MOUNT ETNA - SICILY

WEATHER:  Tops 18C – Lows 17C – rainy and cloudy

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY :  Seeing a live volcano – not hot lava though

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Sitting in a coach for 3 hours to get 45 minutes there

BUYS OF THE DAY:  Strawberry Daiquiri – makes a nice change

WORD OF THE DAY: - ‘smash it down’ as Joe says when having a BIG drinking night!!! 

Welcome back to Italy and the island of Sicily.  It was an early start this morning as we had booked a tour to Mount Etna – the highest volcano in Europe and also still active. 

Compared to ship calls, this is the one we have the least amount of time, with the tour starting at 7.45am and all aboard again by 2pm.  So we high tailed for the drive to Etna which was around 1 hour and 30 minutes from where the ship was docked.  After an hour the driving got tricky going through small villages, where only one car could fit along there narrow roads, and throw a bus into the mix, it really makes for an interesting drive.  Times that by 6 other busses following us, it is amazing the locals put up with it all.  I guess it is an income to most of them and it only happens once a week, but what about if there is a ship in everyday?  In that case I think they would just get used to it.

We were really lucky.  When we got there, we weren’t the last bus, and the weather was really starting to turn, as we were 3340m above sea level, the clouds were starting to roll in, thick as fog.  So we walked the rim of the volcanoes and it was pretty amazing.  The black of the soil made for some great photos with some of the green foliage that has grown around the crater.  I went down to the bottom to get my Bernstar jump, which in hindsight was really lucky as we turned on the last edge of the rim, you couldn’t even see the bottom of the volcano!  So, so lucky.  We only got given 45 minutes here, so if you had driven 1 hour 30 minutes, to get 45 minutes, to then turn around and travel back another 1.5 hours, you would be a little disappointed if you didn’t get to see the crater due to fog!  We were super lucky, and then it started to rain – so we all piled back in the bus for the drive home.

So after buffet lunch for the last time, our last free wine with lunch, and last free wine we took back to our cabin we had to finally pack all our stuff!!!  I had literally unpacked my whole backpack and we used the coat hangers and drawers like civilized people, I was just hoping that it would all fit back into my bag.  To my surprise, it only took me an hour to pack, and once again it all seems to fit in a little too easy!  I still seem to think I have everything, so maybe I am just getting better.  I got another wash done on the ship.  You could get a large bag done for 20EUR – so not bad at all, and we got an update on our accounts and currently there is no laundry charge on there, so maybe I have slipped through the system and got it for FREE!!!  So bag packed we decided to get ready a little earlier and go and start saying some good-byes to our wait staff etc.  I have bought along some Australian stick pins (flags and Kangaroos) and we were given a box of chocolates from our room steward that we just couldn’t fit in our luggage, so we didn’t want to waste them, so we re-gifted a box back to Melvin (wonder if this would seem rude) and we opened the other box and gave away a pin and a chocolate.  It looked like it was all appreciated – not sure if these guys get told what a good job they do, and we felt nice telling them.

The usual itinerary, wine bar, Manhattan Bar, theatre to see the Michael Jackson tribute show – which I have to say was AWESOME ), back to the Manhattan Bar, Dinner at 9pm, photo shop, Manhattan Bar and finally to the Liquid Disco for the last time.  We wanted to say good-bye to our photo crew friends, so they met us at the Manhattan Bar after 12 midnight, we had a few drinks there till 1 and we got kicked out and they came up to Liquid till 2am, which is when they have to go back to their cabins – some rule of some sort.  But it was an awesome night, and a great night to finish up our WONDERFUL MSC FANTASIA cruise.  We have made new friends and hope to catch up with them again next year when I will be back in Europe.  I haven’t been to Romania – so Stefan and Ioana we will definelty be taking you up on your offer to see your wonderful country.  We are going to miss you guys……

Thanks MSC and thanks for the memories and new friends xxxxx

MALTA – HOME TO THE ORDER OF THE KNIGHTS OF SAINT JOHN

WEATHER:  Tops 18C – Lows 14C but the sun was come and go and the wind picked up and stopped

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY:  Getting my post office stamp in my Globetrotters book

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Finding out the cost of my ship board bill – damn magic card!!!!

BUYS OF THE DAY:  A silver St John cross and a filigree ring – hand made in Malta

WORD OF THE DAY: - Sobriety is okay for one day

It was good to get off the ship today, and feeling human again – life was looking good.  We had a day tour booked of Valletta and Mdina.  This place really makes me think of Dubrovnik.  The bay / port we came into was just beautiful and as the city was founded by lot of countries in its history, the Arabs also held post here for almost 900 years, so it has that middle eastern feeling with the way the housing has been structured and way way it was all built on the bay.

After visiting the Barraka Gardens where we got an amazing view over the Great Harbour, we went to visit St John’s Cathedral.  Now I have said this before about visiting palaces and museums, seen one church you have pretty much seen them all, but St John’s Cathedral was amazing.  The Cathedral dates back to the ancient Knights of Malta, they are all buried there and photos are permitted inside with no flash.  There are also paintings by Caravaggio, who lived in Malta and painted 4 of his famous works, where 2 of them are still in Malta in St Johns.  We got to see one of them ‘The Be-heading of John the Baptist’ and I am not an art buff, but this picture was massive at 5.5mx4.5m and it looked amazing.  It had been stolen a few years back, recovered and sent to Florence for 3 years for it to be re-stored as it was damaged during the robbery – who pays for all that?  Needless to say the colours were so vivid and looked like it had been painted that week.

