Vigo

Ah Europe! Che meravigliosa! I had a wonderful day in Vigo, Spain. The city was remarkably similar to many Italian cities I have been to. There is a main road with lots of shopping and lots of churches and an old fortress. There are also beautiful fountains and sculptures lining the streets and accentuating the unique Spanish architecture. So much culture that we lack in the U.S.!

I spent the day with Sergio, piano player from Chile who now lives in Quebec, and J, trombone player from L.A. We had a delicious lunch at a restaurant that a local suggested. Fortunately Sergio speaks Spanish and was able to get us inside more of the local Vigo rather than just the tourist traps. For lunch, I had a delicious vegetable soup with cabbage and cannelloni beans…the broth was exquisite and was served with a hot loaf of bread straight from the oven. For my main course I had grilled sword fish with a roasted red pepper, roasted tomato, and potato with fresh lemon. Best sword fish I have ever tasted! Oh the flavor combination with the red pepper was simply wonderful. As I told Sergio in Italian, “Siamo arrivati!” – We’ve arrived! The best part of the meal had to have been the wine. We tried a local wine from the region of Galicia (which is where Vigo is) and it was excellent. I think it was called Torres, but I’ve already forgotten – Sergio bought a bottle so I’ll have to double check. It had the best finish of any wine I have ever tried – smooth with hints of vanilla and toasted nuts. We made it back on the ship just in time as the gangway was being prepared for sail away. I don’t think I’d be too upset to be left behind in such a beautiful city though. I can’t wait for Barcelona as I’ve heard it’s 10 times better!

Hasta luego!

Ciao Europa!

I arrived safely to Southampton yesterday and today is another day at sea….groan. We’re on our way to Vigo, Spain and should arrive on Monday morning. I’ve also returned to my shared cabin which is a big bummer – it was really nice to have my own space.

I had a very nice day in Southampton. The weather was beautiful. It was 72 – so far, their warmest day of the year! I met up with one of my friend’s mom, Val, who just so happened to be visiting her relatives in the neighboring town of Portsmouth. We walked along the old wall that was built to protect the city from French invaders during the 100 years war and also walked down the pier from where the Mayflower sailed to the Americas. There was a celebration happening for the launching of the world’s largest cruise ship, The Liberty of the Seas, which is part of Royal Caribbean. It made my ship look small, but made the Queen Elizabeth II look like a tiny little tug boat. We had lunch at a local pub and I tried a Shandy (sp?) – a mix of beer and sprite. It was surprisingly good and very refreshing. Val took some pictures and a video that she’ll share with my parents when she returns to Colorado. It’s been very nice having familiar faces greet me along the way and remind me of home!

My itinerary for this cruise is very nice. I’ll be in Vigo tomorrow, and then Lisbon, Barcelona, Cannes, Rome, Naples, Corsica, and Gibraltar. Time to go pass some more time at sea….

Politics at Sea

I watched an interesting documentary today called “From Freedom to Fascism”. The bass player loaned it to me and is quite a radical thinker when it comes to government and where America is heading (although I agree with most of what he says). He is also into organic/local foods and even has a compost pile! Anyway, the movie revolves around the fact that there is no law that states that we have to pay an income tax. Back in 1913 the Federal Reserve was created and Amendment 16 requiring corporations to pay tax on profits and gains was created but never ratified. He continues the argument that America is ruled by a select few bankers who are pushing to have a world government where they have all the power. I didn’t realize the Federal Reserve is not run by the government, but a private enterprise that actually charges the government interest and can create money on a whim – could explain why my dollar will get me nowhere in Europe! According to Mussolini, fascism is nothing more than the marriage of corporation and government and thus the director, Aaron Russo, claims that we have become a fascist society. There was also an interesting clip from the National Election Committee debriefing the 2004 Ohio presidential election results and how there was no question that the electronic voting was hacked. I’ll stop my political ranting now – I guess that’s what happens when you’re stuck on a ship for a week!

