Last Villefranche

This cruise is going to be last everything, pretty much.  Yesterday was our last Marseilles, and I went on a tour of a few amazing villages in the Luberon Valley. It was a nice tour, but absolutely freezing!  It was an icy day, despite the sun, with winds at 80-100 km/h.  Yikes!  We were all a bit miserable due to the cold and windiness, but the tour was really amazing.  I think its finally winter here - today its quite cold as well.  As for my last Villfranche, I'm just using the internet at our favorite place with a bunch of friends.  Hot tea is warming me up as we speak.  

Just a recap of the end of last cruise:  I took a walking tour in Corsica in order to avoid crew boat drill, and got a glimpse of Napoleon Bonaparte's house and the cathedral in which he was baptised.  After the tour I ran into a couple of friends from the a cappella quartet and we ate lunch at a little restaurant that had some amazing homemade lasagna.  Yummy.  

In Casablanca, (just for you, Dad) I went on a mission to find Rick's Café, or at least one of the recreations of it.  I brought a boy along with me for protection cause Casablanca....well, its not Disneyland.  Anyway, we found it!  It was a really nice place, and we got something to drink there and sat for a while.  I haven't seen the movie in forever, so I have no clue how closely it resembles the original, but I got a picture of me sitting at the piano.   I hope you're happy, Dad!!

In Barcelona I went on an adventure by myself again - to the CosmoCaixa: a new science museum that is supposed to be one of Europe's best.  It happened to be a free entrance day, which had its pros and cons: the con being the legions of Barcelona's school children running amuck all over the museum.  Despite that, I was pretty entertained for several hours, and even sat through a presentation in the planetarium that was entirely in catalunyan (a variation of spanish spoken in the region).  I understood a couple of words at best....but it was cool.   One of the neatest exhibitions is a section that they have converted into an Amazon rainforest, full of real animals, simulated rain, and even fish in the deep river that runs through it, which you can see through glass from outside the exhibit, like an aquarium.   

At the end of this cruise a lot of my friends are leaving, which will be a bummer.  Metro (a capella), some youth staff, my friend Rob....all leaving on December 1st.  I've decided to think of this cruise as my last cruise, and the transatlantic as just a scenic route home.  I really am already on my way home if you think about it, as we sail into the west.... It will definitely make the time change easier.  I'll gain an hour every night over a week, then only gain three more on the flight home.  So, I'm going home next cruise! :-)  

Adventures in Public Transportation

Ok, time to play catch up again... Now tomorrow is our last Mediterranean cruise!!!  This cruise has really flown by.  In Barcelona I conquered the metro system on my own and visited some far corners of the city, before taking the metro to a funicular to a cable car to the top of one of Barcelona's hills to visit the fortress there.  In Villefranche I took a tour that included lunch next door to Monte Carlo casino at the famous Café de Paris, and also had a brief visit inside the casino, where I promptly lost five euros.  I wanted to say that I'd gambled in Monte Carlo, and now I can.  Who knew slot machines were so hard to figure out and had so many confusing buttons?  Shows what I know.  I had to take a public bus back to Villefranche from Monaco in order to make rehearsal in time, but it was a fun tour.  

In Livorno we had a band outing - we all decided it was a good day to go to Pisa.  To get there, we took the shuttle to downtown Livorno, walked to the bus station, took a public bus to the train station, took a train to Pisa, walked half an hour to the leaning tower, took a bus back to the train station, the train to Livorno,  a bus to downtown, the shuttle back to the ship.  Did you follow all that? You can see why I titled this post as I did...  Anyway it was a lot of fun, and despite a little rain and a close call accident while taking the bus (the driver had to screech to a halt to avoid the car of an angry Italian woman, and several old ladies on the bus went flying through the air and caused a slightly amusing domino effect...don't worry, no one was hurt - although the Italiana who got out of her car to start yelling at the bus was pretty angry - I have a video..hee hee), we got the necessary pictures of us holding up the leaning tower, etc.  And of course, we ate pizza in Pisa. It seemed like the thing to do. 

The next day I finally made it to Rome - my first time this contract.  I went with Liam and Tim, and our goal was to spend a lot of time in the Vatican museum.  Unfortunately, in our rush after taking the shuttle to Civitavecchia and walking to the train station, we got on the wrong train - an express first class to Rome's farthest terminal - instead of the one that stops near the Vatican.  A six euro fine each, a metro ride, a train ride, and a 20 minute walk we made it back to Vatican City.  Luckily for us, there was NO line to get into the museum (unheard of - last time I waited over 2 hours) so we still had time to enjoy the museum and took our time admiring the Sistine Chapel.  Afterwards, we had just enough time to let Liam take a peek in St. Peter's Basilica (he'd never been) before powerwalking back to the train station to catch the 2:57 pm back to Civitavecchia.  Whew...now I remember why going to Rome is so exhausting....THANKFULLY....we had the day off, so once back on board we could just relax.  A bunch of us watched a pirated copy of Dark Knight in my friend Rob's room, which was a good end to the day. 

In conclusion I will say this - I look forward to being in a country where I can drive places myself .