Just kidding, there a bunch more than that...but, I made it through the first cruise! I'm currently sitting in a Starbucks in Barcelona with Tim, sipping apple juice and grabbing internet and we start our next cruise, to Venice, tonight. This week I'll be adding a couple of back entries to this blog to cover some of the events of the first cruise.
My favorite out of the ports was Mykonos, Greece, where we rented ATVs and drove around the island to a couple different beaches. Paradise beach was situated in a small cove and was fairly small and quiet, with calm water and chill patrons. There was a harrowing incline to get down to the beach, and I felt a bit like "the little engine that could" on the way back up. We hung there for awhile, I got a t-shirt and we headed to Super Paradise beach, which was much bigger but equally as cool. Out on the reef/sand-bar type thing, Stu ran into a girl that he went to Columbia with, who was on her honeymoon on a different cruise ship. Crazy coincidence! In general, I've never seen so many amazing looking people anywhere. And ATVs are super fun.
The seas were pretty rough yesterday and I was already kind of nauseous when I woke up. Going up to eat in the Oceanview Cafe on deck 14, where the motion is exaggerated, was not the best decision I've made. With some help from Liam, one of the production dancers and generally hilarious British dude, and his fiance Jana, a production vocalist, I finally figured out how to find the medical center and the ever important sea-sickness pills. After taking two of those and a brief nap, the rest of the night went much better. We played 3 sets in the Ensemble Lounge and had some fun. Apparently one of the guys who runs Monster.com in Chicago was on this cruise and talked to Amy about booking some big corporate gigs when we get back to the States.
Two nights ago, right after we finished playing Moon River, a older guy came up to Amy and said, "You guys can't play a waltz, can you? That was too slow." Amy handled it very well, saying something about how its hard to bring the lyrics of that song across if the tempo was any faster, thanking him for the comment, smiling, and walking away. Its good that she's the leader, because I would have responded with something much more along the lines of, "If you want a viennese waltz, go find an orchestra. We're a jazz quartet, not a dance band. Cool? K Bye." Amy's approach is much more friendly. During the next tune, the same dude came up like 6 feet from Amy and took a picture of us. Weird.
Ship life is pretty strange overall, but I'm slowly getting used to it. There are these "crew only" doors all over the ship to access the 5 crew staircases and 2 elevators, and I feel like I'm in a weird mix of Hogwarts and Star Destroyer going through the "secret passages" (secret to the passengers). The main door that Tim and I use on deck 5 to get from our room to the Ensemble Lounge (where our quartet usually plays) has a kind of touch button that initiates the door to slide out from one side. Tim dubbed it the "Jedi door" and makes the "these aren't the droids you're looking for" motion whenever he opens it. Awesome.
-Andrew
from Barcelona
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