Speaking of the crossing of the Atlantic, we are moving at a snail’s pace! To tie in to capitalism, the only reason we’re at sea for so long is so the ship can make more money from the passengers. At least, that’s what I believe since we basically cover the same distance from Southampton to Portugal in 1 day compared to the 3 we’re taking from the Azores! We’ve been very lucky with weather and only rocked really noticeably a few nights ago. It was actually quite calming to be rocked to sleep although my cabin was making all sorts of creaking noises.

Last night I had a nice clarinet feature with one of the guest artists who plays clarinet and sax. We did a rousing Polka duet – it was the most I’ve worked since I joined the ship! Have to run to rehearsal now. I am now 7 hours ahead of Denver time and will fluctuate between 7 and 8 for the next few months depending on how far east in the Med I am. Cheers!

Back Pain

The crossing has been remarkably smooth thus far. The Caribbean was rougher than the Atlantic – go figure! Today we’re in Ponta Delgada which is part of the Azures of Portugal. We’ve definitely arrived in Europe. It’s refreshing to have some different culture than the Caribbean – not that the Caribbean isn’t nice, it was just time for a change. There seems to have been English influence in the architecture, but I’ve heard that they have always been under Portugal so I’m not sure. The island actually reminded me a lot of Ireland with rolling green hills – not at all what I expected!

I strained my lower back in the gym a few days ago and have been in loads of pain. I’ve never had such bad back pains and can now sympathize with all the bad backs in my family. If it’s not better tomorrow, I’m going to go check about getting a massage or something to loosen it up. My private hot tub is helping though (well it’s not mine, but nobody is ever out there, so it seems like it’s mine!).

Being at sea the past 4 days has felt a bit like ground hog day. Everyday we moved the clocks forward one hour and everyday you look outside and see nothing but water and you do the same thing over and over. The repetitiveness has forced me to visit the buffet more frequently and I’ve discovered the wonderful tradition of English Tea! The scones with jam and cream are delicious….mmmmm. Speaking of the buffet, it’s time to go eat lunch!

What Luck!

The fates are smiling on me! I’ve somehow managed to get my very own cabin for the crossing of the Atlantic. One of the Caribbean deck bands got off before the crossing, so the musicians have some empty cabins. The bandmaster offered my roommate the opportunity for a single since he has seniority among the group, so now I have some space until Southampton. Maybe I’ll luck out and get to keep the cabin even longer, but I’m not holding my breath. There have also been rumors that we may have a dry dock for a few days in Southampton. A dry dock is when the ship stays in port for repairs and we would be without passengers, so I would just have to punch my card in the ship every 72 hours to keep getting paid. Last year the ship ended up in dry dock for an entire cruise (2 weeks!), so I might get to see more of England than I anticipated. This is all based on rumors and speculation.

I’ve actually enjoyed my first day of crossing. It’s quite awesome to look on the horizon and see nothing but water and try to fathom the vastness of the ocean. It’s huge! And there’s an entirely different world living under there. I glimpsed a tip of the iceberg (that’s probably a really ill-advised metaphor to use!) today, as I saw some flying fish while I was walking the deck. I ate flying fish in Barbados so it was nice to see them alive as well! The name pretty much describes itself – a fish with wings! They were flying away from the spray of the ship, so I felt a bit guilty for intruding their home. I also found myself thinking of how my great grandparents crossed the Atlantic nearly a century ago and how different the conditions would have been. For one, they didn’t have satellites to entertain them with television, phones, and internet!

Hopefully the novelty of the crossing will last the entire week!

Zip-lining

Not too much has been happening the past few days. I've been enjoying my final Caribbean beach days before crossing the Atlantic, which begins today at 5:00 p.m.! I'm definitely missing watching Stanley Cup playoffs and the NHL site is very slow on the ship, so if anyone feels like sending me scores, feel free!

Today I went zip-lining through a rain forest in Antigua. It was fun, but I'm not sure it was worth the money. I actually had to pay for the tour because they didn't have enough passengers to have an escort. I'm glad I can add it to my life experiences. I wanted something more dangerous with a huge gorge and drop-off. There was a leap of faith that was exciting. Not much else to report for now. Think calm sea thoughts the next 7 days!