From Valetta we travelled around 25 minutes to a small town called Mdina.  This was like walking into a small city in the Emirates.  Lots of narrow streets all made out of limestone and the city is also known as the ‘silent town’.  Well it certainly was quite when we were there, as there were also 3 other ships in port, the Norwegian Jade and the …………………………, which made it an interesting time in the small city where only 450 locals live, just to give you an idea on the size.  It was chaotic.  Our guide mentioned during summer last year, they had up to 8 ships in port at the same time – for me, this would be insane to visit Mdina with that many people passing through, I wouldn’t think that they could cope!!  I really hate to imagine what that would have been like.  Malta is known for its silver filigree jewelry and of course the St John cross (exactly the same as St Johns Ambulance emblem) and with not having spent money (well of the nonalcoholic kind) I bought myself beautiful filigree rings and a St John star pendant.  If I buy things, I can only buy small stuff, so I can also justify it that way as well!!!!

All in all I loved the feel of Malta and it has very picturesque towns and a beautiful harbor.  If you get the chance to go – I would recommend it with a high 8 out of 10.

We chillaxed on deck after returning back from the tour and also lunch – which again was a shit fight.  We did discover, on the 2^nd last day of course, that the very end of the buffet restaurant, there is the same food all except the hot food component, and is certainly easier to find a seat down there than the main entrance.  Trust us to work this out on the 2^nd last day!!!  Derrrrrrr Patty and Joe joined us for a coffee and then we went back to the cabin to get ready for dinner.  At this point we are back on the drink, and we got 3 wines over lunch, and as lunch technically runs till 3pm, we ran back up and got another 2 wines before the clock ticked 4pm and we would have to start paying again.  Are clever chickens or what?

The show tonight was Excalibur and again a very high standard and from the theatre we headed straight to our home’ bar – The Manhattan – to watch the Madonna Music Game.  ChelC popped into the Sportsbar as the soccer ( or football here ) was on, Real Madrid was playing Barcelona in the semi-finals and there are a few Spanish people on board, all crammed into the bar to watch it on the TV’s, which there were plenty, it is a great sports bar!

Dinner was then on the itinerary, amazing how busy we actually are on the ship.  Great to be able to get our money’s worth of our drinks package again!  We went and checked our accounts that afternoon and I was up at 677EUR on day 5!!!  In my defence there is 300EUR of day tours on that, but just imagine how much the bill would have been if we weren’t on a drinks package!  Mama Mia!!!!

Next was the ‘Tropical Party’ in the lounge.  It was rocking in here, considering it starts at 11pm.  Tonight was the first night we hit some serious rock-age of the ship.  It was funny to watch, when the ship swayed one way all the people on the dance floor took 2 steps that way and with the sway back, same again 2 steps back the other way – it was soooo funny, as a group of 100 all moved together.

We did head to Liquid Nightclub to check it out, but besides the 100 school age people in there, we were the oldest by far, so after a few drinks, we retired at 2am to be up at 7am for our day tour tomorrow in Sicily.  Thank-god this cruise isn’t any longer I think it would kill me, in saying that I haven’t even started Contiki yet – oh dear – maybe I will be showing my age after 2 months of this!!!

Our last day on the ship tomorrow, as we disembark on Friday morning for our train from Civitavecchia port to Rome Termini, and then we will transfer on the train from there to the airport where we have a 5pm flight.

DAY AT SEA

WEATHER: Crap.  Cool, windy and overcast

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY:  I’m alive - still

BUMMER OF THE DAY: The drinks package is going to kill my liver

BUYS OF THE DAY:  Yep, the drinks package still

WORD OF THE DAY: - Long Island Ice Tea

Well we surfaced around 10am – so we missed breakfast, so we needed to wait till 12 noon before lunch was served, or I could have the other Caesar salad that has sat there for 7 hours?  Yeah right, after the chuck last night, I’m not touching that salad – remember there was something wrong with the first one!

A bit of free time, so I pulled up a pew in the atrium, caught up on the diary entries, read and listened to some tunes till I met ChelC for lunch.

We decided to go to the restaurant for lunch today, especially today, as it was a sea day, so there would be 4000 hungry passengers to feed in 2 hours, so we figured the pace would not be as frantic in the restaurant – besides they do all the running around for you.  It was a good decision and nice not to have to fight for lunch.  Seriously, they are like animals that haven’t been fed for weeks in the buffet – they won’t run out of food people.

The weather is ordinary.  Overcast, windy and a little on the cool side.  But bless the people sitting in their bikinis trying to get some nonexistent sun; it is the Med after all.  The beauty of MSC is they also have an indoor pool area with a retractable roof, so you can swim all year round on the Fantasia.

Back to the cabin for a rest which again turned into 3 hours.  We woke at 5pm – hungry, so yes you guessed it we ordered another round of chicken Caesar salads, so this is what it tastes like sober – still not too bad.  The room service food has a limited menu, but it is free, you just pay a delivery fee of 2.50EUR per plate ordered.  Not a bad deal.

We had an opportunity to meet the Captain tonight, well you shake his hand and you get a photo taken, more money revenue for the ship – but as we were still feeling a bit shady, we skipped the photo op ( I know right – me missing a photo ), had a sticky beak in and then we headed to the theatre to watch the 7.30pm show – Fantasie.  The shows seem to be getting better as the cruise goes along and they really are quite professionally done.  The only criticism I have, is sometimes the dancers don’t seem to have enough light on them for us to see them dancing, but they are great shows all the same.

Off to our 9pm dinner and we were stuffed!  Still haven’t been able to have an alcohol beverage – ughhhh even the Moet and Chandon special of 5EUR didn’t stir an inkling for a drop….  Yes it was a pretty BIG night!!!!  Needless to say we had a very non productive day at sea and not a drop of alcohol passed our lips, and as I type this I hear my liver sigh what a big relief that is to have one night off!!  There is always tomorrow…….

BARCELONA – THE DAY THAT NEVER WAS

WEATHER:  Cabin temperature 25C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY:  I’m alive

BUMMER OF THE DAY: I’m alive

BUYS OF THE DAY:  That damn drinks package still…….

First thing I thought when I woke – thank god my tour was cancelled!!!!

