Silent Communication....

In this day and age we have some new communications tools. We have blogs, a site called myspace, and various other venues where we can post pictures, have informative links, express opinions, tell stories, and express our emotions. These are all forms of what I like to call silent communication. I’ve gone through all different forms of communication over the past 30 years from the old fashioned “snail mail” that almost no longer exists (especially with the post office raising it’s prices on a monthly basis) to this new wave of silent communication. I was never a phone person, but it always felt good to get a call once and a while or even a letter in my mailbox. Sometimes just a good ole visit in person, and hanging out for drinks or coffee or something. Then came college and the world of e-mail. We’d be ridiculous and e-mail (or rather a version of instant messaging) each other about going to dinner even if they were in the next room. It was fun and exciting and my mailbox would fill up with a myriad of short little messages about hanging out later, going here, or going there. Once in a while I’d get one from a distant friend. Then my family got into the kick and that was exciting. It was a new way to express myself in writing, and when I couldn’t get to a phone in my travels. I got my first cell phone and it became easier to keep in touch while traveling. E-mail became popular with everyone and I almost never received a physical letter. Now I don’t hear much from certain friends who have tapped into the new generation of “silent communication.” It’s like a secret window into someone’s life. You can look in and read about it, but you don’t really interact with them. It’s like watching a play or more close to what’s happening these days, watching TV (or rather TIVO). People’s lives get so busy now that the only way to know what’s happening is if you read a blog, check out a myspace page, or read the general bulletins left on friendster. I was talking with a friend some time ago and she mentioned of how another friend of ours began to tell a story. After realizing it was on his blog, he simply stated that she could just read it on his blog. Once I even told a story that was posted here and a friend said, “Oh, I read about that story.” Oops. I never know who reads this thing. I just like to use it as a way of expressing an opinion, telling a story, or giving a travelogue. Lately my friends and family have been excited about viewing pictures of the places I’ll be seeing. I’ve been trying my best to get some out there especially of the places that affected me the most. I’ve even been guilty of this silent communication at times, but I try my best to keep my inbox empty. If I get a letter, it stays there until I respond to it. Now that I’ve been keeping up, I’ve even gone out and started a chain of letters. The problem is that they don’t last long. I love to read into my friends and family’s lives, but sometimes that personal letter is all the more special. Especially when I’m cut off from my phone.

In other news, I’ve been lax on my travel experiences. Mostly because in this new technical era of speed, I’ve been frustrated with the speed and cost of Internet on board. We get so impatient in this new era since everything comes to us in a microsecond with cable and wireless interfaces. Out here we have satellite communication that one would think would be fast, but alas there’s a slight delay when talking on the phone and the Internet is even a tad slower. I’d say about year 1999 slow at times. A few ports have been truly amazing thus far and that’s Venice, Athens, Turkey, and Egypt. Hence the extensive posting with pictures. Right now we’re on a course north to the Baltic Sea. We just left the Eastern European portion of the Black Sea and will be making our way through the Mediterranean Sea out to the Atlantic Ocean before heading north. In the Black Sea I went to ancient places like Istanbul, Turkey; Odessa, Ukraine; Varna, Bulgaria; and Constanta, Romania. Countries where even the writing on the boards and signs I don’t recognize because the alphabet is different. The architecture is fascinating and the styles. Oh My God! The styles of clothes people are wearing. All kinds of cute shops and such. Sometimes cheap and sometimes not. It’s just enjoyable just to promenade through these cities sometimes just like walking down a side street looking at buildings and people and hearing the cacophony of languages being spoken. To someone who lives there, the walk is nothing special, but to me it’s a new experience and something I’d never thought I’d see. Even walking along the beach in Bulgaria on the Black Sea. The Black Sea. This isn’t Coney Island or Pacific Beach anymore. This is the Black Sea. Two other places that have been fascinating are Corfu, Greece, and Dubrovnik, Croatia. The nooks and crannies of these places that you can stroll through are just beautiful. Castles, forts, and blooming vines crawling up the sides of buildings. Sidewalk cafes and cafes that are right on the water. Sipping cappuccinos and foreign beers in the warm Mediterranean sun. I can’t wait to see what this cruise along the Riviera and up north has in store. What adventures lie ahead. Especially with an overnight in St. Petersburg, Russia.

