RUSSIA!!

The day after. St. Pete round 2. Yesterday explored emotions of frustration, awe, tentativeness, fear, anger, anxiousness, excitement, elation, and exhaustion all in one full 24 hour day. Well, almost 24 hours. I'm not in college anymore AND I was getting some extra dough by helping out our librarian organize and catalogue the books with one of my fellow cast members this morning at 10:00am. My day in St. Petersburg, Russia began bright and early so I could catch breakfast and catch up on some personal things. There will be no Internet or phone access the 2 days we are here every time. The Russians scramble our satellite connection for personal communications. Oh well. We had lunch on board and went out into port for a day in this Russian city. It started off very frustrating. We were told that we as crew would have to buy a shuttle pass for $10 US payable at HRO that would provide us with scheduled shuttle service to and from the square. We must have walked around this garbage shipyard for an hour and no one could tell us exactly WHERE to catch the shuttle. Tours were leaving for passengers and the gangway was too busy for anyone to even remotely care about crew. We ended up walking a ways before one of the Russian Mafia cabs stopped to pick us up and for $5 US take us into town. We knew it was a Mafia cab because they are the only ones allowed past the immigration/customs gate. They must have paid some deal to get in or have connections as all Mafias do. We get into town and are awestruck by all the sights we were seeing as we are in most ports. The temperature was lovely, but hot. Hot for St. Petersburg. I didn't expect it to get so warm even in the summer. We started off at a half circle shaped cathedral called The Kazansky Cathedral. It was fascinatingly vast inside and candles were being lit to pay homage to the Savior. Next was the Cathedral of the Spilled Blood. It was a Cathedral built in homage to one of the Alexanders who was assassinated on this site. It was said that he died there and rose a few days later as did Jesus Christ when he was murdered. We followed a tour group in to avoid the stiff price to see the cathedral and meandered through its ornately decorated walls. It was definitely fascinating and I believe a landmark for the city. It looked as though it were meant to hold candy and ice cream because of its frothy décor on the towers extending above. We traveled over one of the canals winding through the city and made our way to the Hermitage Museum and the square where it was located. This huge square is not to be confused with Moscow's vast Red Square. It was a sight to see and notice all the Russian heritage in the architecture. We saw the large canal that went through the city while we were in search for the black market. Evidently a place where you could get cheap wares and pirated DVDs for very cheap prices. A good way to keep up on the times with recent movies. Well, we never found this so called black market and it appears that we have to take a taxi to this place that's so far away. Although some swear that it was located right behind the Cathedral of the Spilled Blood. We’ll see at another time. Well the Russian Mafia cab we got taking us out of port promised to come back at 6:15 and take us back to port, but there was no such cab. Durrrr. We tentatively waited around wondering if he would actually show up for a few past the meeting time. Problem was we were on a time schedule since one of our girls had dinner reservations at 8pm and another cruise staffer girl with us had to be back by 7:45pm. We would miss dinner if we weren't back by 7pm. It was now 6:30pm and no cab. We started wandering the main busy street pricing different cabs quoting us anywhere in the range of $30-$50 EURO!!!! Whoa!! We already bought this supposed crew shuttle pass which we were all intent on getting refunded, and now a lot to spend on one cab. We settled on a sketchy deal of $30 Euro for a cab that would take 5 people. Evidently the local police had problems with cab cars over 4 people. We though we were going all the way to the ship, but lo and behold this cab were NOT a part of the Mafia connection. It took us only as far as the gates. We started walking frustrated and angry that we didn't know what to do or how to do things here. All of us were new to this port. We weren't sure if we were even at the right port and it looked very shady. Especially since we were told to never walk from the ship to the gates. We walked en masse anyhow. We held everything close to us just in case and stayed in one large group. After seeing the movie "Hostile" everything seemed to have that shady Eastern European desertedness about it. We saw the ship and breathed a sigh of relief. Unfortunately it was 7:20pm so dinner had long passed. I caught the show on board and some snacks later in our crew bar. A couple of ham and cheese sandwiches and I was good to go. We got all dolled up and started the party on board. A group of us checked out and made our way to explore St. Petersburg's nightlife at a dance club called Metro. Once again we caught a Mafia bus that only charged a group of about 30 of us $5 US a piece to get there. It was great. Then we had the shady dealings of currency exchange happening right outside the bar. Emotions started running high, as people were anxious to get into the club and start partying. They only took the Ruble inside and most of us had up to hundreds of dollars in US currency. The drivers were taking us for 22 Ruble to 1 when the going rate is 26.75 to 1. Whoa! Some commission eh? Especially on those exchanging more than $50 US. The price to get in 360 Ruble ($13.45 US), price of the average drink 180 Ruble ($6.75 US), price of a vodka shot 55 Ruble ($2.00 US), a good evening out… priceless. The entrance fee also included 6 free sodas. Which is good since the bar probably doesn't close until 9am the next day. Oh, another thing. We left the ship roughly 12:30am and the sun was looking like it was about 7pm. It was barely touching the horizon. The scheduled sunset was at 1am. When I left the club at 4:30am the sun was in the same spot practically since it's rising was scheduled for 4am. Totally strange, but cool. I haven't seen anything like that since my trips to Seward, Alaska in 2000. It was also STILL warm. Unlike Alaska. So, the club, Metro, was fascinating. It was 3 huge floors of dancing and bars. A bar or dance floor for everyone. The main floor was grunge music and rock and roll, the second floor was hip-hop, and the third floor was the club/house/techno music floor. High-energy floor was the third floor with male dancers to decorate the upper ring of the dance floor. The second floor also featured a karaoke bar, but there was really no interest in that since most of the singers were singing in Russian and the text was also mostly in Russian. It was an aerobic night of bouncing around and dancing. I haven't had a night like this since my college days. It was totally exhilarating and free spirited. A release for the mind and soul. A break from the confines of the ship's stringent policies. I still had to keep an eye on the time since my next day I had the infamous I.P.M., which started at 6am. I left the club with a group of weary colleagues and headed back to the ship in a non-mafia cab once again. This time we just faced our music and took the additional in port cab to the ship rather than dragging our tired and drunk selves back to the gangway. A day beginning at 9am and ending at 4am the next day. Just a few hours shy of a full 24 hours of alertness. Whew!! What a day.

