This isn’t my real blog..

I just imported my blog over to WordPress to check out the features. I left a couple of posts here for you to read, if you’re curious.

If you like this, or are looking for The Travels of Stacey, my regular blog is still here:
Http://travelsofstacey.blogspot.com

Viking Graveyards

Carlos, our dark and broody lighting man, is not prone to giggles. But I think he had a nice day when I dragged him away from his lights for a 2 hour walk in Eidfjord, a small town in the middle of the Fjords of Norway.

It was a good four months before Carlos even spoke to me for the first time, inquiring about my favourite colour. When I asked why, he said “Colours are my life,” and walked away. What an intense statement, I thought, and what a strange dude. Now he is one of my favourites. He reads this blog, and him and his girlfriend Magdalena are very nice people.

We left the ship wondering what there was to see. I soon heard about some Viking graves, and decided we had to find them.

We climbed up a hill on the quest for bygone Vikings.

It is so nice to dock in the countryside.

Luckily I knew what to look for, and I spotted the Viking Cairns

Well, that was it, and we made the walk a circular one, and descended to the lake.

Like something out of Camelot, the lake was still and cold and misty, with a finely pebbled beach. We sat there for a while.

Time to go to work, we followed the river to the town.

We found a sour cherry tree in someone’s yard. Shameless, I reached over the fence and picked some to eat.

In town, Carlos was very excited to see the biggest doggie in the world. Look at the smiles on both of them!

We went to a snack bar/convenience store to get ice cream. I am always amused by these ketchup and mustard dispensers. It’s just like milking a reindeer, isn’t it!

Carlos is from the same town as Che Guevara, and was excited to see a tattoo of his countryman in the store.

And yes, the ice cream. I can’t believe I was too full to have one last ice cream, but I was happy to share my ice-cream discovery with Carlos.

Stockholm Syndrome

This last cruise has been a charter cruise from Stockholm to Copenhagen, with one extra stop in Russia, Estonia, Finland, and, oh yes, two more Stockholms thrown in. It isn’t on the official schedule, so if you wondered if my ship has dropped off the map this week – well, it kinda has.

“Why Stockholm? 3 Stockholms in one week, what business to these people have with Stockholm?” asked one guy in the office. You can imagine my answer which brought the house down. “A musician with a sense of humour at 9am, that’s a good one..” It wasn’t that funny, but hey, I’ll take it when I can.

Now who has chartered us for a whole week? These people are young, and of the top sales people in their field. Their company represents 7% of the world’s largest grossing industry. We were panicking, because we were told the average age would be about 30, as opposed to the usual 70 years old guest on a regular day. How to entertain them? What will they be like? We can’t even predict their moves. None of our songs are going to work..
We hired a guy to entertain the piano bar, a hired gun to keep the joint jumpin‘. It is a success. The room is packed full of screaming people. They are singing along and there is standing-room only.. The entertainer is delighted. “This company is fantastic!” he crows. Does everyone think this is the norm?

I am sitting in the office on the first day, and a lady comes rushing in. She seems to be in charge of the whole thing. “Please do not mention our Company’s pill-shaped acronym anywhere – not on paper, not on signs, and not on stage.” Michael Moore would have a field day if this celebration of record profits were to leak. Their pill-shaped acronym will remain anonymous.

It is nice to have young, good looking people around. It puts life into the place. Each crew member was immediately presented with a print out on their door, a friendly reminder of the entire details of “Seagoing Personnel Manual Chapter 16.8 – Fraternization With Guests”, which, considering their average age, isn’t usually a problem. This week, one friendly crewmember has already received a free ticket home.

Some of you were asking what happens when they kick a crew member off the ship. Don’t worry, it is highly illegal to just kick someone off a ship and then sail away. The ship is obligated to re-patriate that person, says international maritime laws. If they were still holding your pay, they could deduct you for the flight. That’s why it is always smart to withdraw your money whenever you can. Otherwise, they have to pay for you.

S went home for good, he left us to join a monastery for a little while, and I wish him peaceful stitching. Apparently joining a monastery isn’t too expensive, either. Roque also left us for good, for at 70 years of age he was 9 years over the age limit.. We will miss the Gaucho. We will see him in Montreal, though.

