 |
| Me at the helm |
So I had troubles uploading and only loaded one picture so that will have to do for now. I guess pictures from the sail turned into picture from the sail.
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Sail to Porto!
It’s amazing how fast 60 people can run upstairs when someone yells out, “dolphins!” We got on deck way faster than during the fire drill or when “idle hands” is called. (Idle hands means that everyone not in class is supposed to get on deck to help with a sail manoeuvre) It was the second day of sailing and there was a pod of dolphins up by the bow and they swan with the ship for the whole afternoon. It was incredible! At one point there were at least twenty of them! Sometimes they spun and jumped, almost as if they were showing off for us. Only in Class Afloat does the whole class, teachers and all, drop everything they’re doing fire drill style to book it on deck to see dolphins. I don’t think that anyone was expecting to see them this early into the trip. It was a real treat and I think that it made everyone’s sail. The next day, someone called out’ “whales!” and the same thing happened. This wasn’t as impressive however because many people couldn’t see them cause they were far away. I only say the spray from the blow hole but this was still amazing. I did however see a whale a little closer up and this was magical! First I have to paint the setting for you all. I was helming with this girl Morgan and we had the 7:00 – 8:00 pm shift so the sun was setting. It was an epic sunset because there were no clouds as it had been a hot and beautiful day. It was by far the most impressive sunset yet so many people were hanging out on deck to watch it set. We were talking about how content we were and decided that the only thing that could possibly make the whole situation better would be if a dolphin jumped and we ate some chocolate. Well shortly after that a whale came quite close to the boat and waved at us with its fin and a girl brought us each a piece of chocolate mousse cake! So that was definitely the best helming experience I ever had and ever will have I think. It’s hard to beat whales, sunsets and chocolate!
As for the first day of sailing, I was sick again. It was strange because some people that were really sick the first sail were fine but others who were completely healthy got sick. I was unlucky and was sick both times but I got better after the first day so it’s all good. It also got really calm after the first day and the ocean was like glass. You could see forever, it was like a blue Saskatchewan! The only problem was that there wasn’t that much wind so we had to turn the motor on in order to get to port on schedule. Surprisingly, even after leaving port a day late, we made it to Portugal on time and had to slow down a bit so that we didn’t get there at 2 in the morning!
Monday was my watchdog (teacher in charge of my watch)’s birthday. Ms. Williams is super enthusiastic and is the best watchdog ever so our watch decided to do something special. It was also the same night that we switched time zones. The time zone switch always takes place at midnight and at midnight you either go back to 11:00 pm and do that hour all over or you skip to 1:00 am. For us we had to go back an hour so my night watch and the following night watch each split the hour and did an extra half hour of work. It wasn’t too bad though. I was on the helm (steering) for the first hour and then I rotated to standby on helm which basically does the exact same thing as helm so for two and a half hours I did the exact same thing. It got boring but at least there was always someone to talk to and the night was clear so there were a ton of stars. Anyways, back to Ms. Williams’ birthday. She decided it would be fun to do night watch with us so that she could stay up till midnight, and then the second midnight because that way she could have her birthday twice. So she helped us out and afterwards we took her downstairs because we had planned a small party in the pantry for her. There was tea, cookies, music and birthday cards. She was so excited and happy. There was also some birthday stuff planned by everyone, not just our watch. I helped to make a birthday cake and there was a special dinner. It was a lot of fun. The birthday tradition on the boat is at morning colours (when we all assemble on the boat deck to hoist the ‘colours’ or flags of the boat) we dump buckets of water on the lucky birthday person. So she also got really wet :)
There was a meeting for the scuba diving club and we’re trying to plan our first dive for Spain! I can’t wait to make use of my certification. There are however a ton of regulations for insurance reasons, such as we can’t dive beyond 30 feet! That’s really shallow so a bunch of us were disappointed but it will still be nice to dive anyways. I also started up the environmental club with help from Ms. Williams (she’s a bit of a tree hugger) and Morgan the whale/sunset/chocolate girl. So the clubs are all in full swing!
