Atlantic Ocean
We just had a helicopter evacuation to Portugal. Which was actually rather uninteresting as (a) I was in the middle of a rehearsal at the time; and (b) all the open decks were closed off for the operation anyway, so there was nowhere from where one could see it.
posted by Simon Saturday, August 30, 2003
Malaga
I've been here before, but never got off the ship. We arrived late due
to bad weather so my tour was cancelled, so I just went walking around
the town with a friend, which was very pleasent - had a bizarre
concoction to drink, basically a smoothie consisting of peach, melon,
yoghurt, milk and ice. Rather nice.
posted by Simon Friday, August 29, 2003
http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
(tehehehe!)
posted by Simon Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Messina
My first visit to Sicily. And I've just seen an amazing demonstration of blind devotion to routine. Two P&O seamen hanging off the side of the ship cleaning the windows - IN THE POURING RAIN!!!
This looks like a really interesting town - there are big old domes and stuff on the hills. Sadly I am working this morning. I'll probabyl get an hour off, but it's raining, so maybe...
Zakinthos was nice yesterday though.
posted by Simon Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Agean Sea
Today was Kusadasi. Those who have read since the beginnings will know my feelings about this town, but today I went on a tour to Ephesus. This was hot, crowded, and very interesting. We saw the famous roman remains (new passenger quote: "These Romans were very fond of ruins"), and some of the local holy sites. One was St. John's Basilica, built a long time ago (I can't remember how long but we're talking a few hundred AD) but still the longest church in the world. Within this structure we saw the tomb of John the Baptist. Apparently. We also visited somewhere that is purpoted the be the Virgin Mary's house, where she ended up living. Or, more accurately, a chapel built on teh ruins of this house.
This got me thinking - we talk about the Virgin Mary, but assuming that we accept her virginity up until Jesus's birth, she was still fairly young - is there anything in the Bible to suggest that she maintained this state for the rest of her life?
Ho hum. I'll probably be flamed by American Baptists now.
This evening would have been very pretty if I'd had the time to sit on deck and enjoy it - we're crossing the Agean from Kusadasi to Piraeus, which means we're weaving in and out of Greek and Turkish islands all the way.
posted by Simon Sunday, August 24, 2003
Rhodes
Mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. Thanks, Noel. Now I know why. NOBODY ELSE DOES.
Having looked around the Medevil town (I wish I could remember how to spell that), I walked out to the Acropolis (no, not the one in Athens. Rhodes has another, from about the same time.). And to my surprise I was the only one there, apart from three Greeks. It was lovely! Passenger tours don't operate in the afternoons in this part of the world in summer, on the basis that it's likely to be too hot. The majority of crew members (well, out of those who ever get beyond the first bar and/or beach they come to) consider a little over a mile far too far to walk in a temperature of 31C (a year ago I'd have agreed with them. I still find it incredible quite how much I've acclimitised). And as far as domestic tourism goes, I guess it was siesta time. Yay! A major ancient monument all to myself!
The rest of the town here, not quite as old, is gorgeous as well. Rhodes has, over the years, been occupied by:
-the Greeks
-the Romans
-the Byzantine empire
-the Knights of St. John (although interestingly no Maltese crosses visible - was this before they adopted that symbol?)
-the Turks
-the Italians (again, I guess...)
-and finally the Greeks again.
Hmm. There's a certain symmetry in that list. Anyway, the result is that Rhodes town (is that Lindos? Nothing seems to be certain as to whether that's the proper name of this town or another place entirely!) is a place of mosques and churches side by side, and indeed often buildings that have served as both (there is a synagogue too, hidden away out of town...).
IT's a town dominated by medevil walls and fortifications (built by a variety of people, but unsurprisingly the Templars had a large role), but these remains, all remarkably intact, aren't treated as a tourist attraction or a monument - it's just where people live. An unremarked-apon part of the surroundings. Once one gets past the tourist shops (of which there are remarkably few - I think this place attracts the kind of tourists who bugger off to the beach and leave the town alone), it is a place of narrow cobbled lanes with stone arches over them just above head height, all covered in flowers and greenery.
I like Rhodes. As you may have noticed.
