Come Sail Away. . .: October 2010

Saturday, October 23, 2010

Barcelona pics!

A lion in front of the Columbus statue

Park Guell, Gaudi's park

I always thought that this building looked like a gingerbread house:)

Me with a dragon and some random Asian tourists

You can see the pink house where Gaudi lived for over 20 years

More cool architecture in the park

Segrada Familia, Gaudi's cathedral that as you can see is still under construction

The monastery at Montserrat

Friday, October 22, 2010

Pictures from the sail to Barcelona

This is really late. Sorry.

A view of the ship taken while on the bowspread

Me on the bowspread

Sunset over Spain

A fishing boat as we're entering Barcelona

A crowd of people watching us come in. You can see the ship reflected in the glass and also some kids up on the yards.

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Sorry that this blog is so late. I didn’t have time to post it before I left but at least it was a short sail and I didn’t have you waiting too long.
Barcelona was amazing. We were docked in the main tourist area so tons of people were watching the boat come in. There was so much interest in the ship that the professional crew decided to open the boat up for free tours on Tuesday. In the two hours that I was doing gangway during tour hour’s seven hundred people came on! After my gangway on Tuesday I mostly walked around a lot. I didn’t see too much but that’s fine. I took it easy and did a bit of shopping. Oh I thought that this was kind of cool. We were docked right next to a private yacht called the Pelorus (you can Wikipedia it). It’s owned by a Russian multi-billionaire. There was a forty man army on board and you needed level two security clearance just to get on the boat. It was pretty intense. I think that it’s the sixteenth most expensive yacht in the world, and the owner of it owns the most expensive yacht as well. It was kind of intense and made the Sorlandet look quite old fashioned. We were like the pirate and it was more like the ninja :)
Wednesday was probably the best day of my time in Barcelona. It was a port program to Park Guell but when we got there we were allowed to go off on our own. The park was really cool. It was entirely designed by Gaudi, the famous architect. Everything looked like it was right out of a Dr. Seuss book and the cool thing was that the park was built at the beginning of the 1900s. There were a lot of mosaics on the walls which made some of the buildings look like gingerbread houses. I explored the park for most of the day. In the afternoon we headed back to the ship. A lady from the Canadian consulate came to the boat to speak to us about Canadian-Spanish relations and what her job is like at the Canadian consulate in Barcelona. It was really interesting however we were all really tired so I have to say that it was a little difficult to stay awake. I did manage though. We all had supper with her on the boat. While I’m on the topic of food, our cook, David, was let go. I was really sad. He was really nice and made great food :( He left that morning so making supper was a bit of a challenge. Luckily, our shipboard director’s wife is joining us for the sail to Italy so she was there to help cook. After supper my watch group left on a watch adventure. We’re allowed to leave the ship overnight if we’re with our watchdog so that’s what we did. We checked into a hostel and then went out dancing! I had a great time. We ended up staying out until three in the morning but it was lots of fun.
The next morning we got to sleep in at the hostel which was nice. It was great to be on a bed that wasn’t moving! It really makes a difference. After that my watch went to the Boqueria (a fresh food market) and picked up some food for our potluck brunch. We took the metro to the Segrada Familia, Gaudi’s famous cathedral, and ate brunch in front of it. The Segrada Familia started being built in 1882 and is still under construction today! It isn’t estimated to be finished for another twenty years. So I didn’t even see the finished product but what I did see was incredible. We went back to the boat after this and got shore leave. I went out and did some exploring in the afternoon.
Friday was a shore leave day. We took a tour bus to Montserrat, a mountain about an hour outside of Barcelona. Serrat means serrated and it’s called this because the mountains look serrated. I thought that they looked more like melting sandcastles but you can be the judge :) We hiked in the mountains and also visited a famous monastery that is located in the mountains. The weather was also perfect so I had a really nice day. In the late afternoon I got shore leave so I walked around Barcelona some more and did some grocery shopping for the sail. I went and had paella and tapas for supper!

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Sail (or should I say motor) to Barcelona

