Day 23: Ephesus, Turkey

Posted on 24 May 2012 in Transatlantic Cruise and Europe • 1656 words • 8 minute read

Sumner

Today’s port of call was kusadasi (koo suh dah see), which is the port where cruise ships dock to get to Ephesus, Turkey (ehf-uh-sis need I tell you how to pronounce the second word?) Anyway we had to get up early to go off the ship, six o’clock or so. When we had eaten some breakfast we proceeded down to the pier and met our guide. We walked through this little “village” that was covered. It was more of a tourist trap than anything else. It was made to have a village type feeling but it was all tourist shops. Our guide said that the shops there were only opened for the high tourist season and then in the winter the were closed, during those times it is like a ghost town. After walking through there we went on to the car and made our way to Ephesus. We decided to try our best to avoid the crowds by going to a temple turned into church. It was originally a temple to the gods and then it was taken over by the Christians and turned into a church. It was so cool to see. In places they had recycled the stone. One such place was in a wall where they had taken a broken capital from a pilar and inserted it into the new wall. The area of this temple is a big religious are because from one point you can see a pagan temple, a church, a mosque, and if you go over a hill there is a synagogue. They haven’t found the synagogue but it is written about in the Bible. The nice thing about this temple was that we didn’t have to deal with anyone else in the ruins because all of the tour busses were elsewhere. After walking around the ruins for a little while we went to a mosque and looked around. And then we got back into the car and went to the main ruins of Ephesus. It was really crowded but it was really cool to see the very places where Paul the Apostle went and preached. We saw two theaters, a library, toilets as well as many other ruins. There I will only tell you about the theaters, the library and, the toilets. Both of the theaters were built into the side of a hill and were pretty big. One was only for plays and the other was mainly for gladiatorial fights. The bigger one was the one in which they had the fights and the smaller was for plays. Both had the half circle shape. We also saw the facade of the library. It has had to be restored but it still looks really grand. We got some pictures by it but unfortunately I think we got more of a picture of the other tourists than the building it was just so crowded :). We also watched some sort of a gladiatorial reenactment on the road that leaded to the sea from the theater. The ancient Ephesus that we were able to see used to be the port, but he river silted up so much that it is now six miles from the sea. It was actually not he first port of Ephesus because it used to be even further inland until they moved it to the place that we went to. After seeing the ruined city we went up a hill to a place where the Catholics believe the Virgin Mary lived for the last years of her life. It was more like a shrine to Mary than anything. We were respectful as we walked through but it really didn’t have any significance to us. There was also this water that was declared holy or something by some pope sometime. We had some and it was supposed to have healing properties. It didn’t do anything but quench my thirst. Then we went to a pottery selling place. They showed us the process that they use to make the pottery and then the guy who showed us opened a door to show us some of their works (aka buy some of these things). We bought some small things and then went back to the van. We also went to this carpet weaving place and were shown how the Turkish carpets are made. He showed us the cocoons and how they were woven into stings. He also showed us some of the weaving techniques that they use to weave the cloth. He then said, after explaining the whole process that he would show us some of the carpets that they make but mom politely said that we just came to see how it was made and not to buy carpets. Now we were expecting it to be any uphill battle to get him to leave us alone but we were pleasantly surprised that he kindly said thank you for coming and let us leave. That was really nice for mom. Anyway we made it back to the boat and I tried to catch up on my blog. I’ve had a lot more time to blog because I don’t have anyone to hand out with at night so that is I guess good considering we have so many sea days.

Day 24: Santorini, Greece

Posted on 23 May 2012 in Transatlantic Cruise and Europe • 2187 words • 11 minute read