I came back early to collapse and sleep - tomorrow is Kusadasi and I'm (hopefully) on tour to Ephesus. Which I expect to be hot.
posted by Simon Saturday, August 23, 2003
Rhodes
I haven't gone ashore yet, as I'm in-port manning until 1300, but my initial reaction is "I knew that Rhodes was close to Turkey, but not *this* close!". It's a clear day and from the ship I can see mountains in the distance which could, potentially, be on another part of this island, but from the direction I think must be in Turkey. They look, at a guess, 20-30 miles away.
posted by Simon Saturday, August 23, 2003
One of the things I really like about this ship is that there is an area of open deck which has no lights. I can go to the front of the ship, look forward away from all the lighting (if the wind isn't too strong), and actually let my eyes get dark-adjusted.
I spent fifteen minutes up there last night staring at the stars... it's something I should do more often.
posted by Simon Thursday, August 21, 2003
Palma
Went ashore with a friend today and had peyella for lunch. Which was very nice, if somewhat unspellable. Then went inside the cathedral. I've admited the outside of this structure before, but the inside is rather impressive. The deeply coloured stained-glass windows are particularly nice - the sun is bright enough here that the use of saturated colours doesn't make the interior too dark.
It's 2130 and I have the rest of the night off tonight, so I'm wondering what to do with myself - a bit of a loose end.
Having intended to for ages, yesterday I finally started reading Dune. It's good. It's very good. I've over half way through already...
posted by Simon Wednesday, August 20, 2003
Grrrr.
Aquatex has ruined my suit.
For those who don't know, Aquatex is a patented high-tech dry-cleaning-by-water-mist system. The idea is to have the benefits of dry cleaning without any of the nasty chemicals. Aurora has this system too, and it's worked fine for me on there. So either Oceana's machines are badly adjusted/maintained/operated/whatever, or the laundry people just bunged my suit in a normal washing machine; either way I now have a shapeless coat-like thing with wrinkled edges. And slightly shrunken trousers (which are not currently a problem as I've lost weight since I bought them...)
Grrrrr.
Otherwise, nothing much happening. We're on the second of three sea days from Southampton to Palma in one hop. I'm very bored, as there's nothign to do during the days. I'm looking into buying a film scanner to get all my photos (including the whole World Cruise, etc) onto computer. THere seem to be quite a lot on ebay at present as people are buying digital cameras.
posted by Simon Monday, August 18, 2003
Bay of Biscay
As we were leaving Southampton yesterday I reflected on how strange P&O's sailaway party-type-thing is. Presumably the idea is to emulate the scenes near teh start of Titanic (the film, that is), where the ship pulls away as a band plays, relatives scream/cry, confetti flies, etc.. What actually happens is usually alogn these lines:
1. Relatives appear on viewing gallery.
2. Passengers appear on promenade deck.
3. Band starts playing.
4. People drink champagne, throw streamers, etc.
<20-30 min gap, during with most people drift away>
5. Ship sails away.
That's if you're lucky. More often it's 5. Captain announces that due to a delay with baggage we'll be leaving in about an hour's time.
Hmm. ;-)
posted by Simon Sunday, August 17, 2003
Vigo
Yet again. We were forecast 40 degrees again, but it turned out to be rather pleasantly in the mid-twenties, once the fog cleared.
TOday I went on a tour to Santiago de Compostela. Specifically, the cathedral, as I didn't really see the rest of the town. It's impressive. I'd like to go back there sometime with more time, some B&W film, and some sunshine (today was overcast). I'm curious as to why the eye-in-a-pyramid, the symbol of the Illuminati, is visible at the top of the dome...
posted by Simon Thursday, August 14, 2003
La Palma
Well, I got out of bed at 1100 (havign been woken by a spurious phone call at 0900), and went ashore for 45 mins, which I spent sitting on teh sea wall reading a book. Now in-port manning. I needed that morning, as I had to stay up to 0230 this morning and I was feeling really nasty, probably from something I ate in teh Traditional Canaries Lunch I had on tour in Tenerife.
