Another week on the Silver Wind and another week of adventures.
Here's what happened…
We had a great 2 days in Barcelona, Spain with an overnight. We don't get many overnights in ports and those are the best times because we can go out as a cast (except Zach who was on IPM) and have a nice dinner. Jemma, Bri and Michael had decided to go out a little earlier in the day and I said I'd meet them later. Eventually they emailed me and told me to meet them at Starbucks on the Ramblas. Now those of you that don't know what the Ramblas is, its a famous avenue of shops and street performers in Barcelona. I was afraid of meeting them at the Starbucks at first because I didn't know if I was at the right one (the Ramblas is a big street) but eventually we all met up and decided to go to Hard Rock Cafe and have a nice dinner. When we made it to HRC, we were told that it would be an 1.5 hour wait to be seated….UMMM, NO! Kinda discouraged we decided to see if the bar area was available to sit at, since they do food service there as well. The upstairs bar…no luck. The downstairs bar…4 open chairs, couldn't have worked better. Had a nice meal and the bartender was really nice to us. There was a bachelorette party there and we bought a few drinks for the new bride…lots of fun. Afterwards, we walked down the Ramblas and I took everyone to my favorite place to get some gelato, which they all loved. We then slowly made our way back to the ship, passing a bunch of great paintings and art pieces along the way…really pretty. When we got back to the terminal we found out that there was GREAT wifi right next to the ship and I spent a little time over there catching up with people online. All in all, a great night.
Still in Barcelona, Spain the next day, when Bri, Zach and myself wondered over to this outdoor area across from the ship. We didn't know what it was but saw a lot of people over there so we thought…why not. Come to find out it was a 2 story mall with all these great places to eat and shop at. Needless to say, we spent the entire day there. We found our way up to the top floor to get some food first for lunch. Had a great time just chatting and having a great meal. Then Zach and I went to a few shops to see if anything sparked our interest. We went into this one store where I bought a pair of pants and a shirt that I would NEVER in a million years buy. I have been wanting to get a new outfit for the BBQ because I feel that I look too stuffy, not a casual outfit, so I had Zach help me pick something out. I got these baby blue pants with a nice white button down that looked really great together…I can't wait to debut the outfit at the BBQ. After looking in a few more shops, it was time to head back to the ship. Luckily we met back up with Bri at the starbucks and we all walked back over to the ship as we were heading to St. Tropez the next day. This night, however, we experienced our first night with roughish seas. We left the port an hour early (actually leaving some passengers behind because they didn't show up…whoops) and later that night it became rocky. Of course we were performing Abba that night, in those shoes that I feel like Bambi in. GREAT..I already can't walk in these shoes on stable ground, now you're adding rough seas…this should be interesting. Luckily, everyone handled it very well and we finally got through our first show with rough seas…whoosh.
Zach and I spent the day in St. Tropez together the next day. We arrived from the tender to a different part of the pier that we normally go, so we had to learn our way around from this new location. Zach and I eventually went to the main part of the pier and sat down to have a nice meal. Unfortunately we picked an expensive place to have lunch but I guess it's okay…it was good food. After our pricey meal, we decided to head over to this little beach that we saw as we were sailing into the bay area. After a little while of searching, we stumbled upon the beach. I wouldn't really call it a beach but it had sand and there was a place to swim in the ocean. Now me being the genius I am, I forgot to bring a towel…EHH. Luckily it was really warm this day so I didn't have to worry about drying off (I think I was dry in 5 mins.). We met Giacomo (our 2nd officer) and Stephanie (Financial Officer) at the beach and we had a great time just joking around with each other and enjoying the day in the sun. After some time, Zach and I decided to head back to the port, get on the tender and head back to the ship for a relaxing evening.
Our next port was Monte Carlo, Monaco and unfortunately I was on IPM…darn. Zach, Bri and Jemma did, however, make it back to the pool that in the middle of the port and had a great day. Jemma even managed to go down the big water slide and got a great photo of that. She's a crazy girl but I love her. After a little while, Zach took them up to see the palace thats way up on the hill and eventually they found the place that has the GREAT gelato up there. Sucks that we have IPM but to look at it in a positive way, you get to relax throughout the day and catch up on your rest, which is important with this job. You never want to get too run down because you have to have the energy to perform every night, either socially or in a show.