I got to spend quite a bit of time aloft during my watches. I helped set sails and attach a sail that had been repaired. I also climbed all the way to the royal! That’s the highest yard. I went at night too so it was extra intimidating. There was a bunch of us during night watch that just wanted to climb up for kicks so we did. The pro crew is surprisingly chill about letting us go aloft. As long as they know that we’re up there, they’re cool with us climbing. It was amazing once I finally got to the top. It’s probably a completely different experience in the day time however it was pretty great at night. It was the clearest night so there were tons of stars and the moon was also almost full so it wasn’t even that dark. It was also quite warm because it had been sunny all day so I stayed up there for awhile.
We got to Porto this morning so right now I’m in an internet cafe. It’s a really beautiful city however the boat is docked in the industrial area so that’s not too nice. I’ll try to write more about Porto soon!
As for the first day of sailing, I was sick again. It was strange because some people that were really sick the first sail were fine but others who were completely healthy got sick. I was unlucky and was sick both times but I got better after the first day so it’s all good. It also got really calm after the first day and the ocean was like glass. You could see forever, it was like a blue Saskatchewan! The only problem was that there wasn’t that much wind so we had to turn the motor on in order to get to port on schedule. Surprisingly, even after leaving port a day late, we made it to Portugal on time and had to slow down a bit so that we didn’t get there at 2 in the morning!
Monday was my watchdog (teacher in charge of my watch)’s birthday. Ms. Williams is super enthusiastic and is the best watchdog ever so our watch decided to do something special. It was also the same night that we switched time zones. The time zone switch always takes place at midnight and at midnight you either go back to 11:00 pm and do that hour all over or you skip to 1:00 am. For us we had to go back an hour so my night watch and the following night watch each split the hour and did an extra half hour of work. It wasn’t too bad though. I was on the helm (steering) for the first hour and then I rotated to standby on helm which basically does the exact same thing as helm so for two and a half hours I did the exact same thing. It got boring but at least there was always someone to talk to and the night was clear so there were a ton of stars. Anyways, back to Ms. Williams’ birthday. She decided it would be fun to do night watch with us so that she could stay up till midnight, and then the second midnight because that way she could have her birthday twice. So she helped us out and afterwards we took her downstairs because we had planned a small party in the pantry for her. There was tea, cookies, music and birthday cards. She was so excited and happy. There was also some birthday stuff planned by everyone, not just our watch. I helped to make a birthday cake and there was a special dinner. It was a lot of fun. The birthday tradition on the boat is at morning colours (when we all assemble on the boat deck to hoist the ‘colours’ or flags of the boat) we dump buckets of water on the lucky birthday person. So she also got really wet :)
There was a meeting for the scuba diving club and we’re trying to plan our first dive for Spain! I can’t wait to make use of my certification. There are however a ton of regulations for insurance reasons, such as we can’t dive beyond 30 feet! That’s really shallow so a bunch of us were disappointed but it will still be nice to dive anyways. I also started up the environmental club with help from Ms. Williams (she’s a bit of a tree hugger) and Morgan the whale/sunset/chocolate girl. So the clubs are all in full swing!
I got to spend quite a bit of time aloft during my watches. I helped set sails and attach a sail that had been repaired. I also climbed all the way to the royal! That’s the highest yard. I went at night too so it was extra intimidating. There was a bunch of us during night watch that just wanted to climb up for kicks so we did. The pro crew is surprisingly chill about letting us go aloft. As long as they know that we’re up there, they’re cool with us climbing. It was amazing once I finally got to the top. It’s probably a completely different experience in the day time however it was pretty great at night. It was the clearest night so there were tons of stars and the moon was also almost full so it wasn’t even that dark. It was also quite warm because it had been sunny all day so I stayed up there for awhile.
We got to Porto this morning so right now I’m in an internet cafe. It’s a really beautiful city however the boat is docked in the industrial area so that’s not too nice. I’ll try to write more about Porto soon!
