Attitude Adjustment

I had a profound realization this afternoon as we were sailing into St. Peter Port, Guernsey. It was an overcast day with a light mist cloaking the Canary Islands. A flock of birds flew by a sail boat on its way to an archipelago. The cool sea breeze kissed my cheeks as I breathed in the fresh sea air and I was completely immersed in the moment.

It was then that I realized how lucky I am and how petty my attitude has been lately. Here I was discovering yet another beautiful place on the planet that 24 hours before I had never really known existed. The experience of discovery that I am being offered is incredible. I am going to try to remember this as I groan at the “groundhog” day nature of life at sea and the musical acts that aren’t exactly rewarding.

So you may be wondering St. Peter Port, Guernsey? Why on earth is Nick there? Apparently the striking French mariners have affected all of the ports in France, including Brest. Yesterday another cruise ship docked there the passengers weren’t allowed to get off the ship. Fearing the same thing would happen to us, the captain changed course for the Canary Islands.

Bilbao was a beautiful city. The countryside has gorgeous rolling green hills and lush vegetation. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to go inside the Guggenheim Museum, but the building itself is remarkable. I think it is hands down the most interesting architecture I have ever seen. I also had the most delicious white wine in my life. I usually am not much of a fan of white wine, but this was incredible. It was so smooth and not too dry or not too sweet – perfection in a bottle! I can’t remember the name, but will find out from my Basque friend, so hopefully I can find it at one of the other Spanish ports.

Remember to live for the moment! (I’m actually posting this a day later than it was written – just so you’re not too confused!)

Change of Plans

We have a slight change in our itinerary due to some unhappy French mariners. We were originally scheduled to dock in La Rochelle, France on Thursday, but due to the strike the port is closed and thus we are unable to dock. Instead of La Rochelle, we’ll be going to Bilbao, Spain which is in the northern Basque country – hopefully Thursday will be terrorist attack free! We are still able to go to Brest, France on Friday because that is a military port.

I’m actually excited about the change in itinerary because of the Guggenheim Museum that is in Bilbao. It is suppose to have one of the most impressive collections of modern art in the entire world. The building was designed by Frank Geehry (?) who I think may have possibly done the new wing of the Denver Art Museum, but I can’t remember if that is the case – if anybody can verify or correct my information that would be great. I feel slightly embarrassed that I can’t recall the famous architect’s name since there are a few architects in the family – sorry Uncle Bob and Oscar!

I spent my day Tuesday walking the streets of Lisbon. The city is situated on 7 hills (just like Rome) and is located on a seismic fault line which has caused quite a bit of destruction throughout history. There is only one district that survived the devastating earthquake in the 18th Century – the Alfhama. It still retains many of the Arabic influence in the building and street design. Lisbon was once a great maritime center and Portugal had quite a large nautical Empire. The aforementioned earthquake pretty much caused the Empire to crumble. I can’t quite recall the exact numbers, but it was something like 60,000 people out of a population of 230,000 perished that day.

Of course it was raining and cold yet again, but did end up clearing up in the afternoon. Rain is supposedly incredibly rare for Lisbon and they usually have 340 day of sunshine a year and because of the lighting in the city many filmmakers use the city as a backdrop. I guess you can’t really trust any weather patterns as our world climate has been completely altered.

One of the unique features of Lisbon are the British Tram cars that carry passengers around the city. They look very much like the trams in San Francisco and can be very helpful in navigating all the steep hills.

I think that’s all the excitement for now. Oh wait, there’s one other thing. I’m going to be switching rooms on Saturday. I’ll be moving in with my radical bass playing friend.

Rain

Sorry I have been MIA this past week, but the weather has been getting me down. It's been very rainy and cold - I miss the Colorado sunshine. My day in Algerho, Sardinia was absolutely miserable. I went on a cruise of the bay and was suppose to go to a beach, but the weather would not allow it. Instead I got soaking wet tendering from the ship to the shore. Palma, Mallorca was nice, but we were only there for 4 hours in the morning. We did have sunshine that day, but not enough time. I returned to Gibraltar and visited the apes again. Other than that, I've been biding my time at sea. A few of the musicians have started playing Scrabble during our sea days, so that has helped pass the time. 8 more weeks, which is really only 4 cruises - the end is in sight!

Livorno

Thank you Jaime for spending 8 hours on a train yesterday to come spend the day in Livorno with me!!! It was great to yet again see a familiar face from Colorado and a different face from the ship life. We had wonderful pastries, coffee, pizza, and gelato. She's also trying to convince me to move back to Italy...ci vediamo...

The Other Side of the Tracks

I discovered how the other people live today and am pretty sure I’ll never feel comfortable around them. I’ve never seen so many Ferraris, Porsche, or Mercedes in my life. I mean even the taxis were Audis, BMW, and Mercedes!! The place I’m speaking of is Monte Carlo, Monaco.