Romantic City...

Venice, Italy; The city of beauty and romance. Ahh the life I lead. It was a hectic day of course. So much to see and do and so little time to do it. We were seeing Venice a la express style. We had to get as much as we could into about 6 hours of time. The port of course was 4 kilometers away from where we needed to go. In miles and feet, we didn’t have a clue how far away we were and we were advised to walk into town so we didn’t miss all the splendor of the city. A water taxi or bus would take us to San Marco Square in 5 minutes, but we wanted to see everything. We learned a valuable lesson later that we should have taken the taxi/bus into the square and walked back. It would have been much more effective. C’est la vie. Next time I’m on a ship porting into Venice, I’ll know. Although I hope to be staying in Venice for a longer period next time. We arrived at the Piazza Le Roma and followed the stairs down to one of the canals. This wasn’t just any canal though, it was the Grande Canal. It’s kind of like an interstate highway that goes around the city with the main core of the city on the inside and the suburbs on the outside. I kid you not the whole city is sitting just above water. Most of the streets are water. Imagine all of NYC sitting just above 5 feet of water. All of the little side streets would be filled with about 5 feet of water, and little bridges would connect the sidewalks. All the main roads would be huge traffic ways of water taxis and busses. I don’t know much about the structure of Venice, but it appears that it was built on pieces of land sticking just above water and expanded outward via marble streets. In the winter during high rains and tides, the sirens go off and the people erect wooden platforms to get around in the city because apparently all of Venice floods. San Marco Square apparently fills with about 3 feet of water and everyone goes to the grand cathedral in canoes and gondolas. It’s expected and supposedly a spectacle. Anyway I just veered off on a huge tangent. We arrived at the Grande Canal and I was overwhelmed with beauty. The architecture is unfathomable. Every nook and cranny of this city is beautiful right down to the rustic alleyways. Even the flower boxes over the rot iron balconies have beauty in them. Even the clothes hanging out to dry on random lines between buildings have beauty in the way they are structured. It was breathtaking. The canal at this early hour wasn’t AS busy as it can get, but it was like any other street with boats traveling up and down it like any other city. We walked along the cobblestone sidewalk to reach a dead end where we could either go deep into town and get lost or cross our first large bridge. We entered the first of many shops displaying beautiful Venetian masks and glass. Our senses were going nuts. Our goal was to get to the Piazza San Marco and see the Rialto Bridge. We were stopping in almost every store to see the beautiful craftsmanship of these paper mache and ceramic masks, the display of Venetian glass objects, and the MANY bakeries with a plethora of Italian sweets. Just as we were traveling down the road a band began to follow us. A marching band. A parade of some sorts was traveling down the same path to San Marco Square. We got caught up in it as we were walking and then got ahead of it. It became hilarious since every time we stopped for a photo opportunity we had to scramble ahead of the band. We finally arrived at the Rialto Bridge. I was finally seeing it for real. It was unbelievable. It was the first bridge to span the Grande Canal. We had some confusion since there were so many people and got a little lost. Venice’s walk able streets are like walking through a maze of buildings. Every street is in Italian and posted on the side of a building. The map was so hard to read and we had little time to stop. We finally found our way to the Piazza San Marco. I was so overwhelmed tears welled up in my eyes over the unbelievable sight. I couldn’t believe I was actually here in Venice seeing a sight I’d dreamed about for years and years, seen in countless travel programs, and even in movies. The whole plaza was filled with pigeons and we were snapping photos like mad. The marching band that was following us began its entrance into the plaza. The loud banging of the drums and the people shuffling around caused all the pigeons to spring up into the air. It looked like a scene from Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds for at least 5 minutes. It was hilarious. My side was hurting from laughing so hard because everyone was ducking and running around in our group as pigeons were darting about everywhere. I’m surprised we didn’t get bombed by all the pigeons we had flying over our heads. We headed over to the shopping area and stopped for a little gelato. The day was just beginning and we already had some amazing experiences. Here in the square was the Camponile (the famous clock tower), the Basilica de San Marco, and the museum. All breathtaking. We went out to the Grande Canal to get various views of the city and the square. We had no time to even see the insides of these beautiful places and the plaza was packed with people. It was a busy day this Sunday in Venice. The parade of people consisted of a marching band and followers with banners of a stork holding a heart in its mouth. We figured it must have been a rally of some sort. On our way back we began our scavenger hunt. We all wanted to get specific things AND find our way back. First we went back to the Rialto Bridge to find a café on the canal and have some authentic Italian pizza and cappuccino. Delicious. Then we headed on our way back. It was easy to find our way to the square since we just followed the masses of people following the band and the band pushing us forward. Now we had to find our way through the maze to get back to the ship. This is where the frantic hustle and bustle began. We had about 2 hours to shop and get back to the ship in time and none of us knew what to do. It took us about 2 hours to get to the square we figured, but that was because we stopped a lot and we had the band to deal with. We were rushing to get back. This is why we should have taken a taxi in and walked back. Live and learn I guess. The next time we’re in Venice is when we leave the ship in October. I may take an extended stay just to see everything. It all depends on how much money I actually saved on this contract. This contract has been a doozy so far for finances, but I’m seeing a whole lot more for a whole lot less than anyone taking this cruise as a passenger is seeing it. We finally arrived back at the ship with all of our select items in tow. Scavenger hunt finished. I missed out on a few things, but nothing I can’t find next time around. Talk about exhausting. Whew! I can already tell that there are some big places coming up that will be just as exciting. London, Paris, Monte Carlo, St. Petersburg, Copenhagen, and a few more. Wow. We’ve only just begun our third cruise and I’ve already taken 600 photos. I took over 100 in Venice alone. I’ll have memories for years to come.