Thursday, September 23, 2010
St. Malo
I’m almost done my time in St. Malo, my first port. It’s a really beautiful city. There’s a huge wall around the old town which is right next to the port so I spent my first day of shore leave exploring the old town. I did some shopping and walked along the wall. I also ate a ton of crepes! I got an amazing view of the beach here from the top of the wall.
On Tuesday we went on a port program, which is an organised tour that everyone has to go on. First we got on a double decker tour bus which in itself was pretty great. We took the bus to Juno Beach. It was kinda funny that that was the place that they chose to take us seeing that I was there a month earlier but whatever. We also visited the Beny-sur-mer Canadian war cemetery, which I was also at a month earlier. It was still really nice to visit them again so I still enjoyed the port program. We ate lunch in Arromanches and then got on the bus again to drive to Mont Saint Michelle. This was awesome! I was absolutely amazed by it when we were driving up. It’s a city and an abbey that’s built on this huge hill. We climbed to the top and it was hard work! It didn’t help that it was, for once, really hot out. But it was well worth it. We got some breathtaking views from up top and we got a tour of the abbey. Part of it looked like it was taken straight out of a Harry Potter scene! It was so cool. Inside the abbey there’s a wall that all the pilgrims went to. It was supposed to be good luck. So we all got to touch the good luck wall that people were touching a thousand years ago.
It turns out that we have to stay in St. Malo an extra day because there’s a national strike. So the dock workers aren’t working which kind of sucks because that might cut down our time in Portugal. But that's fine. I leave tomorrow morning at 8. Today we didn't do too much because we were getting ready to leave. I went for a run along the ramparts and walked to the supermarket to stock up on junk. After we had a smorgasbord (I loved that I got to use that word) of all the french junk food that we bought. I was going to post some pics of St. Malo but it took an hour to load the previous 4 pictures because of the bad connection so I will try next port. Bye and see you all in 6 day!
On Tuesday we went on a port program, which is an organised tour that everyone has to go on. First we got on a double decker tour bus which in itself was pretty great. We took the bus to Juno Beach. It was kinda funny that that was the place that they chose to take us seeing that I was there a month earlier but whatever. We also visited the Beny-sur-mer Canadian war cemetery, which I was also at a month earlier. It was still really nice to visit them again so I still enjoyed the port program. We ate lunch in Arromanches and then got on the bus again to drive to Mont Saint Michelle. This was awesome! I was absolutely amazed by it when we were driving up. It’s a city and an abbey that’s built on this huge hill. We climbed to the top and it was hard work! It didn’t help that it was, for once, really hot out. But it was well worth it. We got some breathtaking views from up top and we got a tour of the abbey. Part of it looked like it was taken straight out of a Harry Potter scene! It was so cool. Inside the abbey there’s a wall that all the pilgrims went to. It was supposed to be good luck. So we all got to touch the good luck wall that people were touching a thousand years ago.
It turns out that we have to stay in St. Malo an extra day because there’s a national strike. So the dock workers aren’t working which kind of sucks because that might cut down our time in Portugal. But that's fine. I leave tomorrow morning at 8. Today we didn't do too much because we were getting ready to leave. I went for a run along the ramparts and walked to the supermarket to stock up on junk. After we had a smorgasbord (I loved that I got to use that word) of all the french junk food that we bought. I was going to post some pics of St. Malo but it took an hour to load the previous 4 pictures because of the bad connection so I will try next port. Bye and see you all in 6 day!
Pictures
So finally here are some pics from my sail to France. There aren't many cause I was sick.
 |
| View of the fjords as we leave Norway |
 |
| Me and Joey on the yard of the lower top sail |
 |
| Coming into St. Malo |
 |
| My home docked in St. Malo |
Monday, September 20, 2010
Seasick!
