Party Cruise!

That's the technical term for a 3-day voyage with only 2 ports of call.  A completely different atmosphere pervades the ship as both the age demographics and attitudes of passengers shifts from our normal.  These people come on board with no plan to pace themselves, physically or financially.  They come to every event and buy lots of drinks in all the venues.  More drinks mean they are louder and have more fun in our shows.  A great time is had by all!  Except perhaps by our poor stage techs and Nick, who had to do all the big set builds for our biggest shows every single night (often finishing after 2am) and are now suffering from sleep deprivation.  Regardless, we really enjoyed ourselves, especially since the two ports we stopped in are two we really like.

First, in St. Peter Port, Guernsey, we explored a bit and found a beautiful cliff path covered in wildflowers where we sat and had an impromptu snack-nic (I feel like one pastry and a bottle of water each doesn't justify the word picnic).  All aboard was at 5pm, so we rushed back on, only to have the captain announce the ship was going to stay overnight in anchorage since our next port was so close by and we didn't need to leave yet.  But still no-one was allowed off the ship....we just got to look longingly at the shore all night until 10am when we hauled anchor and set sail for Belgium.

Now Belgium is something we have been looking forward to for our entire contract, knowing we only have this one call into port there.  We wandered the streets for a while and soaked up the waterfront promenade atmosphere for a while, as Blankenberge offers some of the best people+dog watching in the world.  People really love their dogs here: they are allowed in most restaurants, many wear little doggie clothes and are pushed around in strollers.  In our wanderings we happened to find a place that offered indoor blacklight glow-in-the-dark Mini Golf! We'd be fools not to!!! So, we got a group of 6 of us from the ship together and went for it.  It was great fun! I'm wondering if there is anything like this in LA anywhere.  We finished just in time for 2pm and the main event and reason for our excitement about visiting Belgium: WAFFLES.  We went to our favorite tea room, called Au Pingouino, where everything has a penguin theme and the waffles are to die for.  Even the staff there seemed a bit bewildered by our enthusiasm for their waffles and seemed to think it strange we ordered seconds. :-) We left very very happy, mission accomplished.

Today we are back in Southampton, starting our (here it comes, the awesome, big word) PENULTIMATE voyage! This is a 7 day Norway tour, with 2 sea days and 4 ports.  It marks our 3 week countdown as well!  We LOVE Norway, and will really enjoy being in that country for our last few weeks on board.  Here we go!

As a final sidenote, last night I got to watch a little bit of the Eurovision song contest, in which 26 finalist countries each present one artist and their song in an attempt to win.  I had heard about it (Abba won it once and became famous from there) but I had no idea what it was actually like to watch.  At times excellent and amazing, and at times brilliantly painful and awkward.  The best thing about it is that England has stopped taking itself or its chances in the contest very seriously, and when you watch the British coverage, it is commentated by a famous comedian who basically makes fun of everyone the entire time with snarky remarks.  It was hilarious. I can't wait to watch it in full next year.   And I happen to have a friend who is a Lithuanian pop idol finalist who may have a chance of competing in it next year, which would make my life complete.

In the Baltic Sea

Today I am the furthest I will be from home, in St. Petersburg, Russia.  This is the farthest point of the voyage and of the contract, with an 11 hour time difference.  This afternoon when we sail, it will fell a bit like I am on my way home.  Nick and I both love being in the Baltic Sea, these ports are somehow more calming and enjoyable for us than the craziness of the mediterranean and caribbean.  We are especially looking forward to our final voyages in Norway.  We have had our first Norwegian port this voyage, in Kristiansand.  One thing we have learned is that everything in Norway is very expensive!! This explains our jubilation to discover that Foursquare (the smartphone check-in application) offered free coffee at a certain cafe on your first check in.  We each enjoyed a fantastic coffee beverage of choice at the Mean Bean Cafe (would have been about $6.50 each), before cheekily heading around the corner to another place with the same offer.  I tried a chili moccha with soymilk, which was fantastic.  I've discovered I love the chili/chocolate combination.  So anyway we were exceedingly proud of ourselves for using our resources to save money and still enjoy ourselves ashore.  (You could also call it "mooching", I suppose.)

Our second port of call this voyage was Warnemunde, Germany.  We got off the ship to find the place absolutely heaving with people.  It was a long holiday weekend for Germans, and thousands had come up to Warnemunde for the boat festival centered around our ship, and to stay in this charming resort town and soak up a little sun on the large beach there.  I have never seen so many people there, it was actually quite difficult to get into town, you just had to join the throng and shuffle along until it finally brought you there.  It was fun wandering around the carnival-style street vendors and soak in the holiday atmosphere.  