Portofino, Italy was our next port, which is one of my favorite. Jemma, Zach and I decided to go off together and enjoy the day. I wanted to take them up to the Castello Brown and experience the flowers that are in bloom there. Making our way up the hill to this place was so much fun. It was a warm day and we had to take a few breaks because of the heat. I took them first to the yellow church and above ground cemetery that is on the hill. Its so cool to come back to these places that I went 3 years ago and relive the moments that I created the last time, but also to create new memories with my new friends. What a crazy experience I get to have. Eventually we did make our way to Castello Brown but sadly, it was too warm out and the flowers were dead. It was just a lot of paths surrounded by dead bushes….not the prettiest sights. After we left Castello Brown, we were told by another crew member that if you kept walking past the castle, you'd get to this overlook that had a little cafe and swimming hole. GOOD LORD, I think I walked 18 miles to this little hole in the wall cafe that was stupidly expensive for being in the middle of no where. Zach, Jemma and myself were laughing the entire way there and entire way back to Portofino because it was so hot that we felt like we were just puddles when we got back to the city. What a crazy experience hahaha. Once back into Portofino, we decided to sit down and have a drink/get some WIFI. Little did we know that our drinks would total 50 euros. Yes, I did say 50 euros for 3 drinks, with 8 of it being my coke haha…what a crazy expensive place this is but still one of my favorites.
Our next port was Livorno, Italy where Zach was on IPM. Bri and I decided to go off together and get a nice meal. Bri is such a funny one because she doesn't truly come alive or become herself until she has something to eat for lunch. She always says, "Our first mission is to find a good place for food and then normal Bri will appear". Love it. Well first, we were trying to find a nice restaurant to go to because I was hungry myself and needed something to eat. Eventually we made our way to this outdoor market that a lot people were at. I thought that there were some restaurants on the other side of it so we made our way through only to find out that there was a dead end and no where to go eat. Not happy campers. Eventually we made our way back to the main square where we found this great little restaurant that had some great wifi. I had the best gnocchi I've had in Europe yet in this place and so did Bri. We were both thankful for the great wifi because I was trying to download some songs for my cabaret that I was about to do. Hoooray but also nervous. After a great meal, we went into Zara and H&M to see if they had anything interesting to buy…which they didn't. Oh well, don't need to spend more money on clothes anyway…haha. We then decided to go to the grocery store and get some of the ship life essentials: peanut butter, crackers, chips and chocolate. AH, the joys of being back on the ship haha. We then headed back to the ship and enjoyed a great night on board.
Bonifacio, France was our next port of call. Zach went off earlier in the morning and had a tour of the city. He said it was so interesting learning about the history of this place and then lit up later when explaining it to me. After he came back to the ship, we then tendered into the city where we then made our way up the HUGE hill to this old walled city. It was full of history and was actually very interesting. Zach and I later found a little cafe where we had a very nice meal. Our waiter was very interested in where we were from and got very excited when he found out that Zach was from the Boston area. Every time he came back to the table, he would call me Ohio and Zach Boston…we thought that it was funny. After our great meal, we walked around the city and went to the beautiful overlook. Zach and I tried to take pictures of the amazing views but couldn't take a picture of what it really looked like. This is why I'm so happy that I get to share this with him because my last time, I had to explain what everything looked like…what my experience was. Now I get to share these incredible sights with someone…which is something that we'll share forever. Its really nice. After our time in the walled city, we walked down to the new port and walked the pier back to the tender. While walking, we looked at all the yachts that are lined throughout the port and we discussed that someday we would love to rent a yacht for a week and just experience that way of sailing. One question though….does anyone have a few million dollars for us to do this? Just let me know…haha.
We ended our cruise in Civitavecchia, Italy for another day of embarkation. This is the day though that we met our newest girl singer, Sara, who was apart of the cast before us. Its nice that she is here as a temporary replacement as we wait for Laura to come back. We have performed for the past 2 cruises with only 5 singers and even though that we have received great ratings, it will be easier to go back to the original way we learned these shows, with 6 singers.
It's been a great week of great adventures. I can't wait to see what else these upcoming cruises have in store.
Until Next Time,
Jason
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