I visited Old Monaco in the morning and went to the Cathedral where all of the royalty are buried, including Princess Grace. I didn’t realize before today that Princess Grace was Grace Kelly – apparently Prince Ranier met her at the 6th Cannes Film Festival and they married after that – you probably all knew that though! I also visited the Royal Palace which is still in use and it was quite spectacular. The reception room and throne room were most impressive. I tried to picture myself being invited for tea or even living in the palace. The throne room was used in November of 2005 when the new Prince was crowned (I forgot his name).

Next week is the famous Grand Prix of Monaco and the city was already in full gear preparing for the events. The grand stands were set up and the track was marked off which made walking around the city (I guess I should say country – 2nd smallest to Vatican City) quite difficult, but very interesting to see all the preparation. Unfortunately I won’t be back next week for the race and I’m also missing the Cannes Film Festival! It started a few days ago and we don’t return until June – oh, well maybe I’ll still see some rich and famous.

After Old Monaco, I wandered over to the famous Monaco Casino and that was where all the nice cars and designer shops were. Definitely not in my budget!

Time for some much needed sleep!

Evacuations and Conspiracies

My confidence in the ship’s emergency evacuation plan has been a bit shaken. We had a drill yesterday where we evacuated to a lifeboat that holds 150 people. The lifeboat is covered and rather small with little ventilation – a claustrophobic nightmare! One of the dancers couldn’t handle it and broke down crying and had to get out of the boat. I figured if anything happened to the lifeboat my best bet would be to hold my breath and wait for all the other people’s panic to subside before swimming through the small porthole directly above me. It took just about an hour for the crew to fill the boat and we fell 6 short of cramming 150 bodies into the boat – I guess those 6 would be s.o.l. in real life. The evacuation is supposed to only take a half hour and that would be with overweight, elderly passengers with limited mobility. The lesson of the drill: pray there isn’t an emergency or learn how to launch a life raft!

After the drill, I spent the day wandering around the port of Cadiz in Andalucia, Spain. It is a very nice city with a beautiful park and wonderful beach. I spent most of my day at the beach soaking up some Mediterranean (even though I was technically still in the Atlantic) sunshine – my first beach time since the Caribbean! I didn’t swim due to a brisk breeze and chilly water.

The bass player shared another one of his radical documentaries with me last night. The documentary is entitled “Loose Change” and is all about a conspiracy theory behind 9/11. I have to admit that it was fairly convincing and raised questions that I had never considered. I won’t go into details here, but if you can get your hands on a copy of it (supposedly it is illegal and considered a form of domestic terrorism), I recommend you check it out. I’m going to return home a crazy and radical revolutionary! Next up are lectures on the conspiracy theory behind the J.F.K. assassination.

(P.S. I learned a disturbing fact that my ship consumes 65,000 gallons of fuel per day!! Not exactly sustainable living!)

Apes and Refugees

I spent the day in Gibraltar yesterday. What a fascinating place with so much history! I took a walking tour of the rock and my guide, Karen, was fantastic. She knew Gibraltar inside and out. Gibraltar is still a British owned territory and they use the pound (much to my wallets dismay!). The country is only 2 square miles and in that area live 128,000 people making it one of the most densely populated countries in the world. I didn’t really feel like there was much congestion and people surrounding me though.

The rock has a very significant strategic positioning as it is the entrance into the Mediterranean Sea. One theory behind the rocks creations is that Hercules erected 2 pillars, the rock, and a mountain in Morocco (I can’t remember the name) to mark the end of the world. Of course back then it was believed the Earth was flat and if you sailed between these 2 pillars you would surely fall off and never be seen again. Columbus was actually the first one to try his luck. The scientific explanation is plate tectonics. The Arabs are believed to be the first people to inhabit the rock and it is also believed that they are the ones who brought the Barbary Apes to the rock. There is a colony of about 250 wild tailless apes that call the Rock of Gibraltar their home. They are incredible animals. If you have plastic bags or even regular bags they will try to open them up in search of candies or sweets. They’re also very photogenic and act like little kids.

I digress. Gibraltar is basically the southernmost tip of Spain and once belonged to Spain, but the British have been in control for just a little over 300 years. Franco shut down the border to Spain several times in the 60’s and 70’s and it’s been a very contentious political fight over Gibraltar. It is rumored that as long as the apes stay on the rock it will remain under British control. I’m going to stop with the historical information now, because I’m already forgetting all that the guide told us and don’t want to give anybody false information.

Inside the rock is St. Michael’s cave which has beautiful stalactites and stalagmites. There is even a stage inside the cave where they put on productions. During WWII, a hospital barracks was built in the cave, but never needed. There is also an extensive tunnel system within the rock and around 30,000 troops could survive within the rock for at least 2 years without seeing the sun.

I walked to Europa Point which is a lighthouse at the southernmost point of Europe. From there I was able to see Morocco; I think it’s neat that I can now say I’ve seen Africa – I think Australia and Antarctica maybe the only continents I haven’t seen now.

Speaking of Africa, we had an interesting event happen on Tuesday evening. Around 8:00 the captain made the “man over board” announcement. The alarm was sounded because there was a small row boat that was in distress. The captain decided to help them out and it turns out that they were rowing from Algeria and seeking political asylum. The captain brought them on board and planned to hand them over to the Gibraltan authorities, but they wouldn’t take them. We now have refugees sailing with us until we reach Southampton, and from there I have no idea what will happen to them. I thought this stuff only happened in the movies! I’m going to end my ramblings now as I’m struggling to write coherently…the brain just doesn’t seem to be working!