I woke at 9.30am and ChelC had somehow made her day tour at 8am.  I remember the days I could do that.  I guess I could do it at a push, like if I had of paid for the tour, I would have been there in body.  Hung over like a b@st@ard, but I’m alive and I had no day tour, so I can’t complain.

I got onto my blog writing, organized some washing ( I can get a bag washed for 20EUR ) and a quick tidy up of the cabin and read for a few hours.  ChelC was back at 1.30pm and we headed to lunch.  Because our ship leaves at 4pm – there were only half day tours organized for Barcelona – so I guess that explains all the people in the buffet for lunch.  It really was a shit fight in there, everyone pushing and shoving and no spare tables etc….. It was so busy!  But with no food in the stomach, I battled my way through and managed to load my plate and we found somewhere to sit outside.

Back to the cabin for a ‘quick’ snooze, that turned out to be 4 hours.  Finally feeling half decent again we headed to the Texmex at 8pm, where we had made a reservation.  This is a specialty restaurant, so there is an additional charge of 15EUR which gives you a selection of an appetizer, main and desert.  It is good to note that the drinks package that we are on, does not apply to the specialty restaurant, so drinks were also additional.  It was really good food and I can highly recommend the Texmex on the Fantasia.

From there we had a few more drinks, as we have found our drinking boots again.  Nothing like a few shots at dinner to get rid of the hang over cobwebs and then to the theatre to watch the pirate show they had.  The shows on board have been pretty good quality, and this one was no exception.  They generally go for 30-45 minutes and they have 2 each night to fit in with the dining times.

After spending some time with Stefan at the photo point, we headed back to; yep you got it, the bar and ran into our dinner companions Patty and Joe!  So after a few more drinks with them, they headed to the midnight crepes, and we headed to the nightclub.  It is super weird how the kids are allowed in the nightclub.  Obviously not drinking, but man they should be out by midnight at least right!?  Who needs the flaunting of their youth cramping our drinking style!  Patty and Joe joined us, and we had a few dances, more drinks and more shots to stumble home at 3am.  I ordered the drunken Caesar salads again and ChelC ordered an egg sandwich – ugggghhhhhh, by the time they delivered the food, she was passed out and needless to say the egg sandwich didn’t get eaten.  I only ate one of the salads to only have it come back up again, yes people I had a chucky chucky and it wasn’t pretty.  I can’t remember the last time I was actually sick from alcohol like that!  My guess was there was something wrong with the salad, it could not have been the 5 shots we had, the 5 billion drinks we had, or the mixing of the said drinks, no it definitely had to be the salad right!?  But in my defence it was a clean chuck, not too much on the bed, bathroom clean so at least I do it with little fluff.  ChelC slept through the whole event, so thank-god I didn’t choke on my own vomit, as she would not have saved me – mental note – good to know!

It is a day at sea tomorrow – so no feeling bad that we are missing out on any port stops.  We were supposed to be going to Tunisia, but with everything that is happening in Libya, they have cut that port from the itinerary.  Not a bad thing as we sit and watch the coverage on TV.  Days at sea are a good thing sometimes I think, so you get to see some more of the ship, besides all the bars of course.

That was my uneventful day in Barcelona; I didn’t even leave the ship.  But as mentioned previously, I will be back and I have been before, so Barcelona, we will meet again! 

A LITTLE FRENCH TOWN CALLED AVIGNON

WEATHER:  Beautifil!!!  Tops 23C – Lows 13C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY :  Discovering I like Long Island Ice Teas

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Can’t think of one again…

BUYS OF THE DAY:  Long Island Ice Teas for 6.50EUR

WORD OF THE DAY: - always written phonetically – Bonjour – we are in France for the day after all

HAPPY EASTER – EASTER SUNDAY

So this is what it feels like to wake up sober – what a great feeling!!!  We just couldn’t get our drink on last night, so we gave in and had an early night, well as early as one can with a 9pm dinner reservation!

Our day tour today is a quick sight see of the city of Marseilles, the 2^nd largest city in France, and then we drove 1 hour and 30 minutes to Avignon.  The draw card here, is the old Popal Palace that was built in the 14^th century.  It housed all the Popes over the years and each one added something to the palace till it just grew to what it is today.  It is just massive!  They really knew how to build things back in the day didn’t they!  The churches and dining halls in the palace are 50m long and 40m high to give you an idea on just how big they built it over time.

After the tour of the palace we got 2 hours free time to wander around the old city.  We had lunch at an outdoor café and the weather was just beautiful to sit, people watch and chillax.  We did a little walking around after lunch, where ChelC and I purchased a 5EUR ring ( I know it’s not real but it was pretty and cheap ) and then headed back to the bus for our ride back to the ship.

I have caved in and I have purchased an internet package.  I tried to use the computers in the Cyberlibrary, but the line up to use one of the 4 computers was long, so it didn’t make sense when I had my computer back in the cabin to not use it.  So I have paid 20EUR for 100 minutes of internet time.  The main reason is so I can update my blog, otherwise I will have 7 entries to upload at once, and I don’t want to bore you all with a massive upload.  BUT I couldn’t NOT check Facebook, but as I travel around each country, as part of FB security, I need to re-store my account as it ‘doesn’t recognize my location’.  It is all for my security I know, so I won’t whinge too long, but yesterday it just would not let me login, it kept going around on a big loop and it was driving me nuts.  It is probably for the best anyway I guess, otherwise it would just chew through my minutes.

As written before, I am now drinking tea ( thanks to Russia ) eating olives, and ChelC has got me onto Long Island Ice Teas last night!  Now is that lethal or what?  They put the drink into tall skinny glasses, so we are really getting some bang for our buck at 6.50EUR a pop, not bad for the amount of alcohol that goes into one.  So as we got ready for dinner, we consumed 3 each.  The bar is convienently located 5 cabins away and just down the stairs, so to get a drink takes 5 minutes!  ChelC doesn’t want a big night as she is really looking forward to Barcelona tomorrow and doesn’t want to be hung over for it.  Not a good start I hear you say with 3 LIIT under our belt!!!  We had decided to do separate tours in Barcelona, and just before we left the cabin I got a notice that mine had cancelled due to lack of numbers.  As I am coming back to Spain for my 2 week Contiki tour in May, I decided to not do a tour tomorrow and just chill around. 

