Shetland Ponies and More!

This last cruise was 14 days and it was cool because I got to add 2 more countries to my list: Denmark and Scotland!

The first port was Copenhagen, which is such a cool city! There are beautiful buildings everywhere you look. The first time I was there I only had an hour to walk through downtown very quickly. However on our new cruise a couple days ago, me and some friends rented bikes from the ship and biked around. It’s a lot easier to get around and to see many things in a short amount of time. One of my friends has a friend that lives in Copenhagen. She met us for drinks and some food at a couple cafes, and it was cool talking to a local about what it’s like living there. Copenhagen also has the most amazing pastries! Obviously danishes come from there, even though they call them a Viennese pastry. And these cinnamon roll-like things with chocolate and marzipan in them. It’s incredible!

Our next port was Oslo. I walked around and saw the famous opera house, some cool looking forts, castles, theaters, buildings, and the Nobel Peace Prize Center. Like most big cities, it’s a great place to people watch on the main walking streets, with tons of fashionable people and characters to see.

Most of the Norway ports we had already been to, and it was a lot of the usual things- hiking, relaxing. In Alesund I took a tour of some neighbouring islands connected by underground tunnel. They are mostly filled with rich summer homes and beautiful views!

Now Scotland! I had such a fun time in Scotland, mainly because of the way it started. We got in early around 6pm to our first port of Lerwick, the capital of the Shetland Islands. I had the night off, so this meant a bunch of us went into town to a local Scottish bar to watch the Euro Cup games. We met some locals, and things got rowdy. They kept buying us drinks, and it was a blast! The night ended with some fish and chips, which was perfect! The next day I took a tour around the island, just looking at the scenery and visiting an old castle and museum. Beautiful countryside, and I got to see Shetland ponies! I ended that day again with fish chips. You get a huge piece of fish, and the best fries I’ve ever had. Now I know why the English love fries so much- because they make them way better than any in the US. It’s unfortunately true.

At our port in Invergordon, I got on a tour bussing us an hour away to see the Dunnrobben Castle. It was this huge castle in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by forest, on the coast. There was a huge beautiful garden with a falconry that put on a show with falcons, owls, and other birds flying around us. There were so many rooms with tons of old artifacts, paintings, and furniture from back in the day when the castle was used. I forget the surname of the family that’s been living there, but it’s pretty cool to see how far they can carry the name.

Our last port was also really fun! We were docked near Edinburgh, the biggest city in Scotland. It took a while to get there (a tender ride to the port from the ship, walk to the train station, and then 20 minute train to the city) but it was well worth it! The coolest architecture, with tons of buildings, a huge castle at the top of a hill overlooking the city. When we looked around we could see green, green grass on top of a cliff of rock, and then right next to it huge stone buildings and castles. It was fun just walking around and looking up! We walked up the famous Royal Mile to the castle and had a beer at a pub there. I also ate a huge steak pie which was DELICIOUS.

I’m now almost halfway through my next cruise and I already have some crazy stories that you won’t wait to hear about. This is the best cruise of the contract- Copenhagen, 2 Germany ports, Tallinn Estonia, Helsinki, and 2 days with an overnight in both Stockholm and St. Petersburg.

Beautiful Norway!

The past two weeks we’ve had two 7-day cruises to Norway. These cruises have been almost full of Dutch people. It’s been a little different having guests that only speak Dutch and don’t understand English. It’s a lot of pointing at the buffet, and head nodding in confusion. Other than that, it’s been fun because with 7-day passengers, they go to the bar and they have more fun! The past week there was also a Dutch film crew and actresses on board. They were filming a video for some tour company, so if you ever see Dutch people in a promotional video, you might see me! This coming week another film crew will be filming people for a reality TV show in Holland. I haven’t seen them yet, but I’m sure we’ll see them.

As for Norway, it’s been beautiful!! Almost every port has huge snow-capped mountains surrounding our ship. I’ve been doing lots of hiking and exploring. Norway must be the capital of waterfalls, because there is one every 100 feet. But they’re massive, starting at the top of a mountain and falling into the fjord. When we sail out of these ports, we have some scenic cruising for a couple hours. We cruise out of the fjord to get back to the ocean, and it’s so beautiful! Towering mountains on both sides of you; random houses in the middle of nowhere that make us think who the hell lives there, what do they do with their lives, and how do they get anywhere else; the greenest grass and trees I’ve seen; huge slabs of rocks (most of the mountains are just flat or spiky rock). The scenery is gorgeous here. Norway is a must-see for anybody.

Most of the ports are small places, with one shop, one café, and a handful of houses. They’re nice and quiet and have great hiking, but besides that it’s a little boring. We’ve gone to some bigger towns, like Alesund, and Bergen. Those are fun because there’s shopping and younger people around. We were supposed to go to Oslo last week, but there was some big strike with the pilots who navigate us through the fjords and shallow water so we don’t hit any rocks or anything. So we had to cancel Oslo, which I was really bummed out about. (Luckily I’m going to Oslo this next cruise!) A bunch of our ports were up in the air too because we could barely dock anywhere, or even leave ports. We were afraid that this next cruise (with 7 Norway ports) was even going to happen, but luckily the strike ended and everything is back to normal. Some of the other Norway ports I went to were Kristiansand, Sondefjord, Flam, Stavanger, Eidfjord, Geiranger,

Also the big big news is I have switched from percussion to drum set! This is a big change for me, and definitely a promotion! They’re actually getting rid of the percussion position fleet-wide (we’re the only cruise line that hired a percussionist still) so I took the initiative and said I would replace the drummer when he left. It’s the perfect situation since I already know the band, and the bass player is a good friend of mine, so I can ease into the position and have some great guidance. I was already picking the previous drummers’ brain about the gig, since playing the songs as a drumset player is different than from a percussionist. It’s been going well so far, and I’ll only get better from here, but I’m really excited for the opportunity and the fact I get to rock out on the set!

I also forgot to mention one of the coolest things about Norway. The sun doesn’t set until about 10pm, and it doesn’t get dark until 1am, but it never even gets pitch black. We actually docked in Alesund early once and had an overnight. We all went out and watched the beautiful sunset that was still there at midnight. On our walk back to the ship at 2:30am, the sunset was still there but we had noticed it was definitely brighter. The coolest thing is getting a drink at the bar at night, which is in the very front of the ship full of windows so you can look outside. So you’re enjoying a drink at 11:30pm and it’s still bright outside. It’s really cool.