Sumner

Today started out pretty early because we sailed into the caldera of the Santorini volcano this morning. We were allowed on the bow to see the arrival into the area. Because Santorini doesn’t have any port remotely big enough to take a cruise ship we had to anchor out in the middle of the caldera (cah-ul-dare-uh) and ride the tenders into the port. Mom didn’t like the ride in the tender but it wasn’t too long. We met our guide right as we got off the tender and went together to the cable car. It is much like the ski gondolas a home, just not so sophisticated. It was six of them grouped closely together on either end (top or bottom) one goes on the right side and the other on the left and they alternate places. If that confused you that’s ok because I’ve confused myself trying to describe it for you. Anyway once at the top we walked maybe fifty metres or so, if that and then waited as our guide went for her car. We went first to the village where all of the pictures of Santorini are taken. This village is very pretty and has the best views of anywhere on the island. All of the roofs are blue and the rest all of the buildings are white. These homes used to be the homes of the poor while the rich lived on the top of the hill. They are now the most expensive hotels on Santorini. The reason that these homes started out as homes for the poor is because they were caves to begin with and then expanded out on the side of the cliff. It was so serene. We walked all the way to the end and then went to small castle that is now a tourist lookout where you could see almost the entire caldera (the fog obscured some of it), the cruise ship, the old port as well as many other things. While you admire the view I will pause a moment to tell you some about the history and shape of Santorini. A long time ago, as in like three thousand years, Santorini was a large circular volcanic island. Then it blew up so that it went from being a large mountain to three islands in a few seconds. It blew volcanic material up something like twenty six kilometers or something (16 miles). Regardless it was in the twenties of kilometers which is really high. Santorini is the biggest of the islands and is shaped like the letter C. There is another island in between the ends of the c and one in the center that has come up recently… Only in the last thousand years or so. This middle island is the new vent for the volcanic activity. Kinda like Mt. Saint Hellens has a new small pile of material in the center of the crater Santorini has a new one in he middle of the caldera. Aft driving around seeing all of the other main sites we stopped at a place called Akrotiri (ak-row-tear-ee). Akrotiri is considered the best preserved prehistoric city in the world. It dates back to two thousand BC and some parts are believed to be from three thousand BC. That’s four to five thousand years old!!! It was kinda funny because some of the people from our boat, Mrs. Irene and Mr. NAME, and another couple who they had met who were also from Denver (Mrs. Irene and Mr. NAME are from Denver) joined our tour for Akrotiri. Of course they tipped nicely and it wasn’t much trouble for Georgia (that was the name of our guide) so we let them come along. Throughout the whole tour we at times had people try to tag along with us because they wanted to hear what Georgia was saying. It must mean that she is a good guide. The city that was uncovered by the archeologists is pretty large. It was probably about one hundred metres by ninety metres (110 yards by 100yards). And all of it was very well preserved considering that it is at least four thousand years old. The walls were intact and still standing, of course they were not complete but you could tell that they were once walls. There was a sewage system and the homes had running water and toilets. Very advanced for the time. We were able to see tubs as well as pots in which they stored goods. All of which were extremely well preserved surprisingly. I can’t describe everything that we saw but I will tell you that it was very neat to see such well preserved homes from so long ago. The last thing that we did is go to the black sand beach. This beach has black sand made from the volcanic material. It was like nothing that I have ever seen. Even though it wasn’t very hot today, the sand was *very *hot. I can’t imagine what it would be like if it were something like a hundred degrees Fahrenheit (about 37 degrees centigrade). That was about all that we did today but I will tell you about one of the tricks that Jeff, our waiter at dinner gave us. Ok let me back up just a bit and fill you in. We have open seating at dinner, but we like our table a lot and I think that they like us so they let us reserve the table for the whole cruise. Anyway the waiter for the table that we have is Jeff and his assistant is Weda (mom thinks that there is an e at the end instead of an a; I disagree). We have become friends with them and every night Jeff has show us a trick or little puzzle. Today he had a puzzle involving two glasses and a blueberry. One glass was smaller than the other, this one was set upright. The other one was put upside down and the blueberry was put under it inside the cup. Now this wine glass that was upside down was oddly shaped. The opening was smaller than the rest of the glass. The goal of the puzzle was to get the blueberry from under the big glass to the little glass. You could only touch the big glass and it also had to stay upside down. It took me about two seconds to figure it out. All you do is ***** *** ***** ****** *** *** ************ ***** ** **** ** ** ** *** ****** ** *** ***** **** **** ** **** *** ******* ***** *** *** *** ********* ****. I blotted that out so that you can figure it out yourselves if you want. I’ll show you once we get home. That was basically the day so I will leave you to wonder what the answer to the puzzle is.
~Sumner