We had made a booking  to eat in the Tex Mex restaurant for 8pm, but didn’t know when we made the booking a few days ago, that it was formal night, so we went and saw the guys at the Cantina and changed it to tonight.  They are all from Honduras, so ChelC got to practice some tipsy Spanish with them before we headed to dinner.  ChelC swapped to beers ( they were free ) and I consumed a whole bottle of white wine to myself ( which was also free ).  So needles to say we were well and truly on our way to drunkdom!!!  As it was formal night, the menu is pretty much a set one, so after we ate we went and said howdy to our photo boys, where ChelC bought a new SLR camera!!!!  Yes she was drunk when she bought it, but she had been eyeing it off since we got on the ship, so it was an approved purchase, and it is an awesome camera.  Me?  My drunk purchase was a new watch, not as lavish as a camera, but it is a cute one all the same!  We then chatted to our Russian friend Svitlana and some of our Indonesian friends to eventually finding ourselves at the midnight chocolate buffet!!  As it was Easter, there was chocolate, cakes and sweets everywhere.  Just what you want to eat when your happy drunk.  NOT.  I asked where the hot chips, kebabs and pizza were, but Luigi told me tomorrow night he would have the pizza at least for us!  From there we thought we would just quickly head to the nightclub to check it out, and that is where we stayed till 3am!!  So much for the early night for ChelC! 

We ordered our 3am drunk ceasar salads back at the cabin, which Chelc didn’t even want, so I ate both at 3.30am and then hit they hay!  What a day – I really feel sorry for ChelC as she has to get up in the morning – but she is a young chicken and I am sure she will bounce back no problems!!!

THE BEAUTIFUL PORTOFINO

WEATHER:  Tops 18C – Lows 11C – rainy!!!!

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Making the Portofino excursion after last night – it was beautiful

BUYS OF THE DAY:  Drinks package – again

WORD OF THE DAY: - always written phonetically – Terima Kasi – thanks in Indonesian

We are alive!!!  Rusty, but alive.  After 4 hours sleep and a quick breakfast, we haven’t pulled up too shady for the optional excursion to Portofino today.  It is an organized chaos – people all pushy and shovy trying to register for their respective tours and get to their allocated groups.  But it gets done and we are on the bus to Santa Margherita, a 45 minute drive from Genoa, to board a boat to take us to the seaside port of Portofino.

Santa Margharita is beautiful, just what you would picture an Italian seaside town to be like.  We got 15 minutes here for a quick look around.  There were some market type stalls, so you could have a quick browse before boarding the boat.  The boat ride to Portofino was only 15 minutes and this town is even prettier than Santa Margerita.  We got free time here for 1.5 hours before heading back again to the mainland and the ship.

We are starting to get the names of all the cute ‘workers’ on the ship and keeping track of all the traditional Italian names that we meet.  So there has been Marcelo (who can forget him), Giuseppe and Stefan from Photograph shop, Petrecia from um not sure what his job is and Raphael from the nightclub is to name a few.  The beauty of the ship workers is it has their name and country they are from.  So I have been trying out my 5 words of Russian that Julia taught me – she would be so proud – on the Ukrainian staff, my 6 words I can remember from my Indonesian classes at high school – Pak Kelly would be so proud – and the 3 Italian words I have learnt in the last 3 days!  I am multi-national, and with ChelC getting to practice her Spanish on Melvin and the ship board announcements, we are just missing French and German from our list!!!!

Lunch was back in the buffet.  We gave it our best shot, but the wine was just not hitting the spot this time, so we got 2 bottles of water instead and back to the cabin to chill out till 5.15 for the emergency exercise drill, when you need to look like a monkey and wear your life vest for 30 minutes.  Oh well another good opportunity for a photo and Stefan also got some of us as well.  Oh he is only human right – and yes I bought the picture that evening!!

The rest of the evening was pretty chillaxing.  After walking through 3 bars and chatting to our new friends, Leo from Indonesia and Sveltana from the Ukraine we popped a bottle of Lambrusco on the chance that that might go down a bit better than the white wine we drank 50 litres of the previous night, but no chance.  We watched the show in the beautiful theatre “Made in Italy” and as far as cruise shows good it was quite good and then off to dinner.  The rest of the evening was spent chatting to our mates at photography shop and having a look at the shops which we hadn’t even been in to yet!!!

We arrive into Marseille – France tomorrow – and a full day tour to Avignon.  We love cruising!!!

LETS TALK ABOUT CRUISING

WEATHER:  Tops 25C – Lows 12C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY :  Boarding the beautiful MSC Fantasia ( said Fan-ta-see-a )

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Lugging my dead body of a bag around – I told you I am a flashpacker….

BUYS OF THE DAY:  Drinks package on the ship.  All you can drink wine with lunch and dinner.

WORD OF THE DAY: - always written phonetically – Prego – please in Italiano

We leave the beautiful hotel this morning to catch our train to Civitavecchia, also known as the Port of Rome.  Checking out was a little embarrassing – especially since the guy behind the desk was a tall, dark handsome Italian man called Marcelo.  I am only transferring money onto my credit card as I need it, so if the card is stolen there is not much on there to take.  So I transferred the $$ to cover the cost of the hotel, and like any hotel I have encountered lately, they hold the funds on your card till you check out and then they charge your card when you actually do check-out, so technically they holding double the amount needed till the first authorization is reversed on your card.  Normally I would have enough money on the card for this to not be an issue, but there was an issue and poor Marcelo had to tell me that my card was declined!  How embarrassment!  So I booted up my notebook there and then and had to transfer another lot of money to cover the hotel bill again!  Classy look for a 5 star hotel, but the upside is I got to talk to Marcelo a little longer!!