The new guys are here, and they will be fine replacements for those that went before them. The new S is an interesting character. Let’s call him J. There will be lots of stories about him in the future, I can just feel it. He proudly tells me about his debut CD, free jazz trombone and accordion, while the other musicians snicker in the background, and I try and keep a straight face. It sounds like a great project. And one for the kid’s stockings at christmas, laughs the Sax player, sending the Trumpet guy into hysterics.

The other new guy signed on, and they put him on deck three with a smelly waiter from some east european country. Apparently this guy’s feet really stink.

“What’s his name?” I ask. “Dimitri, or something?”

“Actually, yeah, that’s his name, seriously, I saw his name tag.”

I can’t believe that’s really his name, I think. “What’s your room number in case I have to contact you?” I say to the new musician.

“3328″

Later on I am at the buffet, where an east european is being very friendly to me. “May I carry your tray?? We had a very nice conversation on the bus the other day” he says, “and if you want another very nice conversation, I’m in room 3328″

Me: “Dimitri?”

While I fend off Dimitri, I will leave you with the map for next cruise, from Copenhagen to Stockholm

Enough Whale Meat, Already

Bergen is Norway’s second biggest city, and the capital of Fjordland.
Despite this, it still retains a quaint, big small-town feel.

This scene is popular on postcards, and you will see as soon as you leave the ship. The little houses all seem to be leaning in different directions.

In times past I have taken the funicular up the hill, but today I walked around the town. It was a beautiful day.

The usual markets were open -
selling seal pelts, fruit, handicrafts and sea food.

The shrimp on the left are boiled in sea water, right on the boats. They give samples of everything to try. The shrimp were delicious. Boiling them in seawater is a great idea.

They give out samples of their smoked fish.
“Smoked Whale Meat?” Don’t mind if I do…

No obligation to buy..

Another free sample. It tastes like greasy Ahi Tuna. I couldn’t finish it and had to find a spot to discreetly get rid of my whale meat.

One of the most giant and expensive sandwiches I have ever seen, I knew I had to have one. I blew the rest of my ice cream money on the cheapest sandwich of the bunch.
With the exchange rate I got the other day, I would price it at about $16.

Grandpa, if I could have bought one for you to bring home in my suitcase, I would have. I was out of coins, though.

The black stuff is caviar.

This internet cafe charged $20 per hour. No thanks. We were lucky enough to find a free signal in the town square.

After sitting there until I completely ran out of batteries, I went with Jim, one of the two computer geeks from the ship that I was seeking out the free wi-fi with.

We took a walk through the houses of the town

Saw the nice parks

And a really unflattering statue of Henrik Isben the author.

These signs have always made me laugh. The symbol for a pedestrian street crossing looks like an old blues man crossing the road.

I sit and enjoy the park. It is so nice to get outside and find a patch of grass once and awhile!

Um… parking for Grieg fans only

A quilt with an interesting flower-shaped quilting pattern

A confused bee was trapped inside this store buzzing around a fake flower.

And sunburnt, I have my final licorice ice cream.

A Bike Ride in Flam

This is Flam

And here we are in the middle of it

Um, I am guessing the Reindeer shed their skins every year? I know enough now that there are no reindeer in Fjordland.

The pink daises threw me a bit..

I read on someone’s blog that it was the Queen of Norway’s birthday recently.
I was sitting at table full of people and brought it up. “I hear it’s the Queen’s birthday today!” I said. “No, wasn’t that yesterday?” They asked. “No, I read it was July 4.” “But, it’s July 3rd, we celebrated it yesterday,” they replied. This went on for awhile. “But I thought she was turning 70, or 80 or something…Wait, who are you talking about??”
“Sascha, the concierge.. who were YOU talking about?” Um, the Queen of Norway.. Well, happy birthday, to both Queens.

The big tour here is a train ride up and down the mountain. Which I was excited to do, with my bike as we did before, and ride down. If I had a great day somewhere, I am always tempted to go back and do exactly the same thing. Is that wise? Can you ever re-create the same amazing day? Or should you just start a new day. Well, Roque decided that for me, when he accompanied me on bicycle and saw the ticket price for the train.