Rum punch and downpours

So my party cruise in Grenada on Friday was loads of fun. I drank way too much rum punch and almost missed my first show! I went to take a nap after rehearsal and set my alarm, but slept straight through the alarm, 4 phone calls from the bass player and the cabin steward coming in to straighten the room out. Luckily my roommate came 5 minutes before the show and woke me up. Fortunately there aren’t any party cruises in Europe, so I should be safe from having a repeat scare!

The cruise was loads of fun and I even got to dance with a very spunky Argentinian passenger – she reminded me a lot of my surrogate grandmother, Julie. I also partook in the limbo with the steel drum band and have pictures and videos that will hopefully be up someday.

Yesterday was my last stop in Barbados and I did some shopping in Bridgetown and relaxed on a beach. I went to dinner with Kalya and Ramon and had a curried potato roti – a roti is sort of like a burrito, they stuff pastry with all sorts of different ingredients – mine had curried potatoes, soy channa, peas, and a pepper sauce – very tasty! I also had ice cream as we had fun scrounging all our Barbados Dollars together to use every last penny. We took a walk to the beach after and got caught in a complete downpour. The most rain we’ve seen the entire trip. We eventually found a taxi to take us back to the ship, but we were soaking wet. Just 5 more Caribbean Islands and then I’ll be on my transatlantic voyage to Europe!

Oh, I watched the Kite Runner last night. The book is definitely better (which seems to always be the case), but I thought they did a great job adapting it to the screen. I recommend watching it.

Caracas

Hmmm...not really sure why Caracas is on our itinerary. I guess to be fair to all my Venezuelan friends I'll start with the good part of my tour to Caracas.

The name Venezuela actually means Little Venice and there is quite a large Venician population in Venezuela. The highlight of Caracas for me was the Murano glass blowing factory. It's amazing watching the artisans shape the glass into dogs and clowns. I watched one add an accordian to a clown and give it hands. It's a 2 man process as one is the sculptor and the other is the runner getting hot glass ready for the artist. Another guy was blowing the glass and making vases and drinking glass. Really interesting watching the process.

So the other parts of Caracas that I visited no so exciting. I visited the Pantheon which is where Simon Bolivar's remains are buried, but it wasn't very exciting as I couldn't understand a word our guide said. The other place we went was a Colonial Museum which was really boring. It was an old wealthy estate from the 18th Century. Maybe if I had gone to other parts of Caracas my impression would be different, but it is a very large city with tons of traffic. It's surrounded by mountains and has a lot of vegetation, but nothing really impressive. I did see Chavez signs this time and saw all the parts of society. There is a definite difference between poor, middle class, and rich housing. I actually found Isla Margarita to have more poverty than Caracas, but maybe it's because we were in the nicer parts.

We had lunch at a restaurant in a very nice hotel, but the meal wasn't traditional. I don't understand why all these places serve western food rather than their local cuisine. There was quite a stir at lunch when one of the waiters spilled coke on a passenger. The passenger was disgusting. She demanded for the staff to either buy her a new shirt and handbag or launder her clothes because she could not eat like that. They ended up washing and drying her clothes and delaying our group. The nerve of some people.

Today I'm going on a party catamaran with a steel drum band and Mourn Rouge beach in Grenada. Happy Friday!

Grand Cayman

I think Grand Cayman has the most beautiful water in the world. I thought I had seen some pretty amazing crystal blue seas in the Mediterranean and Caribbean, but nothing compares to the colors of Grand Cayman’s water. It’s absolutely perfect. Brilliant blues spill into turquoise pools which meld into tranquil aquamarines. I’m trying to describe it, but it truly is indescribable!

What’s underneath the water is just as spectacular. I went on a snorkeling tour of a reef and more stingrays. Grand Cayman is a tender port for us, which means we have to dock about 200 yards from the pier and then take small water taxis to the port. I actually had to work for my tour this time as we had to muster passengers from point A to point B – well worth the extra effort though.