The train station was only a 7 minute walk from the hotel, so all bagged up, we left our lap of luxury and headed for the train for a 10.40am departure.  European trains are quite easy to read and understand.  When we first got there, the train departure was up, but hadn’t been assigned a platform yet, so with about 30 minutes to wait we decided to sit and have a drink.  Well by the time we looked at our watches it was 10.30am, so we had to haul our arses to the platform and of course it was the last one right at the end of the flippin station!!!  We made it with a minute to spare!  We had pre-paid for our rail ticket before we left Australia and didn’t bother with a reservation as it was a train just going to the port, which was also the end of the line.  The train looked just like the ones in Sydney, double decker and nothing fancy but they hoot along with it getting up to 130km at one stage!  After a few local stops and 1 hour later we found ourselves at Civitavecchia – definetly this is a great way to get to the port of Rome.  The station is walking distance then to the port.  You can only go so far – before you have to hop on the shuttle transfer to take you all the way to the ship. MSC offer passengers flexibility on where they decide to start their cruise in the Med.  You can hop on at any of the ports they visit on your cruise and then your 7 nights start from that port.  So pretty much everyday there are people embarking and disembarking the whole cruise.  So in saying that we got to check-in at 12.30pm and we didn’t have to wait at all to hand in our bags.  We then zigzag’ed our way through their expo style set up of spa treatment packages, kids club offers and the optional excursion desk to get to the check-in counter to get our ‘magic’ cards for the week and more ship information.  The whole process took us not even 15 minutes from arriving at the check-in to getting to our cabin!! Awesome……

Well the ship Fantasia is AMAZING.  I have done a lot of cruising, and this ship rates up there with Oasis of the Seas, the largest ( sorry, second largest now by 5mm to her sister ship Allure ).  Oasis has 6500 guests – Fantasia has 4000, so size wise I wasn’t expecting her to be so big.  She is a new ship in ship terms – going on 2 years now, but I am certain she looks like she did on her maiden voyage.  She is so well cared for and there are staff all the time, cleaning and polishing.  She is in amazing nick!  The ship itself is awesome, with 18 decks, an F1 simulator, a bright pink nightclub called Liquid Bar ( how appropriate ) a waterpark, deck chairs that have little sun roofs on them and with hot Italian staff walking around the decks all the time what else could you ask for.

So we went to the buffet and had lunch and this is where we got to wave our ‘magic’ card and try out for the first time our drinks package.  We have paid $22 per day for unlimited beer, wine, water and soft drink for the cruise with lunch and dinner.  We figured we only had to have 3 wines with lunch and 3 wines with dinner and we are ahead.  Nothing like value for money as incentive to drink right!  So we do have a special code on our ship cards and they really do work like magic!!  It is like drinking for free, well it feels like it as we also pre-paid this before we left home.  Now the beauty of drinking for lunch and dinner is that lunch runs for 4 hours and dinner can take upto 2 hours, so you see where I’m heading with this!  We could easily turn this into a booze cruise and knock that value for money right into next week!!!  Well because we are responsible drinkers, we will not test the theory ‘every day’ but we will give it a good crack tonight!  So after 2 wines with lunch and a third one we took back to the cabin, we were well and truly on our way!  Well we are on holidays right!

So after settling in, walking around the ship, getting our photos, booking in our shore tours, getting some housekeeping stuff done eg: splitting the queen beds into singles, bucket of ice and chasing our bottle of champagne it was time to get ready for dinner.  We have chosen the late seating for dinner, which I still know is the right thing, but the time for this is 9pm!!!  Late for dinner I hear you say!  But if you do full day tours your not back to the ship till around 5.30-6.00pm and really don’t want to rush to get ready, so I do always pick the late sittings.

Our bottles of champagne arrived – care of Paul from MSC and not just one – but 2 ( thanks buddy )  just what we need more alcohol, but one can never have too much?  Or can you?  Anyway we popped that sucker and by this time Melvin, our cabin steward arrives, so we poured him a glass ( worked out to be 2 ) and had a toast to a safe and successful cruise.  ChelC was tickled pink that Melvin was from Honduras and she got to practice some broken but passable Spanish on him.  It also helps that he is cute!

So by the time we chatted to Melvin, it was time to get ready and head to dinner.  We are on a table of 6, with a couple from Melbourne sitting with us and the other 2 seats were MIA we have done okay for dinner companions.  Another bottle of wine with dinner and we were good to go for a bit of a boogie at the nightclub.  When we actually arrived it was like we had walked into a high school.  There were like 100 teenagers all in the nightclub!  Keeping in mind this is now 11.30 at night, we possibly looked like grandma’s in there!!!  BUT never fear this did not deter us as we pulled up a pew at the bar and continued to drink till the wee hours and somehow, like homing pigeons, make it back to our cabin.  We then called room service, and got 2 chicken ceasar salads delivered and ate them drunk as skunks!!!  As far as I can remember they were delicious.  The only eventful thing was my mobile phone slipped into the ice bucket full of water, but after 5 hours drying out and a little resuscitation it has survived and seems to be working okay!!  Close shave…..

We arrive into our first port tomorrow – Genoa, where we have a day tour booked to Portofino.  So lets hope for some good weather.

WHILE IN ROME

WEATHER:  Beautiful Tops 25C - Lows 12C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY:  Chelsey Arrived

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Can’t think of a single thing

BUYS OF THE DAY:  Gelato for 2EUR to eat at the Trevi Fountain

WORD OF THE DAY: - always written phonetically – Chow= informal good-bye

Chelsey’s here, Chelsey’s here!!!!!  Have I mentioned that Chelsey’s here.