NOK 190 = around $35, one way plus a bike fee, probably.

I wonder what would have happened if I had known the exchange rate when I got on the bus the other day. But I had already done the train ride, and although I would have loved to get some new pictures of the Red Lady, it was time for a new adventure in Flam.

Luckily for me, the Red Lady wasn’t even spotted this year.

Here are some photos of her from 2 years earlier. Her apparition at the waterfall where the train stops was one of the most wonderful things I had ever seen. There must have been two people dressed in red, because she seemed to flit around the waterfall like the spirit she was supposed to be. (The waterfall has a legend of a red lady spirit – I am not sure of the details)
Accompanied by music, the scene is surreal.

Me and Roque got on our bikes and rode up the mountain.

The scenery was idyllic.

This little village had every flag at half mast. There was a funeral going on. When we returned the funeral was over, and the flags back to normal.

There were so many gushing waterfalls

We biked up and up, and then started to climb.
We climbed the most beautiful alpine meadow, sat in the grass and soaked up the sunshine and the tranquility.

The meadow was covered in little wild strawberries. It couldn’t have been more idyllic.

When we returned I put $20 US into this exchange machine, in hopes of ice cream money.

This is what I got in return. 4 big coins and 2 small coins. I couldn’t believe it.

All to support my new Norwegian ice cream habit. I was choked. I put the coins in a very safe place and went straight to the ship, muttering something about not spending any money here, better be pure gold, blah blah blah.

I took a nap, and set the alarm just in case I felt like an ice cream before we sailed away.

It was rough waking up, but I was determined. I thought: Astrid, (another blogger and Norwegian expat) is all the way in the south of France and would kill for a real Norwegian ice cream. I’d better wake up, and go outside and eat one.

This cost one and a half of my big coins. I reckon I can squeeze 2 more future ice creams out of my coins.

The sail away, and the rest of the evening through the heart of Fjordland was beautiful.
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St. Pete, how you’ve changed

What, the people are smiling?

It seems I no longer have to wear my oldest clothes and walk expressionless down the street to blend in when in St Petersburg.

The scaffolding is down, and the streets are cleaned up

Didn’t this used to be the black market? The souvenir fair gets an official awning.

Whaaaaat… flowers?

Signs for tourists at every corner..

And the most disconcerting was that people were speaking a little bit of english.

And smiling!! Eeek!

I had fun trying to read the signs. “Bar, Salon, Pushkin Cafe, Bank, Restaurant…
Freakadelki?”

More flowers – what is going on?!

This is for my Bro

The tradition of brides getting their picture taken in front of all the monuments continues. I will see a lot of these this summer!

At least the port remains unchanged.

Tomorrow I will get a day off in St Petersburg, one of three days there. I am interested to take the metro to the outskirts to see if it has changed so much as well. 7 years since my first visit to St Petersburg, and each year it changes just a little. It was an interesting time back then, but although I feel the loss of an era, I am happy for the new one.

And the Pyramids, at last..

Cairo is a short 2 hour bus ride from Alexandria, which is the second largest city in Egypt.
Everyone on the tour bus was sleeping. Most of us work nights and had the day off. I felt sorry for the guide, who felt compelled to give her whole speech on the way there. Felicity was even prepared with ear plugs! Wake me up when we get to the Pyramids..

Cairo, on the outskirts, looks pretty much like this:

A lot of the buildings are unpainted and unfinished, apparently to avoid taxes.

We saw a lot of these things as we left Alexandria. Every farm had one. Egyptians love to eat Pigeon, and these clay towers house pigeons. Apparently they are delicious grilled or stuffed with rice.

We also saw alot of these as we neard Cairo. I guess it’s watermelon season!

Cairo is right on the Nile, and a lot of the scenes I saw on the riverbank reminded me of Paris.

One of our stops was the Papyrus factory, where a man demonstrated how they make papyrus. Egyptian stuff was then painted on the paper and sold from $10 up. You could get your name written in heiroglyphics if you wanted.