My tour only had 14 people and we took a boat out to the reef. Once at the reef, we got to dive in and snorkel. I think my favorite underwater discovery was a huge school of periwinkle fish that had to have numbered at least 300 if not more. It was beautiful swimming along side them and watching them maneuver through the reefs. In the middle of all the periwinkle fish was a great big rainbow colored fish. The other highlight was an eel that our guide found. I can’t remember the name of it but it begins with an M. It was at least 3 feet long if not longer. The guide fed it and eels can be rather feisty. It went after a passenger a few times and you could see its teeth grinding away just dying to bite into some flesh – pretty cool!

After the reef, we took a short ride to a sandbar where I got to swim with stingrays for the 2nd time in a week – I know it’s not fair. This time was even better than the first. The minute you got off the boat you were surrounded by stingrays and they would swim up your back and lift their wings as they swam around you. The guide assuaged all our fears about the stinger by explaining that the only way you can get stung is if you step on the stinger or grab the tail and wrestle with the stingray. He then proceeded to touch the stinger to his tongue to show us he wasn’t kidding – still not sure that I would be that bold, but hey. I got to hold and feed the rays and even kissed one on the nose. The water did get a little rough, so it was a little nerve racking bobbing up and down not knowing if I’d land on one of the rays. Oh, I also learned that stingrays are members of the shark family.

Today we were at sea and I slept the entire day. I have a cold and probably health wise should have not gone on the tour yesterday, but I can’t pass up a chance to see a new island. Tomorrow I’ll have a chance to rest and recover as well since I have in port manning. I now recommend visiting any island in the Caribbean with grand in it’s name – Grand Cayman, Grand Turk – because they truly do live up to their billing!

Dunn's River Falls

Today I climbed Dunn’s River Falls in Ocho Rios, Jamaica. It was yet another spectacular experience. The falls are 900 feet tall and we started our ascent at the beach and climbed to the top. It’s quite a rush to be surrounded by jungle and wild birds as you scale slippery rocks with water rushing over them! The falls aren’t the type that you can jump into, but we did get to slide down one of the sections and fall backwards into a deep pool at another section. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to bring my camera as it is not waterproof, but went in on a DVD with another escort so hopefully I’ll have something to bring back and share. The one downfall (no pun intended!) of the experience is that the sun wasn’t shining and it was pretty darn cold. I think I need to gain some more body fat just so I can withstand the cold waters. I’m fighting a cold which I think I got swimming with the stingrays, so today probably didn’t help, but I can’t pass up all these wonderful opportunities.

Right as we were leaving the falls it started pouring rain and lasted pretty much the rest of the day. Lots and lots of rain! Its good preparation for all the rain I’ll be seeing in Southampton, England.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention that the Dunn’s Falls are featured in the James Bond movie, Dr. No. If you’ve been keeping track from my European trip in the fall, you’ll realize this is my second Bond location within the year; I’ll be 007 before you know it!

Gossip

There's not a whole lot that's happened since Monday to report. The most exciting thing is that our trombone player was kicked off in St. Maarten because he tested positive for marijuana. He was involved with these 2 spa girls that all of us warned him he would get in trouble if he kept hanging around them. They were always messed up on something. Anyway, somebody overheard them talking which prompted the captain to go on rounds and they ended up drug testing the 2 girls and Josh. The 2 girls tested positive for cocaine. They're lucky it was in St. Maarten, because the next day we were in St. Thomas, a U.S. territory and the authorities would have been involved.

The winds were very strong heading into Grand Turk so I missed my snorkeling adventure in Grand Turk, but still got to soak up the sun on a beautiful white sand beach and do some swimming. Last night I watched Michael Clayton and really enjoyed it. I highly recommend it if you like legal thrillers. Today we are at sea all day heading to Montego Bay. I went to the gym and lounged on the deck and swam in the pool. I know my life is really rough. I'll definitely need a vacation when I get back. I'm excited because tonight is Italian night at the buffett! (Did I spell that right?)