I See London I See France

Ah Paris and London!! Two full port days, four long train rides, about 8 sights to see, and 1 exhausted traveler. A few days ago we ported in Le Havre, France. It's a quaint little town about 2 hours from Paris that I only saw from the windows of the taxicab taking us to and from the train station. We boarded the train a bright and early 8:44am to breeze through the countryside of France on the Euro-rail. We arrived at the Gard de St. Lazarre roughly 11:00am and we were on a mission. First plan of attack was to get to L'Arc de Triomphe. We scrambled out of the station and in Amazing Race fashion scurried down Rue Haussman for our 40-minute jaunt to the famous monument. Little did we know it would take 40 minutes to actually walk through town, so we learned and next time we will take the Metro since it's a fairly easy system to follow. My rusty French guided us as far as I could muster. It's sad I forgot so much of it. Even though we did lose 40 minutes in the walk, we experienced the beauty of the metropolitan Paris as we walked briskly through the city. The monument (L'arc de Triomphe) was a sight to see and MUCH larger than any monument of a similar name in various cities. There were about 8 points of streets coming off this round-a-bout where the monument stood at it's center. You could take a lift to the top for wonderful views, but we didn't want to take any more time and miss the biggest attraction in Paris (the Eiffel Tower). This time we did take the metro, which took a little figuring out, and we even had a little "subutainment" that brought me back to home in NYC. All of a sudden we were hearing the intro to La Donna Mobile and then Lucien Pavarotti's voice was blaring out. I turn around to find a velvet curtain strung up between 2 poles with a boom box underneath and dancing around on top was a puppet version of the real artist. It was hi-larious. We left the train and saw the Eiffel Tower in the distance. We stopped for a little food at a fabulous creperie where I had a ham and cheese crepe and a cappuccino with some French cream on top. Yum!! We were off to the tower and time was running out. The tower was an amazing sight to see in person. At its base just looking up was breathtaking. We even stood underneath and looked into its belly. This is one huge monument. We paid the hefty price to take the lifts to the highest point. My knees got a little week as we climbed through the center of the tower. From the top there were stunning views of this gorgeously sunny day we had in Paris. From the viewfinder of my video camera/digital camera I saw the Louvre, Notre Dame du Paris, the Seine stretching out over the countryside, L'Arc de Triomphe from above, and various other beautiful gardens and monuments throughout the city. Unfortunately with the time it took to get the tickets and get to the top, which was all we had time to see and we had to scurry back to catch our train. We took the lift to the second level of the tower and the line looked too long to take the transfer lift to get to the ground, so we took the stairs. AHA!! Bad idea! We forgot we were still pretty high on the tower and how many stairs it actually entailed. We made good time and it took us about 10-15 minutes to get down. We cabbed it to the rail station to catch our train just on time. It was one of those classic Euro-rail trains you see in the movies with the private cabins of about 8 seats with the doors and all. I was imagining we were on the Harry Potter train for a moment. We made it back to the ship in plenty of time with lots of pictures. There was no real time to shop in Paris or take in the town of Le Havre. Maybe next time.

