’ve written about him before, the piano player, I probably described him as a bit weird. Anyways, we run into each other just as the rain starts; I have a broken umbrella I found on a bus a few tours ago, he has a hood. A sudden gust of wind comes up and blows an open umbrella from a shop door right to Patrick’s feet. We look at it and consider the oddity of this rogue umbrella landing at his feet, and after a look around for witnesses, Patrick picks it up and puts it over his head. I then directed him into the city and he walked off with his new accessory. I thought it was hilarious, mostly just because my friend is such a character, but also just out of the coincidence that this open umbrella flew right to his feet. It was time for me to get back to the bus though, so I turned and headed back.
Nothing more really happened with the tour from that point out. The old man was alright for the trip back and everything else went smoothly. Back at the ship, I met up with the tenor player, Ben, and decided to get off the ship again to make a quick trip to Zeebrugge. After being disappointed about not getting on my beer tasting tour, I had talked Ben into taking a trip into the city with me to buy some beer of our own (because I wasn’t leaving Belgium without some authentic beer). We bought about $30 of various beers, all of which will be enjoyed slowly over the next month.
At the set that night, I asked Patrick about the umbrella he walked off with. In true Patrick fashion, he expressed “I hate umbrellas” and let me know that he had left it randomly somewhere in the city. I guess, it was the zen thing to do, leave it where it came from for someone else to find, like an umbrella that is now just one with it’s community. I guess I’m satisfied with that answer.
Lastly, we had a nice treat in port today. We shared the dock with the Queen Elizabeth II, for what would be the last time the ships met. It was a bit of a historic moment, celebrated with huge water guns, a band, and a long exchange of whistle blows at sail away. I stood at the front of the ship on deck 9 to see the farewells, which was surprisingly sentimental to someone indifferent to which cruise company he works for. I guess that’s just the romantic in me. Anyways, it was a lovely sail away and great experience being there to wish the QE2 farewell before it’s retired toward the end of this year and sent to Dubai to become a floating hotel. So that’s about it for Belgium, thanks!
Friday, July 18, 2008
1 year!!!
I'm currently sitting in a cafe in Southampton and had to take the opportunity to inform everyone that today, July 18th 2008, is my 1 Year anniversary of working on ships. It was exactly a year ago today that I first signed onto the Navigator in Barcelona and where this blog first began. I'm not sure if that's exactly a good thing or not, but at least my blog is proof that over the past year I've certainly had my fair share of stories, adventures, and just great times. Thanks to everyone who's been reading consistently and be sure to look forward to many more posts as I make my way into my second year at sea!
Mike
Mike
Bergen/Sea Day
July 16th-17th
Bergen/Sea Day
I had another tour on the 16th in the town of Bergen, widely known for being the home town of Edvard Grieg, the famous pianist/composer. My tour went to his estate and museum. The tour was decent, after a stop at a really old church, the group drove to the Grieg estate where we walked through a museum, saw his cabin where he composed his music, walked through his house, and even heard a 30 minute piano recital of his music. Nothing was all that spectacular or memorable, but it was nice to appreciate the composer who’s music I have enjoyed for many years now. After the tour, I got dropped off in the city center where I went to the fish market. This market was great because everywhere you go, the vendors are slicing up free samples of there fish, all of which are amazing. I had so much good salmon and even whale, among other things, that I can’t even remember it all. The only bad part was the rain that we were again stuck in. I then made my way through the city to the shuttle drop off point and caught a ride back to the ship.
The 17th was a usual final sea day with a farewell show. I ended the day playing euchre with some friends in my band. Tomorrow is Southampton where I’ll be able to make my posts and stock up on a few more supplies. Thanks for reading and keep looking for me to make updates during the next cruise, another Russian Rendezvous!
Bergen/Sea Day
I had another tour on the 16th in the town of Bergen, widely known for being the home town of Edvard Grieg, the famous pianist/composer. My tour went to his estate and museum. The tour was decent, after a stop at a really old church, the group drove to the Grieg estate where we walked through a museum, saw his cabin where he composed his music, walked through his house, and even heard a 30 minute piano recital of his music. Nothing was all that spectacular or memorable, but it was nice to appreciate the composer who’s music I have enjoyed for many years now. After the tour, I got dropped off in the city center where I went to the fish market. This market was great because everywhere you go, the vendors are slicing up free samples of there fish, all of which are amazing. I had so much good salmon and even whale, among other things, that I can’t even remember it all. The only bad part was the rain that we were again stuck in. I then made my way through the city to the shuttle drop off point and caught a ride back to the ship.
The 17th was a usual final sea day with a farewell show. I ended the day playing euchre with some friends in my band. Tomorrow is Southampton where I’ll be able to make my posts and stock up on a few more supplies. Thanks for reading and keep looking for me to make updates during the next cruise, another Russian Rendezvous!
Geiranger
July 15th
Geiranger
Well, I’m pushing the envelope yet again. Instead of staying out of trouble, it looks as if I continue to do everything to invite it my way. Today in Geiranger, I was scheduled for an all day tour that drove from a drop off point in Hellesylt through the fjords and mountains to where the ship would meet us in Geiranger. The problem was that I had both a department meeting and a meeting with the MD to turn in my time card (which I had forgotten to do the previous day and had received a note about) in the middle of the tour. I had decided to take a chance and go on the tour anyways, certainly more fulfilling than what was sure to be a pointless meeting. I had filled out my time card as well and left it on Gordon’s bed so that he could turn it in for me. Hopefully it would all work out fine.
So I went on the tour. The weather was less than pleasant - getting rained on in Norwegian mountains is about the furthest thing from warm and comfortable you can experience – but the tour was gorgeous. The terrain we traveled was unbelievable and despite the cloudy skies, it wasn’t hard to appreciate the natural beauty we were surrounded by. We stopped at 10 different sites on our overland tour, including a stop at the deepest lake in northern Europe, a drive to the top of a mountain, and a lunch consisting of the best salmon I’ve ever had. There was even a ski slope at the top of one of these fjords for summer skiing! It’s too bad we fought the rain all day and that I came back to the ship soaked and freezing, but it was still a great tour.
I got back to the ship around 4:00, way after the meetings had taken place expecting some note informing me of my absence. Guess what? No note! At the rehearsal the MD didn’t say a word to me about missing the meeting, and even asked me if I saw the trombone player there. I’m really confused about how this guy is missing so much stuff, but hey, who’s complaining?
The night I decided to push my luck even a little further. I don’t usually try to get myself in trouble on these ships, it’s the absolute last thing in the world I want to do, but sometimes you have to break a couple rules. This time involved me wanting to get a chessboard for my cabin. The best place to pick one up is in the Golden Lion Pub on the ship, where they have about 10 of them in a pile. I figured they really didn’t need all 10 and decided to borrow one for the rest of my contract. So late at night, I snuck up to the pub, nonchalantly walked by the passengers to the chess game, grabbed it and walked back to my cabin. I guess it’s no mission impossible or anything, but it was still slightly nerve-racking taking the game. But I think that’s going to be it for my career as a thief for the rest of the contract, let’s just hope I can stay out of trouble for a while now. Thanks for reading!
Geiranger
Well, I’m pushing the envelope yet again. Instead of staying out of trouble, it looks as if I continue to do everything to invite it my way. Today in Geiranger, I was scheduled for an all day tour that drove from a drop off point in Hellesylt through the fjords and mountains to where the ship would meet us in Geiranger. The problem was that I had both a department meeting and a meeting with the MD to turn in my time card (which I had forgotten to do the previous day and had received a note about) in the middle of the tour. I had decided to take a chance and go on the tour anyways, certainly more fulfilling than what was sure to be a pointless meeting. I had filled out my time card as well and left it on Gordon’s bed so that he could turn it in for me. Hopefully it would all work out fine.
So I went on the tour. The weather was less than pleasant - getting rained on in Norwegian mountains is about the furthest thing from warm and comfortable you can experience – but the tour was gorgeous. The terrain we traveled was unbelievable and despite the cloudy skies, it wasn’t hard to appreciate the natural beauty we were surrounded by. We stopped at 10 different sites on our overland tour, including a stop at the deepest lake in northern Europe, a drive to the top of a mountain, and a lunch consisting of the best salmon I’ve ever had. There was even a ski slope at the top of one of these fjords for summer skiing! It’s too bad we fought the rain all day and that I came back to the ship soaked and freezing, but it was still a great tour.
I got back to the ship around 4:00, way after the meetings had taken place expecting some note informing me of my absence. Guess what? No note! At the rehearsal the MD didn’t say a word to me about missing the meeting, and even asked me if I saw the trombone player there. I’m really confused about how this guy is missing so much stuff, but hey, who’s complaining?
The night I decided to push my luck even a little further. I don’t usually try to get myself in trouble on these ships, it’s the absolute last thing in the world I want to do, but sometimes you have to break a couple rules. This time involved me wanting to get a chessboard for my cabin. The best place to pick one up is in the Golden Lion Pub on the ship, where they have about 10 of them in a pile. I figured they really didn’t need all 10 and decided to borrow one for the rest of my contract. So late at night, I snuck up to the pub, nonchalantly walked by the passengers to the chess game, grabbed it and walked back to my cabin. I guess it’s no mission impossible or anything, but it was still slightly nerve-racking taking the game. But I think that’s going to be it for my career as a thief for the rest of the contract, let’s just hope I can stay out of trouble for a while now. Thanks for reading!
Sea Day/Trondheim
July 13th-14th
Sea Day/Trondheim
The 13th was a usual sea day, except that night was a little different from the usual guest performance. Instead, both bands on the ship were combined to make a big band (or close to) and we played a couple hours of big band dance music. I was excited simply because it’d be something different and I haven’t played in a big band for a while, so I was looking forward to hearing that sound again. Unfortunately, it got off to a bad start. The music director has a communication method here on the ship which involves placing memos on your door when something changes. There was a memo for tonight’s show to be there 30 minutes early…that I didn’t get. Gordon had been working hard all day putting together charts for the evening show, and among the piles of charts around the room, he had misplaced the memo. So I show up to the set all excited for something new only to find out I’m 15 minutes late for set up and have a whole pile of tunes to sort through and put in order, not to mention assembling my sax, flute and clarinet. I was able to get my horns out and a few of the tunes in order before we started, and then found more during long rests, and though I never did actually hold up the band, it wasn’t exactly preferred playing conditions. Then, as I expected, the music director had to ask me why I was so late, to which he doesn’t understand that it’s possible for memos on door handles to get misplaced. Let’s just say it wasn’t exactly how I wanted the night to go. But seeing as I didn’t mess anything up for the band, I’m not going to worry about it
The 14th in Trondheim was a little more fun. I was able to get on a tour today that took me to the Lokken Mine and for a train ride on a “vintage railway.” The mine was interesting – a copper mine over 300 years old and just closed down in 1987. For the tour, everyone in the group got to put on hard hats and then proceeded into the mine where we had a short violin concert before making our way out. The concert was where a huge copper deposit had been dug out, leaving a perfect place for a concert hall (if you disregard the near freezing temperature and ubiquitous sound of dripping water). Anyways, the violinist played a few tunes on the makeshift stage and then the group slowly made it’s way out into sunlight again. It was actually a fun excursion, but then again, that’s probably just because I like the novelty of wearing a hard hat, regardless of where you put me.