Day 23: Olympia,Greece

Posted on 22 May 2012 in Transatlantic Cruise and Europe • 1437 words • 7 minute read

Sumner

Today was an early day because we had to get up early because we were to meet in the Vista Lounge at seven fifteen for our shore excursion. This is because we did a shore excursion that the ship offers where we go to Olympia and to a museum. We were on Holland America Line tour six. (as if you really needed to know that) and when we got to the bus we saw one of the leaders for Club HAL, Kate. She was going on the tour also. They have to pay to go but it is greatly discounted. The catch is that you kinda have to help to keep track of everyone in the tour. We had an excellent guide for the tour, her name is Olga. She really knew her stuff and gave a great commentary all of the ride from the port town to Olympia. She had written a book about Olympia and was in the process of getting it published. We were kinda worried because a lot of people had said That Olympia is just a pile of rocks on the ground, it might have been if you didn’t have a guide to take you around and explain what you were seeing but with the guide it was very interesting. He place must have been magnificent in its prime. A true sports complex. We saw a training arena where the athletes were instructed by their coaches. Of course only the foundation and a few columns are left but it was neat to stand on the very spot where athletes were once trained. We then went to a place where the wrestling competition was held. One interesting thing about this building was the flor. It was made of tiles with little channels going longways down the tile in it there was sand which was the indication of how many matches you had lost. He more sand you had on you, the worse you were doing. We then headed on through a hall which had on both sides, columns lining the way. Of course only the ruins of the columns are left but as with all of the buildings of Olympia, they must have been spectacular when they were new. We then passed a memorial that Philip the Great built in the middle of Olympia. When it was built it showed not only political power but also displayed religious power. This is because Olympia was a religious center as well as physical and the Olympics were spiritual as well as physical displays of power. Near this was a fountain this fountain held many different statues that had been removed to a museum for protection. We then went through an arch into the race track. As I was walking through the arch I realized that there is truly not anything new under the sun. It was just like our modern tunnels that the athletes come out of before a game. I am sure that it was much the same then as well. Once out of the archway we were in the running track. There were sixteen or eighteen blocks on the ground probably a yard and a half in width (1.3 or so metres probably). These were the starting blocks for the runners. The way that they made it fair and made sure that no one gets a head start they had a pulley system in which a wooden board was held above the ground so that the runner couldn’t get out. The ropes that held the board were held by someone else behind them and when the signal was given the ropes were dropped and the runners went off. As the boards hit the stone they made a large racket, much like the modern pistol shot. Hannah and I lined up and then had a race, not all of the way but some of the way down the track. I won. We then got back on the bus and went to the museum. We stopped at a shop for a few minutes and had a sandwich and then proceeded to he exhibits of the theater. We went first to a room that had the pre-Olympian artifacts. Statues, clay figures etc. We then kept on going and getting more advanced in time and ended at a place with a large statue of the god Nike. Nike was the god of victory. Here also were two helmets, one of the Persian army and the other of the Greek. This was because in the first Punic war during the Battle of Marathon, The Greeks routed the Persians as they were trying to get organized after they landed. We then went to the second best exhibit; the removed statues from the fountain. I won’t bother describing them all to you because one you’ve looked at them for about ten seconds at the most you are done. More interesting however was the last and best exhibit; the facades from the temple of Zeus, the head of the family of the gods. Before we saw this exhibit we looked at a model of the building that they statue of Zeus was held in. The statue of Zeus must have been almost overwhelming because it looked like if he stood up he would bust the roof. We were able to see the two facades of the building. One side had a battle of men versus centaurs, half man half horse. This was symbolic of the battle between men and barbarians. The centaurs because they were thought to be half beast are represented by the centaurs. The other facade is of the birth of Athena. The myth is that Zeus had a headache and so his son took a two sided axe and opened up his fathers head and out of it came Athena, in full armor and fully grown. She is the god of war, wisdom, and love (I think). After that we went back to the bus. The ride back consisted of black, yes I slept all the way. Tonight was formal night and during dinner Jeff showed us a trick with corks. They are so hard to explain in writing that I won’t even bother, you can ask me when I get home to show them to you.