London however was a different experience. Sadly we found out that next day we would have to exchange our currency into the British Pound. It's about 2 to 1 right now. Yikes!! So every price tag was actually double of what it was. To give an example, we stopped for lunch at ole Micky D's today and the value meal was 3.49 in British Pounds. Well, that isn't such a value in the US at $7.00 for the meal. Our economy sucks folks. Anyway, with that aside and accepted we docked in another little town on the English coast called Harwich (pronounced hair-witch). The train was conveniently dockside. Literally you walked off the ship and onto the train. It was about an hour and a half to London where it drops you off at Liverpool Street. We "tubed" it to our first point of interest, the Buckingham Palace. The Tube is what is the subway for New Yorkers. It's literally a tube. It was fascinating. Also everything was in ENGLISH and fully understandable! Yay!! We've been in ports now for just over a month where there's a huge language barrier. It's nice to hear a language you can fully understand. We arrived at the Green Park station (literally a green park), and walked to the palace. It was dress rehearsal day for the queen. Next Saturday she'll be parading through on some special event from Scotland Yard to the palace. All the guardsmen were out in their fuzzy hats and uniforms lining the street for a good mile. There were people everywhere. We heard the marching band in the distance as it approached, but alas we had to keep moving since we had an even shorter time here than in Paris. See, it's an embark day and although the ship leaves at 6pm, we had to be back on board and in our boat drill places by 4:30pm. Yuck!! We lost a good hour and a half of sightseeing because of a safety function. Boo!! Anyway, we strolled through St. James Park on Birdcage Walk to the financial district equivalent of Wall Street called Downey Street. Over in this area we saw the infamous Big Ben and the Parliament buildings. Also the Westminster Abbey in the distance. We walked through the area to Trafalgar Square. We had our pit stop at McD's and strolled to the Thames River where the huge Ferris wheel is located. We "tubed" again to London Bridge. Now I always thought London Bridge was the quintessential bridge with the towers on both ends. After all there IS a nursery rhyme for it. Nope. London Bridge is just a regular bridge, but from London Bridge you can see the infamous Tower Bridge (ahh) that you see in photographs. We crossed that bridge when we came to it (ba-dum-ching), and made our way back to Liverpool Street to catch the train we needed at 2:15pm. A day ended short, but a fabulous one at that. Sunny and HOT!! Yay!! The days are getting longer too. The sun doesn't set now until 10:15pm!!! Love it!! On our way to the station we passed The Monument. Literally called The Monument. It seems there are a lot of literal names for places out here. Green Park for a green park, Tower Bridge for a bridge with towers at both ends, and The Monument to commemorate the great fire of London 1666 (there's also a balcony at the top, but we did not have time to climb all the stairs). We arrived at the station in PLENTY of time so we relaxed with a few Strombrough Ales (a good English cider). We were nice and cheery-o getting on the train and some of us passed out from exhaustion about mid-trip. When I woke up we were in a little piece of countryside about a half hour's drive from port (only 10 minutes to go by train). Evidently we were sitting there for about 30 minutes already. There was an overhead power problem on the Harwich line and we were told to get off and take a bus or wait for the next train. Problem!! We took the earlier train because the next train would make us late for boat drill. It started at 4:45pm and the train would put us into Harwich at 4:49pm. The train we were already on would get us there at 3:49pm, which is PLENTY of time. Nope. We had to leave. There were other crew on board and passengers heading back to the ship for the 5:30pm all aboard. Only the 6 of us had to participate in the boat drill. The other crew didn't have this function and the passengers were mostly people extending from the last cruise to go into Scandinavia. So, we got on the next train and ran to places at boat drill literally boarding the ship as the alarms were sounding. We did make it though and now I'm thankful for a sea day of rest. Whew!! Pictures are to follow when I figure out which ports I can get some quick and cheap Internet to upload since it takes forever on this ship. It has been an amazing couple days so now I say au revoir and cheers.

Spanish Flair...