The mine was followed by a vintage train ride through the area. I was excited for the train ride, but after 50 minutes of less than choice scenery observed from hard wooden benches in a crowded wooden box, I guess I changed my mind (sorry Uncle Steve). I did take a lot of pictures for all my train fanatic relatives, but I just simply can’t patronize the whole vintage train thing…maybe because they took my hard hat away.
But there was yet another problem that I was worried was going to get me in trouble. Trondheim was my in port manning day, meaning in order to get off the ship, I had to switch duties with a friend, which I did. It’s not like switching duties is hard, the only thing you have to do is stay on the ship, and my friend had no problem doing that. The only problem was that while I was gone, they had a surprise IPM drill in the morning, something they haven’t done once since I’d been on the ship. My buddy didn’t wake up for it. Now, the whole IPM thing is kind of ridiculous to begin with, but the ship takes it seriously and I wasn’t looking forward to the trouble I was about to get in when the music director found out my friend didn’t show up in my place. When I got back to my room, curiously, there was no note. Surely the word didn’t get out yet, so waited in anxious anticipation (maybe I’m over dramatizing this). Then came the schedule for tomorrow with a note at the bottom of it, “congratulations entertainment division for 100% IPM attendance.” Could it be he just never found out? Could I get that lucky? Then he knocked on my door, this was it… “Hey Mike, is Gordon around?” he asks. I say that he isn’t which he follows with, “Hey, you had IPM today, right? You showed up this morning, didn’t you?” Moment of truth. “Yeah, I was there,” I answer, obviously a flat out lie. He thanks me for my participation and leaves. I can’t figure out how I dodged that bullet, it really doesn’t make any sense at all because I know for a fact my friend slept through the drill, but somehow everything worked out – sweet.
Anyways, there’s a melodramatic account of my day in Trondheim, thanks for hanging in there through my attempt at a suspense post. Hopefully I can keep myself out of trouble from here on out! Thanks!
Sea Day/Trondheim
The 13th was a usual sea day, except that night was a little different from the usual guest performance. Instead, both bands on the ship were combined to make a big band (or close to) and we played a couple hours of big band dance music. I was excited simply because it’d be something different and I haven’t played in a big band for a while, so I was looking forward to hearing that sound again. Unfortunately, it got off to a bad start. The music director has a communication method here on the ship which involves placing memos on your door when something changes. There was a memo for tonight’s show to be there 30 minutes early…that I didn’t get. Gordon had been working hard all day putting together charts for the evening show, and among the piles of charts around the room, he had misplaced the memo. So I show up to the set all excited for something new only to find out I’m 15 minutes late for set up and have a whole pile of tunes to sort through and put in order, not to mention assembling my sax, flute and clarinet. I was able to get my horns out and a few of the tunes in order before we started, and then found more during long rests, and though I never did actually hold up the band, it wasn’t exactly preferred playing conditions. Then, as I expected, the music director had to ask me why I was so late, to which he doesn’t understand that it’s possible for memos on door handles to get misplaced. Let’s just say it wasn’t exactly how I wanted the night to go. But seeing as I didn’t mess anything up for the band, I’m not going to worry about it
The 14th in Trondheim was a little more fun. I was able to get on a tour today that took me to the Lokken Mine and for a train ride on a “vintage railway.” The mine was interesting – a copper mine over 300 years old and just closed down in 1987. For the tour, everyone in the group got to put on hard hats and then proceeded into the mine where we had a short violin concert before making our way out. The concert was where a huge copper deposit had been dug out, leaving a perfect place for a concert hall (if you disregard the near freezing temperature and ubiquitous sound of dripping water). Anyways, the violinist played a few tunes on the makeshift stage and then the group slowly made it’s way out into sunlight again. It was actually a fun excursion, but then again, that’s probably just because I like the novelty of wearing a hard hat, regardless of where you put me.
The mine was followed by a vintage train ride through the area. I was excited for the train ride, but after 50 minutes of less than choice scenery observed from hard wooden benches in a crowded wooden box, I guess I changed my mind (sorry Uncle Steve). I did take a lot of pictures for all my train fanatic relatives, but I just simply can’t patronize the whole vintage train thing…maybe because they took my hard hat away.
But there was yet another problem that I was worried was going to get me in trouble. Trondheim was my in port manning day, meaning in order to get off the ship, I had to switch duties with a friend, which I did. It’s not like switching duties is hard, the only thing you have to do is stay on the ship, and my friend had no problem doing that. The only problem was that while I was gone, they had a surprise IPM drill in the morning, something they haven’t done once since I’d been on the ship. My buddy didn’t wake up for it. Now, the whole IPM thing is kind of ridiculous to begin with, but the ship takes it seriously and I wasn’t looking forward to the trouble I was about to get in when the music director found out my friend didn’t show up in my place. When I got back to my room, curiously, there was no note. Surely the word didn’t get out yet, so waited in anxious anticipation (maybe I’m over dramatizing this). Then came the schedule for tomorrow with a note at the bottom of it, “congratulations entertainment division for 100% IPM attendance.” Could it be he just never found out? Could I get that lucky? Then he knocked on my door, this was it… “Hey Mike, is Gordon around?” he asks. I say that he isn’t which he follows with, “Hey, you had IPM today, right? You showed up this morning, didn’t you?” Moment of truth. “Yeah, I was there,” I answer, obviously a flat out lie. He thanks me for my participation and leaves. I can’t figure out how I dodged that bullet, it really doesn’t make any sense at all because I know for a fact my friend slept through the drill, but somehow everything worked out – sweet.
Anyways, there’s a melodramatic account of my day in Trondheim, thanks for hanging in there through my attempt at a suspense post. Hopefully I can keep myself out of trouble from here on out! Thanks!
Honningsvag
July 12th
Honningsvag
Today was my return to the Honningsvag, a day I’ve been looking forward to for the past 4 weeks. If you recall from my previous post from this port, this was the day I climbed the mountain and met the old man at the top, the one I called the “keeper of the list.” If you didn’t read that post, go back 4 weeks and find it, it’s worth the read.
Anyways, I was excited about today and taking my old man friend up on his offer for tea when I returned to the city. I got off the ship a bit after noon to make my way through the city to the address I had written in my note pad a month earlier. I had no problem remembering my way through the tiny city and soon found my self at his door, 5 Prestevannsvein (yeah, that’s be the street name). I rang the doorbell, slightly nervous about just showing up, and after a few moments…nothing. I rang again, knocked on the door, still nothing. I started walking around the front of the house looking in the windows for a sign of life, but to my dismay, still nothing. A neighbor of his saw me checking out the house, and considering how suspicious I looked, came outside to ask me something in Norwegian. I let him know I was looking for Basse Larrson, and the neighbor let me know he’d gone into the city and would be back in 10 minutes. I thanked him and took a seat on the front steps of the house to wait for my host. I waited 10 minutes, nothing…30 minutes…an hour…still nothing. After over an hour of sitting there doing nothing but watching the occasional person walk by, I decided to write him a note and walk around for a bit before I lost the entire day to a tea party that might not happen. I tore a sheet of paper from my note pad, wrote him a greeting and reminded him of who I was, left an email address, and said I’d stop back again a couple more times before I left port. I walked one direction toward the mountain I’d originally met him on, enjoyed the view, then returned to his house…still nothing. I walked the other direction towards this peninsula that jutted out toward the ship, enjoyed the scenery and returned…again, nothing. By this point, I was out of time to sit down with him to have tea and began walking back to the ship while keeping an eye out for my friend. I stayed on land as long as possible looking but to no avail, my hyped up return to Honningsvag had culminated in an anticlimactic day of unfruitful waiting. Thankfully, the waiting was accompanied by an absolutely gorgeous day, likely the warmest of the year, and I enjoyed listening to the birds and passively observing the city, but that wasn’t at all the outcome I was expecting. I returned to the ship, and disappointed by the falling through of a plan built up with 4 weeks of anticipation, made my way to the theater for the usual rehearsal with a usual guest entertainer.
Unfortunately, that’s about all I have to say about my day in Honningsvag. I’ll be sure to let you know if I do indeed receive an email from my friend. But till then, I guess I’ll just continue sailing out of northern Norway looking for my next opportunity for a good adventure and great story to write home about.
One last thing – I did see the north cape as we sailed out of port. The North Cape, a huge seaside cliff, is the northernmost point of continental Europe, and has a majesty certainly worthy of the prestigious location. It was a gorgeous site and nice treat as I left northern Norway for what may likely be the last time. Thanks for reading!
Honningsvag
Today was my return to the Honningsvag, a day I’ve been looking forward to for the past 4 weeks. If you recall from my previous post from this port, this was the day I climbed the mountain and met the old man at the top, the one I called the “keeper of the list.” If you didn’t read that post, go back 4 weeks and find it, it’s worth the read.
Anyways, I was excited about today and taking my old man friend up on his offer for tea when I returned to the city. I got off the ship a bit after noon to make my way through the city to the address I had written in my note pad a month earlier. I had no problem remembering my way through the tiny city and soon found my self at his door, 5 Prestevannsvein (yeah, that’s be the street name). I rang the doorbell, slightly nervous about just showing up, and after a few moments…nothing. I rang again, knocked on the door, still nothing. I started walking around the front of the house looking in the windows for a sign of life, but to my dismay, still nothing. A neighbor of his saw me checking out the house, and considering how suspicious I looked, came outside to ask me something in Norwegian. I let him know I was looking for Basse Larrson, and the neighbor let me know he’d gone into the city and would be back in 10 minutes. I thanked him and took a seat on the front steps of the house to wait for my host. I waited 10 minutes, nothing…30 minutes…an hour…still nothing. After over an hour of sitting there doing nothing but watching the occasional person walk by, I decided to write him a note and walk around for a bit before I lost the entire day to a tea party that might not happen. I tore a sheet of paper from my note pad, wrote him a greeting and reminded him of who I was, left an email address, and said I’d stop back again a couple more times before I left port. I walked one direction toward the mountain I’d originally met him on, enjoyed the view, then returned to his house…still nothing. I walked the other direction towards this peninsula that jutted out toward the ship, enjoyed the scenery and returned…again, nothing. By this point, I was out of time to sit down with him to have tea and began walking back to the ship while keeping an eye out for my friend. I stayed on land as long as possible looking but to no avail, my hyped up return to Honningsvag had culminated in an anticlimactic day of unfruitful waiting. Thankfully, the waiting was accompanied by an absolutely gorgeous day, likely the warmest of the year, and I enjoyed listening to the birds and passively observing the city, but that wasn’t at all the outcome I was expecting. I returned to the ship, and disappointed by the falling through of a plan built up with 4 weeks of anticipation, made my way to the theater for the usual rehearsal with a usual guest entertainer.
Unfortunately, that’s about all I have to say about my day in Honningsvag. I’ll be sure to let you know if I do indeed receive an email from my friend. But till then, I guess I’ll just continue sailing out of northern Norway looking for my next opportunity for a good adventure and great story to write home about.
One last thing – I did see the north cape as we sailed out of port. The North Cape, a huge seaside cliff, is the northernmost point of continental Europe, and has a majesty certainly worthy of the prestigious location. It was a gorgeous site and nice treat as I left northern Norway for what may likely be the last time. Thanks for reading!
