Day 26 – May 25, 2010 – Back in Santorini

This morning, I got all the laundry done so that I could be ready to go out in Santorini as soon as crew was cleared at 6 pm. I was determined to explore the northern side of the cable car station. I found new settings on my camera to take pictures with “Vivid Colors” and a panoramic angle, so I was really excited to get some shots with those features and see the difference. You know how much I love taking pictures!


I went up to the crew pool area on deck 8 all the way forward and sat out on one of the lounges to watch us arrive in Santorini. I watched for about an hour as we cruised through various tiny land masses and the white-topped island of Santorini neared. There were only one or two other crew members who came up for a few minutes here and there, but I basically felt like I had my own private viewing deck. How amazing is that? I could hear some of the passengers watching from higher decks, no doubt questioning how one accesses deck 8!

I sailed over on the tender around 6 and got to the dock at the base of the cliffs. For some reason, I got a wild hair and decided I didn’t want to take the cable car up this time. I wanted to ride a donkey to the top, so I went over to the old men running the donkey operation, paid my 10 Euro to enter and stood in a short line to get paired up with my steed, haha… The donkeys looked very healthy and taken care of, which is the only way I would make them carry me up to the top. I got matched with a small brown donkey with curly, long hair (for a donkey), which made it look a little more like a sheep. I’ve been told that they meander up the path on their own terms and you just have to let them go where and when they want to. So I took hold of the bridle (??) and got ready for a leisurely climb up the huge incline.

We trotted up quickly and I caught up with a group of crew I knew from the ship – one of the dancers, Shane and a youth counselor, Amy were making their way to the top as well. Shane and I attempted to take pictures for each other while being jostled about on the backs of our rather strong-willed companions. It was a beautiful way to look out over the sea and view the magnificent islands in Santorini’s bay.

I was actually able to get some good shots despite the bumpy ride. We finally made it to the top and actually had to climb a bit more on foot to get to the level where the cable car lets out. I didn’t mind at all though, as I got to see another level of hotels, restaurants, and perfect lookout spots. I passed the cable car station and headed north along the edge of the cliffs, exploring a much less touristy-area of the town. I felt like I was climbing forever and ever and still couldn’t reach the highest point. I got lovely photos and enjoyed a quieter stroll than one would be on the fairly busy commercial streets on the south side.

I decided to cut in and try to circle back towards the town, to find a free wifi spot that some of the cast had been camped out at last time we were there. On my way there, I went by one of the famous Catholic Cathedrals and found this really cool artist studio inside one part of it. It didn’t take me long to find the wifi spot, as it’s probably the only Irish pub in town. I sat there for the rest of the time, had a couple Stella’s and soaked up as much fast, free internet as I could, updating FB, emailing, Skyping, chatting… it was a true test of multi-tasking for about an hour and a half. This is definitely one of the major challenges of ship life – trying to stay as connected as possible. Since I’m only gone for two months, I’m trying to stay on top of a lot of business stuff back home and it’s quite the challenge.

Also, just as a side note, I’m not sure if you can tell I’ve been hanging around Brits and Aussies and others who use British English and not American English…. So you may notice more “quite”, “rather” and other choice words they tend to use more than we do. :) Oh, and I’m also trying to eat with both a knife and fork like they do… the fork’s in the left hand and the knife in the right and they use both the entire time they’re eating. I know it sounds insane, but it’s really fascinating and I’m trying to master it, haha! Maybe I’ll make a video of it, lol.

Anyway, back in Santorini, I had a great evening and left with Andrew, Maggie, and Hannah from the cast and we all stopped for a crepe on our way back to the cable car. They all assured me we could run to the front of the line, so it was ok. I had a nutella and strawberries crepe that was to die for and ate it while running to the cable car AND having to pee unbelievably bad! I got to the front of the line and made it down on the next car, just in time for the last tender for crew to board. I was in pain, way full from the crepe, and sad to leave such a beautiful place once again. I distracted myself by looking at all the pictures I took earlier that evening and sending lots of positive thoughts out to the universe about my return to that magical island in the Aegean Sea.

Day 25 – May 24, 2010 – Corfu, Bye to Sydney and Get Down Tonight!