Hola!! Spanish flair would be the keywords for the last couple of days. As we round out the ports of call now to 20 cities in 13 countries we're cruising up the Atlantic coastline into the English Channel to go into the Baltic Sea where we will experience 11 new cities in 9 new countries. A few days ago we left Cadiz, Spain. It's a cute little port in the southern part of Spain that lies at the tip of a narrow isthmus that forms the western boundary of Cadiz Bay. This is said to be one of Europe's oldest cities. Yet it has all the modern shops one could look for here at decent prices. I couldn't find anything in the shops worth spending money on. I've been looking for a distinct European flair lately and nothing struck me as something I couldn't find in the U.S. We did have a lovely day of walking through the city enjoying all the scenery and ambiance the city could offer. We had lunch at a local place where I tasted empanadas (delicious!!) and had a spoon taste of traditional gazpacho soup. I'm still not a fan whether it's the recipe I got off the food channel or one made by true Spaniards. It was a busy day before retiring back to the ship after a short port day. Yesterday we stopped in the bustling city of Lisbon in Portugal. It's the capital city of course. A lot of the buildings here are walled with hand painted tiles and have the traditional Spanish-style rooftops. Narrow winding streets intertwine throughout the city and you can always here the sound of a cable car going by. The Castelo de Sao Jorge sits high atop the hillside overlooking the commercial shopping area of the city we spent most of our day in. There are about 5-6 streets of good shopping in the heart of the port city and then many shops in the outer districts. A good place for bargain prices, but once again nothing that struck me as particularly European. We did cascade the city for the hand painted tiles that are particular to the city and found very few choices. The ambiance of this port is still amazing. Some streets are still lined with cobblestone which makes for quite interesting walking on some of the hillier streets in my no traction sandals. The tiles on the outer walls are what are fascinating to see. As we walked about the city there was a tribute to the bull going on. Various plastic bulls that were painted with different themes were placed throughout the area. It was very similar to the art display NYC took on when they displayed the apples all over the place. I think even another city displayed cows (San Diego?) that I remember. It was a sight to see and fun since this area is known for its bull fights. We had a lovely lunch outside a gorgeously tiled building that was also right next to the theatre. We ordered steak, but it also came with an egg on top. One of our dancers said yesterday that an egg was on his hamburger when he ordered one. The steak and egg combo was oddly delicious. Maybe this is where the ole breakfast item comes from in the good ole U.S.A. We crossed by many open spaces decorated with monuments and fountains paying tribute to those who impacted the city in some shape or form. Also in abundance were cathedrals. It's in the cathedrals where you can see a Roman influence in the city's architecture. Needless to say it was another day of fabulous sightseeing and I'm exhausted and happy that we are taking 2 days at sea before reaching our next 2 exciting ports of call; Paris and London. We actually dock in Le Havre, France and Harwich, England. Each of the respective ports is about 3 hours from the major cities we all know. So it'll be 6 hours on trains both days with the express trips through the cities. We shall be exhausted. We'll also be heading into a more repetitive itinerary schedule so that each new day isn't like the world cruise where you see a new city each stop. I'd love it and hate it at the same time. To see the world would be amazing, but to make a 3-hour day of a major city like Paris is frantic. I'm still going to get my quintessential photos at the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre, Big Ben, and Scotland Yard. I'll be able to say I've been to those places and take in its beauty and history even for just a few short moments. As we have days like the past few where there's just so much to see and do in such a short time (which can 'cause aggravation at times), I remind myself that I'm getting paid to see it AND that I woke up in a brand new city and tried new things. Yes, I do love my current job and yes there's always time to sit at a lovely outdoor café on a cobblestone street (whether with a view of the water or a view of a fabulously ancient building) and just relax with a good local lunch and a sip of cappuccino (or ale depending on what's offered).

On a side note photos are few and far between because the internet out here is really slow. Uploading a picture takes eons and eats away the minutes. I'll try and upload on faster days, so keep looking back.

Adventures..