I was sick for the first four days of the sail. It was horrible! I became quite intimate with the puke funnel, these big funnel things at the back of the boat for seasickness. I wasn’t the only one that was sick though and I wasn’t the worst but I was completely incapacitated and slept a ton. About three quarters of the people on the boat (teachers included) were feeling nauseous. It took three days for me to feel good enough to sit up, eat a bit and shower. I definitely had enough shower pushes saved up by then! I probably wouldn’t have been so sick had we not hit a storm, what the North Sea is famous for. The swells were so huge and the wind was so strong that we weren’t allowed on deck and during watch we had to always be clipped into ropes that were strung around for safety. Down below on the worst day was so bad that all classes were cancelled because it was almost impossible to walk around. The boat was at times tilted 45 degrees! It actually became really funny watching people trying to move. Some slid on their butts and others just stumbled around. Even our super grippy sailing shoes weren’t grippy enough because the ship would be at such a slant. You would be sitting on a bench and suddenly the boat would tip a lot and someone that was standing in another room would come sliding into yours! Everyone’s covered in bruises from sliding into walls! There were also a few injuries from people falling down stairs when the stairs tilted or sliding into tables and banging their heads. We’ve got one kid with a concussion. So that’s not too cool but everyone’s doing a lot better now so that’s good. You also make a lot of new friends by sliding into people. While I’m on the topic of sliding, showers were an adventure! The floors were so slippery and everyone falls a lot. While trying to put pants on I slid all the way from one side of the shower room to the other. So most people put off cleaning themselves and as a result the boat is getting a bit greasy :P
The last three days had much better weather. The storm ended, the rain stopped and the swells died. As a result we could sail much faster. We went from covering 40 nautical miles every 24 hours and travelling at a speed of 1.6 knots to covering 220 nautical miles and travelling at a speed of 8-9 knots. Everyone was so happy because not only could we walk around again without falling but we would get into St. Malo on schedule, maybe even early. Our slow speed would have got us in about five days late! So the mood on the ship dramatically improved.
We had a meeting on Thursday night about the clubs that we wanted to have on the boat. There are so many fun ones I have no idea what I want to do! Some examples are the stargazing/philosophy club, the glee club, the sampling local cuisine club, the baking club, the birthday/holiday/special events club, the water sports club, the scuba/snorkel club, the fitness club, the music appreciation club, the dance club, the knitting club, the movie club, fishing club, hippy sports club (hacky sack and ultimate Frisbee) and even more! We already don’t have too much free time with all our watches and classes and homework so I’m not too sure how many clubs I’ll be able to fit in!
Friday night we decided it would be fun to project a movie for everyone to watch. The night before me and this girl had been watching the Lion King and it soon became so popular that we had this big crowd trying to watch on the one laptop. So you can guess what movie we watched on Friday night! If I ever doubted how great the people on the boat were, it’s all gone now that I know that everyone’s a Disney lover!
On Saturday we sailed through the English Channel and woke of to the sun rising over the white cliffs of Dover. That was amazing.
We finally got into St. Malo yesterday! It’s a really nice city. It was amazing sailing in and watching the land grow and seeing specks turn into sailboats. As we approached St. Malo I was standing way up in the riggings, on the tgallant (second yard from the top) folding up a sail. It was a great view and a beautiful sunny day so I was in an ideal position. Tonight I got to eat good food! It was great. I went out for crepes which was an amazing change compared to boat food.
I apologize for the lack of pictures. I wasn’t really feeling up to photography most of the time. I'll try and steal some from people to put up later.
The last three days had much better weather. The storm ended, the rain stopped and the swells died. As a result we could sail much faster. We went from covering 40 nautical miles every 24 hours and travelling at a speed of 1.6 knots to covering 220 nautical miles and travelling at a speed of 8-9 knots. Everyone was so happy because not only could we walk around again without falling but we would get into St. Malo on schedule, maybe even early. Our slow speed would have got us in about five days late! So the mood on the ship dramatically improved.
We had a meeting on Thursday night about the clubs that we wanted to have on the boat. There are so many fun ones I have no idea what I want to do! Some examples are the stargazing/philosophy club, the glee club, the sampling local cuisine club, the baking club, the birthday/holiday/special events club, the water sports club, the scuba/snorkel club, the fitness club, the music appreciation club, the dance club, the knitting club, the movie club, fishing club, hippy sports club (hacky sack and ultimate Frisbee) and even more! We already don’t have too much free time with all our watches and classes and homework so I’m not too sure how many clubs I’ll be able to fit in!