Today, we were back in Corfu and Eric, Pieter and I went out to lunch at the other crew discount restaurant, Aegli, with one of the nurses, Sydney, who is leaving the ship on Saturday for his vacation. He’s really great and we’ll all miss him and his sense of humor!

I got my first taste of spanikopita, which was amazing!!

 

After lunch, Eric departed and the three of us walked around the bazaar district a bit in search of wifi… We found the greatest treasure so far at this really great place called Café del Art. It was this sort of gothic/romantic café with tons of handmade candles (by the owner of the café), playing country music and serving a huge menu of exotic teas from around the world. In honor of our two South African medical staff, we all had Vanilla Roiboos Tea. It was really a lovely place and we all were totally at home there online, Sydney taking pictures and looking out the window onto the tiny alleyway the café was located on. We’ll definitely be back!

This week we only have two shows while the entertainment department is busy restructuring our itinerary as a 14-day cruise. As it stands now, we’ll do Colorz and World Beat one week and Get Down Tonight and World Beat the next. There are guest entertainers who fill in the extra nights, which opens up the production show cast’s schedule quite a bit. We’ll see how long it lasts! For me, it means more time to go ashore, hang out and well, relax! :)

Day 24 – May 23, 2010 – Split, Croatia

The best thing about today was that I ran into our pianist/lounge singer Stacy on the tender over to Split today. I brought my laptop, determined to get me some free or real cheap FAST internet. He sat down next to me with his and told me where the best place to go was. I was so thrilled and upset as well that I hadn’t gotten out sooner! Still, I would get a couple MUCH NEEDED hours online.

I went and spoke with personnel today to confirm my debark date – June 26th I’ll be leaving the ship. I wanted to take this opportunity of being in Europe to see some more stuff before heading home. I’ve got great friends in Paris, whom I’ve been dying to visit, and it looks like I can just let them know that I’ll be going home a few days later than planned. Through a paperwork process, it should only cost me to get up to Paris from Venice and then they’ll fly me home from there. YAY!!! I’m sooo excited about that. I was in Paris in high school for 10 days and went around to the typical school group-type sites, which was really great, but I didn’t get to actually interact with Parisiens or see the nightlife in the city so famous for it. Time to go visit the Crew Welfare office and pick up one of their Rosetta Stone laptops to brush up on my francais!

I love getting people’s story about how they started ship work and what their likes and dislikes about it are. Stacy is originally from Memphis and has traveled the world his whole adult life as a musician/musical director. He’s lived in Normandy, France for the last 30 years as well and we talked lots about that. It was really a lovely time sharing the afternoon with my new friend at the internet café and catching up on some business stuff back home. Stacy plays almost every night in a place called Bar City – it’s a lounge in the middle of the Martini Bar, Champagne Bar, Wine Bar and Cigar Club (which is thankfully enclosed). I had no idea about this piano bar-style show that he does for about 3 hours a night, so I made plans to go see him there tonight!

Pieter and I had dinner at the Italian restaurant on the ship, La Cucina and had some really interesting and tasty veggie lasagna. They were out of pasta sheets and were using potato sheet s in the lasagna. I’ve never had, nor heard of such a thing, especially just being in Venice the day before, you’d imagine we’d restock on pasta of all things…. But as it was, I had a new take on lasagna that was very filling and yummy. Then we headed over to see Stacy play for the whiteheads, as Mom would say, haha…. It was so amazing, I want to go there every night! We sat for two and a half hours listening to him sing, singing along with his showtune sets, and learning all sorts of musical trivia and history along the way. It was really a lovely evening doing something not many of my generation understand or enjoy, but I completely adore. He was so sweet and even dedicated a song from Casablanca to me for coming out to support! Every Friday night is Name That Tune, so you better believe where I’ll be after the show!!!

Day 23 – May 22, 2010 – Sunshine makes me well!

Off today in Venice after two days in bed, feeling not so happy. I thought I should get some sun and fresh air in Venice today with Eric and Pieter. We took a water taxi over to Piazza San Marco today for the first time, since I didn’t have much energy and it was a new way to see the city as well. They left from our cruise ship port and went around the southwestern side of the city until we hit the very busy dock.