Valetta, Civitivecchia, Monte Carlo, Marseille and Barcelona. OY!!! I'm exhausted!! I think I REALLY felt it yesterday in Marseille. This itinerary is busy and my purse is getting lighter by the day. It's also been a week or so since my last post and within this week of traveling I was stuck on board in Athens and Kusadasi. Valetta was a wonderful day. Malta is THE most expensive isle in the Mediterranean. I didn't buy much, but I enjoyed sipping ale and having a nice cheeseburger alongside the waterfront in this sand castle port. The whole town looked like a huge sand castle. Architecture galore. When you enter the port it's like being in a playground with all the fascinating side streets and places to get lost. There's history in every corner. Beautiful landscapes and picturesque views are in abundance. The sights that were offered to my eyes here that only the 100 or so pictures I took could explain better overtook me. In Civitivecchia we had a relaxing day in the sun with our friends from the Noordam. Several people went on expeditions to the city of Rome, but we stayed in town to catch up on good times with a fellow Zaandamer from last contract. The sun was pouring down and we all enjoyed a fabulous Chinese dinner. Yup, Chinese in Italy. How interesting eh? In Monte Carlo I went off on my own expedition to avoid the trials and tribulations of those who wanted to shop. I knew there were sights I wanted to take in and with little time to do it in. I was meeting my good friends on board for an exquisite dinner in the Pinnacle Grill and wanted to get as much in my day as possible. I was going to take a train to Nice, but I was glad I opted not to since my camera decided to have a little glitch I had to run back to the ship to fix not more than 10 minutes after leaving the train station. I would've been in Nice and not have been able to take a single picture. By the time I got the glitch fixed, there wasn't time to go to Nice. Oh well. I started my day off by visiting the Royal Palace situated high above the city. There were beautiful gardens, little French side streets, and of course the beautiful palace to see, and I was just in time to see the changing of the guard. A marching band and a whole ceremony heralded this process with a government official watching from a window across the way. I wandered through the many side streets trying to use as much French as I could muster. Lo and behold I didn't succeed too much. I can't believe how quickly 5 years of honors French just slips through the cracks. I guess practice makes perfect and in the 14 years since I last studied the language, I had the opportunities to use it maybe 5 times. Not enough to keep any phrases in the forefront of my language speaking skills. Ah, c'est la vie. I took a stroll back down into the valley and went over to the lavish side of town where the casino stood. I wasn't able to go inside since I was dressed in shorts, T-shirt, and sandals AND I would have to check my bag. I have a hard time leaving my camera behind. It just wasn't meant to be. Later I found out that you had to pay $10 EU to get in before you even gambled. Good thing I didn't need to go in. No need to gamble like that. I passed through many of the chic stores in the area including Bulgari, Lacoste, Lalique, and MANY other high-end facilities. I even passed about 2 Ferraris, saw about a dozen or so BMWs, and saw a car that looked straight out of a James Bond film. The Grand Prix had just ended about 5 days before that so all the stands were up and I think all the rich that came to see it were still in town soaking up it's beauty. I strolled back down to town and had a lovely crepe with some cider. Yum. Afterward I went over to the Princess Grace rose garden for some more photo taking. Needless to say I walked about 20 miles and I was exhausted. It was show time the next day and I was going to need some rest. Did I take that into consideration? For about 10 minutes. I was off in Marseille the next day during a show day. I was just exhausted by then. Marseille, France wasn't as impressive as I thought. The town was very old and European, yes, but we had SO LITTLE time in this port before our show AND we had 2 shows to perform. My hardest one as well. Yuck. It was still a lovely day of strolling around France and having a lunch where my friend Trisha and I had to use our French to our best ability. The menu was in French and the waitress only spoke French. I didn't really know what I ordered, but it was good and filling. The other day we were off in Barcelona. Off bright and early we rented bikes for 3 hours and pedaled around town. Good thing too, because everything we got to see was so spread out and we would've never been able to see it. It was so much fun scooting around town and seeing all the beautiful places. One in particular was this cathedral built in 1882. It's STILL not finished. The Temple de la Sagrada Familia. It's SO ornate that it's taking quite a while to construct. It's amazing how this structure just towers over the city. We went inside the structure and I hope I get to see it finished before my lifetime closes. It was just breathtaking to imagine all the stained glass windows that could light the cavernous temple up with the sun that Barcelona gets. Afterward I enjoyed paella and Sangria on the main strip. Paella is something I thought I would never eat, but I thought I'd give the special a try since it was a small portion and it came with Sangria and espresso for only $12 EU. The paella was a rice dish combination of mussels, whole shrimp (heads, feet, tails and all) and chorizo (a Spanish sausage). It was actually very tasty. It was right on the main strip and just as we were all finishing dinner, a nudist happened to be walking by. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. A man (who looked about in his 60s or so) just walking down the strip naked as the day he was born and some other people filming him as he walked. I don't know if it was a demonstration, a documentary, or just what's considered art. It definitely caused a sudden burst of laughter and conversation amongst the crowded streets and you could hear the topic being discussed for a good 20 minutes after he passed from the strolling crowd coming from his direction. It was so interesting to walk this strip because all these entertainers were lining the inside walk way, and every 10 feet or so you'd run into a new performance piece. Today was very eventful with all the sights that I took in and the bicycle riding. These memories are going to last me a lifetime. I got another 65 or so pictures from this port. Already I think I tallied about 1,000 plus pictures so far. Digital is so fantastic.