Friday night we decided it would be fun to project a movie for everyone to watch. The night before me and this girl had been watching the Lion King and it soon became so popular that we had this big crowd trying to watch on the one laptop. So you can guess what movie we watched on Friday night! If I ever doubted how great the people on the boat were, it’s all gone now that I know that everyone’s a Disney lover!
On Saturday we sailed through the English Channel and woke of to the sun rising over the white cliffs of Dover. That was amazing.
We finally got into St. Malo yesterday! It’s a really nice city. It was amazing sailing in and watching the land grow and seeing specks turn into sailboats. As we approached St. Malo I was standing way up in the riggings, on the tgallant (second yard from the top) folding up a sail. It was a great view and a beautiful sunny day so I was in an ideal position. Tonight I got to eat good food! It was great. I went out for crepes which was an amazing change compared to boat food.
I apologize for the lack of pictures. I wasn’t really feeling up to photography most of the time. I'll try and steal some from people to put up later.
Saturday, September 11, 2010
Sorlandet
Just for all of you that are concerned with the boat sinking, it will not! The Sorlandet is built like a tank and is the oldest fully-rigged ship in the world (it was built in 1927) so I think that it can handle me! I've been having a great time so far. Everyone on board is really friendly and nice. It's been really busy though! It will take a bit of getting used too.
On Wednesday we did a ton of icebreaker activities. It was really fun and a great way to get to know everyone. On Thursday and Friday we did our sail training. That was exciting! I got to climb aloft! It was a little scary at first because you're only clipped in when you're actually standing on the yards to unfurl sails, the rest of the time you're really high up with nothing to hold you in place. When I finally relaxed though it was great! You get amazing views from so high up. We also did a scavenger hunt in our watch groups all around town last night which was great. There's as boy who started the 100 push up club. Obviously I joined. Every night anyone who wants to meets on deck and together we do 100 push ups. They're not in a row though. You do 1, then 2, then 3 etc until you got to 10, then go back down. I'm quite sore today :) There's going to be other clubs starting up too. I've been talking with a girl from New Zealand and we want to start a baking club/birthday cake club. Someone else is going to do a knitting club. And we celebrate Halloween, Christmas and really any other holiday and sometimes make up our own events just for fun! I talked with a girl from Amsterdam and we're going to get people to celebrate St. Nicolas day (Dutch Christmas).
I should probably talk a bit about how everything works. We're divided into 6 watch groups. I'm in watch group 2. You do a lot of activities with your watch group. It's also the people that you're awake with in the middle of the night for night watch. We start night watch tomorrow. Each shift is 2 hours long. My group has the 10:00 - 12:00 watch which is lucky, it's one of the better ones. Sure beats the 2:00 - 4:00 watch! Night watch starts at 8:00pm and goes till 8:00am. We have night watch everyday unless we're on galley watch that day. Galley watch is when we help out in the kitchen. We also have to put in 2 hours of day watch (unless you're on galleys). That fits in somewhere in your class schedule. We have 3 hours of class a day. We also have PE every other day at 7:00 in the morning. We then have a cleaning duty from 8:00-9:00. So there's a lot of work that needs to get done on a ship this big! It's not too hard though and there's still quite a bit of free time.
The boat has 3 showers and 3 toilets for 38 girls! It's crazy! We're also only aloud to push the button for water in the showers 3 times everyday (or 6 times every 2 days) because of limited storage space. But because of the free time people end up taking showers whenever there's a break so it's worked out so far. We also are going to have to remove bedding and take down our bunks everyday because the bunks become benches and all the bunk areas will be class rooms and common space. It's a bit of a pain.
That's enough complaining though! The boat is beautiful and Norway is amazing, though a bit cold. I'm having so much fun and have already gotten to know tons of people. I can tell that I have a great year ahead. I leave for France tomorrow and the sail is about 6 days. So I won't have internet for about a week. So until then bye! And hope that I don't get too sea sick!
