The U.S. and Canada

We have really really enjoyed being in the US for the past week or so. When you are mostly in Europe, it teaches you to be appreciative of just how comfortable it is to be back in your home country. You don't need to worry about language barriers, you know where everything is, you know which stores to visit in order to find what you need, all the products you know and love are there instead of European versions, and your phone works!!! Wonderful. :-)

One huge highlight has been visiting with my two best friends and my roommate from the Rhapsody - Tracy, Tim and Mandy. Tim and Mandy lived near enough to Boston to come out, and Tracy's ship happened to be in port that day!! The only day our ships meet, and its the place where Tim and Mandy live.....what are the odds of that! It was a fantastic day of sightseeing, shopping, talking, and eating. After Tracy had to leave I took Tim and Mandy on a tour of the ship. They were duly impressed as the old Rhapsody is their only point of reference. :-) I loved showing them around.

I also really enjoyed walking around the port towns of Portland and Bar Harbor, Maine, and Newport, Rhode Island. We had some great food and great times in those ports, despite fighting a bit of fog.

Then it was on to Canada! We had a miraculously warm day in Halifax, Novia Scotia. I actually got sunburned just from walking around a bit. The harbor walk is beautiful. I got to meet up with my friend Deedee from the Voyager, who now works on Princess. We had lunch at a pub called My Father's Mustache, which apparently has some fame there. It was yummy. From Halifax we sailed north and had a day at sea on our way to Quebec City. What a surprise we had at night as we sailed when the deck cadet made this special announcement - the Aurora Borealis was visible!!! It was an amazing display that took up the whole horizon. Not terribly colorful, but beautiful nonetheless, and much bigger than the one I saw last year in Alaska. What an unexpected surprise! We went out on deck and watched it until the wind had completely frozen us and sent us back inside.

Quebec City!! What a neat place. Part new world, part France....a very interesting place. I sure wished my french was better, but we got around ok. They are used to tourists in most areas. I tried the famous Poutine that I remember my first ship roommate, the french-canadian Marie, raving about. We were treated to lunch by our musician's agency Proship, which is based in Montreal. We wandered around the Chateau Frontenac, and up and down the Rue St. Jean with all its cafe's and shops. At night I went back out to a big club on the Grande Allee, it being a Tuesday night the only people there were really us crew members, but we were all grateful for a change of scene from the crew bar and stayed out til the wee hours. What a great night!! Today we had a marvelous breakfast at a creperie called Breton, got some coffee, and are headed back on the ship soon. I have loved this cruise - we don't want to do the crossing back!! :-)

NYC!!!!

We finally finished our crossing and made it to NYC!! I was up before 6am to watch our approach into the harbor. We sailed under the bridge at 6 am or so, then by the statue of Liberty around 6:20. The lights of the city were still on as we approached Manhattan. The front crew deck was packed with other crew, all equally excited to finally be reaching the legendary New York City. Many of my acquaintances were seeing America for the first time in their lives, and it was a very special moment to share with them. After a morning of inspections, immigration, and a coast guard drill, we were finally allowed off the ship around 11:30. I have never seen such a line of crew anxious to get ashore!! I got off with my friends Adrian and Christy, and we were led by our friend Jeremy, who lived in NYC for 4 years. He took us downtown, to the best pizza in New York (so he says, I thought it was awesome, anyway) at a place called Lombardi's. After that we walked around downtown and then to ground zero to see the new construction there. We walked down to Battery park and sat there in a cafe for a while, then took the subway back uptown for our evening's activities.
I was able to meet up with my fried Teal Frost, a friend from my months on the Norwegian Majesty in 2009. She came with us to the Jazz Standard, where we ate dinner at Blue Smoke and got to hear the Mingus Big Band. They were absolutely incredible....my mouth was open a lot. Trombonists Andy Hunter and Conrad Herwig blew my mind and made me want to quit....ha ha. After that amazing set we explored some of the smaller jazz clubs and caught a couple of jam sessions at Small's and club 55. It was such a succesful night!!! We got back on board around 3am. We dragged ourselves out of bed the next day to catch a few more hours in the now-rainy New York before rehearsal. Shopping and food and sightseeing....it was a great time. I was so sorry to leave New York....I feel like I haven't seen a thing, despite having a great couple of days. It would take weeks!!! But I am glad for the 2 days I had.

Transatlantic Crossing

We are almost finished with our crossing!! These six days have passed in a lethargy of ship rocking, sleeping, and performing. We are all getting a bit stir-crazy, and can't wait for New York tomorrow!!! I have loose plans, but many of us will just end up seeing where the evening takes us. We will be up early tomorrow morning to watch the sail-in past the statue of Liberty on our way to dock in Manhattan!! I can hardly believe it. I know sailing into New York on a Cunard ship like so many original immigrants will be a very special feeling.