 I had a pretty relaxed morning at The St Regis Grand.  Left the hotel for a spot of lunch, picking a café not far from the hotel, as Chelsey was due in at 1pm.  Thought I was doing really well, there were a lot of locals sitting eating at this particular café, so I took a seat.   The waiter was really sweet as the menu was only in Italian, so he ran through it with me.  After selecting a pasta dish, white wine and a tea I waited in anticipation of having my first pasta in Rome.  Well I had to hide my shock when he bought out the pasta and it was still in its microwaveable plastic plate!!!!  Too funny.  When people walked past and looked in, I felt bad I was in Rome eating a frozen pasta meal!!!!!!  It was very tasty in their defence, but it certainly wasn’t made by mama in the back kitchen.  I also paid 4EUR for the tea, so I won’t be recommending that place to anyone, especially for the tea which I could have got from Macca’s 10m down the street for 1EUR!

Chelsey got to the hotel fine and after a quick shower we headed down to the Trevi Fountain which is about a 15 minute walk from the hotel.  It was SO busy.  If you wanted to get down to the fountain to throw your coin in over your shoulder, it would have been messy with a lot of shoving and pushing with people 6 deep down there.  It was amazing to see so many people there.  I guess being Easter Thursday and the Pope has his Easter service on Sunday; there would be a lot of people in town.  We decided not to risk going down to the fountain, and just ate some Gelati and people watched for a while before heading to the Spanish Steps.  We decided not to throw a coin in the fountain, as we know we are coming back to Rome on our Contiki tour.  Why waste our Euro’s now, we will throw our coin in on the return, with the wish that we will come back again.  Needless to say the Spanish Steps were just as busy.  You could barely see them, there were that many people sitting on them!  This is Chelsey’s first time to Europe, so she learnt the hard way that nothing is for free.  When the guys walking around giving out roses for free, are not actually free when you take one from them.  He got a little upset when she gave the rose back to him, but she now knows how the programme works!

Round 2 for my Rome pasta experience.  Well I knew where NOT to take ChelC!  We walked to the Republic Piazza and found a street café along there that looked quite cute and ‘Italian’.  We ordered a bottle of Lambrusco (which was delicious) pasta (not a microwave meal) and a pizza (which was also delicious) and we shared the whole lot!  We even got a rude Italian waiter to top off the experience!  What a great way to depart Rome and we will see you in 2 weeks when we come back, albeit we won’t be staying in the lap of luxury and in the center of town, but we will be back!

   

AIR TRAVEL FROM LONDON TO ROME

WEATHER:  Leaving London at 5am – 10C / Arriving into Rome at 2pm – 22C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY:  Bag underweight again – 22.4kg

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Having to get up so early

WORD OF THE DAY: - always written phonetically – Grazia – thanks in Italian

Early pick up this morning.  I was given the range of between 4.45am-5.15am for the collection time.  There’s always the concern that the transfer won’t turn up that early, but I was down stairs right on 4.45am and he was there waiting for me, which was awesome.  We had one other collection and then my driver drove like a bat out of hell and I am sure got us to Heathrow in record time at 5.55am

I am departing from terminal 5, where all British Airways flights now depart from, and this terminal is amazing.  It is all still new, they had a guy walking around with a weekly ‘newsletter’ pointing out things you can do in the terminal and what the weekly duty free offers are.  The downside is that Wi-Fi is not free here.  The cheapest was 9.95GBP for 24 hours and a lot of the restaurants also don’t offer the service.  Weird, because it is so large, but maybe that is why.

You self-check-in for BA flights, so I did this and went to the bag drop to find out I was 30 minutes too early.  So I sat and booted up the computer and caught up on my latest blog entry.  By the time I finished this, I could drop the bag, which without even knowing I did a Leyton ‘yeah’ fist action as it came in at 22.4kg.  The check-in dude was quite amused.

Security check can be a nightmare, you get the idiots who have to take off half their clothes, get out their lap tops, forget to take off their belt, so they have to go back through, then they forgot about  their liquids bag, so it has to get x-rayed again and the process can be quite lengthy.  I think this is the most frustrating thing with airports, getting all the idiots through the security check points.  Terminal 5 has tried to limit the holdup time, they are well organized and had like 15 stations open, so the wait time was minimal and they have these fancy machines and plenty of the boxes you put your stuff into to keep the process moving.  I do have a pair of scissors in my pencil case, that are below regulation, I got them through St Petersburg and also Helsinki after they were checked accordingly, but London didn’t even pull me up on them.  I think I may start my scissor challenge and see if they can make their way through every airport check I get done.  Let’s see how far they get!

Our flight left from a gate that required a bus transfer to the plane.  I was on the first bus, nearly the last one they squeezed on, so I was the first off and the very first person to walk on the aircraft – I felt very special. The plane was one of those executive ones, the whole plane was leather which special cup holders on your arm rests and once again happy to report nice and roomy.  We were all packed on and tucked in nicely when the captain came onto the pa and reported that there was a security check missing off their report that they had, so this needed to be done, and we had to wait the 60 minutes for this to be done.  So tick tick tick – 60 minutes arrived and it was completed, but when they did this last check, they noticed one of the tyres didn’t look right, so another 30 minutes while they changed the planes tyre and then we were good to go.  All the time we were sitting on the plane!  Being Heathrow, we then had to wait another 20 minutes to find a slot that traffic control could fit us into to be able to get out.  You can literally see the queue of planes waiting for takeoff is a site to see.  So we left nearly 2 hours late, but safety is pretty important, so people shouldn’t really complain right?

2 hours and 40 minutes finds us landing in Rome.  Once again being Non-EU passport holders gets you straight through customs, no line up and the Italian customs seem pretty laid back guys.  The thing of getting through quick is your bags aren’t quite as fast, so it is hurry up and wait scenario.  I just pull my book out and am happy to read till my bag finally surfaces.  I’m in no rush.  I’m still trying to work out how I’m going to get to the hotel.  I did buy a train ticket before I left home, but as my bag is quite hefty and I have an additional bag, I could think of nothing worse trying to shuffle my way around, so I did the easy way out and paid $25 EUR for shared transfer to take me directly to my hotel.  Best money I have spent let me tell you.  FYI a taxi costs 65EUR, the train 17EUR and if you have 6 people or more from 10EUR.