Sea Day/Tromso
July 10th/11th
Sea Day/Tromso
The 10th was a sea day and was more of an organizational day for me than anything. I basically sat in my room most of the day going through my computer and external hard drive files. So nothing too exciting to tell you about there.
The 11th was my second time in Tromso, but this time I didn’t sleep through most of the time at port and I found the shuttle into the city. I went into the city with a friend from the spa and pretty much just walked around. It’s a usual Norwegian city, small and charming. It actually had a nice downtown shopping area as well, but when they’re selling strawberries there for $10 per case (like the small case you find at grocery stores at home), it was obvious I wasn’t going to be doing any shopping. But regardless, it was a gorgeous day and even slightly warm, rare for a Norwegian town so far north as Tromso. After a few hours in town, I had to catch a bus back for a rehearsal.
The show tonight was with Doug Cameron, a jazz violinist (I probably shouldn’t be saying names simply because of what happened with Mac a couple weeks back, but like Mac, I only have good things to say). Doug’s show was one of the few that I think the band actually enjoyed. I was slightly worried going into the rehearsal because there was an afternoon rhythm section rehearsal, something I’ve never seen a guest do in preparation for a full band rehearsal. I went in expecting a long rehearsal going over unnecessarily complex charts you’d have to be crazy to enjoy, and came out after a long rehearsal with complex charts you’d have to be crazy NOT to enjoy. It’s always nice getting difficult music that is challenging because it’s written well, not challenging because the arranger is a moron (big difference). Doug also brought in the string qurtet for the show, which I never get tired of hearing. My only complaint was that I had to play clarinet solo’s again, one of which was a Dixie solo where I had to stand up and go to the front of the stage and improvise something, another new one for me with that less than agreeable instrument. Anyways, the shows both went well and I’m disappointed he’s not coming back anytime soon.
Following the shows, Doug was nice enough to take the entire band out for drinks in the pub upstairs. It’s not the first time guests have bought drinks for the band, but it’s the first time one actually took us up in a guest area, bought good drinks, and conversed with us for over an hour. I have a lot of respect for a guest that can do that simply because it shows a lot of respect for the band. So from 12:15 to 1:45 we all hung out talking about whatever and looking out the window at a Norwegian coastline that at this time of the year, doesn’t see sunsets. You have no idea how weird it is getting a drink after a long day (relatively speaking) and looking out the window to see the night time sky lit up just as brightly as if it were noon. Anyways, it was a nice night and another one of those ship experiences I live for. Thanks for reading!
Sea Day/Tromso
The 10th was a sea day and was more of an organizational day for me than anything. I basically sat in my room most of the day going through my computer and external hard drive files. So nothing too exciting to tell you about there.
The 11th was my second time in Tromso, but this time I didn’t sleep through most of the time at port and I found the shuttle into the city. I went into the city with a friend from the spa and pretty much just walked around. It’s a usual Norwegian city, small and charming. It actually had a nice downtown shopping area as well, but when they’re selling strawberries there for $10 per case (like the small case you find at grocery stores at home), it was obvious I wasn’t going to be doing any shopping. But regardless, it was a gorgeous day and even slightly warm, rare for a Norwegian town so far north as Tromso. After a few hours in town, I had to catch a bus back for a rehearsal.
The show tonight was with Doug Cameron, a jazz violinist (I probably shouldn’t be saying names simply because of what happened with Mac a couple weeks back, but like Mac, I only have good things to say). Doug’s show was one of the few that I think the band actually enjoyed. I was slightly worried going into the rehearsal because there was an afternoon rhythm section rehearsal, something I’ve never seen a guest do in preparation for a full band rehearsal. I went in expecting a long rehearsal going over unnecessarily complex charts you’d have to be crazy to enjoy, and came out after a long rehearsal with complex charts you’d have to be crazy NOT to enjoy. It’s always nice getting difficult music that is challenging because it’s written well, not challenging because the arranger is a moron (big difference). Doug also brought in the string qurtet for the show, which I never get tired of hearing. My only complaint was that I had to play clarinet solo’s again, one of which was a Dixie solo where I had to stand up and go to the front of the stage and improvise something, another new one for me with that less than agreeable instrument. Anyways, the shows both went well and I’m disappointed he’s not coming back anytime soon.
Following the shows, Doug was nice enough to take the entire band out for drinks in the pub upstairs. It’s not the first time guests have bought drinks for the band, but it’s the first time one actually took us up in a guest area, bought good drinks, and conversed with us for over an hour. I have a lot of respect for a guest that can do that simply because it shows a lot of respect for the band. So from 12:15 to 1:45 we all hung out talking about whatever and looking out the window at a Norwegian coastline that at this time of the year, doesn’t see sunsets. You have no idea how weird it is getting a drink after a long day (relatively speaking) and looking out the window to see the night time sky lit up just as brightly as if it were noon. Anyways, it was a nice night and another one of those ship experiences I live for. Thanks for reading!
Olden
July 9th
Olden
I had another tour set up for today, but one that unfortunately fell through. When I signed up for the tour, I wasn’t aware there were two different departure times. I got put on the later time, meaning I had a conflict with a 4:30 rehearsal, meaning I had to wake up early to let the tour people know that I couldn’t make it. The back up plan was to rent bikes with the tenor player and go riding, but after a morning of trying to hunt down the new guy in charge of bike rentals, we found out he had been out of rentals since yesterday and that he’s a total jerk. Whatever, time to make a plan c.
Olden is this tiny little town built in the fjords, wedged between huge mountains. There’s almost nothing to do in the city but look at the breath taking views, and it really is beautiful there. It literally feels like you got sucked into a post card, and that you should be eating chocolate…though I’m not entirely sure why. Anyways, plan c ended up being my usual plan for any other place with mountains – climb them, and it was obvious this was to be my hardest challenge yet.
I got off the ship with the tenor player Ben and the pianist Patrick. Ben is a cool guy that I get along with well and enjoy playing with. He’s from Austin Texas, in his late 20’s, and really trying to get himself in shape during this contract, so he was certainly up for a climb. Patrick, as I often tell him, is one of the weirdest guys I know. He’s a character to say the least, with a very strange style of communication. He speaks in very short phrases, usually about very odd things, and I think has a talent for completely changing the rhythm of any usual conversation. Also in his late 20’s, he’s balding, quirky, and everyone loves him. He’s been getting into yoga, which is one of the funniest things I’ve seen, and was also interested in a good climb. Now I had my team.
It’s actually the first time I’ve ever climbed with a team like that. Usually I can’t find anyone who seems daring enough to go, or in shape enough to keep pace, so I was excited when we set out. As a joke, I set out wearing the bright yellow “Guide” hat we have to wear in case of emergency on the ship – I just felt like wearing a hat. We walked through the city to the other side of the valley so that we wouldn’t have to climb with the sun in our eyes. After picking our route, our first challenge was going to be to get through a cattle farm. Oddly enough, this seemed to be the hardest and most debated part of the hike, how to navigate through the farm. We thought we found a way, then saw how over grown it was, then found a steep slope with a barbed wire fence at the top. After much discussion and jokes about our ambitious goal being thwarted by cows, we sucked it up, made it up the slope and jumped the fence. The climb was on.
The mountainside where we started wasn’t especially steep, but it was very overgrown and was littered with holes and rocks. After a ways of climbing, we came to out first stream. Patrick, being Patrick, quickly ran over and started drinking the water and throwing it on his head. I’ve seen enough survival shows to know that drinking stream water is dangerous and warned him of dysentery, of which he held no concern. It didn’t take long though before the contagious nature of his enjoyment had Ben and myself drinking and playing in the fresh mountain spring water, it just looked too good to pass up. After the short break, we pressed on.
A lot of our climbing was up the rocky bed the stream flowed down. Though it was probably more dangerous, we didn’t have to deal with weird plants or the animals they may house. Also, following the stream made every second picture perfect, it was gorgeous. We had made another stop later for water and a bag of Norwegian strawberries Ben had brought along. Man were those things good, not to mention it’s just really cool sitting on a mountain, overlooking the fjord, wet with mountain spring water, and eating Norwegian strawberries. I enjoyed that moment. The next part of the hike was to take us to where our stream formed a huge waterfall, a goal we had set when we first scouted the mountain. As expected, it was gorgeous when we reached it and we took time to appreciate the scenery. We were quickly running out of time though, and the terrain was making a drastic change from hike-able slopes to rock faces. With out any gear, decent clothing, or even basic instruction…we decided not to push our luck. Sorry all you guys that would have loved to hear me say I went for it, but to climb a rock face that was wet from the water fall and at an angle that made good holds impossible, it just wasn’t going to happen. We spent the rest of our time enjoying the area and exploring the different waterfalls we could find before beginning the decent I had made sure to allow over 2 hours for.
The walk back down was nice, not to mention funny when I got to watch my friends slipping on the loose stone. Going down is always the hardest part of climbing simply because of gravity being with you. All it takes is a single slip to turn your modest descent speed into a human avalanche. Luckily, any falls my friends took were less than dangerous areas, no one got hurt.
At the bottom, we had one more challenge, the cattle farm. As we got close to one of the pastures the cows were grazing in, it became blatantly obvious these cows were extremely territorial. As we approached, the cows all turned, walked to the bottom of the hill we were descending, and mooed their angry moos. It doesn’t sound that bad, but I can honestly say I’ve never been so intimidated by a farm animal in my life. I had no doubt these things wanted to maim me, and as dumb as the thought of an intimidating moo may sound, it was obvious to all of us these were cattle war cries directed toward us. Well, we retreated, we’re not dumb, and Ben being from Texas lead the retreat. I was laughing the whole time just because I never thought a cow could be so scary. As we got scared back up the mountain, we relocated that original barbed wire fence we had to jump, jumped it, and descended the remainder of the way on the safe side of the fence. The cows watched the whole thing.
Well, we had done it, kind of. We made a climb, though not quite reaching the top, we got some marvelous views, good stories, and no injuries. We walked back around the city as to get a perspective from the ground as to how successful we were with our climb. Well, after what was 2 hours of climbing and our fair share of scrapes, we could now see we climbed nearly 1/3 of the mountain….woohoo….not. Man, I thought we did fairly we climbing this thing, and there was a lot of effort that went into it, and then to get to the bottom and see that we weren’t even close was kind of depressing. Sure, you have to appreciate it for what it is, and we didn’t exactly have a lot of time to make the climb, but after our jokes about pushing snowmen from the top of the mountain, I would have liked to have seen a little more progress than that. But hey, it was still a great day, still on of the most beautiful ports ever, and the cows weren’t successful in making meat patties out of any of us…it was a great day.
We returned to the ship just barely before rehearsal and then the day progressed in usual fashion. I was glad to have spent the day as I did and had a great time with my friends and a wonderful hike. Not to mention, it just reaffirms in my mind that the real joy of traveling comes from the friends you make, not the sites you see. Anyways, thanks for reading this long post about relatively little and have a great day. Seeya!
Olden
I had another tour set up for today, but one that unfortunately fell through. When I signed up for the tour, I wasn’t aware there were two different departure times. I got put on the later time, meaning I had a conflict with a 4:30 rehearsal, meaning I had to wake up early to let the tour people know that I couldn’t make it. The back up plan was to rent bikes with the tenor player and go riding, but after a morning of trying to hunt down the new guy in charge of bike rentals, we found out he had been out of rentals since yesterday and that he’s a total jerk. Whatever, time to make a plan c.