Corsica

I think Grand Turk has fallen to number 2 on my favorite islands list. Yesterday I discovered the beauty of Corsica. It used to be rumored that French sailors could always tell when they were approaching Corsica because of the wonderful aromas from all the flowers - a much different odor from the stench of Marseille. It’s remarkable how wonderful the island smells – almost like God took a large bottle of perfume and sprayed the island with a delicate layer of ‘eau du toilette’!

Apart from the fragrances of Corsica, the countryside is remarkably rugged. It was the closest to Colorado I’ve felt since my journey began. The mountains were still snow-capped and actually are an extension of the Alps. There were large jagged peaks with lush green vegetation. I took a tour to the Prunelli Gorges and Lake Tolla which had picturesque villages lining the coast. Apparently May is the best time to visit Corsica as the flowers are in bloom and the summer heat and congestion are waiting in the wings. I also saw goats on the rocky cliffs, cows crossing the road, and horses galloping in the pastures. A very idyllic site to behold! I can’t quite figure out why Napoleon was so eager to leave his birthplace and conquer the world – I guess that’s the difference between men seeking power and men seeking happiness. I would be more than content to call Corsica my home. The only problem….I need to learn how to speak French!

Rome to Vesuvius

Rome never ceases to amaze me. I’ve been to the city enough times now that I actually have “old haunts” and am able to navigate my way around without a map! However, I still find something new every time I visit. My goal yesterday was to visit the Galleria Borghese, but unfortunately they were sold out until Thursday. I think yesterday was the busiest I’ve seen Rome – tourist season is already in full swing I suppose. Anyway, I wasn’t too upset about missing the galleria because along the way I found a beautiful park with wonderful views of the city. I visited my favorite pizza place at Campo dei Fiori and had four different gelati – nocciole, cocco, limon, e mango…mmmm. I think my Italian must be improving as this was the first visit where everybody I spoke with responded to me in Italian. Usually the city dwellers would respond to me in English, but not this time – maybe it has something to do with my Caribbean tan!

Today I hiked to the top of Mount Vesuvius, an active volcano. It was incredible and steam was still coming out of the rocks. There were some of the strongest wind gusts I’ve ever experienced and a few times it felt like I might fly away. Luckily, as a good Coloradan, I brought a jacket with me as I know how the elements on top of a mountain can be, but a lot of the British passengers were not as smart. I’m not sure how they survived in short sleeves and shorts. After Vesuvius we went to Pompeii to see the devastation that the volcano can cause. It was nice to be back in Pompeii and see more of the site than my last visit. I missed the “red light district” on my first trip, but today toured a “happy house” (as our guide put it) from 79 a.d. The brothel had 6 small rooms with beds and very erotic frescoes over the entrances. It was hidden from the main street and they even had a phallus that pointed the way from the main square. Another detail I missed on my first visit were the grooves in the road worn down by the chariots. As I was walking through the city it struck me that Rome and most of our cities are still planned in the same way. We have a main square or downtown, shopping districts or malls, bars/restaurants, and residential areas. I also wondered if in 2000 years (assuming the earth still exists) people would be marveling at our culture and traipsing through a buried city. I capped my day off with a pistachio gelato – just want to make sure you keep track of all my culinary delights!

May Day

I am in Cannes, France today, but stuck on the ship with in port manning duties. I have to say I’ve been a bit perturbed by my work schedule since arriving in Europe. I had a tour all lined up in Lisbon, Portugal, but had to cancel because of a rehearsal. The rehearsal was scheduled for noon and we were only in port until 1:30 – why not wait until we’re at sea with nothing to do?!!! Anyway, I guess I should try to remember that I am here working and not on vacation.

Yesterday I spent the day in Barcelona. I went around with Sergio and J again and didn’t find the city as amazing as everybody says it is. Maybe it was hyped up too much or maybe it was because it was a holiday and most of the stores were closed. We went to La Rambla which is a major pedestrian street with street performers and shops – reminded me of a super-sized version of Pearl Street Mall in Boulder. We also went to La Segrada Familia which is the cathedral started by Gaudi back in 1882 and still remains unfinished. It has to be the most eccentric and unique design for a cathedral that I have ever seen. Gaudi borrowed many elements from nature and it almost looks like a mud-drip sand castle. After this we had paella at a restaurant on La Rambla. I had a paella mixta which had vegetables, mussels, clams, shrimp, squid, and chicken. It was very good, but I still can’t seem to get over the texture of squid and octopus – maybe someday my taste buds will adapt! Sergio also ordered another expensive bottle of wine – I really need to stop dining with him as I’ve easily been spending over $50 for my meals – completely goes against my frugal nature! I also had a nice helado, but it left me pining for gelato. Alas, the wait is not long, as tomorrow I’ll be in Roma stuffing my face with all the gelato that I can handle!