Day 22: Corfu, Greece

Posted on 21 May 2012 in Transatlantic Cruise and Europe • 1449 words • 7 minute read

Sumner

Today we stopped at a Grecian island called Corfu. It is in the middle of the Aegean sea, as most Greek islands are. The first thing that we did is get off the ship. Profound statement, eh. You know I think that I’ve been around Canadians to much… Anywaay we had to tender from the boat to the dock. I was perfectly fine all the way but mom didn’t fare so well, she was very glad when the ride was over. Anyway we got out and our taxi guide was right there at the dock. His name is Spiero (I think). The first thing that we did is drive thought the town of Corfu and then drive up through a mountain village and to a great lookout point. Over this point you could see a large part of the island including Corfu town and the first mountain town that we went through. As well we could see our ship and a few islands off the coast. We then made our way thought the mountains seeing all sorts of nice villages. In one there was a church that was about three metres across at the front (a little more than 3 yards) and maybe ten metres deep (we kept on going and on the way Oma took a lot of pictures of the olive trees. You could tell which ones were and weren’t taken care of. The ones that were small and pruned were the ones at we taken care of. They pruned them because they produce bigger olives that way. The ones that were large and looked almost like a wad of vines were not taken care of and had small olives. It was kinda funny because the ones that weren’t pruned back and that hung over the street would drop heir olives and when the cars went over them it would make the roads very slippery. At home we have snow and ice to make roads slippery but there in Corfu they have olive oil to make their roads slippery. We hen arrived at another lookout from which you could see a beach. There weren’t any people on the beach. It was a great day for sightseeing because there was some cloud cover and it was just right as far as temperature. We drove through a few other villages one of which we got out of the car and walked around in. The streets in this town literally just footpaths. We wandered around for a little while and even had a conversation with an old woman. It was all Greek to us, all English to her. We did have one word in common, salad. Anyway we went in our way and as we drove a few time Oma got out and made some pictures of the olive trees. She made at least forty probably. Anyway we came eventually back down the mountains after going through some other villages and made our way way to the

Day 21: Dubrovnik, Croatia

Posted on 20 May 2012 in Transatlantic Cruise and Europe • 2087 words • 10 minute read