Olden is this tiny little town built in the fjords, wedged between huge mountains. There’s almost nothing to do in the city but look at the breath taking views, and it really is beautiful there. It literally feels like you got sucked into a post card, and that you should be eating chocolate…though I’m not entirely sure why. Anyways, plan c ended up being my usual plan for any other place with mountains – climb them, and it was obvious this was to be my hardest challenge yet.
I got off the ship with the tenor player Ben and the pianist Patrick. Ben is a cool guy that I get along with well and enjoy playing with. He’s from Austin Texas, in his late 20’s, and really trying to get himself in shape during this contract, so he was certainly up for a climb. Patrick, as I often tell him, is one of the weirdest guys I know. He’s a character to say the least, with a very strange style of communication. He speaks in very short phrases, usually about very odd things, and I think has a talent for completely changing the rhythm of any usual conversation. Also in his late 20’s, he’s balding, quirky, and everyone loves him. He’s been getting into yoga, which is one of the funniest things I’ve seen, and was also interested in a good climb. Now I had my team.
It’s actually the first time I’ve ever climbed with a team like that. Usually I can’t find anyone who seems daring enough to go, or in shape enough to keep pace, so I was excited when we set out. As a joke, I set out wearing the bright yellow “Guide” hat we have to wear in case of emergency on the ship – I just felt like wearing a hat. We walked through the city to the other side of the valley so that we wouldn’t have to climb with the sun in our eyes. After picking our route, our first challenge was going to be to get through a cattle farm. Oddly enough, this seemed to be the hardest and most debated part of the hike, how to navigate through the farm. We thought we found a way, then saw how over grown it was, then found a steep slope with a barbed wire fence at the top. After much discussion and jokes about our ambitious goal being thwarted by cows, we sucked it up, made it up the slope and jumped the fence. The climb was on.
The mountainside where we started wasn’t especially steep, but it was very overgrown and was littered with holes and rocks. After a ways of climbing, we came to out first stream. Patrick, being Patrick, quickly ran over and started drinking the water and throwing it on his head. I’ve seen enough survival shows to know that drinking stream water is dangerous and warned him of dysentery, of which he held no concern. It didn’t take long though before the contagious nature of his enjoyment had Ben and myself drinking and playing in the fresh mountain spring water, it just looked too good to pass up. After the short break, we pressed on.
A lot of our climbing was up the rocky bed the stream flowed down. Though it was probably more dangerous, we didn’t have to deal with weird plants or the animals they may house. Also, following the stream made every second picture perfect, it was gorgeous. We had made another stop later for water and a bag of Norwegian strawberries Ben had brought along. Man were those things good, not to mention it’s just really cool sitting on a mountain, overlooking the fjord, wet with mountain spring water, and eating Norwegian strawberries. I enjoyed that moment. The next part of the hike was to take us to where our stream formed a huge waterfall, a goal we had set when we first scouted the mountain. As expected, it was gorgeous when we reached it and we took time to appreciate the scenery. We were quickly running out of time though, and the terrain was making a drastic change from hike-able slopes to rock faces. With out any gear, decent clothing, or even basic instruction…we decided not to push our luck. Sorry all you guys that would have loved to hear me say I went for it, but to climb a rock face that was wet from the water fall and at an angle that made good holds impossible, it just wasn’t going to happen. We spent the rest of our time enjoying the area and exploring the different waterfalls we could find before beginning the decent I had made sure to allow over 2 hours for.
The walk back down was nice, not to mention funny when I got to watch my friends slipping on the loose stone. Going down is always the hardest part of climbing simply because of gravity being with you. All it takes is a single slip to turn your modest descent speed into a human avalanche. Luckily, any falls my friends took were less than dangerous areas, no one got hurt.
At the bottom, we had one more challenge, the cattle farm. As we got close to one of the pastures the cows were grazing in, it became blatantly obvious these cows were extremely territorial. As we approached, the cows all turned, walked to the bottom of the hill we were descending, and mooed their angry moos. It doesn’t sound that bad, but I can honestly say I’ve never been so intimidated by a farm animal in my life. I had no doubt these things wanted to maim me, and as dumb as the thought of an intimidating moo may sound, it was obvious to all of us these were cattle war cries directed toward us. Well, we retreated, we’re not dumb, and Ben being from Texas lead the retreat. I was laughing the whole time just because I never thought a cow could be so scary. As we got scared back up the mountain, we relocated that original barbed wire fence we had to jump, jumped it, and descended the remainder of the way on the safe side of the fence. The cows watched the whole thing.
Well, we had done it, kind of. We made a climb, though not quite reaching the top, we got some marvelous views, good stories, and no injuries. We walked back around the city as to get a perspective from the ground as to how successful we were with our climb. Well, after what was 2 hours of climbing and our fair share of scrapes, we could now see we climbed nearly 1/3 of the mountain….woohoo….not. Man, I thought we did fairly we climbing this thing, and there was a lot of effort that went into it, and then to get to the bottom and see that we weren’t even close was kind of depressing. Sure, you have to appreciate it for what it is, and we didn’t exactly have a lot of time to make the climb, but after our jokes about pushing snowmen from the top of the mountain, I would have liked to have seen a little more progress than that. But hey, it was still a great day, still on of the most beautiful ports ever, and the cows weren’t successful in making meat patties out of any of us…it was a great day.
We returned to the ship just barely before rehearsal and then the day progressed in usual fashion. I was glad to have spent the day as I did and had a great time with my friends and a wonderful hike. Not to mention, it just reaffirms in my mind that the real joy of traveling comes from the friends you make, not the sites you see. Anyways, thanks for reading this long post about relatively little and have a great day. Seeya!
Stavanger
July 8th
Stavanger, Norway
I had a tour set up for today entitled “Introduction to Stavanger,” which had me off the ship early in the morning. Our first stop was at some long houses that were inhabited 1500 years ago, where we were shown how the people used to live and farm. It was an interesting stop and I think I even learned a little something. Our guide showed us how they made fire, clothes, food, and explained the design of the houses, all very interesting. And at the end, I even saw some sheep roaming the farm area. Yep, sheep, I find that exciting. After a couple less interesting stops we returned for a city for an overview, also not as exciting as the sheep.
The tours are kind of getting a little annoying at times. I always feel like I have to heard these people around and watch after them as if they don’t know how to take care of themselves or follow simple directions. This tour was no exception. Aside from the various people asking me detailed questions about Norwegian culture, of which I had no answer for, I had one woman in particular who stood out above, or I guess below, the class. This lady comes up to me asking if there’s water anywhere…while we’re stopped at a closed down TV tower to look at the city. Well, there isn’t any in the bus and the tower has nothing go on inside it, so I say no, not at this moment. She gets upset and tells me that if she doesn’t get water in 30 minutes so that she can take her medication “we’re going to have problems”. Now really, you would think that a middle aged woman with a condition that will cause “problems” would have enough sense to bring a water bottle with her on a tour that obviously extends through her scheduled pill time. So a couple stops later and well past her half hour time limit, I ask if she found any water, just because I’m a thoughtful guy and all. She says yes, asks where she can find Coffee at our current stop, and because she can see the ship, eventually breaks off from the group and doesn’t return. I just don’t understand what’s with some of these people, and why I have such a talent of finding them. Anyways, the tour ended with a walk through the town and I got back on the ship for the day. There wasn’t much more for me to see off the ship, and considering the prices of everything in Norway, I just couldn’t justify getting off for a coffee or tea. We had a show that night and that’s about all. Seeya!
Stavanger, Norway
I had a tour set up for today entitled “Introduction to Stavanger,” which had me off the ship early in the morning. Our first stop was at some long houses that were inhabited 1500 years ago, where we were shown how the people used to live and farm. It was an interesting stop and I think I even learned a little something. Our guide showed us how they made fire, clothes, food, and explained the design of the houses, all very interesting. And at the end, I even saw some sheep roaming the farm area. Yep, sheep, I find that exciting. After a couple less interesting stops we returned for a city for an overview, also not as exciting as the sheep.
The tours are kind of getting a little annoying at times. I always feel like I have to heard these people around and watch after them as if they don’t know how to take care of themselves or follow simple directions. This tour was no exception. Aside from the various people asking me detailed questions about Norwegian culture, of which I had no answer for, I had one woman in particular who stood out above, or I guess below, the class. This lady comes up to me asking if there’s water anywhere…while we’re stopped at a closed down TV tower to look at the city. Well, there isn’t any in the bus and the tower has nothing go on inside it, so I say no, not at this moment. She gets upset and tells me that if she doesn’t get water in 30 minutes so that she can take her medication “we’re going to have problems”. Now really, you would think that a middle aged woman with a condition that will cause “problems” would have enough sense to bring a water bottle with her on a tour that obviously extends through her scheduled pill time. So a couple stops later and well past her half hour time limit, I ask if she found any water, just because I’m a thoughtful guy and all. She says yes, asks where she can find Coffee at our current stop, and because she can see the ship, eventually breaks off from the group and doesn’t return. I just don’t understand what’s with some of these people, and why I have such a talent of finding them. Anyways, the tour ended with a walk through the town and I got back on the ship for the day. There wasn’t much more for me to see off the ship, and considering the prices of everything in Norway, I just couldn’t justify getting off for a coffee or tea. We had a show that night and that’s about all. Seeya!
Southampton/Sea day
July 6th/7th
Southampton/Sea Day
Back in Southampton for the 6th and ready to start off on what will be my 3rd cruise since joining the Queen Victoria. I was a little slow getting off the ship today due to the rainstorm that greeted me that morning at breakfast. Seeing as my main reason for getting off the ship is for internet, there was no way I was going to risk traveling into the city in the rain with my computer in an old backpack that has surely lost any waterproofing qualities it might have once had. It wasn’t until about 2:00 when I made my way outdoors, leaving me about 2 hours to catch up on two weeks of cruising. Not much more to say, I got done what I needed, didn’t have much time for shopping, and made it back to the ship just barely on time. The rest of the day went as usual with the welcome aboard shows, and we set off for Norway.
The 7th was a sea day, and uneventful. We had a production show that night following a Dixie show in the afternoon. You know, I’m actually liking the Dixie sets I have to play on the clarinet. Despite still thinking the clarinet would serve more use in a fireplace, the Dixie set almost has me making friends with it. Anyways, everything went fine and that’s the day, thanks!
Southampton/Sea Day
Back in Southampton for the 6th and ready to start off on what will be my 3rd cruise since joining the Queen Victoria. I was a little slow getting off the ship today due to the rainstorm that greeted me that morning at breakfast. Seeing as my main reason for getting off the ship is for internet, there was no way I was going to risk traveling into the city in the rain with my computer in an old backpack that has surely lost any waterproofing qualities it might have once had. It wasn’t until about 2:00 when I made my way outdoors, leaving me about 2 hours to catch up on two weeks of cruising. Not much more to say, I got done what I needed, didn’t have much time for shopping, and made it back to the ship just barely on time. The rest of the day went as usual with the welcome aboard shows, and we set off for Norway.
The 7th was a sea day, and uneventful. We had a production show that night following a Dixie show in the afternoon. You know, I’m actually liking the Dixie sets I have to play on the clarinet. Despite still thinking the clarinet would serve more use in a fireplace, the Dixie set almost has me making friends with it. Anyways, everything went fine and that’s the day, thanks!