Next we went to Tallinn, Estonia, one of my favorite places in the world.  It has a medieval old town that is really amazing.  We wandered the streets for a while before settling into Olde Hansa, a restaurant/shop with a medieval theme.  Well, more than a theme! Everything is made in the medieval way, all the staff dress appropriately, and finding the toilets inside is an adventure since the candlelight doesn't do too much to illuminate.  The toilets themselves are an adventure as they are made in keeping with the theme, but still function in a modern way.  Hard to explain - you'd have to experience it. :-) The food is all medieval receipees, and well done.  Ahh, and the honey mead.....so yummy.  I also had a mushroom soup with fresh bread that I really enjoyed.  We loved being in this beautiful city one last time.  There are beautiful views around every corner.  We even happened upon a musician playing some sort of traditional string instrument, with incredible mastery and passion.  We threw some coins in his case and stood transfixed for quite a while.  What a fantastic day!

As I say, today we are in St. Petersburg.  Having done in the past all the tours I had wanted to do, Nick and I both used this port as a bargaining chip for IPM swaps.  We stayed on board for most of it, covering people's IPM, in return for them covering us later on in our final voyages.  I won't have another IPM until I sign off (after the upcoming one this Southampton), which will be worth it.  Today I couldn't find anyone who wanted to swap, so I've just wandered around the port to the seafarer's center for a couple hours of internet and to stretch my legs.  I'm headed back to the ship soon for rehearsal.  Tonight we'll be playing for the wonderful tenor from New Zealand - Ben Makisi.  He was on board back when we were in his neck of the woods, and I didn't expect to be seeing him again.  Its a nice surprise, he has a fantastic voice.  Soon we'll be waving goodbye to St. Petersburg.  

Oh, and did I say?? We have officially 1 month left today!! Nearly finished!!

Turning Around Again

Here we are back in our turnaround port of Southampton, on another very crispy cold morning.  The sun is shining, though, and it should start to warm up soon.  It is hard to believe it is May already!! Now that it is officially the first of May, I can say that we sign off next month! The countdown is on....and we are daydreaming about our vacation in England together.

The end of last voyage got a bit interesting, with one brand new port and a change of itinerary.  First, Valencia.  What an amazing city! I went on a bus tour because Nick was stuck on board, and was really pleasantly surprised by the city.  It has amazing and interesting architecture everywhere, and also a shiny, modern, Gaudi-inspired "City of Arts and Sciences" which includes museums, public event spaces an opera house and gardens.  Wow.  The center of the city is all very stunning architecture as well, a bit older, and there is also a gorgeous seafront promenade.  I learned that both Formula One and the Americas Cup races are held here from time to time.  Apparently for such events locals will rent out their balconies for 2,000 euros a day! We had free time at the Central Market, and I decided to buy some of the famous Valencia-grown oranges.  I only had three euros, so I asked for 3 euros worth of them.  It turned out I had to to stop the vendor after only 2 euros worth, as I already had a huge bag of 10 giant oranges!! And they were incredible....I made lots of fresh orange juice all week (I've inherited a tiny plastic juice extractor).  I also tried the local horchata drink, made of tiger nut milk, water and sugar.  It can be found at Mexican restaurants in the States, I myself have had it before, but that version is rice-based instead and can include milk.  Valencia is the place it originated, and uses tiger nuts exclusively (vegan!).  I tried a small glass with the usual accompaniment of "fartones", sort of like sweet, soft breadsticks.  Yummy!  Anyway I was overall very impressed with Valencia, and would love to come back, have a chance to explore more and share it with Nick next time.

So now about our change of itinerary.  We were scheduled to be in Gibraltar, but due to high winds we weren't able to dock.  We got right up to the dock before we had to turn around.  It was disappointing to miss Gibraltar as I really love the port.  The guests were very disappointed, but as usual when things go wrong, the crew was ecstatic to find out we would be able to get to Cadiz early and have an overnight there! Spain is a country where people stay out late eating an drinking, especially on the weekends, with entire families and kids out past midnight into the wee hours.  It was the perfect place to be for us, because we don't finish work until 11:30pm and most other ports this would mean everything would already be closed.  But not in Cadiz! It was a festive-feeling Saturday night, full of locals enjoying tapas and drinks in the local bars and cafés, with their kids kicking around soccer balls in the plazas.  We found a great little place that had a huge menu, and tried out a few local dishes.  They even gave us hot fresh bread! Hard to believe it was nearly 1am at that point! What a nice night.  Sitting at a restaurant at night is one of those humanizing, keenly-longed-for pleasures of the cruise ship employee.  It is wonderful not to worry about getting back in time for work or all-aboard.

Today we begin our Baltic voyage, across to St. Petersburg, Russia, and back.  We will hit all the capital cities along the way: Stockholm, Copenhagen, Tallinn, Helsinki, and a few smaller ones.  Looking forward to it!