Moving slow, carnelian stars and the bars down below…

Today is our last at-sea day and tomorrow we’re going home. Nooo! I’ll be a bit happy to get off the boat, but vacation being over is sad.

Anyways, on Sunday we cruised through Glacier Bay. There were glaciers. A funny thing happened though… they were so beautiful and I stared at the glaciers for a long time. Later, I found that I couldn’t focus on anything closer than about two feet from my face. I think my focus got stuck! It was so strange. Later that day I found out that there was Mega Team Trivia Challenge being held in the Explorations Cafe so I basically forced the family to go. I thought we’d clean up, but we got in third place. It’s the downside to being on a ship with an average passenger age of 65. Too much wisdom, arrgh! In any case, that night was another formal night so I was able to break out the black dress and arm gloves! I love those gloves so much.

My focus was all back to normal yesterday, so that was a relief. We stopped in Ketchikan and did lots of walking and shopping! We were going to do an excursion to see some eagles and reindeer, but the weather was awful and that one included a hike. It’s too bad, but shopping is fun too. In Alaska, every other store is a jewelry store. These don’t interest me much because I don’t have $700 to spend on a necklace, but it’s fun to look. In one store, I was happily singing “Diamonds Are a Girl’s Best Friend” from Moulin Rouge before I realized that the Moulin Rouge soundtrack was actually playing in the shop! (But at the end of the soundtrack.) So awesome.

Today was pretty laid back. We sat in the hot tub and lazed around on the Lido deck. Aunt Anne wanted a gambling partner so I thought that’d be a good time and it was! I won $40 playing the Sherwood Forest VLT, which was clearly lucky for me because it involved archery. Aunt Anne was not quite so lucky, but she tried a lot more machines and I watched. So fun!

At dinner they had a special chef’s dinner event where all the kitchen staff and waiters were juggling things and performing. When they handed out glowsticks I was convinced they were going to turn out all the lights and waltz around carrying flaming baked Alaskas (like they did in Greece) but alas, no! I was genuinely surprised. Still, the dinner was fun because we saw a whole bunch of Orca whales swim right by our window!

Tomorrow is pretty much going to be waking up, eating breakfast really early and then getting off the ship. This trip has been great overall, although it probably would have been quite different if the weather had been sunny. Still, I’d do it again. The next adventure will be… talking Josh into coming with me to visit Hank and Anne at their place in Qualicum Beach!

For without you, I’m an ice cube melting.

What? The ocean moves?

I felt sea-sick on Thursday night, but not before listening to an amazing piano player, Paul Pappas, play beautifully… among other things… Phantom of the Opera. I almost cried. Also, the clouds lifted just for a bit and I could see Jupiter, but the way it was moving up and down was just making me sicker! The next day I felt fine though. After floating by Tracy Arm we landed in Juneau and I thought it was great. We took a shuttle up to the Mendenhall glacier and I realized that Alaska is incredibly beautiful, not the barren wasteland I thought it’d be. Back on the ship, after another fantastic dinner, we saw some of a ventriloquist show and just spent more time hanging out with the family. I’ve been having some good chats with Derek in the evenings and I’m really enjoying it.

Today was the best day so far because we were in Skagway and I went with Linda to the Musher’s camp to see the sled dogs! They pulled us for a ride on a cart and afterwards we got to see two litters of puppies. So cute! I loved them. After lunch we walked around town, and went to Skagway’s dive bar where I had a root beer. (No really, I had a root beer.)

I’m developing a fascination with cruise directors. The pretty lady who makes all the announcements and hosts all the events. What would it be like to have this job? Michelle is cheerful all the time. For real? On one hand, she lives on cruise boats and that’s pretty sweet. On the other… cheerful all the time? Someone should write a book about what it’s like to be a cruise director. I’d read it!

I need a vacation!

At last, I am cruising! Plane rides are always such a hassle now with all the security and scanning and waiting around, but all that’s done for now. The most annoying (but funny now) thing that happened to me was that as I was calling my credit card company to tell them not to suspend my card thinking that fraudulent charges were coming from Alaska, my cellphone ran out of minutes in the middle of my conversation. Bah! Stupid phone! I had to dial, like, fifty numbers to get to that point! But everything else was pretty unremarkable. I watched an episode of The Office on the flight to Vancouver, which is also fun because the mountains are interesting to look at.

And now, open water! Sharing a cabin with uncle Derek has been pretty great so far. It is so much bigger than our cabin on the Greece cruise (but having two less beds and two less people probably helps), and I love it. This cruise is with Holland America line and we’re aboard the Volendam, the best ‘dam ship in the fleet. Haha!

On day one, before the lifeboat drill, I re-met great uncle Hank and great aunt Anne. I’d met them before at a family reunion but that was, I think, twelve years ago? (When they first saw me, they thought I was my mom. Gosh, she’s aged well. Haha!) In any case, it pretty much feels like meeting them for the first time but they’re great! Leaving Vancouver last night, Hank was telling us loads of things about the coast. Like how the lighthouses all shine at different intervals so sailors can look it up in a book and know which lighthouse they’re looking at.