Sunday, July 6, 2008
Gdynia/Sea Day/Sea Day
July 3rd-5th
Gdynia, Sea day, Sea day
I was assigned to In Port Manning in Gdynia, meaning I was stuck on the ship. I didn’t really mind though because Gdynia and Gdansk aren’t the most interesting ports. When I was hear last I really enjoyed it, but I don’t feel like there’s a whole lot more I can get out of it by walking around on my own, so it was a perfect port for IPM. Meanwhile, the next two days were sea days, so those were about as uneventful as Gdynia. The 4th of July wasn’t anything spectacular seeing as I’m on a British ship and half the American’s here with me work in the band. I had a couple toasts with my Estonian Vodka, and that was about the extent of my celebrating…slightly depressing. I hope someone is saving me fireworks for when I get home! Tomorrow is Southampton again so I’ll be getting off and making all my posts. This puts 2 cruises behind me and 4 weeks of “work,” each of which is going faster than the last. Oh, tonight I’m doing another self-defense class, so I’ll just write now about how I’m sure it’s going to end up – bruises. As always, thanks for reading and be sure to keep in touch! Have a great day!
Gdynia, Sea day, Sea day
I was assigned to In Port Manning in Gdynia, meaning I was stuck on the ship. I didn’t really mind though because Gdynia and Gdansk aren’t the most interesting ports. When I was hear last I really enjoyed it, but I don’t feel like there’s a whole lot more I can get out of it by walking around on my own, so it was a perfect port for IPM. Meanwhile, the next two days were sea days, so those were about as uneventful as Gdynia. The 4th of July wasn’t anything spectacular seeing as I’m on a British ship and half the American’s here with me work in the band. I had a couple toasts with my Estonian Vodka, and that was about the extent of my celebrating…slightly depressing. I hope someone is saving me fireworks for when I get home! Tomorrow is Southampton again so I’ll be getting off and making all my posts. This puts 2 cruises behind me and 4 weeks of “work,” each of which is going faster than the last. Oh, tonight I’m doing another self-defense class, so I’ll just write now about how I’m sure it’s going to end up – bruises. As always, thanks for reading and be sure to keep in touch! Have a great day!
Tallinn
July 2nd
Tallinn Estonia
Today was my second time in Estonia, and today I had one objective - find vodka. Last time I was here with the Navigator, my old roommate Pieter found some Estonian Vodka that was the best vodka he’d ever had, and after trying it myself way back when I remembered thinking the same thing. Ever since I’ve been trying to find Estonian Vodka anytime I’ve walked by a vodka display (mind you, not that often an occurrence), so I was determined to find that same bottle I remember from almost a year ago.
I got off the ship with about 90 minutes left of port time (early sail away) in search of my goal, and after asking a couple girls on the street who were giving out free samples of almonds, I quickly located an alcohol shop. It didn’t take long for me to find the bottle I remembered seeing Pieter with, and with excitement purchased it. Mission Complete. But I still had 50 minutes left to walk around, so I went exploring with my new purchase swinging from my hand in a plastic bag.
I forgot how beautiful Estonia was and had a very pleasant walk through the city. It was extremely busy due to the 5 cruise ships in port, but still gorgeous. I didn’t do much more than walk around just because of my time constraints. I did however almost manage to get hit by a tram (yeah, I bet that makes Mom and Dad feel good, and no, I wasn’t drinking the vodka). Tallinn has these trams running through the city for public transportation, and I’m sure it’s a really good system, but the safety is not. This track was set on a grassy area between two roads just coming out of a turn. I had crossed the first road, and upon stepping onto the grassy area with my sights set on crossing the second road, heard a strange metallic sound that I couldn’t recognize. I kept walking trying to figure out what it was by listening really attentively, and it wasn’t till I crossed the first set of tram tracks that I looked to my right and saw the thing coming right at me. I had realized just soon enough to not have to jump out of the way or anything dramatic like that, but I was about 3 steps away from breaking my bottle of vodka…and a couple other things. Anyways, after yelling at myself about not looking around, I continued walking and contemplating how I’ve probably never been closer to serious injury since joining cruise ships. Let’s just hope that doesn’t happen again.
Well, now that I have you all worried about my well being in recently communist satellites, I guess I’ll wrap up the post. We had a usual guest artist show that night and I shared my vodka with a lot of people, drinking very little of it myself. I don’t know that it’s quite as good as I remembered, but my friends all seemed to appreciate its quality. Anyways, that’s about it for my most recent near death experience. Thanks for reading and let’s hope for many more posts to come!
Oh yeah, and I also got attacked by a seagull walking back to the ship. It appears that I walked too close to it’s nest which it had strategically built in the rocks directly next to the road. Before I knew it I was literally getting dive-bombed by this black-headed seagull with the most hideous screech I’ve ever heard. After a couple passes within inches of my skull, some guy informed me of my mistake and I took off running, once again afraid for my life, but this time with a slight smile. I’m just glad he didn’t release any projectiles in his raid. After escaping dockside no-man’s land, I walked away peacefully to the sounds of the seagull attacking the next naïve victim of avian trespassing.
Tallinn Estonia
Today was my second time in Estonia, and today I had one objective - find vodka. Last time I was here with the Navigator, my old roommate Pieter found some Estonian Vodka that was the best vodka he’d ever had, and after trying it myself way back when I remembered thinking the same thing. Ever since I’ve been trying to find Estonian Vodka anytime I’ve walked by a vodka display (mind you, not that often an occurrence), so I was determined to find that same bottle I remember from almost a year ago.
I got off the ship with about 90 minutes left of port time (early sail away) in search of my goal, and after asking a couple girls on the street who were giving out free samples of almonds, I quickly located an alcohol shop. It didn’t take long for me to find the bottle I remembered seeing Pieter with, and with excitement purchased it. Mission Complete. But I still had 50 minutes left to walk around, so I went exploring with my new purchase swinging from my hand in a plastic bag.
I forgot how beautiful Estonia was and had a very pleasant walk through the city. It was extremely busy due to the 5 cruise ships in port, but still gorgeous. I didn’t do much more than walk around just because of my time constraints. I did however almost manage to get hit by a tram (yeah, I bet that makes Mom and Dad feel good, and no, I wasn’t drinking the vodka). Tallinn has these trams running through the city for public transportation, and I’m sure it’s a really good system, but the safety is not. This track was set on a grassy area between two roads just coming out of a turn. I had crossed the first road, and upon stepping onto the grassy area with my sights set on crossing the second road, heard a strange metallic sound that I couldn’t recognize. I kept walking trying to figure out what it was by listening really attentively, and it wasn’t till I crossed the first set of tram tracks that I looked to my right and saw the thing coming right at me. I had realized just soon enough to not have to jump out of the way or anything dramatic like that, but I was about 3 steps away from breaking my bottle of vodka…and a couple other things. Anyways, after yelling at myself about not looking around, I continued walking and contemplating how I’ve probably never been closer to serious injury since joining cruise ships. Let’s just hope that doesn’t happen again.
Well, now that I have you all worried about my well being in recently communist satellites, I guess I’ll wrap up the post. We had a usual guest artist show that night and I shared my vodka with a lot of people, drinking very little of it myself. I don’t know that it’s quite as good as I remembered, but my friends all seemed to appreciate its quality. Anyways, that’s about it for my most recent near death experience. Thanks for reading and let’s hope for many more posts to come!
Oh yeah, and I also got attacked by a seagull walking back to the ship. It appears that I walked too close to it’s nest which it had strategically built in the rocks directly next to the road. Before I knew it I was literally getting dive-bombed by this black-headed seagull with the most hideous screech I’ve ever heard. After a couple passes within inches of my skull, some guy informed me of my mistake and I took off running, once again afraid for my life, but this time with a slight smile. I’m just glad he didn’t release any projectiles in his raid. After escaping dockside no-man’s land, I walked away peacefully to the sounds of the seagull attacking the next naïve victim of avian trespassing.
St. Petersburg
June 30th/July 1st
St. Petersburg
Wow, where do I even begin with this post? These two days that I spent in Russia were some of the busiest I’ve ever spent while working on ships, all because of the tour I went on. I’d signed up for what was called the “Grand Tour of St. Petersburg,” which was an intensive and comprehensive two-day tour with an itinerary that took you too all the important sites of the city. Each day consisted of a 9.5-10 hour tour schedule commencing at 7 AM…my first problem. So let me try to boil down the tour to blog length.
Day 1 started at about 6 AM when I woke up to get ready for the tour, and after playing a show till midnight and the hour time change from sailing into Russia, I was lucky to approach 4 hours of sleep. I met my group in the Queen’s Room on the ship and walked them down to the bus where we met our tour guide, Marina, a pleasant Russian woman with unending knowledge about her city and a thick accent. We left in the bus and headed towards our first point of interest, the Peterhof Palace. This palace was built to rival Versailles, and though I haven’t seen Versailles yet, I’d venture to say the Peterhof achieved it’s goal. The palace was unbelievable, the grounds were stunning with their gold plated fountains, and the rooms that we saw on the tour were some of the most extravagant I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t put my camera down, every 30 feet yielded another stunning room and another opportunity for a dozen more pictures.
Following that stop, we went to the Yusupov Palace (where Rasputin was murdered). Unfortunately, Russian history was never a strong point with me, so my appreciation of what I saw didn’t extend much further than the face-value of the gold plated statues, Chinese silk wall coverings, and elaborate chandeliers. It was still interesting hearing about the history, but not having much of a background to associate it with, I’m afraid I absorbed very little. Maybe one day I’ll go back to these pictures and try to figure out what exactly I was looking at, but till then, I’ll continue on in my dazed world of over-stimulated esthetic wonderment.
After the palace came lunch, always my favorite part of any tour. We stopped at a restaurant named “The Last Palace” (notice a theme yet?) and had what was described as a traditional Russian lunch. The lunch included a small portion of caviar, raw salmon, vodka, and champagne, along with more usual courses such as chicken. It was nice, nothing especially astounding, but still better than eating on the ship. The restaurant itself was impressive with high ceilings and a large banquet-type room in which we ate.
Following lunch was a trip to the Church of Spilled Blood. Now I’ve been to a lot of churches in Europe and have seen more steeples, shrines, and sarcophagi than I know what to do with, but this church was different. This church was decorated wall to wall, ceiling to floor, with an unending mosaic. I’m not kidding when I say there wasn’t a single empty space not filled with small colored stones, it was unbelievable. This one giant mosaic of a church was 7000 sq. meters in surface area! Again, I’ve been to more churches than I can count, but the had to have been the most impressive interior I’ve ever seen. I have pictures, I don’t know when I’ll get them up, but till then you’ll just have to take my word for it…or google search this place.
Then we set out for our last stop at St. Isaac’s, the central church of the city. This church is more on par with churches I’ve seen like the Vatican, with huge open interiors and high domes, impressive, but I was still reeling over our last stop, that and the fact I was about to be late getting back to the ship. The tour was supposed to get back to the ship at 4:30, I had a set at 5:00. I knew I was cutting it close, but when it was 4:20 and we were still standing in St. Isaac’s, I was getting worried. Apparently, the tour schedule got extended by 30 minutes, which was about 25 minutes more than I was comfortable with. I expressed concern to our tour guide Marina, she explained the schedule change, and we leisurely made our way out of the church back to the ship.