We saw the Cairo museum, which was amazing and warrants a whole day. I didn’t get to see the mummy roon, but I did see the trappings that King Tut was buried with. It was truly amazing, the amount of necklaces and acoutraments that were in his tomb.
Also amazing were some sarcophaguses from 200 AD, that had faces painted on them that looked like Christian icons.

My artsy shot of a license plate..

But on to the Pyramids..

The tour bus parked close to two of the three Pyramids.
They must have a great light show at night..

We only had 20 minutes there.
I picked the smaller one and walked around it. I had seen people climbing up the other side when we were driving up there, and wanted to do that. It looked small all of a sudden. I wondered if I could climb to the top!

This is actually a picture of me, sitting on the Pyramid. Since I took it myself on the timer mode, (luckily no-one made off with my camera) you can see me if you click on the picture to enlarge it. My head is somewhere on the bottom left.

I didn’t go inside them, for lack of time, but had done that last time so was okay with that. I just wanted to spend time with them, and was happy sitting on one for awhile.

Next we went to visit mr. (mrs?) Sphinx.

I get my photo taken with him/her (not easy to do, as there are tons of people doing the same thing)

And we all have a buffet meal with the best view in the world. I wouldn’t recommend the meal, unless you like random hairs in your food, but the $10 pays for the view alone.

This camel is for Robyn

Teddy Bear Down!

I was greeted by this scene quite near my cabin as I went to look at the Suez Canal the other day.
A giant teddy bear was ripped in some very strange places and lay on the floor.

The security office was right nearby so I poked my head in to talk to the Indian security guys there.
Me: “I’d like to report a murder scene..”
Them “What?”
Me: “A murder scene… I’d like to report a..”
Them “What?”
Me: “A teddy bear murder.. It seems a Teddy bear was murdered in the hall..”
Them (seriously) “Yes, we have already written a full report on the Teddy Bear” (Huh??!)
Me: “Ok, but you need chalk, you know, to outline the body..”

Through the sandy Suez, and Roque makes a new purchase

Our trip through the Suez Canal was almost twice as expensive as the Panama Canal, a whoppping half a million dollars. As there are no locks, it seems a lot less manpower is involved, we simply join the convoy of ships and sail right through.

It was a very hot day, you can see the crew on their break lying on the bow. The transit took the whole day. This pretty much sums up the scenery – mostly desert on both sides.

Roque bought a new outfit from some pushy egyptian guys who were selling stuff in the crew hallway. I have no idea what that was all about. He proudly displays his ensemble..

And who was the Scrooge who put a lifeboat training in the middle of the day in Alexandria, some people’s one and only life time chance to see the Pyramids! Bah Humbug. Such a protest was raised and the training was cancelled. Which was nice of them. But check out the list of names!! It’s the big list on the left. For fun you can click on the picture to enlarge it. I swear I have never seen a training list so long. Unbelievable. My name was there as well.

We all made it to the Pyramids in Alexandria. We came a long way and a lot of strings were pulled for us to be able to go!! The management was very nice to a lot of us in that regard.

More about them soon!!

Some news on tomorrow, in case you are following the calendar: Our stop in Sorrento, which would have been a tender port (you know, when there is no dock so you go ashore in a lifeboat) – It was cancelled because of choppy seas and instead we will be docking in Naples. So I will get my pizza after all…

The biggest convoy in the world to the Valley of the Kings and Luxor

It is mandatory to travel in a convoy to get to the valley of the Kings. I think that some tourists were robbed once by bandits while traveling that road so they implemented precautions.
Our convoy was huge, transporting all the guests and crew at once, probably over 800 people.

We left at 9 am on seemingly the only paved road around, the paved road went straight to Luxor city.
School kids ran out to greet us on our way out of the small town of Safaga.

There was an armed guard on our bus. It took us a while to realise what the overdressed guy in the suit with dark glasses was doing in the front seat, but someone noticed a gun on him and we realised what he was doing. No wonder they were so nervous when I sat next to him to take pictures out the front window of the bus!
Every cross road we came to was blocked off for us to pass. There were many blocked off crossroads and checkpoints and many guys with AK47’s. We stopped a lot of local traffic.