My hotel is amazing.  The St Regis Grand is just that – grand.  This is one of the little splurges I have on the trip, to get ready for my 56 days of Contiki I have coming!  Chelsey arrives tomorrow afternoon, so it will be good to have some company again.  We then head off for our cruise of the Mediterranean for a week.  Ahhhh some sea and sun, the only blot is we have pre-purchased a drinks package, so there may be some Ughhhhhhhhh sea and sun days – but we will wait and see.

BUSY BUSY LONDON

WEATHER:  Tops 25C – Lows 18C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY :  The London Eye

BUMMER OF THE DAY: No WI-Fi at the hotel – it’s broken L

BUYS OF THE DAY:  New pair of sunnies ( the 3^rd for the trip ) 13GBP

WORD OF THE DAY: - Sunny

I am not sure if I am just lucky, or there are a bunch of people who complain about the weather in London.  The last time I was here in August of 2008, we hit a sunny spell.  The people were shirtless and half naked basking in the sun in Hyde Park.  Well the same has happened again.  We got tops of 25C today and the streets of London were buzzing.  There were so many people about it was on the verge of too many.  No-one walks in a straight line, people don’t watch where they are walking, there are children who are not old enough to know the etiquette and then there are the teenagers who do and just don’t care.  It drives me nuts, and this is why I try to stay out of mainland Europe during summer, as I can imagine it is a lot like this, or I shudder to think even worse?  I am sure part of the ‘busy-ness’ is due to Easter this week-end and then the ROYAL WEDDING next week-end which Chelsey and I fly in on the BIG day, but not till 7pm that night, so we do miss all the action. 

I have stocked up on a few Wills and Kate souvenirs though.  You just never know they may be worth something down the track right?  Needless to say the WEDDING is a BIG deal here and the preparations are at a peak.  There have been some road closures already, so they can sweep the Royal Route for the next week for security purposes and flags and decorations have also gone up along this route as well.  The place does feel and look very festive and they are expecting 600 thousand to 1 million people to be in London on the day!  I think I am glad that I won’t be here for the whole day!  There are people who have already started to camp out on the route in tents!!  They have been moved on twice apparently, but they just keep on coming back and haven’t moved the 4 days I have been here.  Now that is keen!!!

I had the morning free before having a Rock N Roll tour in the afternoon and the London Eye in the evening.  So I walked for 2 hours around London from Lambeth North to Piccadilly Circus where I had lunch and then proceeded to Trafalgar Square to pick up my tour.  The tour was a 3 hour driving tour of the Rock N Roll history of London.  The guy was awesome and looked like he stepped out of the pages of Rolling Stone magazine.  But the history and bands were a little before my era, but interesting all the same.  He showed us places like where Jimmy Page used to live, where Cream recorded their first album, where the Sex Pistols first met, Led Zeppelin and a whole bunch of other people I hadn’t even heard of!  The highlight of the tour was a visit to Abbey Road for the Beatle lovers where we got to get out and re-create the famous album cover of the guys walking across the crossing out the front of Abbey Studios.  You can write on the fence of the studio, leave your mark so to speak, but it only stays there for 6 weeks and then they white wash the walls and the graffiti starts all over again.  It had only been done that week, so my message will stay for at least 6 weeks!

After tubing it back to the hotel to freshen up, I was off again for my 8 o’clock date with the London Eye.  I have always wanted to get onto the Eye, but either been time poor, or by the time you get here and have had a massive day, you just can’t be bothered.  This ticket was a birthday present from the Ashgrove team, so it was pre-booked before I left Australia, and I have to stress it is the ONLY way to go.  We paid an additional 8GBP for me to go on the champagne flight, whereas the title suggests, you get a glass of champagne, but it also gets you priority check-in at a counter that had no-one in line and a complimentary ‘Eye Guide’ that points out all the major landmarks as you circle around.  To give you an idea on the ‘plebs’ line.  No exaggeration, I rekon there would have been 150 people in line for the general admission tickets and it was busy.  I got there around 7pm and this is the queue, can you imagine on a beautiful day like it was how many people would have been there at lunch time for example.  Pay the additional money; it is so worth it, to not have to line up with the hundreds.

I chose a later time slot, as I was hoping to either get sunset or some photos with London lit up, and I tell you the 8pm flight was the right one to pick.  I got some awesome photos of London at dusk, and the city looked truly amazing!  With a champagne glass in hand and a top up offered later on, I can tell you the London Eye experience is definitely worth doing and definitely worth pre-booking and paying the extra to get the champagne.  What a top way to end a top day.  I also managed to get some-one after the 2^nd person to get a Bernstar jump on the London Eye in our capsule.  It took them 5 attempts to get the shot, but they were quite adamant that they were going to get the shot for me.  It was really sweet.

Back to the hotel, after grabbing a hotdog from Mr. Whippy for dinner, to get packed and ready for plane travel again tomorrow.  My flight is at 9am – so hotel pick-up at 5am!  My bag was strewn all over my room, so I had a BIG job ahead of me and finally finished packing at 11pm.  I think the packing process is getting easier.  It all seems to have settled down a little and it easier to zip up.  I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing.  Good thing is I am getting better; the bad thing is maybe I have left stuff places so this is why it is easier!  Well besides the jewelry I left in Beijing and my padlocks and keys I left in Mongolia – I haven’t left anything else – well that I know of anyway!!!

Goodnight London – I will be back in 2 weeks, and then in July and then also in November.