On Wednesday we did a ton of icebreaker activities. It was really fun and a great way to get to know everyone. On Thursday and Friday we did our sail training. That was exciting! I got to climb aloft! It was a little scary at first because you're only clipped in when you're actually standing on the yards to unfurl sails, the rest of the time you're really high up with nothing to hold you in place. When I finally relaxed though it was great! You get amazing views from so high up. We also did a scavenger hunt in our watch groups all around town last night which was great. There's as boy who started the 100 push up club. Obviously I joined. Every night anyone who wants to meets on deck and together we do 100 push ups. They're not in a row though. You do 1, then 2, then 3 etc until you got to 10, then go back down. I'm quite sore today :) There's going to be other clubs starting up too. I've been talking with a girl from New Zealand and we want to start a baking club/birthday cake club. Someone else is going to do a knitting club. And we celebrate Halloween, Christmas and really any other holiday and sometimes make up our own events just for fun! I talked with a girl from Amsterdam and we're going to get people to celebrate St. Nicolas day (Dutch Christmas).
I should probably talk a bit about how everything works. We're divided into 6 watch groups. I'm in watch group 2. You do a lot of activities with your watch group. It's also the people that you're awake with in the middle of the night for night watch. We start night watch tomorrow. Each shift is 2 hours long. My group has the 10:00 - 12:00 watch which is lucky, it's one of the better ones. Sure beats the 2:00 - 4:00 watch! Night watch starts at 8:00pm and goes till 8:00am. We have night watch everyday unless we're on galley watch that day. Galley watch is when we help out in the kitchen. We also have to put in 2 hours of day watch (unless you're on galleys). That fits in somewhere in your class schedule. We have 3 hours of class a day. We also have PE every other day at 7:00 in the morning. We then have a cleaning duty from 8:00-9:00. So there's a lot of work that needs to get done on a ship this big! It's not too hard though and there's still quite a bit of free time.
The boat has 3 showers and 3 toilets for 38 girls! It's crazy! We're also only aloud to push the button for water in the showers 3 times everyday (or 6 times every 2 days) because of limited storage space. But because of the free time people end up taking showers whenever there's a break so it's worked out so far. We also are going to have to remove bedding and take down our bunks everyday because the bunks become benches and all the bunk areas will be class rooms and common space. It's a bit of a pain.
That's enough complaining though! The boat is beautiful and Norway is amazing, though a bit cold. I'm having so much fun and have already gotten to know tons of people. I can tell that I have a great year ahead. I leave for France tomorrow and the sail is about 6 days. So I won't have internet for about a week. So until then bye! And hope that I don't get too sea sick!
 |
| Packing the Class Afloat sausage |
 |
| The Sorlandet! |
 |
| Me and dad and my pirate ship (and if you notice the yards or big stick things coming off the mast, I climbed out onto the lowest one) |
 |
| Finally unpacking the battering ram! |
 |
| My bunk! (with tie dyed sheets) |
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
The boat!
So guess where I am right now.... no you're wrong I'm not on the boat. But I am sitting in an internet cafe right across from the boat and I can see the Sorlandet right now! it 's a beautiful boat and it looks just like a pirate ship. I already set up all my stuff. I've got a top bunk which I was kinda disappointed with at first until I found out that all our stuff is stored in compartments right underneath the mattress of the bottom bunk. So I'm definitely happy now with my top bunk! We also have a locker to store stuff in. There isn't a lot of space though. There are two sections of bunks, and my section is more squished and not in the main area but that's good. The bunks in the main area also become some of our classrooms so the people there have to fold up all their stuff every morning for our class. I've met a lot of people already and they all seem quite nice. There are quite a few who are returning for a second year and that were on the boat when it sunk! I found out that I'm in watch group 2. I have no idea how watch works but from what I gathered we're in a watch group with the people who sleep around us and we have to get up, sometimes in the middle of the night, for a 2 hour watch. Fun! (and that was meant to be sarcastic in case you didn't figure it out on your own)
The next three days are going to be really busy. We're doing a TON of icebreaker activities and then we start sail training. We're also doing a lot of safety training in case the boat sinks again. Wednesday-Friday is completely full with such activities but on Saturday we get the whole afternoon/evening off to see family. We have a short reception on Sunday afternoon and set sail that night! I've never been sea sick in the past but on the boat when I was setting up I felt kinda weird so I hope that I don't get too sick. That wouldn't be fun. I'll try and get a few pictures of the boat up soon. I don't have to be back on the boat until 6 tonight so me and my dad are probably just going to wander around Kristiansand for a little bit and then it's onto the boat!