At dinner last night I had salmon for (I think?) the first time in my life. “Almond Encrusted Salmon”. It was so good, I’m going to try and have seafood every day this week because, I figure, this is the place to do it.

Today is an “at sea” day and we’re just hanging out and exploring the ship. Internet time is absurdly priced at nearly a dollar a minute, but I’m a slave and will probably log on a few times this week. Tonight is a formal dinner, and that makes me happy because dressing up is fun.

Now it’s time for me to drink my weight in hot chocolate!

Makes me want to lose myself. It feels like home to me.

I am back home!

On Monday we went to the Salt Mines in Krakow as our last historical thing to do in Europe. It was pretty amazing… and the walls actually do taste salty! That afternoon we just hung out with Alex’s cousin before going to the airport. Our plane was an hour delayed but it wasn’t too bad. So Kim and Jen and I checked into a hotel in London that night, Mark and Alex slept in the airport because they’re hardcore! The flight itself was quite good, we got our seats this time and the plane seemed more roomy. We circled around Calgary a lot before landing for some reason (which kind of made me sick…) but it was so great to see like… SAIT and the Calgary Tower and the Public Library… definitely was feeling sentimental!

I’d recommend leaving home for a month to anyone — when you get back, everything seems so great! Living in hostels for 35 days, my room seems huge! My bathroom, it’s so clean! The shower isn’t moldy, it’s great! I saw the Louvre and the Sistine Chapel and Windsor Castle… but really the most beautiful thing I’ve seen recently is my own bed. The first thing I’ve thought for the past two mornings is, wow, this bed is so comfy, which hostel is this again? and then I remember, I’m home, I’m home!

I can’t wait to meet up with people again, at church and at work and see what I’ve missed while I was gone. Europe was fantastic and it was the experience of a lifetime! And I’m glad to be home. Love you, Canada!

It’s what I feed on. Exposure.

Internet is free at this hostel so I’m taking advantage of it! Plus, everyone but Mark is still sleeping…

Yesterday was great! In Krakow there is a big dragon festival going on so we went to the main square to see it. I loaded up on donuts and a pretzel! After the parade of cuuuute kids all dressed up as dragons and with dragon floats, we went for lunch, I had a milkshake and chicken fingers. We walked around town for a while, and I got these tiny glass dragons. They really are adorable! After that we went to see the royal chambers and armoury in a castle up the hill from the main square. It was raining SO HARD and we all got totally soaked!

We went back to the hostel for a while and then headed back out to meet Alex’s other cousin and her boyfriend. They were so much fun! We went to a little Ukrainian restaurant which was three stories underground and the food was so wonderful, I got perogies and this massive crepe for dessert! After that, Jen was pretty tired so she went back to the hostel and the rest of us went to “Jewish town” (kind of like China town in Calgary) and went to a patio bar. Kim and I had peach daiquiris and Mark and Alex had even more girly drinks! It was really awesome.

The main reason I was so detailed there in all the food was because of this… so all the stuff I did today? How much did I spend? 24 dollars Canadian. Oh my gosh I love Poland!

No matter what they tell you.

After waking up so early, we booked it to the shuttle bus. It was two hours long, it was kind of funny because there was this Irish guy relentlessly talking to Jen and Alex, like “have you taken this shuttle before? It’s boring. You could sleep, but sleep is boring. I do this trip once a month… it’s so boring! It’s just %$@&ing boring!” Haha! Then we took the plane to Wroclaw (which I can pronounce now, and feel very cool doing it; it sounds like vrots-wahv.) We met up with Alex’s cousin and her boyfriend (who brought donuts! Yay!) but there was a bit of a delay in leaving the airport because they had parked in a place they shouldn’t have and got a ticket. That sucked. But eventually we were on our way.

We stashed our stuff in the train station and walked around town all day. We went to the top of this so gorgeous cathedral and saw the university and had lunch and went to the botanical gardens (so nice). The most noteworthy thing perhaps is that we went to an outdoor bar and… I had my first beer. It was vile.

We had a rather expensive dinner (I got shish kebobs!) and then went back to the train station for our four hour train to Krakow. The hostel is dirt cheap but you know… you get what you pay for, heh…

Feel like I’m sailing through a fire.

So our next day in Heidelberg was very… rainy. But André had an umbrella so it was okay for me! Mark was bored of castles so he just walked around the old town but the rest of us went to Heidelberg Castle. We saw the outside and some of the rooms but you had to pay for a guided tour for the rest so Kim and Jen did the tour and André, Alex and I went to a cafe for (well they had hot dogs but I had…) Apfel Strudel! So good. So then we just went shopping around the old town (but didn’t run into Mark) too. Alex and I got German chocolate and Snoopy socks!! We ate dinner at the hostel (yes, Mark made it back) and then all played ping pong together, running around the table like we do at church, it was so funny!! After that André and I had a sudoku challenge like we do over the internet… he won by quite a lot… heh!