Maiden Voyaging

Queen Elizabeth has now completed her maiden voyage around the British Isles, amid much pomp and circumstance. There is still quite a mystique surrounding the Cunard ships, which have a one-hundred and seventy year history in this part of the world. Crowds turned out to see us dock an sail away. Visitors came on board to see the ship in droves each day in port. Once I saw large amounts of people parking and walking in the same direction, and I asked a local what event was taking place, where were they all going. He said our ship WAS the event. I'd never experienced attention like this before. But the real highlight of all this attention was in Liverpool, the "spiritual home" of Cunard, where the original office was. A large scale concert was put on for all of Queen Elizabeth's guests (and interested/available crew) and was held at the immense Anglican Cathedral in Liverpool. Buses were arranged to transport thousands of guests to the event, they had to start seating people an hour and a half before the event, and the entire floor of the cathedral was packed with chairs. The theme of the event was celebrating the three ships to bear the name Elizabeth over the last century. The Liverpool Philharmonic along with two choirs and the Welsh Guard performed some amazing music, and the sounds that echoed in the cathedral were incredible. The event was star-studded, as far as Cunard Line and the UK are concerned. I got to hear stories from crew who worked on the original Queen Elizabeth and the QE2, in the days of the famous transatlantic filled with Hollywood and other celebrities. I really felt like I was a part of something special.
I did also make time in Liverpool to follow in the steps of the Beatles, so as not to disappoint certain relatives and friends back home. :-) I really enjoyed the tour. All day I kept wishing you could have been here with me, Dad!! We visited a really neat museum called the Beatles Story, as well as the Cavern Club on Matthew street, childhood homes of John and Paul, Strawberry Field and Penny Lane. I can now say I've been "in a shelter in the middle of a roundabout".
After the concert I spent a few hours at a pub in town with the rest of the band, enjoying our night off and a late sailaway. I got to meet a trumpet player named Albert who lives nearby, who will most likely be in our band next year for the world voyage. At 9pm we stumbled back on board and out onto the forward deck of the ship, crowded with crew members, to watch the nighttime spillway. Our arrival was the official beginning of a festival in Liverpool, and so thousands were gathered to watch us and live bands were performing. And the top it off, fireworks lit our way from the pier as we pulled away. What a night!!
Other highlights of the voyage were a visit to the Guiness factory in Dublin, as Gianni is a big fan, and a beautiful scenic tour I went on in Ireland where I was lucky enough to get some sunshine.
Today we've begun our transatlantic, tracing the paths of so many other Cunard ships across to New York. We've been told to expect some rough weather from tropical storm Maria, and we've battened down the hatches, literally. (They've closed the portholes in the mess, anyway). America, here we come!!!!

Catching up - Paris and Scotland

Sorry everyone! I've been absent for a while due to my hard drive crashing....again....why does this always heppen when I'm overseas?? Anyway today I'm in Greenock, near Glasgow, Scotland, with about half an hour's free time in town before I need to return to the ship. I went on a tour of Glasgow this morning. I found a little museum here that has free use of computers for the internet, hallelujah!
I must tell you that I have finally been to Paris!! I have always wanted to see it, and was able to have a few precious hours in the city last week on a tour. The drive is nearly 3 hours by bus, each way, from Le Havre (our port) to Paris, so I needed the whole day even to get there for a few hours. I can't describe the feeling of finally seeing the Eiffel Tower in person, it was so neat for me. There may have been tears...:-) I also got to spend a while in the Notre Dame Cathedral, and walk all around it as well, which was very cool. We drove to all the highlights of the city, and had barely enough time to snap photos of the Louvre, Les Invalids, the Arc de Triumph and many more....it was really a whirlwind tour - there is no way to properly see a city like Paris in a day. But at least now I've seen a little bit for myself!! I hope to go back someday. It was fantastic.
I've really enjoyed Scotland these past few days, Edinburgh being perhaps my favorite. I also visited Inverness (of the river Ness, of Loch Ness), which was a nice town as well. I didn't make it out to Loch Ness proper, but maybe next time. In the small town of Invergordon where we were docked, I had the pleasant surprise of running into some artist's booths. One man was letting people make their own metal castings, by carving out a design on a flat surface, then sealing it and filling it with liquid metal which then hardened into whatever shape you had carved. It was so neat! I made a little flower. What a perfect, free souvenir!! Better than anything you'd buy in a store. I also met some well known graffitti artists called Dufi, who were working on a project I got to help with. It was such a neat day! I love it when the unexpected finds me.