We left Porto a day late because there was a storm and it was too rough to leave. However though the winds may have calmed down, the ocean takes a little longer. Everything was smooth as we were leaving harbour. We sat down to eat lunch and the boat was barely rocking however as soon as we leave the harbour and got back out onto the ocean, food, plates and people start flying! The waves weren’t as bad as the North Sea however it was still quite rough with 4m waves. Within minutes of leaving the harbour people were up on deck losing their lunch. I didn’t feel good either and again spent the first day of the sail seasick. Classes were cancelled that afternoon because it was so rough so most people ended up spending the whole first day sleeping. That night we switched night watches. I’m now on the 12:00-2:00 which is so much worse. You’re so tired for the whole shift because you were woken up after only about one and a half hours sleep. We also switched cleaning stations so now I’m cleaning the heads (toilets) :P I’m glad we switch every three weeks because now I only have 2 weeks to go until I’m not on heads anymore.
Sadly we didn’t get to sail much. We motored most of the way because the winds weren’t favourable. On one of the times that we did sail, the winds changed direction and we ended up going backwards for a little while. We sailed on the seventh day however there were some approaching squalls so we had to switch to the motor again. While I’m on the topic of the squalls, they were the reason that we got into Barcelona a day early, even though we left a day late! There were some storms approaching us from behind so we hurried in order to miss them. In doing so we had to go through some other, smaller squalls. This was actually kind of cool. The sky was pitch black and every once in a while the lightning would completely light up the sky. There was a row of people standing on deck with cameras trying to see who could get the most epic lightning pic :)
The first few days of sailing were relatively uneventful. I watched a lot of Disney movies and slept quite a bit trying to get used to my new night watch. I learnt to knit! That was actually quite exciting. I made a headband already. There are a bunch of us in the knitting club, also known as the granny club. It’s a really good way to pass the time.
The fourth day of sailing was probably my favourite day of any sail. It was the first day that was nice and hot out. It was also the day that we went through the Strait of Gibraltar. This was so cool. I was on fire watch for the first shift of day watch so I saw Africa when it first came into sight. As the day went on, Africa came closer and Spain emerged. Around one in the afternoon I went out onto the bow spread, this is the netted area at the very front of the boat. We were right next to Africa, close enough to see details on the coast. We were also really close to Spain. While on the bow spread, a pod of dolphins came up and rode the bow so they were right underneath us! There were also sunfish and whales! The sunfish were really neat; they looked almost like turtles at first because they’re really round. The whales were pilot whales. At one point when I was on the bow spread, a tourist whale watching boat from Morocco came up really close so that the people on it could take pictures of our ship. So I guess since I was on the bow spread I’m going to be a random in quite of few Moroccan vacation photos.
On the fifth day of sailing we got a swim call! They stopped the boat and called every on deck for a man overboard drill and when we were done they told us that we could go swimming! It was the best surprise. It was a really hot day and the Mediterranean was nice and cool. I think that it made everyone’s day. It also helped that we got to miss a class in the process.
The eighth day was Thanksgiving! I was on galley so I had to help make the turkey and serve it however being on galley lets you eat as much as you want so you probably guessed that I ate quite a bit of turkey :) We also got into Barcelona that day so I got shore leave that night. We’re docked right in the main touristy area so we are in a perfect spot. When we came in there were tons of people watching us and taking photos. Today I just explored because it was a full day shore leave. Again I’m in a McDonalds for WiFi. I’ve gone there more in two weeks than in the last decade :P

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Porto

I’m leaving Porto tomorrow. We had to leave a day late again because the water was too rough. I’ve had a great time in Portugal. The people here are really friendly and eager to help tourists, even if they don’t speak English. The language barrier has been a bit tough, especially when ordering at restaurants. They’d give you an English menu but they don’t understand what the English translation of the food is! It takes a long time but it’s kind of funny and it’s a really good experience.
We got into Porto on Wednesday and we had a nice afternoon exploring. We took a half hour metro ride into old Porto. When I was leaving an internet cafe in old Porto, I decided to ask a man that was there where he would recommend for a good supper in the area. He was extremely helpful and told us to go to Le Chien Qui Fume (in English it’s The Smoking Dog). We got directions and managed to find it. It was in a back alley and it was kind of a hole in the wall. But it was really nice inside. There were Portuguese tiles covering the walls. The food was traditional and amazing! It was also really cheap. The restaurant was extremely popular with the locals and most of the few tables were reserved however the Portuguese don’t eat till around 8-9 o’clock so they snuck us in. The supper was a great experience and definitely a highlight of my time in Porto.
On Thursday we had a port program. We took a bus into Guimaraes, a medieval town. There’s a castle with dungeons and a really beautiful church. The dungeons were closed though:P I was a bit disappointed. At lunch when we were eating lunch in a cafe, we heard a group of people chanting really loud. Then a group of people, some dressed in suits and black robes and others in white jumpsuits, emerged. There had to have been over a hundred of them. They sang some songs and did some other crazy things, and then they sat down for lunch. We decided to ask what was going on. They told us that everyone in the robes was the third year university students and the ones in the jail suits were the first years. The first years had to do everything that the third years told them to do. It was pretty funny :)
Friday was another port program. We took a two hour bus ride to the only national park in Portugal. We then went on some hikes. The first one took us to a medieval village that had been washed away when the hydro dam was built. We walked through the foundations and the walls that remained. It was quite cool actually. We then hiked into a lake and went swimming! That was probably one of my favourite days. It was so nice to get some exercise and spend time in nature.
Yesterday, we had a full day of shore leave and the teachers let us sleep in as late as we wanted! I got an early start though because I wanted a full day in Porto and I had to be back for six for galley. I had the best day ever! We walked A TON and explored. We climbed the Torre dos Clerigos, the tallest tower in Portugal. From the top you could see the entire city. We saw some amazing churches and went to a farmers market to buy fruit. I also ate a lot of pastries. They’re so good and so cheap here! We walked along the river. It’s absolutely beautiful there. It helped that that it was a perfect, sunny day. While we were out, we walked past the university. When we were passing it we noticed that there was a group of guys with guitars, mandolins, drums and a ukulele. They asked if they could perform for us! It was great:) One of them danced with this girl Bryn who I was with. It made my day.
Right now I’m sitting in McDonalds. I know, I’m disappointed in myself too. It is however the best and closest WiFi. We had classes this morning but shore leave in the afternoon so I’m happy to be out. I hope that we can leave tomorrow but the storm is so bad and the wind would be completely against us that I’m not sure if we’ll be able to leave. I hope so. I’ve had fun in Portugal but I can’t wait to be sailing again. Guess I’m really turning into a sailor!