 
It  was a perfect day, so tons of people were out, especially in the square. We took a terrified Eric through the swarms of pigeons who live there and he hung on to Pieter for dear life, lol.

We got some food at an outdoor café and I had some delicious salad and spaghetti pomodoro.

We   wanted to try to find this one church that you can see from so many of the places we’d been, but didn’t know how to get there. I ended up finding this church on the map that I got from my hotel the first night I stayed in Venice. It’s actually an incredible map of Venice, which is hard to find!

We headed in the church’s direction, passing the Peggy Guggeheim Collection, which is a museum of the American art collector’s pieces (hoping to make it there one of these weeks!). The church was brilliant and was the first massive, very old structure I’ve seen so far. It was quite busy, with lots of tourists sitting on the steps, looking out over the water to Piazza San Marco. The statues embedded in the structure were active and seemed alive. There was so much movement and life in them.

We walked further down the peninsula that the church kind of lived on and at the tip, there is an art museum or exhibition space of some sort. There is a huge marble statue of a little boy holding a frog at the very edge of the peninsula. He’s guarded by a surly security officer and tons of people try to take pictures with him.

We headed back to the ship then and just barely made it in time, again! Oh well… at least we got there. I was wiped out from a busy day on 50% energy, so I stayed in bed the rest of the afternoon until the new Welcome Aboard show – the cast does a couple numbers from the Colorz show and the orchestra plays a bit. It was a nice kickoff to the week, but very little help was needed back stage, so it was an easy night of work for me. Then up to Shadow Dancing in Bliss at 11:30 pm. I got some cool pictures this time and bowled a terrible game of bowling! I’m feeling much better though and excited about that for sure.

Day 22 – May 21, 2010 – Getting sicker…

Feeling reallllll crappy and sleeping all day and night, but being taken care of, so no worries, just trying to sleep it off.

Day 21 – May 20, 2010 – Getting sick…

Today I got sick. It was not fun. Just feeling pretty crappy, but lucky I have an in with the medical staff so I was well taken care of.
This is what it’s like when your doctor friend makes you a peanut butter sandwich. Yes, that’s a tongue depressor. Haha!

Day 20 – May 19, 2010 – Izmir shopping and White Hot!

Today we were back in Izmir and I was on my own to explore. I went out with only my wallet in hand so I wasn’t bogged down with a camera, travel books, etc… It was really nice! I had to find a grocery store to pick up a few things and I desperately needed some white shoes to go with my new white duds from H&M. It was a beautiful day out and it was so freeing to know exactly where I was going, as it was my second time there and I tend to have a great memory of locations. I found a street of the high fashion stores and it was nice to window shop a bit. I found some white shoes and headed to the grocery store where I tried to make out the Turkish writing on the snack bags. I stopped at a little bakery and had one of those amazing sesame seed covered pastries that are everywhere here. It was fantastic!

I hopped back onto the ship after picking up some more postcards at the port terminal and went to work on a t-shirt for Heather, one of our singers to wear for the White Hot Party tonight. It was also the debut of her cabaret show – Ballads and Broadway – that the singers have put together this week. Pieter, Eric and I grabbed some dinner and went to see the show before heading to White Hot. The singers were great and they were especially excited because they got to choose their own songs and introduce each with stories. It just made for a nice change from the impersonal production shows to the intimate and engaging style of a cabaret.

That's Heather (singer from Kansas City) and I and then Gina (dancer from UK) and I.
Then Andrew (singer from NY) and I and Anel (nail technician from South Africa) and I.

Afterwards, we headed upstairs to support the cast at White Hot and of course, debut my new white pants, haha. Being an officer, Pieter must always be in uniform in passenger areas, so he didn’t get to wear his new whites. :) I finally took some great pictures with the cast mates to show you all the very talented and wonderful people I get to work with!

That's Natalie (singer from NY) and Eric (dancer from Miami) and Pieter (doctor from South Africa) and I.

Me and my two Muskateers, Pieter and Eric :) They've really made this experience wonderful for me as far as ship life is concerned! LOVE!