We returned at 4:53, I started running. Luckily, the set was some throw-away jazz combo set that the music director scheduled for absolutely no apparent reason. No one wanted to play it, nor did anyone want to lose part of there overnight to it, so if I was late it’d just about be inline with everyone else’s opinions going into it. After a quick change of clothes, I made it upstairs about a minute late, not late enough to get any kind of warning – sweet. Anyways, even if I did get in trouble, the 10 hour tour would have been worth being slightly late to that pointless set at which one person sat and listened to, so no big deal. I didn’t get off the ship that night then because luckily, the guest performer the next night didn’t use alto sax in her show, so I had the day and night free to head out and day two of the tour, again starting at 7 AM.
Day 2 and we’re off again, same group, same guide, same grueling schedule. This time we started off with a boat ride through the canals of St Petersburg. It was a really nice way to start the day, peaceful and relaxed, and offered some nice views of the city. That was the easy part.
Following the boat ride, we went to the Hermitage, another palace and huge art gallery. For two hours we walked through the rooms, getting a detailed description at each stop from Marina. It was certainly an impressive building and art collection, unfortunately by this point, I was starting to realize the pointlessness of my picture taking, there was just too much stuff. To take hundreds of pictures of objects that have little or no meaning to me aside from the immediate beauty seemed pointless as I’d have no way of explaining them later when I show these pictures to all of you. So I enjoyed my time for what it was worth and proceeded through the museum till we had completed our circuit.
The museum was followed by lunch at a place that seemed to be the exact opposite of yesterday’s stop. Instead of eating in a nice palace reserved for the elite, we instead went down into a dreary looking room where we found a more rural approach to lunch. Though the food wasn’t much different (still caviar, vodka, and champagne), we had the pleasure of listening to a group of musicians playing traditional folk songs with traditional instruments. I could hardly eat I was so interested in these different instruments and songs, it was a really interesting experience.
Lunch was followed by a shopping stop at a surprisingly small shop with some extremely pricey products. I sat that one out.
The last stop was at the Peter and Paul Fortress and Cathedral. Another interesting place to see, but again, it’s another church. They really should have put the church of Spilled Blood at the end of the tour, it would have made everything else so much more impressive at the time. Anyways, we spent some time there while Marina continued teaching us about the history, which at this point, wouldn’t even register with me. She had so much to say and I couldn’t absorb any of it by that point, but I guess that’s the challenge of almost 20 hours worth of tour time. We eventually departed the fortress for a long awaited bus ride back to the ship.
I didn’t do very much the rest of that evening, just kind of relaxed. But I think that pretty much covers my two day Russian adventure. The nice thing about it though is that I did get to see almost all of the city, even if it did mean sacrificing spending the night off the ship and waking up really early. But instead, what this means is that when I return in a month, I can spend all night out on the town and not feel bad about not appreciating the historical aspects of the city. So I’m glad for these past two well-spent days in Russia and am looking forward to coming back in 4 weeks. Thanks for reading!
St. Petersburg
Wow, where do I even begin with this post? These two days that I spent in Russia were some of the busiest I’ve ever spent while working on ships, all because of the tour I went on. I’d signed up for what was called the “Grand Tour of St. Petersburg,” which was an intensive and comprehensive two-day tour with an itinerary that took you too all the important sites of the city. Each day consisted of a 9.5-10 hour tour schedule commencing at 7 AM…my first problem. So let me try to boil down the tour to blog length.
Day 1 started at about 6 AM when I woke up to get ready for the tour, and after playing a show till midnight and the hour time change from sailing into Russia, I was lucky to approach 4 hours of sleep. I met my group in the Queen’s Room on the ship and walked them down to the bus where we met our tour guide, Marina, a pleasant Russian woman with unending knowledge about her city and a thick accent. We left in the bus and headed towards our first point of interest, the Peterhof Palace. This palace was built to rival Versailles, and though I haven’t seen Versailles yet, I’d venture to say the Peterhof achieved it’s goal. The palace was unbelievable, the grounds were stunning with their gold plated fountains, and the rooms that we saw on the tour were some of the most extravagant I’ve ever seen. I couldn’t put my camera down, every 30 feet yielded another stunning room and another opportunity for a dozen more pictures.
Following that stop, we went to the Yusupov Palace (where Rasputin was murdered). Unfortunately, Russian history was never a strong point with me, so my appreciation of what I saw didn’t extend much further than the face-value of the gold plated statues, Chinese silk wall coverings, and elaborate chandeliers. It was still interesting hearing about the history, but not having much of a background to associate it with, I’m afraid I absorbed very little. Maybe one day I’ll go back to these pictures and try to figure out what exactly I was looking at, but till then, I’ll continue on in my dazed world of over-stimulated esthetic wonderment.
After the palace came lunch, always my favorite part of any tour. We stopped at a restaurant named “The Last Palace” (notice a theme yet?) and had what was described as a traditional Russian lunch. The lunch included a small portion of caviar, raw salmon, vodka, and champagne, along with more usual courses such as chicken. It was nice, nothing especially astounding, but still better than eating on the ship. The restaurant itself was impressive with high ceilings and a large banquet-type room in which we ate.
Following lunch was a trip to the Church of Spilled Blood. Now I’ve been to a lot of churches in Europe and have seen more steeples, shrines, and sarcophagi than I know what to do with, but this church was different. This church was decorated wall to wall, ceiling to floor, with an unending mosaic. I’m not kidding when I say there wasn’t a single empty space not filled with small colored stones, it was unbelievable. This one giant mosaic of a church was 7000 sq. meters in surface area! Again, I’ve been to more churches than I can count, but the had to have been the most impressive interior I’ve ever seen. I have pictures, I don’t know when I’ll get them up, but till then you’ll just have to take my word for it…or google search this place.
Then we set out for our last stop at St. Isaac’s, the central church of the city. This church is more on par with churches I’ve seen like the Vatican, with huge open interiors and high domes, impressive, but I was still reeling over our last stop, that and the fact I was about to be late getting back to the ship. The tour was supposed to get back to the ship at 4:30, I had a set at 5:00. I knew I was cutting it close, but when it was 4:20 and we were still standing in St. Isaac’s, I was getting worried. Apparently, the tour schedule got extended by 30 minutes, which was about 25 minutes more than I was comfortable with. I expressed concern to our tour guide Marina, she explained the schedule change, and we leisurely made our way out of the church back to the ship.
We returned at 4:53, I started running. Luckily, the set was some throw-away jazz combo set that the music director scheduled for absolutely no apparent reason. No one wanted to play it, nor did anyone want to lose part of there overnight to it, so if I was late it’d just about be inline with everyone else’s opinions going into it. After a quick change of clothes, I made it upstairs about a minute late, not late enough to get any kind of warning – sweet. Anyways, even if I did get in trouble, the 10 hour tour would have been worth being slightly late to that pointless set at which one person sat and listened to, so no big deal. I didn’t get off the ship that night then because luckily, the guest performer the next night didn’t use alto sax in her show, so I had the day and night free to head out and day two of the tour, again starting at 7 AM.
Day 2 and we’re off again, same group, same guide, same grueling schedule. This time we started off with a boat ride through the canals of St Petersburg. It was a really nice way to start the day, peaceful and relaxed, and offered some nice views of the city. That was the easy part.
Following the boat ride, we went to the Hermitage, another palace and huge art gallery. For two hours we walked through the rooms, getting a detailed description at each stop from Marina. It was certainly an impressive building and art collection, unfortunately by this point, I was starting to realize the pointlessness of my picture taking, there was just too much stuff. To take hundreds of pictures of objects that have little or no meaning to me aside from the immediate beauty seemed pointless as I’d have no way of explaining them later when I show these pictures to all of you. So I enjoyed my time for what it was worth and proceeded through the museum till we had completed our circuit.
The museum was followed by lunch at a place that seemed to be the exact opposite of yesterday’s stop. Instead of eating in a nice palace reserved for the elite, we instead went down into a dreary looking room where we found a more rural approach to lunch. Though the food wasn’t much different (still caviar, vodka, and champagne), we had the pleasure of listening to a group of musicians playing traditional folk songs with traditional instruments. I could hardly eat I was so interested in these different instruments and songs, it was a really interesting experience.
Lunch was followed by a shopping stop at a surprisingly small shop with some extremely pricey products. I sat that one out.
The last stop was at the Peter and Paul Fortress and Cathedral. Another interesting place to see, but again, it’s another church. They really should have put the church of Spilled Blood at the end of the tour, it would have made everything else so much more impressive at the time. Anyways, we spent some time there while Marina continued teaching us about the history, which at this point, wouldn’t even register with me. She had so much to say and I couldn’t absorb any of it by that point, but I guess that’s the challenge of almost 20 hours worth of tour time. We eventually departed the fortress for a long awaited bus ride back to the ship.
I didn’t do very much the rest of that evening, just kind of relaxed. But I think that pretty much covers my two day Russian adventure. The nice thing about it though is that I did get to see almost all of the city, even if it did mean sacrificing spending the night off the ship and waking up really early. But instead, what this means is that when I return in a month, I can spend all night out on the town and not feel bad about not appreciating the historical aspects of the city. So I’m glad for these past two well-spent days in Russia and am looking forward to coming back in 4 weeks. Thanks for reading!
Helsinki
June 29th
Helsinki
Today was a day I’d been looking forward to all cruise, not just because I’ve never been to Helsinki, but because I have friends from my first ship who live in town that I was looking forward to seeing again – and luckily, everything worked out great!
I actually got stuck with having to do a training session in the morning, but it ended just in time for me to get off and be downtown at the originally planned time, so that wasn’t a problem. My friends who I met up with are both ice skaters that I knew from my first ship and managed to keep in touch with. The first, Tytti (pronounced too-tee), lived next door to me for 4 months and was always great to hang out with. The second person I met up with was actually Tytti’s friend Henna who had come on a cruise as a guest way at the beginning of my first contract, and another person I’ve kept in contact with via Facebook. Anyways, they’re both ice skaters, both Finnish, and let’s just say I enjoyed making my friends jealous telling them I had this date set up.
After a little while of looking for each other, we eventually met up downtown and started a walking tour of our own through the city. My friends didn’t really have anything planned for me, not to mention their recovering status from a wedding the previous night, so we just walked and caught up on some things. We stopped at a café for a little while in the downtown area, walked through some parks, hopped on a tram to the water, got some soft-serve ice cream, and eventually made it back to my original drop off point. We also walked through a market where I tried this really strange fish. It was about 3 times the size of a sardine, and grilled up in some strange way in which you were supposed to eat the entire fish, head to tail. Tytti grabbed one for herself and one for me, and after I got over the initial shock of watching her bite he head off without a second though, I tried mine. It was actually really good, and not nearly as crunchy as you might think a fish skull should be. They called it something like a “white fish”, but I’m not entirely sure. Anyways, that’s just one more thing to add to my list of strange foods. I do have a picture of it, so maybe I’ll remember to put it up when I get around to posting some pictures again.
Fish aside, we just had a nice 3-4 hours walking the city. It’s really a great experience when you can visit friends in their home towns, and when they are people that you weren’t sure you’d ever see again and wouldn’t miss the opportunity if you could, it really makes for a wonderful day. I feel so lucky to have a great array of friends and to have the opportunity to see them, despite the fact they live in Finland or wherever. It just reminds me that I work these ships for the sake of meeting these people, even more so than seeing the world.
