Crystal Lake to Barcelona

Oct 8th-10th
Crystal Lake to Barcelona

So it all began Wednesday morning…
I woke up on the morning of the 8th to an email from the company. I had been in contact with the office over the past couple weeks trying to figure out another contract to get on so this email wasn’t totally unexpected – till I read it. It says there’s been an incident on the Navigator wherein they need someone to fill the Alto Sax chair starting Friday; if I accept, I fly out tomorrow. This was the last thing I was expecting to wake up to, and after emailing them back requesting a little time to think, I began my day. Well, a few hours later they called, we negotiated, and I had a flight booked at 3:45 the next afternoon. The rest of the day from that point on consisted of a lesson, a lot of phone calls, and some last minute preparation for a trans-Atlantic flight.
The 9th was a little busy in the morning getting the last of my things together and taking care of any lose ends, and at 1:30 I was off to the airport accompanied by both my parents. It’s actually kind of amazing that neither of my parents really freaked out and both rearranged plans to drive me to the airport. There probably aren’t many stranger things to spring on your parents than announcing a flight to Europe scheduled for tomorrow, but they did great and I’m really appreciative of all the help, thanks Mom and Dad!
The Flight: I was booked on a Lufthansa flight to Barcelona with a stop in Frankfurt. The first part of the flight, the 8 hour part, was OK. I almost got lucky and had an entire row to myself, with a window, and it was set up so that I would have had extra legroom too – almost. After hanging up the phone with my Dad to let him know everything was fine the last three passengers walked in the plane. Two filled out my row, and the third sat in front of me (which always results in the chair being reclined down on top of me). The two guys now next to me had the window with the extra leg room and the seat with a little extra room where I’d stowed my backpack, my seat was in the aisle. It was alright though, the other guys in the row didn’t get out once, and the dude in front of me waited about 3 hours before pushing his seat into my nose. That aside, I swear the pilot introduced himself as Adolph Hitler. I know it sounds totally ridiculous but I swear that’s what he said, and then I never heard his name again…weird. Anyways, 8 hours later I was in Frankfurt.
Flight number two was preceded by me going to the completely wrong terminal in Frankfurt. The terminal listed on my ticket was way, way off. So after walking to the other side of the airport and hanging out at the gate for 3 hours, I look up and see a different flight being listed on the monitor. I had left myself enough time and am obsessed with time the second I step into an airport so I wasn’t rushed finding my way back to the terminal I’d landed in, but still, the extra security point, flights of stairs, and long distance walking with three instruments and a backpack was something I’d have liked to do with out. I had a window for the second flight, flew over the Alps, and landed in Barcelona with no problem.
The first time I flew to Barcelona my luggage had been lost…thankfully this was not the case today. But, this time I didn’t have clear directions on how to get to the ship, so that had me slightly worried. Luckily, before I had to even find a phone to call the number I assumed was going to be responsible for my transportation, I saw someone with a Royal Caribbean sign for the guests. I told them I was crew and had no problem getting on the nice coach bus and making my way to the port. Nice. However, I was quickly reminded of the people I was soon to be dealing with as the lady sitting in front of me filed her nails the entire drive to the port. Really, do these people not notice that makes the most annoying sound ever?
On the ship, everything kind of just fell back into play again as if I’d never left. I moved into my old room, went up to the mess, played the welcome aboard show, everything as usual. My roommate seems like a pretty cool guy and is from the states, so I’m not anticipating any problems there. I met up with all m old friends again, which is really kind of cool, and ran into some other people on the ship I knew from before who I wasn’t expecting to see onboard. It’s really just a homecoming for me where I get to hang out with some old friends one more time.
Oh, we had a parade at night… Now I don’t know if you remember me telling you about the parade I used to do where I wore a light blue sailor outfit and a Popeye hat, but as bad as that sounds, it got way worse. For this new parade I don’t even play my instrument. I simply put on this huge flamboyant poncho-like cape thing and walk up and down the promenade for about 20 minutes. I’ve never been involved in such a ridiculous show in my life. All I can is that it’s a good thing no one I know comes on this ship, otherwise I think I’d be shunned when I returned home. Anyways, that new parade was not a welcomed change.
So I guess that’s it, three days from home in bed to Barcelona, wild right? So let’s see where these three weeks takes me and I’ll be reporting back here every chance I get. Thanks!