Sumner

Today we came into the port of Dubrovnik at around six or seven o’clock. We literally went right next to the shore, not more than one or two hundred yards away, we were able to see the houses and all which was really pretty. They were all close together and so quaint. We saw all of this from our table at breakfast and after we had eaten we got of the boat to meet our guide. Her name was Tanya. The first thing that we did is go up to a lookout point where we could see all of Dubrovnik. On the way to he top of this hill we went up a one way road that was used as a two way road. It felt like we were back in Vietnam driving to Ba Be Lake. At least our driver didn’t play chicken on the road, they would pull over and let the other pass instead of just going for it. Anyway from the lookout point we could see, on the water side, four islands, three of which were inhabited, as well as the old town and most of the rest of Dubrovnik including a Costa ship, it wasn’t crashed, listing on its side. On the other side of the hill was a stretch of about a mile (that is close to two kilometers and because I am just guessing you can use that if you like the metric system. I will try to remember to also use the metric system in my writing because I realize that this is definitely an international audience that is reading this blog. Just a side note; this trip has really made me respect the metric system a lot, it makes so much more since than our “standard” system) wide walking but maybe half a mile (close to a kilometer) as the crow flies. And then Bosnia & Herzegovina started. If you looked down the coast about ten miles (16 kilometers) you come to Montenegro. I know the ten miles stuff because I had read somewhere that Bosnia & Herzegovina has ten miles of coast because of some treaty that said that they had to have that much land on the coast. During the war between Croatia and Bosnia & Herzegovina (I’m going to call it B&H from now on because it is much easier to type) B&H shot missiles from where I told you that B&H started into Dubrovnik. This war occurred in the nineties, a few years before I was born so not in the very distant past. You could tell which of the houses in the town were hit because of the roofs, if they were hit they had very bright new reddish tiles but if they were old the roofs they where brown. Most of the houses were hit by either a direct missile shot or by shrapnel form the missiles. We then made our way down to the old town. On the way we had to stop because someone was pulling out of their parking spot. We backed up just a little to let them out but there was another car behind us that came from behind and hit us!!! No damage was done except in think that mom almost had a hart attack. The drivers got out of the car and started yelling. Obviously they agreed to go down and stop in front of the old town. When we got there the other guy came out and started yelling. I was glad that I don’t know Croatian because it didn’t look pretty our guide was not pleased that he did it in front of guests (us). Anyway we let our driver, the other driver and the police man sort it out. The entire old town was surrounded by a wall that was, I think she said a hundred or more feet (30 metres) tall and, at points, sixteen feet (5 metres) wide. These walls withstood the missiles of the B&H army in the war, it just scratched the walls but it was so well made that it was fine. We walked first across a bridge and a small draw bridge into the town. We walked down the streets and it, except for all of the tourists was very nice we really enjoyed it. There were some nice little churches and shops. They were shops on the bottom but the tops were residences. We came to the main square and then went into the church there. It was baroque in style and it had a modern front altar because it had to be repaired because of an earthquake I think. In the middle of the square was a statue of someone, I think a prince that defended the city from someone sometime but don’t take my word for that. We then walked down the main road. There were all sorts of small alleys in all directions that were so nice and of which we took many photos we then turned and went through another square. In this square the was a market and we stopped and bought a bag of sweets, nuts, dates, and orange peels covered with sugar. Then we turned to a street leading back in the direction that we had come. On this street we stopped and Tanya went into the shop and came out with a traditional sweet. It wasn’t very sweet, typical of most of the world except us Americans. It was kinda like not sweet donut holes. At the end of this street was the old port. This port is now used for private boats as well as for cruise ships that tender from the ship to he dock. We walked around for a few minutes and then we went back to the van to go to one of Tanya’s mom’s friend’s house. One of the options for the tour was to go eat with a local family and so we took up the offer. The family was so nice, there were three generations there, the girl could speak excellent English, her mom could speak pretty well but the dad couldn’t. The grandparents couldn’t speak much at all but we had our guide to translate. The funny thing was that they grandpa spoke German and so he and mono communicated in that language because mom lived in Germany for four years and she knows German. The appetizer consisted of smoked ham and a cheese that tasted like Parmesan but a little stronger. Then we had a homemade noodle soup, the noodles were handmade and they grew the carrots as well. It was very good I had an entire big bowl of it. Then came the main dish. It was really interesting how they prepared it. They used a traditional method of cooking food in which they had a huge cooking instrument that was about two and a half feet wide (70 cm probably; just an estimate on that) and four inches high (10 cm). This vessel was flat on the bottom and in it they put lamb, veal and potatoes then they put this in the area of the fire but not on the actual fire. Then they used this bell shaped thing to cover it and they put coals on top of the bell as well as round it to cook the food. After two or more hours it was ready to eat. It was really good expert it was just too much. For desert we had this thing that was like crém burle and another desert that was [FIGURE OUT]. Then we talked about their lives, what they did for a living besides rent parts of their house and do what they were doing for us today, where they went to school. We told them about ourselves. There was an instrument on the wall and we inquired about it they turned on a traditional song and it used that instrument in it. As we were listening to it all of a sudden the grandma and the dad were up dancing! Mom described it as looking like a traditional Greek dance. After having the windfall meal we made our way back to the ship. Today there was a church service and so went to that before our dinner. Before that though I played a few games of ping-pong with Angus. I actually beat him once (he beat me three times though). In between he service and dinner I talked to Noah and Elijah’s mom about what we had done for the day and then watched put the window as we left the port. After that nothing much of interest happened, the boys were just going to dinner as we were coming out so I have just been trying to write this blog post. I am glad that I have some time in which to do this through because Dubrovnik is such a neat city.