The next three days are going to be really busy. We're doing a TON of icebreaker activities and then we start sail training. We're also doing a lot of safety training in case the boat sinks again. Wednesday-Friday is completely full with such activities but on Saturday we get the whole afternoon/evening off to see family. We have a short reception on Sunday afternoon and set sail that night! I've never been sea sick in the past but on the boat when I was setting up I felt kinda weird so I hope that I don't get too sick. That wouldn't be fun. I'll try and get a few pictures of the boat up soon. I don't have to be back on the boat until 6 tonight so me and my dad are probably just going to wander around Kristiansand for a little bit and then it's onto the boat!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
Copenhagen
Copenhagen's a really beautiful city. It's right by the ocean and it feels a lot like Canada. It's really friendly and safe. It's also quite cold! i was wearing a jacket all day yesterday and part of today. Everyone speaks English so that makes it easy. Today was my second day in Copenhagen but I definitely couldn't bring myself to write anything yesterday. I have never been so tired in my life! The flight got into Copenhagen at 7:30 in the morning which is 11:30pm in Saskatoon so that meant that sleep on the plane was impossible. The flight was really good though. Since I was flying with my dad who travels tons I got to go business class which was probably one of the coolest things of my life! For all of you who have traveled overseas, you'll know what I mean when I say that I got a pod! I was probably too excited by the fact that I was business class and in a pod to sleep :) When we got into Copenhagen we took a boat tour of the city that went out into the ocean and through the canals. After that we zombied around for awhile until our room at the hotel was ready for us to crash. Today I slept really late so we didn't get going till around lunch but we managed to fit a lot in. We visited a museum, climbed up the Rundetarn (round tower) to get an amazing view of the city and visited the crown jewels at the Rosenborg Castle. We also did a ton of walking along the ocean and in Kastellet, a fortress that you can walk around. Sadly, I didn't get to see the Little Mermaid. She's in Shanghai right now at the world expo. Too bad.
Kinda weird story. So we saw a lot buskers such as the violinists playing Celine Dion's My Heart Will Go On. But by far the weirdest was the trio of guys playing South American pan flute and rain sticks dressed in full North American First Nations' clothes, feather head dresses and all! We saw that confused group again today however one of them had put on Mexican clothes, including a sombrero and another was wearing leather, beaded pants and moccasins with a South American shirt. The last one was still decked out in pow wow gear. I bet they're not even South American or First Nations at all but Asian! Nobody would know the difference! The thing is me and my dad were the only ones that did a double take when we saw them, everyone else was buying it. It was actually pretty funny. Danish possible Asians dressed as North American First Nations/Mexicans playing South American music. If that was only two days of my trip who knows what crazy things I'll see in the next 8 months!
 |
| Taken during the boat tour |
 |
| Nyhavn Canal |
 |
| Also Nyhavn Canal |
 |
| Rundetarn |
 |
| Rosenborg Castle |
 |
| Kastellet |
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
First Post!
Hi Everyone! A lot of people told me that I should start a travel blog for when I'm away at Class Afloat so here it is! I'll try to update it as much as possible but don't get to mad if I go for awhile without posting anything. I only have internet access in port. I catch my plane on Friday so bye to everyone that I don't get a chance to talk to before I leave. I'll miss you all! This is the link for Class Afloat if you were interested in checking out my itinerary: http://www.classafloat.com.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)