Birthday in Helsinki

Yesterday was my birthday! This will be my 4th birthday at sea, that has fallen during one of my ship contracts. I had everything planned out for the day - a nice lunch with friends at a certain restaurant in Stockholm, then an evening in the crew bar with all my friends and some nice wines that I have been picking up in a few different places in the Mediterranean. But when we awoke in the morning we found ourselves not in Stockholm, but in fact still at sea. Weather conditions or engine troubles had caused a decision not to try to navigate the narrow passageways into Stockholm's harbor. So….now what?? I stayed in my cabin with nothing to do most of the day, finally making it to the gym in the afternoon. I got to call home and talk to my parents, and opened some wonderful birthday presents from family.
The decision was made to head on to our next planned port of call, Helsinki, and get there in the evening a day early and stay there overnight. Now, I think I have explained to you how excited crew get about having an overnight, there really isn't anything better as far as itineraries go. So we were all very very excited to have an unexpected one. The word "overnight" has a magical quality for us…..for guests going out means going to the restaurant on board, or to one of the lounges to hear music or ballroom dance, but for us, who live and work here, going out at night off of the ship is our idea of a great night. I wasn't working that evening, but most of my friends were, so I waited for them to finish work and then we met up in the crew bar and then went out on the town, to see what we could find as far as nightlife in Helsinki. I did some research online and came up with a list of recommended places, and we ended up choosing Club Havanna, a place known for salsa and cuban dancing. I really wanted to dance, so that was where we decided to go. My partners in crime were my friends Christy, Adrian, Gianni, and Luis. After a few failures, we found a taxi driver with no compunctions about letting the 5 of us squish in his 4 seater, and he took us downtown. We found the club, and after checking it out for a few minutes decided it was indeed a good place to be. Christy knows her latin dancing, and she wasn't shy at all and helped me find some partners. There are some amazing salsa dancers in Helsinki, who knew?? We met a guy from Peru who now lives in Finland, so I got to practice my spanish. We also ran into one of the Ukrainian dancers, Victoria, from the ship, who had also looked up this place online and had come on her own. She taught me a few new moves, and even danced a few dances with me, with her doing the leading. She is good!! There were also a few songs where a leader stood in front and directed the dance, and everyone else followed, kindof like a line dance (or a zumba workout, mom??). It was an amazing night, we stayed and danced until the place closed, at - (dare I write this where my parents will read it???) - around 3am. We decided to walk back to the ship, which ended up taking about an hour. I couldn't have asked for a better night for my birthday - friends, dancing, meeting new people, learning new dances, fun and lots of laughter. I had the day off the next day, so I had no excuses not to stay out late and enjoy being overnight in a place I may never get the chance to be again. Oh, what a night…. :-)

ABC's

Today I went to Above Bar Church (ABC) here in Southampton. I had walked past it a few times on past days here and seen their Sunday service advertised, and finally today we are here on a Sunday!! So after a morning breakfast at the Standing Order (an infamous seafarer's pub with free wifi) I wandered over to the church. You would never know a church is inside the block of shops and buildings, but inside a little door and up some stairs and I felt right at home in a packed and thriving church. I loved the music and the message, which I felt could have been speaking directly to me. Thanks for today, God! I also met quite a few really nice people that were so welcoming, two older couples, a retired navy chaplain, and some medical students who play in the band there.

Our dixieland set the other day was quite a hit! It went very well, and we got a standing ovation after the second show. The singers and dancers all came, and absolutely loved it. After the show they converged on me and were asking all sorts of questions about the trombone and the music style....I really felt like a star. My solos all went well. It was filmed, so I'm bringing a recording of it back with me. In fact, the night went so well that we will likely be forced to do it again next voyage. :-)

sunny sunny Med!!

It has been so nice to be in the Mediterranean this week! We are all enjoying the sunshine very much. I got to to Florence the other day, on a tour with the ship that was basically all free time. I had one goal: climb up to the top of the Duomo. But, the best laid plans..... you know the rest. It was closed for tourists that day, maybe because it was Sunday or some holiday or another. But lucky for me, the adjoining bell tower was still open, and it rises to a height of only 5 meters shy of the Duomo's viewing platform, plus the view includes the Duomo, which you wouldn't be able to see if you were standing on it. :-)

I had in port manning (Popular alternate names for this are "In Port Tanning" or "In Pub Manning") in Civitavecchia, but was happy to stay on board and relax after all the walking I did in Florence. I have been to the city and to Rome quite a few times, so it was a reasonable one to miss. Yesterday we were in Monaco, and I walked around the port for a while and just generally enjoyed the beautiful day it was outside with a few of my friends.