Day 20: At Sea

Posted on 19 May 2012 in Transatlantic Cruise and Europe • 978 words • 5 minute read

Sumner

Today was my first sea day that I didn’t have Colton to hang out with. Luckily however I found some other boys that are nice. It just wasn’t the same t I still had fun. The first thing that I did was go to the meet and greet hosted by the cruise critic people. At the beginning one of the crew members spoke and hen people got up and started to make announcements. Mrs. Irene asked me if I wanted to make an announcement, meaning of course about having an iPad class. I made an impromptu announcement. And I sat back down with an iPad class at three. Then I went to find someone to play with. I found Noah, Elijah, Logan, and Hannah in the Lido Dining Room. We decided to go play chess on this big board with huge pieces we played Noah, Elijah, and me against Logan. We got into a stalemate. Then we played another game “Go-For-It” style. We kept on attacking with our king and we were doing pretty well until we realized that the king was kind in danger without anywhere to go for protection. We lost that game. At that point I had to go and do my iPad class. A lady came to me and said “So what are you going to teach me?” she got out her tablet/computer (she had an Android tablet with a keyboard attached. I had never seen one but like I told Mrs. Irene later I think I looked intelligent enough, anything that I did was more than she knew. That took up the first part of the class and then I helped out Mrs. Irene a little bit. She has three different accounts, and it’s a mess figuring out what has what and which one has anything etc. with no Internet connection. I found the boys again in the Lido Restaurant and we decided to go swimming. Only Elijah Logan and I got in. Then they had to leave and I played a game or two of ping-pong with a boy named Angus. He’s an Australian and he’s good at ping-pong he won. Twice. Anyway then I went back to my room to get ready for formal night. After dinner I saw the boys going to dinner but on the way we stopped to listen to a string quartet. They’re from Russia and played some songs that I think Hannah has played before. Anyway, after that I went to the Loft to see if anyone would come. No one came but I played games with the leader until bedtime.

Day 19: City that Starts with a "C" (Civiteveccia); Start of Second Part of Cruise

Posted on 18 May 2012 in Transatlantic Cruise and Europe • 1312 words • 7 minute read

Sumner

So today we were docked at a port which I won’t tell you the name of because I can’t even spell it let alone say, or pronounce it. I will tell you however that it is close to Rome so I will just call this port Rome for simplicity sake. In this port one cruise starts and another starts, like I told you about in the last post. Therefore we had to get up early to get packed up to move cabins (if you recall, we are upgrading to a room with a balcony/verandah). I wnet looking for colton to say goodby to them, I couldn’t find them for a while but then I found them and was able to say goodbye. It has been nice for the past few weeks to have someone to hand out with on the ship and so I was pretty sad to see them go. Luckily I have their email so we can stay in touch. It will be hard to find someone to take their place as boat-friends but it doesn’t matter so much for this part because there are a lot of ports and not so much time on the ship. Then we had to wait a while they got our room ready. After our room was ready and they had already moved our luggage in we came in and out our stuff down. Next we went up to the Lido Deck for lunch. As we were eating we looked out the window and watched all of the people come in. At one point a family with two boys, Noah and Elijah, we assume that they were Christians because before they ate they prayed, I never got to really ask them. Anyway, Noah is fifteen and Elijah is thirteen. Another family also came in with kids, one is named Hannah (I don’t know if she spells it with an “h” at the end or not). She is eleven. Her brother name is Logan. He is fourteen and looks about sixteen or seventeen or so. The girl as well looks older than she really is, she looks to be about fourteen or so but as I said she is only eleven. After lunch mom and I went to go see a talk about some of the ports that we are going to in the Vista Lounge. It was by the official travel guide along with another lady and all that they did is advertise the ships shore excursions. We were a little surprised because the other talks that he had done were actually interesting, not just “Oo ah, buy our shore excursions, yay”. Anyway at right I went up to The Loft to see if any others would come. It was just me and her leader for most of the time, one girl, from the Philippines came for half an hour, maybe fourty-five minutes, somewhere around that. We just played some games and then when Hannah was done with her stuff we went back to the room and got ready for bed.

