Catching up and Winding Down

I know, I know, I haven't posted, sorry!! It has been such a whirlwind last voyage, and getting ready to sign off the ship. I can't believe that I've fulfilled a lifelong dream to see the Holy Land. I went on tours and got to see Jerusalem and Bethlehem. The whole experience was overwhelming for me, I couldn't really process the gravity of where I was, and grasp the reality of actually being there. I saw the church of the nativity, where they believe Jesus was born, the Wailing Wall, the stations of the cross on the Via Dolorosa, and the tomb of the sepulchre where Golgotha was. The stone that Jesus was cleaned on after he died. The Garden of Gethsemane....I felt a bit mind blown by it all, and wished I could have seen it with more time, with a group of fellow believers rather than a ship crew tour, but it was amazing either way. Since then we stopped off in Cyprus where I went on a tour up into the mountains, Rhodes where I played tour guide for some of my friends, and Malaga where I had some paella with my friend Jane. Now we are in the Canary Islands, on our last voyage!! I can hardly believe I sign off in less than a week!! We had an overnight in Madeira and Jane and I joined the cast at an outdoor salsa club and stayed out til the wee hours. Here in the Canaries we've been wandering around and enjoying good food. 5 days to go!! Also just for anyone who doesn't already know, I have an audition on Dec 3rd with Cirque du Soleil which I am very very excited about. Fingers crossed!!

Sea days and See Pyramids

This voyage has already been going on for a week! Hard to believe since I've spent the last 6 days stuck on board. We had 5 sea days on the way to Egypt, broken up by one halfday in port in Gibraltar, for which I was unluckily on port manning. Kind friends ran errands and did shopping for me. One of those sea days we did our first Dixieland set of the voyage, and had a grand and comically overdone unveiling of our new CD. Yes, we made a CD, recorded live from our pub sets and our theatre shows. We had to pay some copyright fees for the songs, so it'll be a while before any of us sees any returns from it, but it is an accomplishment to have finished it. The cover art is caricatures of everyone in the band, done by one of the stage techs. It is pretty cool, and even sounds ok. I found it surreal to listen to it. Anyway or big show is in a few days, hopefully it sells well. In any case I'll be glad to have a copy for myself. Today we arrived in Port Said, Egypt, and I was up early to escort a tour to the Pyramids with a Nile cruise. I had one goal for the Pyramids - to get inside of one. I had a merry runaround trying to accomplish this, as apparently they only sell 150 tickets each morning at 8 or at 1pm. It being 11:30 I was out of luck, and nearly got stuck on the wrong side of the gates when I accidentally exited the area. I smiled my way back in along with playing the clueless tourist. Finally someone told me I could go in one of the small pyramids, the ones just to the side built for the pharoah's mother, daughter, etc. He bribed the security guard for me. Afterwards I knew he'd expect a tip from me. I gave him what I thought was fair, he tried to get more, I escaped. A bit stressful, but mission accomplished! I can now say I've been in a pyramid. It was cool to climb down the shaft and see where the sarcophagus would have been. Afterwards we had lunch in a stunning 5 star hotel, and then had some tea and coffee and a local music performance on the Nile cruise. What a day! As I sailed down the Nile drinking coffee and watching the sun set, it occurred to me that today would be the wrong day for anyone to ask me when I'm going to get a 'real job.' :-)