The next day we went to the zoo! It was great! We watched the seals get fed and the bears are so cute. Then we walked around some more again, and sat by the river in the sun. Best memory of the trip for me! Seriously, to be brutally honest I had to bite my lip for about ten seconds while sitting there there to keep from crying, it was such a perfect half hour! Then we went back to the hostel to get our stuff, and watched a bit of German ‘Charmed’. It makes even less sense in a foreign language. We went to the train station and said bye to André (sad!) and then got on our train to Frankfurt and then our bus to the hostel.

This morning Mark was very angry about his loud-snoring room mate but I think that is justice!! hehee! We walked around Frankfurt to see the old Tudor style houses and do some shopping. After lunch at Subway, Mark was too tired and went back, and the rest of us sat by the river for a while. Since we had to get up so early we went to bed almost right after supper. Getting up at 1:45 am… eeeh…

Endlessly, to the sea.

Made it to Heidelberg! I could stay here for another month! The weather is kind of rainy but it is so cute and pretty!

Yesterday was our last day in Rome and we went and saw the Pantheon. At that point we were kind of tiring of history and death and things created before the Dark Ages generally, so we went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean 3 with Italian subtitles, haha it was great! We went to bed early and woke up at 3am for our flight to Frankfurt and two hour bus here to Heidelberg. Tomorrow will be rainy too but that is okay because our hostel is right next to the zoo and just walking by you can see cute bears and foxes, awww! Love it.

It all comes down to this: Sacred love.

Well the luggage-in-the-elevator situation was resolved quite quickly, thankfully, so we were able to carry on more or less as planned! That day we went to the Vatican and saw all the sculptures and architecture and of course the Sistine Chapel. Actually it didn’t look anything like I pictured, it was dimly lit and although the ceiling was pretty high, the room itself wasn’t all that big; like the rooms leading up to it were almost equally impressive.

After the Vatican we walked up a bit to St. Peter’s Square where the Pope gives addresses. Then we took the metro to the Fountains of Trevi which were very beautiful but very crowded with hot, sweaty tourists. Still a good experience though!

Yesterday we went to the Coliseum and the Palatine (which I’d never heard of but it was really cool!). That took basically all day. The weather was a bit cooler than the day before but it was still very warm. I can’t wait until Germany to get rid of this gross sticky feeling all the time! Anyways, at 8:30 Mark and Alex and I went to our hostel’s “sister hostel” for supper. Pretty good deal, last night I got 2 pieces of pizza and a girly lemon shot and an ice cream cone for 1.50 Euro. I think that means I win life… or at least, dinner in Rome on Saturdays.

As it turns out we probably won’t be doing the 5 village hike because it would involve 8 hours on a train and we don’t want to sit for so long, plus the train is rather expensive. I’m sure we’ll find something to do today!

We walked through its streets in the afternoon.

I hail from Rome!

We spent yesterday in Venice as well, taking the boat around to the mainland (having a hostel on an island is both good and bad… the night of the 23rd, Mark and I sat at the edge of the water at sunset and it was sweet! However, it costs us 6 Euro each time we take a boat to the mainland…). Once there, we walked to the train station. This was about 10AM and our train to Rome was at 6:30PM, so we had a little time to kill. We took turns watching the luggage and walked around town some more. It was so hot outside, through the course of the day I had to get two cones of gelato and two bottles of juice and one of water. Eventually 6:30 rolled around and we got on the train which was thankfully air conditioned! I was a little uncomfortable, I think all this sleeping on different beds is catching up with me because my neck is so sore! Anyways, that is a minor detail compared to what happened next…

So we got to Rome pretty late but the hostel was just two or three minute walk from the station. After walking up two flights of stairs to reception (odd), we checked in and they said they would take us to our room, which was one floor up. They took Kim and Jen’s huge luggage and put it in the elevator and then grabbed Alex’s back pack from her too… and started the elevator going up with all the backpack’s straps still sticking OUT of the elevator. Seriously I don’t know what they were thinking. Obviously the elevator jammed as it was going up and we heard a loud crack, presumably the clasp on Alex’s back pack’s waist strap. Well, they couldn’t get the elevator back down, it’s stuck between floors. They called a mechanic who is coming ‘as soon as he can’. We will have to adjust our plans because Kim, Jen and Alex can’t go to the Vatican in what they’re wearing (tiny sun dresses, though maybe they can all fit into something of mine?) and we can’t do the 5 village hike because all they have are sandals. Well it’s kind of maddening, I just hope everything works out. I haven’t seen much of Rome yet because it was so dark when we got here but I’m sure the city itself is lovely!