Day 18: At Sea

Posted on 17 May 2012 in Transatlantic Cruise and Europe • 1331 words • 7 minute read

Sumner

Today was an at sea day. Nothing much happened of too much interest so I will describe our plans for the rest of the trip. Our next port is C-something (I can’t remember the actual name). Here one cruise starts and another ends. This is because there are actually two cruises that we are going on, a sixteen day one and then a ten day one. So far we have completed the sixteen day one and will continue on the ten day one. Unfortunately the Baldersons are not coming on the next part of the cruise so I will not have much to do each day, not that that matters too much because there are a lot of ports that we are going to in the next part of the cruise. I will still miss them though to have something to do in the spare time that we do have on the ship. So I told you guys earlier that I have been doing some Club HAL activities. I am actually too old to do those activities as it goes up through twelve. There is a teen group, of which I am the only member right now but in the next cruise there will be fourteen other teens. Tomorrow or maybe it is day after that I will go to the meeting and see if I like any of the kids and if they’re jerks or not. I definitely won’t be able to go to any Club HAL activities though. Oh well. Anyway the next cruise ends in Rome and Oma will stay with us there for a few days and then she will fly home and dad will come over to join us. We will stay in Rome for a few more days and then go on to Florence, Venice, and I think another city that slips my mind at this time (I have a lot of times that that has been happening as I have been writing this blog, maybe it is because I am writing this at **:**pm. hey last night I was up ’till *:**pm [dad don’t read the part that you just read]). Anyway eventually we we will reach Germany and dad will fly home, the rest of us will go and visit the town that mom and dad lived in for four years in Germany back before Hannah and I were born. Then we too will fly home to all y’all. Unless of course you live somewhere else besides Denver, Colorado. Well I about to have some nice views of the back of my eyelids so see ya!

Day 17: Barcelona, Spain

Posted on 16 May 2012 in Transatlantic Cruise and Europe • 1668 words • 8 minute read

Sumner

Today we went to Barcelona (bar-sell-oh-nuh or if you want to say it in the Catalan (cat-uh-lin) language you say bar-th-eh-loh-nah). Barcelona is in an area of Spain called Catalan. In this area the Catalonians live (I say that as if Russians live in Catalan). Anyway, Catalan is almost separate to Spain it has it’s own government, flag, language, as well as many other cultural differences. In a way you can compare Spain and Catalan to the relationship between Canada and Quebec just more extreme differences. OK, next subject: The ship came in at ten o’clock to the port of Barcelona and we got off the boat. We were supposed to meet in the Placa Sant Jaune (I think that is Catalan for Saint Jhon Plaza) for a guided bike tour. It was about two or so kilometers to the plaza and we had about twenty minutes to get there. We tried to get a taxi but they didn’t want to take us for such a short distance, they could make more money if they did taxi tours so they directed us to a shuttle bus that took us to the Columbus monument. From here it was about a kilometer to the square. Once at the square we had some trouble finding the correct company that we were doing the tour through. We went to the first company and gave them the papers. They said that we were at the wrong place so we went to another company that had their meeting place in the same square. They looked at the papers but they were not the right company either. I went to go see if the last company was he right one, they weren’t. The second company helped us and called the number on the paper for us and after a while he told us that it was the first company that we went to that was the correct one. Once that was sorted out it was pretty straight forward from there. We were directed down a little street to the shop to get our bikes. Then we went back to the square. There were twenty-four people so they split us up into two groups. We were with the girl, she was from Canada. We learned about the square before we went on our way. The square had two significant buildings, both were, and are, important to the Catalan government. After learning about those buildings we rode down some small streets and got to the palace, the very palace, where Columbus went to ask Isabella and Ferdinand for money to go find a westward route to India, of course we all know what happened then, he found a whole new continent, the Americas. Then we rode down some really nice streets and eventually we got to the Sagrada Familia. This building is the cathedral of Gaudi (g-ow-dee). His finest achievement. It will, when complete, have twelve towers representing the apostles, four for some saints or something like that, one for the Virgin Mary and the last for Jesus Christ himself. Currently there are eight towers and two facades. The best way to describe the towers is how mom described it, that someone took a candle and let the wax melt down the side. It really looks like something that you would see in Disney World. Many architects and artists have taken over some of the work now that Gaudi is dead, he has been dead for almost a century since nineteen twenty-six, they are trying to complete in in two thousand twenty six, the hundredth anniversary of his death. It was supposed to be completed in two hundred years, using the technology of Gaudi’s day. One thing that I though was very neat was that the tallest tower, the one to Jesus, will be exactly two metres shorter than the tallest hill/mountain in Barcelona because he says that he doesn’t want his creation to be bigger than that of God. I thought that was pretty neat. After going to the cathedral we rode down a long street to the beach. Here we stopped at a little beachside restaurant. We didn’t have anything but the view was neat. The beach was manmade for the Olympics that were held in Barcelona in nineteen ninety-two (I think). There was this sculpture of a goldfish which, when hit right by the sun, looked as if it was a goldfish in the water with the light reflecting on parts of it. There are a few buildings in Barcelona that look exactly like a building in Dubai. Of course the architect that designed them claims that he didn’t copy them even though they are the same as the ones in Dubai. After that we went back to the square, dropped of the bikes and then made our way back to the ship. We went down the Las Ramblas (loss rahm-bau-s), the most famous street in Barcelona and then got back to the bus stop to go back to the ship. The rest of the things that we did were not of much note but I will say that there was an Indonesian crew show at eleven tonight. We went to that, there was a lot more people in this one than the Filipino crew show. There was one number that was a dance/play (I like those better than the dances that the people who are professional do). It was about the good king who falls in love with the pretty princess and then goes off to get a golden deer for her. He leaves her in the care of the monkey king and then went off. But while he was away the bad king came and capture the princess and kills all of the monkeys. But one monkey, the king who had been away, survived and wonders why everyone is dead. He tries to do CPR but all that happens is that the monkeys tail flies up. Then he goes to get some highly sophisticated devices to try to revive the monkey the devices were flip-flops! Then he uses a magic spell to resurrect all of the monkeys. Is time it works! Yay! Then the good king tries to go get the princess, he fights with the bad king and then the monkey king gives him a weapon and he wins!!! Well all’s well that ends well and that brings me to the end of this post.