Tonight is a special night, WE are the show in the theater. It is a dixieland concert, both showtimes, featuring yours truly and the rest of the RCTO. (Royal Court Theatre Orchestra) Sounds fancy, hmm? Tim has found us smart white vests to wear over our blacks to give us a special look for the occasion. I'm looking forward to it, but also a little bit nervous as Dixieland is all about the trombone!! Fun fun fun. Wish me luck!

Gibraltar

Hooray for warmer weather!! It is already feeling warm and tropical here, not surprising as we are functionally in the south of Spain. It is a nice change from the gloom and rain we were getting in Norway. We are only in port today from 8am til 1pm, so I haven't got much time in port. I have been to Gibraltar before, on the Century, so I'm pretty familiar with it and have seen all of the main sights already. Its nice not to feel much pressure in that regard. I am, however, a creature of habit, so I found myself retracing my steps and looking for some familiar ground. My memory led me right to a little pub called Gibraltar Arms, which I vaguely remembered as having wifi. I was right! I just had a very english breakfast of beans on toast, along with some tea, and after posting this I'll be heading back towards the ship. I bought a new camera today as my current one has problems with the dust inside the lens. Gibraltar escapes some taxes and duties, so it is a little cheaper here than in the rest of Europe. Probably not as good a deal as I would have gotten back home, but it will have to do. Making sure I have good pictures now, is a worthy investment for me. On my way back to the ship I'll be stopping by the pet shop that I remember being here - they have kittens!! And living on a ship you get starved for animal interaction at times. So I'll go play with some kittens for a while. Not a bad day.

The other night our WABS show (welcome aboard show) got cut short because of a pit malfunction. The cast was in the pit awaiting the beginning of the number, we were ready to play, but something didn't work and the cast was stuck under the stage. So, no closing number. These things do happen sometimes, it is live entertainment, folks!!

Last night we played for a string duo - Rafael and Monika. It wasn't until after rehearsal, after the first show, and halfway through the second show that I remembered them. I realized they were one of the first acts I played for on the Galaxy. After the show I said to Rafael, "I remember you now!" He said, "I remember YOU now!!" I guess the realization was synchronous at the same point during the show, where I remember making eye contact with him while playing the same certain number years ago. Funny how things like that happen.

Alesund and Bergen

In Alesund I went on an all-day tour with the ship's shore excursions. The great thing about it was we got really far afield, about 120 kilometers from town, and got to admire some breathtaking landscape. Unfortuantely, doe to fog, a few of the viewpoints didn't have much to offer. Actually the weather this season in Norway has so far been a bit gloomy, even they are complaining about not getting a summer. I'm hoping when we're back here in a couple weeks we'll have more luck. It is still a beautiful place, but I know just how glorious it can be with a bit of sunshine. It was nice driving through town too, and remembering being here with Chelsea years ago.

In Bergen Christy an I went on a hike in the mountains near the city. First we walked up to the the viewpoint at Mt. Floien, where many tourists go by way of taking a funicular up. It took us about an hour to climb it. From there a variety of trails begin, and armed with a map of them and Christy's GPS we made a good start on exploring quite a few of them through the fog. It was beautiful up there, and so quiet. We found the starting point for a hike that we would both love to do - a 5 or 6 hour crossing across the mountain plateau. Unfortunately timing doesn't make that possible for us. But it was neat to dream. We also found that one of the hiker's huts has a coffee bar that is only open on Sundays, which is happened to be. We made a point of ending up there, and enjoying some expensive Norwegian coffee and the best part: a warm freshly baked cinnamon roll, which we split. We walked back down into town and had lunch at a restaurant called Pygmalion which I had found online, where I had my first ever Veggie Burger. Not bad. We also had some pesto bruchetta which blew our minds. We made it back to the ship around 3pm, and decided to walk up and down the pier once first to make out total distance covered for the day an even 15 kilometers (9.32 miles!!) We were darn proud of ourselves.