So, La Palma is supposed to be a pretty place... I couldn't comment. We actually saw this island from the top of the mountain yesterday, together with Grand Canaria. That was quite amazing, as we were looking at a sea of white cloud, with occasional mountainous islands sticking out of it - it wasn't apparent that there was sea inbetween. La Palma is the second highest of the Canaries (Tenerife being the highest), and so quite visible from a long distance. It's also where the main visible-light observatory is - lots of money was originally spent building one on Mt. Teide (Tenerife), but unfortunately at around the time that it opened the hotel-building started in the valley below, and the dark skies vanished! La Palma apparently has special laws abotu light pollution. And Tenerife is still used by the gamma-ray astronomers, including my old tutor!
posted by Simon Sunday, August 10, 2003
Tenerife
We're moored at Santa Cruz, and I've just come off an all-day tour in which we drove up to around 8,000 feet up Mt. Teide. I think I've found my next holiday destination... at that altitude, with barren lava all around, is a Parador! We had a drink there and then walked aroudn some rock formations, before driving down again. My ears still hurt... The top cone of the mountain is closed now as when they put instrumentation up there to monitor sulpher emissions, as a by-product they apparently recorded that tourists were removing 50 tonnes of material a year from the top! Oops...
I hadn't realised that Tenerife was where the SPanish Civil War started from - there are a number of monuments that Franco had built...
A good day. I still have a cold, but the pressure changes goign up and down a mountain, while more painful with a clogged up system, seem to have cleared teh tubes a little!
Tonight will be boring, as I have a night off with no show, adn thus little to do...
posted by Simon Saturday, August 09, 2003
Atlantic Ocean
Urgh. I quite definitely have a cold, having had my nose converted into a mobile snot factory.
I don't know whether it's living in a closed, air-conditioned environment with 2000 people, or my diet on board ship, or my general state of health at present, or any combination of the above, but for somebody who never used to be ill, I'm spending a lot of my time with one bug or another.
posted by Simon Friday, August 08, 2003
Not in Cadiz anymore.
I'm inbetween shows now. TOnight is interesting, what with there being water dripping into the theatre...
Cadiz is a really pretty place. A town full of churches. Mostly big ones. Apparently there's a really nice beach as well. The streets are mostly narrow cobbled alleyways with shops - but real shops, selling mobile phones, computers, cameras, and everyday stuff, rather than narrow-cobbled-alleyway shops (which are normally full of tourist stuff - see York for an example). Cadiz feels like a real town. If you'd been to as many phony tourist places as I have that would make sense. I think it's a holiday resort for spaniards, but I doubt that there's much international tourism. And the domestic visitors that they have are probably just a part of the economy, rather than the whole purpose of the town in modern times.
There's not much more I can say, as at the time I was able to go ashore everythign was shut for siesta!
THinking in the last few days, I realised that joining a new ship has become routine for me. Which, from what I know of myself, probably means that in the near future I'll start getting bored, and need to move on. Which was the plan anyway... I just need to figure out what I've moving on to, and while I do that my contracts at sea are a good way of keeping me in Chunky Kit Kats.
I still can't believe how big my cabin is, but it also turns out that it's rather cold - unlike Aurora, nobody except officers gets to have a thermostat in their cabin - I have a cold air vent which has settings ranging from "minor hurricane" to "nearly off". The latter is the only way of keeping warm (this ship has nasty thin blankets instead of duvets), but means that the cabin smells after a few days...
posted by Simon Thursday, August 07, 2003
Cadiz
I haven't been ashore yet here so I can't comment on the place. Yesterday was Lisbon, and the first time I've actually been into the town there(!). Went on a tour in the morning, which would probably have been really interesting if I'd been awake, but I was feelign knackered. FOr no good reason... grr.
In other news, work seems OK... I don't talk to my dept much, probably partly because they all have girlfriends who live in their cabins (or vice versa), but I'm spending lots of time with the youthies.
RIght, time to go and have a look at this city before, rather appropriately, comign back for a classical guitar recital.
posted by Simon Thursday, August 07, 2003
Well... I've moved to my new cabin. And it's ENORMOUS! Well, large anyway. With (cheap) wooden veneer, a carpet, lots of furniture, a 20" TV... and lots of desk space. I think Princess like to emphasise a contrast between ratings and leading hands... this is similar to many officers' cabins on Aurora/Oriana, while the ratings one I was in was far worse than any of the cabins on either of those ships...
posted by Simon Sunday, August 03, 2003
Southampton
Some rather nice manager-speak from the ship's F&B department, talking about comments cards in the staff mess:
"We believe that the introduction of colour-coordinated comment cards... [will] serve to enhance our level of service and commitment to the crew on board."
Ho hum...
posted by Simon Sunday, August 03, 2003