Land of Pharaohs…

Yesterday was a jam-packed day. It started bright and early at 5am. Whew! I haven’t done that in a while. A few of us were escorting passengers on a ship tour and the others were taking a crew tour that was offered. Both tours were fabulous from what I understand. Well, at least I had a good time and the other folks said their tour was fabulous. We ported in the ancient town of Alexandria. A town in Egypt so named after Alexander the Great of Greece. According to our tour guide he especially liked this land. One of the 7 ancient wonders of the world used to be located in the harbor on the Mediterranean Sea. It was a lighthouse that no longer exists. A few earthquakes that happened over the past 3,000 years destroyed it. Also a huge library was shown to us that had been remodeled and rebuilt over the old site. That site is practically 2,000+ years old. The town was asleep when we left that morning. It was still too early for anything to be open. We took our long 3-hour bus ride to Giza where the infamous pyramids are located just outside of Cairo. It was a bit freaky this time around than when I did it 6 years ago. Military escort took us in a large caravan of busses this time. Since we were so close to Saudi Arabia, the port (which relies hugely on the tourism industry) didn’t want anything happening. It would destroy their economy if tourists got hurt in their country. We arrived in Giza where the pyramids (one of the 7 ancient wonders of the world) were standing tall. The largest pyramid took the Egyptians 20 years to complete. Stones weigh in range from 8-15 tons a piece. Remarkable. The outside used to be encased with limestone. Most of it had worn away and some of the stones had been removed to build the surrounding complexes. I took in the landscape and the scenery and the various camels roaming about. It was $3 to ride a camel and $1 to get a picture with one. Our tour guide said to pay no more. Well, obviously the guys riding the camels didn’t get that memo because some of the passengers were coming back saying they’d spent $20 on a camel or $15 and so forth and each one varied. Some passengers were even saying that $80-100 was thrown out there. I just took a picture of the camel. No need for me to get up on one. “Watch out, they spit.” The people here are quite pushy for you to spend your money. We drove down to the middle pyramid where we were able to enter one of the tombs. Yes, these huge monuments in the desert are giant tombstones to the great Pharaohs. It was spooky to think about. It was a dark tunnel leading into the catacombs of the pyramid. The space was tight and steep. You had to bend over to go into the tunnel, down a ramp, and up another one, which led into a chamber. The chamber wasn’t that big and housed an empty sarcophagus. The remains had no doubt been excavated and put on display in the museum. So there wasn’t much to see, but how many people do I know can say they’ve been into the heart of the pyramids in Egypt? This is my second visit to the desert land (once before in fall 2000) and my first time INSIDE a pyramid. Wow. No pictures were allowed in this sacred burial ground, but I did get some fabulous shots throughout the day. Our next stop was to the sphinx. It was carved out of stone and is a statue that has the head of a human symbolizing wisdom and the body of a lion symbolizing strength. Once again it was amazing because it was so detailed and these people didn’t have electric saws or even the modern hand tools that we have now for stone cutting. They chiseled rock on their know how and what they built from the land. We took in some brief shopping at the bazaar, which was k-razy! Whew are they pushy to get you to buy things. Then we headed for our lunch appointment at the Pharaohs restaurant on the Nile. ON the Nile. It was a riverboat that had a fabulous spread of delicious Egyptian cuisine with some Egyptian entertainment. The food was amazing from the hummus to the strange