Day 16: Cartagena, Spain

Posted on 15 May 2012 in Transatlantic Cruise and Europe • 1520 words • 8 minute read

Sumner

Today our port was Cartagena. Cartagena means little Carthage (I think). Whatever the meaning it was the port for the day. We didn’t have a tour for this city so we went to walk around after we had had our breakfast. We made our way on a pedestrian street and then down a side street to get to a Roman theatre. We couldn’t figure out how to get into the theater area so we satisfied ourselves with just taking pictures from the top. The theater was pretty big, probably fifty to seventy-five metres (and about the same in yards) across. The structure was very incomplete but it was the first Roman theater that we have seen so far on this trip. Even though you can’t see it now it must have been the coolest thing in the time of the Romans. Just the scale of the project must have been awe inspiring. We then made our way to a castle. I was more just walls that used to be something but we did find a neat little playground and stayed there for a long time swinging and see-sawing. It was really nice because it was breezy and cool up there on the hill (the theater was built into the hill and the castle was on top of the hill). From this vantage point we could not only get a good view of the city but see many other sites of where ruins of Roman or even Carthaginian buildings still are. All around almost wherever you look there were ruins. Of course we didn’t have a guide to tell us what the ruins where from but it was just neat to see them. After staying at the castle for a while we went to go find the cathedral. We walked to the place where it showed it on the map but it was not there. We gave up because we won’t have any shortage of cathedrals on our trip. We then made our way back to the ship for lunch and after that we went back off to go to Burger King for free wifi. Unfortunately it didn’t work but we went back up the pedestrian street to see how much a museum that held some ruins of the city. It wasn’t worth the cost so we went back to the Burger King and this time the wifi worked, maybe it had less traffic but regardless we used it because anything is cheaper and faster than on the boat. We decided then to go back to the boat for a swim. I swam for about two hours actually, the last part of that time was with the Balderson boys. After we were finished swimming Colton and I played some ping-pong. We had a lot of fun but then we went back to our rooms to get dressed for formal night. After dinner we came back to the room, Hannah went to Club HAL and mom, Oma, and I watched some of Ben Hur together. We didn’t get very far and I don’t know where it’s going but I do know that it is about chariot riding and that there as been no mention of that activity at all during the first fourty minutes of the movie. I decided to go up to the theater to try to catch Colton as he was coming out and then we nt to go play ping-pong. Of course we were still in suits but hey, a very formal game of ping-pong it was. After that we went to bed.

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