THE TUBE, WINDSOR CASTLE, STONEHENGE AND OXFORD

WEATHER:  Tops 20C – Lows 7C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY :  Working out the tube system ( I know it’s not hard but still…)

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Not being able to get my Bernstar jump at Stonehenge ( not from lack of trying)

BUYS OF THE DAY:  Tuna and prawn salad for dinner from Mark and Spence 3.99GBP

According to my tour voucher we were going to be on the go for 10 hours and 40 minutes.  A massive day, we covered a lot of ground but it was a great day.

Not knowing how long it was going to take to get to Victoria Coach Station I headed out an hour before I needed to be there, to make sure I had enough time.  I am on the Bakerloo line, so I needed to change stations along the way to jump onto the District or Circle line to get me where I needed to get to.  My first obstacle was the ticket machine would not accept my 20GBP ( it’s an old one ) so the station guy let me through and said just pay at the other end.  I was just hoping now I would not get spot checked on the train and then get fined as I didn’t have a ticket.  At Embankment station I need to change lines and the confusing thing was knowing if I was heading Eastbound or Westbound, but lucky enough they have maps on the wall, so you can work out which way you are going.  The whole system is pretty well set up and I know it’s easy to navigate the tube, but it does take some getting used to and there is some sense of achievement after navigating the tunnels to finally arrive at your destination.

I got to the tour starting point fine, and I am glad I set out so early as I only had a spare 15 minutes.  Victoria Coach Station is very busy, there are busses pulling in and departing all the time, like a well oiled machine.  We left a little late, but after 1 hour and 30 minutes we arrived into Windsor.  We walked 10 minutes to Windsor Castle, the oldest still inhabited castle in the world.  The Queen still spends week-end here at this residence, so security is quite high, with your bags getting scanned before you get onto the grounds and security in the castle is at a discreet distance.  There are headsets available ( included in your entrance fee) that will explain the castle to you.  They are really worth getting, some people forfeited the headphones that came with them and just listened to the little machine to their ear.  What are they worried about catching from some foam on the headsets?  Whatever.  I have to say the highlight was the Knights room in the State Apartments.  They have a plaque covering the walls and roof of every knight that has been knighted ever.  It is a very impressive hall and is still used for functions today.  It can fit a table that seats 160 people!  After 2 hours here back in the bus to Stonehenge.

Stonehenge was another 1 hour and 30 minutes away.  I have been to Stonehenge before, but it was over 10 years ago, so I thought it would be nice to go back.  No surprise it hasn’t changed any, but we certainly had a better day than when I was last here.  I really wanted to get a Bernstar jump here, but I am sad to say after asking 4 groups of people and 5 people having a go – I was NOT successful in getting the shot.  I don’t know why it is so hard, you just press the button as I have it on burst mode that takes 15 pics with one press.  In their defense if you don’t push it all the way it only takes 5 or 6 shots and not the full 15, missing the jump obviously.  Well it wasn’t from lack of trying and I have a few semi-jumps, so I will just need to pick the best one I have to load in my album.  I did get one from Windsor castle, but that only took the second person to get the right shot!

Another 1 hour and 40 minutes found us in the university city of Oxford.  This place had a great vibe about it.  We got 1.5 hours here, to walk around and have a look.  I think Oxford would definetley be a place I would come back to again to spend some more time here. Very pretty with a lot of café’s and people riding around the city on bicycles and a beautiful pedestrian mall.

It was a busy day, and getting back into London at 6.50pm, a very long day.  I went and got some dinner from Marks and Spencer and then caught the tube home.  I have tomorrow morning free to have a walk around, I am thinking around Picadilly Circus, as my walking tour tomorrow leaves from that area and then this evening I have the London Eye with a glass champagne waiting for me.  MY last day in London tomorrow, as I fly very early on Wednesday morning to Rome.

LONDON TOWN

WEATHER:  Tops 19C – Lows 7C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Getting to sleep in till 9am  

BUMMER OF THE DAY: Not having the confidence to ask some-one to take my Bernstar photo

BUYS OF THE DAY:  William and Kate wedding magnet 1GBP

My first full day in London, and I had no schedule.  The only thing I wanted to do was get some washing done.  After waking up at 9am I decided to go for a walk around the neighborhood and work out where the laundry was and how long it would take me to walk to Westminster Abbey.  Our driver yesterday mentioned that the London Marathon was on today – so I made a mental note that I would probably try and get to see some of the race.  The laundry I sussed out to see what coinage I needed and to make sure it was open on a Sunday and the walk to Westminster took only 10 minutes!  Very close indeed.  They had closed the Westminster Bridge due to the London Marathon, so was pretty cool to see people walking on the road of the bridge, just because I saw it so busy with traffic the day before.

The marathon was awesome.  They have 3 static starts, so there are pretty much runners coming around all the time.  They have four main categories which are the men and women elite and the men and woman wheelchair events.  There is certainly a lot of support along the course and you always knew when some-one was coming as you could hear the noise and the clapping coming up along the road.  There were plenty of places to view the race as well; well it wasn’t super busy on the side of the course I was on.  I stayed around the 25 mile cheer mark for most of the time, and it was just an amazing experience to see these people running and giving it all they have as total strangers cheered them on.  The sun was out and the sky was blue – it was an amazing day to be out and about.

I headed back to the hotel to collect my bags of washing and back to the laundry to get a wash done.  Hand washing gets you through with your smalls and t-shirts, but eventually nothing beats the good old washing machine wash.  The machines were awesome – I could get it all into one load 3.60GBP with 32 minutes to wash.  The dryer was only 1GBP for 12 minutes and I was done!!!  Best damn 4.60GBP ever spent to have some fresh smelling clothes again.

It really was just a chill day for me today.  All very low key.  I want to save some things to do when Chelsey and I come back May, as she will want to see the main sights and I have a BIG day tomorrow on a day tour that will visit Windsor Castle, Stonehenge and Oxford.  I better get out the tube map and check out how I get to Victoria Coach Station in the morning.  I wonder how long it will take to get there?  Better leave an hour earlier to make sure I make it on time.