That evening I went up to the gym again, this time for self defense training. My Elite Australian Military roommate teaches self defense classes on the ship every so often, and after asking him about them a number of times, managed to get a time worked out and a few musicians up there for the class. It’s a free class he does for fun, or so I assume, and I’m thinking it’s going to really be an interesting experience. This first class was more or less basic boxing techniques, blocks, and knee use. We work with gloves and pads, but I can’t say it makes much of a difference. We actually practice getting hit in the head (while in a blocking position) and I have the bruises right now (couple days later) to prove it. It’s kind of intimidating work, and Gordon (roommate) is a little scary when he demonstrates the moves, but it should be a good experience. It’s something I’ve never really done, and to have the opportunity to learn for free from someone who really knows about fighting is a something I can’t pass up, even if it does mean damage to my brain cells. Anyways, I’m looking forward to the next class and am excited for what he has in store for the group.
That about does it for Helsinki. My friends and I are planning a picnic at the zoo when I return in a month, or so is the plan right now. But I had a great day today and am excited about the next couple days I’m about to spend in Russia, so keep reading!
Helsinki
Today was a day I’d been looking forward to all cruise, not just because I’ve never been to Helsinki, but because I have friends from my first ship who live in town that I was looking forward to seeing again – and luckily, everything worked out great!
I actually got stuck with having to do a training session in the morning, but it ended just in time for me to get off and be downtown at the originally planned time, so that wasn’t a problem. My friends who I met up with are both ice skaters that I knew from my first ship and managed to keep in touch with. The first, Tytti (pronounced too-tee), lived next door to me for 4 months and was always great to hang out with. The second person I met up with was actually Tytti’s friend Henna who had come on a cruise as a guest way at the beginning of my first contract, and another person I’ve kept in contact with via Facebook. Anyways, they’re both ice skaters, both Finnish, and let’s just say I enjoyed making my friends jealous telling them I had this date set up.
After a little while of looking for each other, we eventually met up downtown and started a walking tour of our own through the city. My friends didn’t really have anything planned for me, not to mention their recovering status from a wedding the previous night, so we just walked and caught up on some things. We stopped at a café for a little while in the downtown area, walked through some parks, hopped on a tram to the water, got some soft-serve ice cream, and eventually made it back to my original drop off point. We also walked through a market where I tried this really strange fish. It was about 3 times the size of a sardine, and grilled up in some strange way in which you were supposed to eat the entire fish, head to tail. Tytti grabbed one for herself and one for me, and after I got over the initial shock of watching her bite he head off without a second though, I tried mine. It was actually really good, and not nearly as crunchy as you might think a fish skull should be. They called it something like a “white fish”, but I’m not entirely sure. Anyways, that’s just one more thing to add to my list of strange foods. I do have a picture of it, so maybe I’ll remember to put it up when I get around to posting some pictures again.
Fish aside, we just had a nice 3-4 hours walking the city. It’s really a great experience when you can visit friends in their home towns, and when they are people that you weren’t sure you’d ever see again and wouldn’t miss the opportunity if you could, it really makes for a wonderful day. I feel so lucky to have a great array of friends and to have the opportunity to see them, despite the fact they live in Finland or wherever. It just reminds me that I work these ships for the sake of meeting these people, even more so than seeing the world.
That evening I went up to the gym again, this time for self defense training. My Elite Australian Military roommate teaches self defense classes on the ship every so often, and after asking him about them a number of times, managed to get a time worked out and a few musicians up there for the class. It’s a free class he does for fun, or so I assume, and I’m thinking it’s going to really be an interesting experience. This first class was more or less basic boxing techniques, blocks, and knee use. We work with gloves and pads, but I can’t say it makes much of a difference. We actually practice getting hit in the head (while in a blocking position) and I have the bruises right now (couple days later) to prove it. It’s kind of intimidating work, and Gordon (roommate) is a little scary when he demonstrates the moves, but it should be a good experience. It’s something I’ve never really done, and to have the opportunity to learn for free from someone who really knows about fighting is a something I can’t pass up, even if it does mean damage to my brain cells. Anyways, I’m looking forward to the next class and am excited for what he has in store for the group.
That about does it for Helsinki. My friends and I are planning a picnic at the zoo when I return in a month, or so is the plan right now. But I had a great day today and am excited about the next couple days I’m about to spend in Russia, so keep reading!
Stockholm
June 28th
Stockholm
Another day, another tour. Yep, I guess the first one went alright and they’re letting me do another one. The tour today was a simple Old Town walking tour. It wasn’t my first choice (which was the ice bar) but it was short and got me back to the ship in time for rehearsal. The tour was decent, nothing more than a guided walk. I’ve been to Stockholm before and had walked through this part of the city during the overnight we spent there on the Navigator, so it was nice going back in daylight and learning about the area.
Back on the ship, instead of another day of crazy work outs (of which my legs still hurt but my arms escaped unscathed), I again joined my friend Michael up in the gym for a session of power yoga, again done with the help of this extreme DVD series. The 90 minute yoga course wasn’t easy, in fact, I made it about 50 minutes before feeling I’d had enough. Maybe one of these days I’ll get to the point where I can do these sessions correctly without sacrificing my mobility for half a week, but till that point, I guess I’ll just have to continue my complaining here on the blog, ha.
That night the ship had a wine and chocolate party for the crew. Yeah, I’m sure you’re all thinking “Chocolate? Shouldn’t it be Wine and Cheese?” but seeing all we really care about here on the ship is free food, no one had any objections. Nothing terribly exciting though to tell you about, I just ate a lot of chocolate and ended up playing ping pong till 2:30 in the morning, you know, the usual. Well that’s all for today, seeya!
Stockholm
Another day, another tour. Yep, I guess the first one went alright and they’re letting me do another one. The tour today was a simple Old Town walking tour. It wasn’t my first choice (which was the ice bar) but it was short and got me back to the ship in time for rehearsal. The tour was decent, nothing more than a guided walk. I’ve been to Stockholm before and had walked through this part of the city during the overnight we spent there on the Navigator, so it was nice going back in daylight and learning about the area.
Back on the ship, instead of another day of crazy work outs (of which my legs still hurt but my arms escaped unscathed), I again joined my friend Michael up in the gym for a session of power yoga, again done with the help of this extreme DVD series. The 90 minute yoga course wasn’t easy, in fact, I made it about 50 minutes before feeling I’d had enough. Maybe one of these days I’ll get to the point where I can do these sessions correctly without sacrificing my mobility for half a week, but till that point, I guess I’ll just have to continue my complaining here on the blog, ha.
That night the ship had a wine and chocolate party for the crew. Yeah, I’m sure you’re all thinking “Chocolate? Shouldn’t it be Wine and Cheese?” but seeing all we really care about here on the ship is free food, no one had any objections. Nothing terribly exciting though to tell you about, I just ate a lot of chocolate and ended up playing ping pong till 2:30 in the morning, you know, the usual. Well that’s all for today, seeya!
Sea Day
June 27th
Sea Day
One word can sum up today…OUCH. Yeah, my fears have been realized, I can’t quite walk. All day I’ve limped around, walking as if I’ve never taken more than five steps in my whole life. It hurts to bend my legs and it hurts to straighten them. It hurts to stand up, and hurts even more to sit down. My movement today has been kept to a minimum, and luckily, having a day off was a nice motionless bonus. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to move again.
I did manage to make it to the gym again where Michael, my leg assailant, invited me to partake in the arms section of the course. It was another grueling workout, but I think my arms will respond with much less pain than their counterpart.
That about does it for the sea day/day off, thanks!
Sea Day
One word can sum up today…OUCH. Yeah, my fears have been realized, I can’t quite walk. All day I’ve limped around, walking as if I’ve never taken more than five steps in my whole life. It hurts to bend my legs and it hurts to straighten them. It hurts to stand up, and hurts even more to sit down. My movement today has been kept to a minimum, and luckily, having a day off was a nice motionless bonus. Hopefully tomorrow I’ll be able to move again.
I did manage to make it to the gym again where Michael, my leg assailant, invited me to partake in the arms section of the course. It was another grueling workout, but I think my arms will respond with much less pain than their counterpart.
That about does it for the sea day/day off, thanks!
Copenhagen
June 26th
Copenhagen
Well, sort of. I had “in port manning” today, that silly policy that keeps me on the ship every so often in case of emergency, so I was stuck looking out the window at one of my favorite ports all day. It actually wasn’t a bad day for IPM duty because we had a rehearsal scheduled for 1:30 in the afternoon, which would have drastically cut into my port time, so I guess that worked out all right. In the afternoon I went up to the gym to continue a workout routine started just a couple days ago (something I forgot to mention in my last blog). The gym is really nice upstairs, about as fancy as you might expect a Cunard gym to be, but surprisingly small. Anyways, when I got up there and was getting ready to jump on a bike, I saw my friend Michael (guitar player) set up in the corner doing a workout to some DVD he had playing on his computer. He had told me about the work out series before and I was interested in seeing what it was all about, today’s focus was legs. I joined in with him on the hour long leg workout not quite knowing what I was getting into, and after about 10 minutes I was quickly figuring out just how much trouble I was in for. The workout is basically and sequence of lunges, squats, and a lot of jumping, and is meant to not only keep your heart rate up for the full 60 minutes but also do nothing short of completely destroy your legs. I did end up making it through, but not without a 10 minute break in the middle where I had to try to lose the sick feeling my body was throwing in protest. But even with the break, by the end of the routine I was having a difficult time jumping and could feel a burning like no amount of time running or biking has ever given me. I really can’t think of a time where my legs have been more fatigued than after that workout – it was INTENSE! I’m glad I got through it, but not looking forward to the pain I’m expecting to wake up with tomorrow.
The show that night went fine, no problems. It was the show where we put the orchestras together and add in the string quartet – it’s a really enjoyable show to play. Following that, I ended up in the crew mess at some “Grease” party where we watched the movie and ate ice cream and popcorn. I went for the ice cream, it didn’t even matter what movie they were playing. It was fun though, an unusual end to my evening, and that was all. Thanks!
Copenhagen
Well, sort of. I had “in port manning” today, that silly policy that keeps me on the ship every so often in case of emergency, so I was stuck looking out the window at one of my favorite ports all day. It actually wasn’t a bad day for IPM duty because we had a rehearsal scheduled for 1:30 in the afternoon, which would have drastically cut into my port time, so I guess that worked out all right. In the afternoon I went up to the gym to continue a workout routine started just a couple days ago (something I forgot to mention in my last blog). The gym is really nice upstairs, about as fancy as you might expect a Cunard gym to be, but surprisingly small. Anyways, when I got up there and was getting ready to jump on a bike, I saw my friend Michael (guitar player) set up in the corner doing a workout to some DVD he had playing on his computer. He had told me about the work out series before and I was interested in seeing what it was all about, today’s focus was legs. I joined in with him on the hour long leg workout not quite knowing what I was getting into, and after about 10 minutes I was quickly figuring out just how much trouble I was in for. The workout is basically and sequence of lunges, squats, and a lot of jumping, and is meant to not only keep your heart rate up for the full 60 minutes but also do nothing short of completely destroy your legs. I did end up making it through, but not without a 10 minute break in the middle where I had to try to lose the sick feeling my body was throwing in protest. But even with the break, by the end of the routine I was having a difficult time jumping and could feel a burning like no amount of time running or biking has ever given me. I really can’t think of a time where my legs have been more fatigued than after that workout – it was INTENSE! I’m glad I got through it, but not looking forward to the pain I’m expecting to wake up with tomorrow.