flavors that came out in the meats. The entertainment reminded me of a mixture of Morocco and Turkey with the belly dancers and the whirling dervishes. All the while I kept asking myself if this was really happening. After lunch my friend and I went up on the upper deck to take in the sights as we cruised up and down the Nile River. It was an experience I’ll never forget. Throughout the trip I noticed there were several housing developments that seemed unfinished or in a state of disrepair. One might think they were buildings set for demolition in the US. However, these unfinished brick buildings were those of the Egyptian farmers. They buy a section of the building (Hmm. Sounds like a NYC co-op) and then they build upward piece by piece as they can afford it for their future families. The roofs are left unfinished for that reason and you can see wires from the concrete sticking out of the top. Some are so unfinished or in the middle of construction you could see right through them. There were no roads to these homes, just dirt paths, and they were all very close together. It was strange to see these buildings in the middle of the desert. Our long bus ride once again led us back to the ship where I bought a scroll for a buck. It’s called a papyrus and it’s a piece of Egyptian art painted onto a delicate paper that’s almost like parchment paper. It’ll look nice framed. I’ll soon be in Venice. I’m so excited. I’m going to be worn out after this contract. Whew. This was just one adventure I’m sure I’ll make among many. The cost today was nothing. I have to start doing more things like that one. There’s Paris and London coming up. Also the wonders of Russia, possibly a trip to Moscow, the splendors of the north in the Baltic Sea and I haven’t seen ANY of those ports yet. Wow!

Ruined..

Monday and Tuesday were VERY eventful this week. We stopped in the ports of Kusadasi, Turkey and Athens, Greece. First off we stopped at the port of Kusadasi where we took a taxi to the ancient Byzantine ruins of Ephesus. These ruins have been around since before we kept track of time after the death of Christ. Over thousands of years old! They show signs of great civilizations built on huge stones some even built in marble. They had homes and even plumbing. There were great theatres built with natural acoustics where you could stand on stage and casually talk to the person next to you and the audience in the cheap seats can hear it without a microphone. It's amazing just to walk through these places in Europe that existed for centuries. It also makes for beautiful artistic photo opportunities. Here are some of the photos I took while out and about:




One funny moment was at the end of the tour. We were about to leave the site and there were toilets (water closets in Europe). Although you had to pay 50 cents in order to use them. The ad was HI-larious. I will always remember that "It's only 50 cent to feel the magic atmosphere."

The next day was a busy day of driving around Athens, Greece. Athens. The city of the first olympics. Another ancient civilization. The land back then must have been shaped so differently. It was exciting to see structures still standing through all the changes in the earth that have happened over a huge span of time. Some of the structures are starting to fall and the city is stepping in to reform it so it will last for as long as possible (hence the cranes in my photos).
The Parthenon was built entirely out of marble. All that is left are a few structures and the marble streets and stairs are mostly buried. It's fascinating to know that they didn't have machines to build these enormous structures and statues and here they are today over thousands of years later where some of our modern homes barely last a century. The city was bustling with activity. We also visited the original olympic stadium right in the heart of Athens. After we stopped at a local restaurant for some authentic gyro sandwiches. YUM!! I'm going to love it here.