November 8th, 2011
As you might be able to tell from the jump in dates here, I was so busy having an awesome time that I completely forgot to write about my journeys until now. The cruise ends in three days – I can't believe it's almost over! - so now seems as good a time as any to catch up on all the stuff we saw and did in the past two weeks.
So we left off at Barcelona and the gorgeous Gaudi church, right? Okay. Our next day was in Cartagena, except we took a bus trip over to Elche, where they have a huge palm tree forest that runs through the centre of the city. Our guide was awful. He repeated things at least three times, and spoke so slowly that I almost nodded off a few times. I had to tune him out when he said the following statement: “We do not have much rain in Elche. But it is so green! This is because of the irrigation. It is green here because of the irrigation. If we do not have the irrigation, then it is not green. So we use the irrigation to water the plants.” You get the idea.
While in Elche we saw a church, as well as a neat little medieval fair that was going on outside it. I preferred the medieval fair to the church, as there were dancers and singers and roasted sausages and the like – very festive, very fun. Then we went to the palm tree forest, which had – wait for it – palm trees. Seriously, it was really nice, very serene, and there was an “Imperial Palm” which was one palm tree with 8 stalks growing out of it.
The next day we docked in Malaga (still Spain) and took a bus trip up to Granada. Here's time for a cool bit of trivia – Granada is named as such because, when viewed from above, it resembles which fruit? Think about it – the answer's in the name. Did you guess pomegranate? Well done!
We went to Granada because that is where the Alhambra is located. The Moors settled Spain for a good portion of the middle ages, and they built a number of forts throughout the country. The biggest and best-preserved fort is the Alhambra. Although by fort, I really mean palace – as in, massive formal gardens, towering entrance halls, beautifully carved throne room, a special suite for his harem, etc. There was some excitement at the beginning when a woman fell down and broke her nose, but things proceeded smoothly from then on. In contrast to our Elche guide, our Alhambra guide was absolutely fantastic.
Let's see... ah yes, we also docked in Cadiz (our last Spanish port), where we took a bus trip to Seville. Seville is a lovely city, with a charming Jewish quarter and another Moorish fort, as well as a stunning plaza which may or may not be called the Spanish Plaza. I thoroughly enjoyed the sight-seeing, although we encountered yet another god-awful guide. He delighted in speed-walking off into the crowded streets of Seville while his tour group stretched out behind him in a line for upwards of two blocks. I am honestly shocked that we didn't lose anyone, because he clearly didn't give a damn about keeping track of us.
A big highlight in Seville was the cathedral. It was massive – like, bordering on St. Peter's Basilica large – and had the largest collection of gold I have ever seen. It was basically a huge section of wall that they covered with statues and carvings depicting Jesus' life... and then they just coated the entire thing in gold. Spectacular.
We passed through the straits of Gibraltar at one in the morning, and arrived in Porto Mao, Portugal, the next morning. This is the only port that we didn't go ashore at, because we had to use tenders (little boats) to get to the dock, and the ride was over 30 minutes. To clarify, this is an obscenely long tender ride, not to mention how choppy the water was. We ended up staying aboard the ship, relaxing, playing trivia, etc.
Then we went to Lisbon, where we decided to go see the Castle of St. George. This is basically a castle on top of a very high hill in the middle of the city. And yet we somehow managed to spend an hour lost in Lisbon, this massive fortress-topped hill magically eluding us. I would call that our most impressive feat of poor navigational skills yet, and I'm sure that mother would agree.
Anyway, we found the castle in the end, and it was really cool. All that was left were the towers and walls, but there were tons of them, and you could walk on the walls and go into the towers. Mother and I decided that this would be an excellent place to fend off an orc invasion, and we took several action pictures to that effect. We looked ridiculous, and I'm sure the other visitors got a kick out of watching us pretend to fire arrows down on their heads.
The next day was spent at sea, as we had to traverse the Atlantic over to Medeira island (owned by Portugal). We took a bus tour of the island, starting off in Funchal city, and then going up into the mountains to talk the cable car over to the botanical gardens. The gardens were actually my least favourite part – I far preferred the bus ride up the twisting, curving mountain road, with all the beautiful scenery. Medeira is a stunningly beautiful island, and I could totally see myself renting a villa there for a few weeks.
We departed from Medeira at 4:30... and with that we officially left Europe! The rest of the cruise was (and will be) spent at sea, crossing the mighty Atlantic and eventually arriving in Fort Lauderdale. Luckily there's lots to do on the cruise ship, and mother and I have been keeping nicely busy.
The first day out, the waves were really bad – 20-24 feet. Mom was not pleased, and spent a good deal of time trying to sleep off the effects of her sea-sickness. I don't get sea-sick, thank goodness, but I was still a bit unnerved. I mean, obviously I know that the ship isn't going to capsize, but it was still a bit worrisome. Especially since our bathroom has taken to creaking loudly at the slightest movement of the ship, and we have no idea which part is creaking, or how to stop it.
Back when I was first booking the cruise, my intention during the Atlantic crossing was to spend most of the time working on my novel. That... sort of worked out. I ended up re-reading / re-editing Imminent Danger, but I haven't gotten around to the sequel yet, which I had intended to spend most of my time on. Ah well. In my defence, we've been quite busy.
Every day at 1:30 there is group trivia up in the Crow's Nest with Cruise Director Drew, who always shows up late, and is incapable of keeping track of which question we're on. We have formed a group consisting of Dawn and Dave, and Carol and Mike, two couples from Jersey. Dawn and Carol are absolutely hilarious, especially Dawn, who is very outspoken. The husbands are much more subdued, an excellent counterpart to their boisterous wives.
At 6:30 there is Scattergories/Pub Trivia/Name That Tune with DJ Armen in the Northern Lights Disco. The activity changes every day, but our group – the X Team – stays the same. It consists of mother and I, Dawn and Carol from team trivia, and Marlene and Ben. Marlene and Ben are fascinating. They used to be high-stakes Vegas black jack card counters, and they have dozens of awesome stories from their gambling days.
Mom and I love DJ Armen, partially because he's exceedingly cool, and mostly because he gives us cruise ship bling every time we win one of his games. As of this moment, I have collected: 3 pins, a deck of cards, a set of coasters, a Rubik's cube, a “drink of the day”, a shopping bag... and that's all I can remember. Let's just say that the X Team kicks serious bottom.
Every day we go to the casino after group trivia and spend $10 gambling. Sometimes we play the slots, and other times we play the poker / blackjack machines. I never win, and Mom has a spotty record. We aren't being particularly successful gamblers, but it's still fun!
Mom is now standing over me, waiting for me to finish writing this so that we can go see the sunset. Farewell!
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