The show that night went fine, no problems. It was the show where we put the orchestras together and add in the string quartet – it’s a really enjoyable show to play. Following that, I ended up in the crew mess at some “Grease” party where we watched the movie and ate ice cream and popcorn. I went for the ice cream, it didn’t even matter what movie they were playing. It was fun though, an unusual end to my evening, and that was all. Thanks!
Sea Day/Oslo
June 24th/25th
Sea Day/Oslo
The 24th was a sea day and four days ago, for whatever reason I’m having a hard time remembering anything significant from that day – but give me a second…thinking…thinking…nope, nothing really. We did have a funny guest entertainer to play behind, he played clarinet, sax, trumpet, and piano…this guy might just have me beat on instruments. Anyways, nothing too exciting.
We were in Oslo on the 25th, a port I was able to visit on my first ship. Last time I was here, as I’m sure I wrote about way back when, I didn’t enjoy the city because I went on this crummy tour to some museums I wasn’t entirely interested in. Today was meant to be my second chance.
I got off the ship with a friend from the spa and basically just walked the city all day. I can’t say anything particularly exciting happened, but we did have a very pleasant exploring excursion. The downtown shopping area of Oslo is really hip, so I’d kind of like to go back there again and look around, meanwhile the rest of the city was pleasant enough. And after a couple hours, bunch of pictures, and case of Ping-pong balls, we headed back to the ship around 12:30 (early sail away). My only real problem with the city would be the prices of everything. Nothing is cheap. I went in a book store and found books on sale still selling for twice the listed US price on the back cover. It’s kind of a drag when you see something you want to buy but can’t bring yourself to blowing that much money, but hey, as if I need more junk hanging around my cabin.
That night was nothing eventful, and come to think of it, maybe that was the night of the guest entertainer I mentioned above. Either way, that’s about all there is to tell, so thanks for reading my posts about next to nothing and keep checking back!
Sea Day/Oslo
The 24th was a sea day and four days ago, for whatever reason I’m having a hard time remembering anything significant from that day – but give me a second…thinking…thinking…nope, nothing really. We did have a funny guest entertainer to play behind, he played clarinet, sax, trumpet, and piano…this guy might just have me beat on instruments. Anyways, nothing too exciting.
We were in Oslo on the 25th, a port I was able to visit on my first ship. Last time I was here, as I’m sure I wrote about way back when, I didn’t enjoy the city because I went on this crummy tour to some museums I wasn’t entirely interested in. Today was meant to be my second chance.
I got off the ship with a friend from the spa and basically just walked the city all day. I can’t say anything particularly exciting happened, but we did have a very pleasant exploring excursion. The downtown shopping area of Oslo is really hip, so I’d kind of like to go back there again and look around, meanwhile the rest of the city was pleasant enough. And after a couple hours, bunch of pictures, and case of Ping-pong balls, we headed back to the ship around 12:30 (early sail away). My only real problem with the city would be the prices of everything. Nothing is cheap. I went in a book store and found books on sale still selling for twice the listed US price on the back cover. It’s kind of a drag when you see something you want to buy but can’t bring yourself to blowing that much money, but hey, as if I need more junk hanging around my cabin.
That night was nothing eventful, and come to think of it, maybe that was the night of the guest entertainer I mentioned above. Either way, that’s about all there is to tell, so thanks for reading my posts about next to nothing and keep checking back!
Zeebrugge
June 23rd
Zeebrugge
The tour king reclaims his throne!!! Yes, I’m back on the tour circuit after about 8 months of not having the opportunity. Here, the tour escort process works similar to how it did on the Nav, but with a few more formalities. It’s still the same concept of walk the tour to the bus and then make sure no one gets lost during the day, but there’s slightly more paperwork involved. I had signed up for this great tour today that would have taken me to Bruges and Ghent, but due to a 4:30 rehearsal that I couldn’t show up to an hour late, I had to find another option. I really didn’t want to just blow off my first tour assignment, that’d be the worst first impression ever, so I showed up early in the morning, explained my situation, set them up with a substitute for my tour, and was able to take a shorter tour that they didn’t have an escort for – so everyone wins. I ended up on a tour entitled “Ypres – in Flanders Field,” which took the group to a couple cemeteries commemorating WWI, along with a visit to a museum in the city of Ypres. Now was the tour all that exciting? About as exciting as 12,000 gravestones can be, but I did enjoy hearing some of the history and learning a thing or too. The museum was nice though, and really did a nice job recounting Belgium’s part in the war. I tried to make it through the museum quickly in order to get some time outside in the city’s center, where I was able to buy some good Belgian Chocolate. I ended up with a bag of 6 truffles for around $3.50, and they are delicious. I only had 15 minutes to sniff out a good chocolate place before I had to leave with the bus, so that’s about all I was able to see of Ypres on my own.
After the bus got back to the ship and I returned my tour materials, I still had two hours before rehearsal, just long enough to go on another adventure. I quickly hopped on a shuttle into the city of Blankenberge, a lovely city on the beach whose downtown streets are lined with stores, restaurants, and souvenir shops. My mission was to find a Belgian Waffle, and I wasn’t going to leave till I did. Well, it didn’t take long to realize I had a myriad of waffle joints in front of me, and after weighing my options, ended up with a simple, but tasty, Belgian Waffle that I paid about $2 for. I could have gotten it with ice cream on top, or I could have gotten it covered in Chocolate, but the purest in me wanted a Waffle in its true, unembellished form…or is that the cheap-skate in me? Regardless, it was really good. I walked around a bit longer before heading back to the shuttle which would get me to the ship in time for my rehearsal. Then I had a usual guest show at night, which will now be followed by me closing up my computer, opening up a book, and devouring my truffles. Thanks for reading!
Zeebrugge
The tour king reclaims his throne!!! Yes, I’m back on the tour circuit after about 8 months of not having the opportunity. Here, the tour escort process works similar to how it did on the Nav, but with a few more formalities. It’s still the same concept of walk the tour to the bus and then make sure no one gets lost during the day, but there’s slightly more paperwork involved. I had signed up for this great tour today that would have taken me to Bruges and Ghent, but due to a 4:30 rehearsal that I couldn’t show up to an hour late, I had to find another option. I really didn’t want to just blow off my first tour assignment, that’d be the worst first impression ever, so I showed up early in the morning, explained my situation, set them up with a substitute for my tour, and was able to take a shorter tour that they didn’t have an escort for – so everyone wins. I ended up on a tour entitled “Ypres – in Flanders Field,” which took the group to a couple cemeteries commemorating WWI, along with a visit to a museum in the city of Ypres. Now was the tour all that exciting? About as exciting as 12,000 gravestones can be, but I did enjoy hearing some of the history and learning a thing or too. The museum was nice though, and really did a nice job recounting Belgium’s part in the war. I tried to make it through the museum quickly in order to get some time outside in the city’s center, where I was able to buy some good Belgian Chocolate. I ended up with a bag of 6 truffles for around $3.50, and they are delicious. I only had 15 minutes to sniff out a good chocolate place before I had to leave with the bus, so that’s about all I was able to see of Ypres on my own.
After the bus got back to the ship and I returned my tour materials, I still had two hours before rehearsal, just long enough to go on another adventure. I quickly hopped on a shuttle into the city of Blankenberge, a lovely city on the beach whose downtown streets are lined with stores, restaurants, and souvenir shops. My mission was to find a Belgian Waffle, and I wasn’t going to leave till I did. Well, it didn’t take long to realize I had a myriad of waffle joints in front of me, and after weighing my options, ended up with a simple, but tasty, Belgian Waffle that I paid about $2 for. I could have gotten it with ice cream on top, or I could have gotten it covered in Chocolate, but the purest in me wanted a Waffle in its true, unembellished form…or is that the cheap-skate in me? Regardless, it was really good. I walked around a bit longer before heading back to the shuttle which would get me to the ship in time for my rehearsal. Then I had a usual guest show at night, which will now be followed by me closing up my computer, opening up a book, and devouring my truffles. Thanks for reading!
Sea Day/Southampton
June 21st/22nd
Sea Day/Southampton
I don’t remember much from the sea day coming into Southampton, which is strange because it was only two days ago. I had a farewell show that night, and OH!!!, a Dixie land set! I knew there was something worth remembering. Anyways, yes, I had a Dixie set to play, which once again had me playing clarinet. By the time I get off this ship I might just be a decent Clarinet player with all the shows I end up having to use it for. Dixie Land clarinet isn’t especially easy either seeing as it requires me to improvise on that dreaded black tube. But surprisingly enough, after having to improvise every tune, transpose into Bb, and fight my clarinet-phobia, I actually really enjoyed the set. That’s not to say I didn’t let out a few choice squeaks (no, I’m not to proud to admit), but as soon as we started playing, I guess that Dixie Land spirit just came over me and I had a great time. I’m even looking forward to the next one, which as far as my relationship with the clarinet goes, is a first. Over all, it was a really busy day for playing, almost 6 hours worth, so I took it easy that night and watched some movies in my room.
The 22nd was my first time back in Southampton (to the extent that I could actually go do my own thing). After some much needed internet time, my friend Ben (the tenor player) and I headed into the mall to do some shopping before heading back to the ship for boat drill. I ended up with a loofa (sp?) and some soap…I was “fresh” out. But aside from some errands around the port, there wasn’t anything all that exciting to report back about. Today we start our Baltic cruise to St. Petersburg, of which I’m sure will be a lot of fun. I’m hoping to meet up with some old ships friends and get some tours in this cruise, so there should be a lot of blogging going on over the next two weeks - keep checking in!!!
Sea Day/Southampton
I don’t remember much from the sea day coming into Southampton, which is strange because it was only two days ago. I had a farewell show that night, and OH!!!, a Dixie land set! I knew there was something worth remembering. Anyways, yes, I had a Dixie set to play, which once again had me playing clarinet. By the time I get off this ship I might just be a decent Clarinet player with all the shows I end up having to use it for. Dixie Land clarinet isn’t especially easy either seeing as it requires me to improvise on that dreaded black tube. But surprisingly enough, after having to improvise every tune, transpose into Bb, and fight my clarinet-phobia, I actually really enjoyed the set. That’s not to say I didn’t let out a few choice squeaks (no, I’m not to proud to admit), but as soon as we started playing, I guess that Dixie Land spirit just came over me and I had a great time. I’m even looking forward to the next one, which as far as my relationship with the clarinet goes, is a first. Over all, it was a really busy day for playing, almost 6 hours worth, so I took it easy that night and watched some movies in my room.
The 22nd was my first time back in Southampton (to the extent that I could actually go do my own thing). After some much needed internet time, my friend Ben (the tenor player) and I headed into the mall to do some shopping before heading back to the ship for boat drill. I ended up with a loofa (sp?) and some soap…I was “fresh” out. But aside from some errands around the port, there wasn’t anything all that exciting to report back about. Today we start our Baltic cruise to St. Petersburg, of which I’m sure will be a lot of fun. I’m hoping to meet up with some old ships friends and get some tours in this cruise, so there should be a lot of blogging going on over the next two weeks - keep checking in!!!
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