righted

I spent a good many hours yesterday with my computer on and set to the live video feed of the raising of the Concordia. Many hours of not much seeming to happen, then suddenly you return to the screen to to see a lot has happened. Fascinating stuff, really. And oddly riveting.

The best part was there was no filling the air time with inane and/or repetitive commentary, just the visual with the sound of the gentle waves (quite soothing actually, when I was napping) and the distant voices of some of the engineering crew. The comments on the Reuters site (seriously moderated, I'm sure) were for the most part intelligent, for a change and the answers were well considered and insightful.

The BBC has a pretty cool time-lapse video (plus many more images) for anyone who didn't have a spare 19 hours...

So, no need for a made-for-tv movie about this, then?!

In the meantime, google maps still shows the unrighted vessel lying of the island

fishing

Jetlag has hit.
Full force.
Took awhile, didn't it?
In the meantime, besides the towel animal sculptures, there was also food sculptures.

I don't know why this fish was nestled in amongst the desserts.....

Xpensive

Of course meals were provided on the cruise ship. There was a buffet room that was open from about 6am to 10pm and several restaurants to choose from (for an extra price), plus the dining room where your dinner was served. All beverages had to be paid for, however. And you really had to pay for them.  

But part of the fun of travelling is eating at local restaurants. We managed to sit at a table and have something in each of the cities we visited. I found this lovely spot right on the beach in Barcelona. I was doing my own thing on the Hop On Hop Off tour bus, so XUP missed this restaurant named after her. It seems this charming Catalan expression means something along the lines of 'simmer in own juices' Like a slow cooker, I am imagining. It was supposed to have great paella, but I was not that hungry, so had some gazpacho and salmon carpaccio. Turns out I wasn't even that hungry. Must have been the heat. It was over 40C. I chose to eat indoors where it was air conditioned. I also didn't want to pay the 10% extra for patio seating.

The food was very good. But also very expensive. At least by North American standards. I have travelled in Europe enough that I knew to expect to be charged extra for most things, but it still comes as a shock.

For water, one must pay for a bottle - and even a small was 2€ ($2.60)
I was asked if I wanted bread - yes, please.  with tomato? - sure. turned out to be about 6 croutons with a bit of chopped tomato and red pepper. a chopped cherry tomato. that came to 2.50€ ($3.25). it did add nicely to the gazpacho, I will admit.
CUBIERTO translates as 'cover' or 'tableware' at .50 (.65). that was an unexpected charge.
All in all it came to over $32 for a bowl of soup, an appetizer and a coffee. and a glass of water. But, gratuity is included. and I really like that part!

Part of ABCWednesday where I was not at home for X number of days.

cruise news, part one

To all those who said that I would never want to travel any other way once I had tried cruising, I say ppfffft. It was a good experience and I am definitely glad I went, but I am not so sure I am a convert. Maybe I need to try a different ship next time? Or maybe it is just me, wanting to see everything at every port and feeling a tad restrained by needing to fit it all in with the ship and shuttle schedules. The extra charges for the shuttles into each city from the port were also a bit grating and everyone was complaining about that little detail.

But......
It was great to not have to keep packing and repacking and to wake up in a different location each morning. At some point over dinner, you might suddenly become aware - if you were looking out the window - that we were moving. The food was very, very good. But so are many restaurants that I have eaten at. I was not interested in shopping so the luxury shops on the Promenade deck held no appeal for me, though we did wander through the nightly 'sidewalk sales' and try to find something.... There was also nightly entertainment to keep us amused. And a variety of places to sit yourself down with drinks and new friends. There was a seemingly neverending gallery of sculptures and artwork on all the floors and even on the last day, I found a landing with a piece of art I am sure I had not seen before and wondered how is that possible? The ship was huge and even with all those people on board, it did not feel overly crowded. And it still took a bit of thinking to remember which stairwells and which elevators to take! And which direction the cabin was in. Next time, definitely get a balcony. If only for that extra bit of fresh air.

The most disappointing part, for both Xup and myself, was the dining. We wanted to share a table and the first two/three nights were great for meeting new people, even if one or two were the same people. Then it all fell apart and we ended up eating on our own and once (because of our different shore excursion plans) we each ate by ourselves.

Definitely the best part was the pre planning and the anticipation. It all feels a little sad to not have that anymore.
And to not have someone coming in to make up the beds and clean the WC. And leave bottles of water.

Then there were the animals....

I came home to a healthy pet turtle though it was hard to tell if he missed me.
But, I heard today that Lonesome George (who I wrote about here) has passed on at an relatively young age of 100 or so years. He was the last of his kind and will be sorely missed in the Galapagos.