There was one rest stop on the 3 hour drive, and some of the guests in the other buses got out to have a coffee. We had to wait for them along with the rest of the convoy, and we sat in our bus and saw this Bedouin woman probably looking for tips for photos. Notice the goat at her heels!

I saw some crazy stuff on the bus ride. We passed a lot of farmland and I saw many donkey carts, children playing in the irrigation water, women watching their sheep, adobe huts..
Here are some houses, the donkey stable is right out front.

A city in the distance, note the minaret.

Our first stop was the Valley of the Kings. It was hot, over 40 degrees and we stood in the blazing sun listening to our tour guide for too long.

He did his speeches outside the tombs for a reason – It is illegal to explain things inside the tombs because the carbon dioxide coming from your mouth will deteriorate the paint!! The 3,000 year old paint inside was still quite vibrant, from the miracle combination of dye, egg whites, and beeswax.

It surprised me how unprotected the whole thing was. The Egyptian guys working there had no respect for the place. One guy stood in the tomb entrance smoking while he collected tickets. We gave him a hard time about that. Then, the guys inside the tomb who were supposed to make sure we didn’t do anything to harm it only begged for money.
Picture were illegal because the flash harms the paint. Please don’t be mad at me, but I got these pictures because I paid the guy a couple of dollars and used no flash. Some people paid him and actually used their flash! You can see how, on the walls you can just reach out and touch the hieroglyphs if you want. There is nothing in place to protect them. Certain corners of the wall where there were stairs the hieroglyphics were totally rubbed away from people reaching out their hands to steady themselves. It made me sad thinking that these won’t be around for many generations to come unless UNESCO or an organization like that steps in to protect them, because the Egyptians seem to only be in it for the revenue.

The hieroglyphics were very amazing, I could have spent hours just looking at them. I could have spent a whole day in the Valley of the Kings.

We all got back in the bus. Roque was showing off some figurines he had bought. Our guide asked how much he had paid for them. $150! said Roque. Our guide screamed “Whaaaat?!” and ran to stop the bus. We all laughed, because we knew Roque would never pay that much for anything. Roque laughs. “Just kidding, 5 dollars!” he says.
Roque also bought a very becoming outfit.

We made a brief stop at these things. Anywhere else and they would be a major attraction. But these are just a 5 minute side stop on the way to the temples of Luxor and Karnak in Luxor City.

However, much to my chagrin the alabaster factory was a 40 minute side stop. They demonstrated how they hand-bore vases.

Becky and Carla admire one..

I waited around while people bought a bunch of ugly, expensive, heavy Alabaster. I, like Roque, had bought my much cheaper souvenir at the Valley of the Kings.

I had noticed these clay pots around the city on the long drive here. They hold water, and are all the same shape.

Doesn’t it look like this dog was just smoking the pipe and then passed out?

This was a really stupid souvenir I noticed, a King Tut complete with a mummy inside.

I took this girl’s picture and then gave her 5 Egyptian pounds ($1). I motioned like it was our secret and I watched her later run up to her younger brother and secretly show him the money in her hand.

We cross the Nile as we arrive in Luxor city.

The temples of Luxor and Karnak were joined together at one point. Last time I was there I skipped going inside and sat around smoking cigarettes with my friend Oxana. This time I went inside and it was beautiful.

The first stop was Karnak, which had beautiful columns. It took something like 3 000 years to build. It was late in the tour and I kind of stopped paying attention to the speech and preferred to just look at the architecture and hieroglyphics.

The final stop was the temple of Luxor. Some more huge seated figures greeted us.

This was very interesting – early Christians had used this temple for refuge at one point and had painted their own scenes over the Hieroglyphs!

There were so many things to look at, and more than I can put here! The heat was so strong that I had my head in a bag for the whole bumpy 3 1/2 hour bus ride back. But it was worth it!
We reached the ship at 10:45 pm, and as the convoy was very late I missed an hour of work, which was ok! We ran straight back on the ship and played an hours worth of dance music to end our long day.