Ship Life

We spent a lot of time on the ship. One time we had 7 sea days in a row. We were also the youngest couple on the ship. The average age of people on the cruise was probably 65. We still enjoyed ourselves. One day there was a karaoke final that Jake sang in. He sang “La Bamba.” He did a pretty good job. He missed the starting of one line, but other than that he did really well. There were five singers and he took 3rd out of the five. He should have taken 2nd. The second place winners did “Copacabana” and they were terrible singers. The reason they won was because they had costumes and a gay guy dressed up in a ladies dress and they just put on a show, so they were put in front of Jake. The ship had a boat building contest to see who could build the best boat that could hold the most weight. Our boat was called the Stork and was on its way to Pocatello to make a delivery. It held 8 cans of soda. There were some boats that held 24 cans. We went to a lot of activities where we earned dam dollars that at the end of the cruise we cashed them in for prizes. We had over 220 dam dollars. We were able to get a bag, a sweatshirt, a shirt, and a towel with our dam dollars. The activities have kept us busy. We also were in a pentathlon. We’ve had to putt in golf, ring toss, football throw, shuffleboard, and free throw shooting. Jake won the pentathalon by shooting 9 out of 10 free throws. There was a ceremony where he got a bottle of champagne, a sweatshirt, and a picture frame. We sold the bottle of champagne for $5. We were also on two game shows that they had. One was a men vs. women where we had to see if we thought the same way as the other men or women our team. The men barely won. The other game was the Marriage Game. Jake and I were on as newly weds. We took second place. We should have taken first, but I messed up on one of the answers. It didn’t matter. The first prize was a bottle of champagne, so we didn’t need it anyway. There was lots of really good entertainment. We had a comic magician that was really good, a comedian, these 2 guys that played one piano that were amazing, flamenco dancers, and a few singers.

Teneriffe, Canary Islands

Our last stop was the Teneriffe, Canary Islands. We decided that we wanted to see if we could get a camel ride today since we didn’t get one yesterday, so when we got off the boat we asked a taxi driver and found out there was a place on the island that had camel rides. We walked to the bus station and got a ticket to go to the city where they give camel rides. We were a little worried that we wouldn’t have enough money to take the camel ride, but we had already bought our bus ticket, so we decided to head to the place and hope that we had enough. We made it there in fairly good time and had about an hour and 15 minutes before the bus that we needed to take back would come by to take us back to the city we needed. We found out it would cost 8 euro for a camel ride each, but we only had 12 euro and 15 American dollars. The camel place wouldn’t take American Express, so we didn’t know what to do. I was just going to take the ride, but at the last minute, Jake found someone that was willing to give us 10 euro if we gave them our 15 American dollars. We were both able to go on the camel ride. They had Arab garb there for us to wear while we rode the camels. It was fun. It was a really bumpy ride. Jake and I rode one camel, and they had to put a bag of sand on my side of the camel to even out the load. The ride lasted for about 20 minutes. I’m glad that we were both able to go. When we were done we found out that we missed the bus by about 5 minutes or less, so we decided to try to hitch hike to the next town to catch a bus. Some people that were riding camels with us picked us up and took us back about half way to where we needed to go. They were really nice. So because of that we didn’t need one of the bus tickets that we bought. We were able to sell it while we were on the bus back to Santa Cruz. We got back there with about 45 minutes to spare before we needed to be back on the boat. We had about 5 euro in change that we had to spend because this is our last port and the banks won’t take change and give us dollars, so we went and bought a spoon for my mom and some fingernail clippers. Our fingernail clippers were lost, so we really needed some, so they are our souvenir from the Canary Islands. We were glad that we were able to get our camel ride on our trip.

Reciffe, Canary Islands

Today we were in Reciffe, Canary Islands. It is an ugly island. We were going to go up to a volcano that they had on the island, but we decided we didn’t really want to pay all the money it was going to cost to go, so we just stayed in town. We had asked someone if it was worth it to go up there and they said it wasn't. They said it was better to go to the castle. Later on we realized that they gave camel rides at the volcano, so we wished that we would have gone because there wasn’t really a whole lot that we wanted to see in town. We were dropped off the shuttle in the middle of town, and then we decided to go to a castle. Well, after walking to the castle, we realized the castle was really close to our ship, so we backtracked about 1 mile or more from where we got dropped off. The castle wasn't worth it at all. Where they lift up the draw bridge. What was interesting about the castle was there was a time when there wasn't any work on the island and everyone wanted to leave. The king decided to pay the locals to build him a castle so they would stay. That's the only reason why the castle was there. It was a very small castle and there was a very small art museum inside. We walked quite a bit today. After we realized that we could ride a camel at the top of the volcano we were going to maybe get a taxi to take us up there, but the taxi wanted a lot of money and we decided that it wasn’t worth it. This is not an island that I would ever come back to. It is very desolate and not much grows here. Not what I expected a Canary Island to look like.

Funchal, Portugal

Marieda, Portugal was a really pretty island. We got off the boat in the morning and walked to church. We were going to take a taxi, but they wanted a lot of money. Finally one of the taxi drivers said that it was really close to walk, but the taxis had to take a round about way because of a road that was closed. It took us a little bit to find our church, and we got lost a couple of times, but we finally found it. We didn’t understand much because it was in Portuguese, but it was nice to finally be in church. Jake understood more than me, but when an American missionary got up and bore his testimony, I could understand about everything. When we were in Turkey there wasn’t a church nearby and in Gibraltar we weren’t able to make it to church on time because we couldn’t find the right transportation to get to the church. After church we changed and we were going to go to the beach, but there weren’t any beaches around. Crazy. We were on an island and there were no beaches. We found a really pretty park and just walked around in it and took pictures. A lot of things were closed and the things that were open cost more money to do than we wanted to spend, so after walking in the park, we just went back to the boat. The island is a really pretty island and we enjoyed our time that we had there.

Casablanca, Moracco

Casablanca is a DIRTY city and it smelled really bad. A man that we eat lunch with couldn't get off the boat here until the Moraccan government approved it because he was Israeli and had been in the Israeli military. Israel and Moracco don't like each other, so we were a little nervous because we figured they wouldn't like Americans either because we were allis with Israel. We got off the boat in morning. Right when we got off the bus that took us to town we were bombarded by people wanting us to get into their taxi. We had thought of going with another lady on the boat around the city and to another city, but the taxi driver didn’t want to go down to what we wanted to pay. So Jake and I decided to walk to the Mosque that we wanted to see, since it was fairly close and we could see it in the distance. We didn’t feel very safe at first, just because we didn’t know the language and we were in a Muslim country. We walked about a mile and found the Mosque. It was amazing. It was a huge building. We couldn’t go in because it wasn’t open, but it was pretty cool from the outside. There was also a huge plaza in front of the Mosque. When we were leaving we were trying to get a taxi to take us to the market place, but he wanted 10 Euro for the short trip. We said that we only wanted to pay 2, and he said no. We started walking away and he chased us in his car down the street and offered us 4 Euro. We said no 2, and then he said okay 2 no 3 Euro. We were kind of mad that he didn’t just accept our first offer that when he did say that he would drive us for 2 Euro, we didn’t accept. We figured we had a lot of time and we could just walk there. We walked a long way and a guy showed us a little market place and wouldn’t leave us alone. We tried to ditch him because he wanted money to show us around and we didn’t want to give him money. We thought that we had ditched him, but he then magically found us. We told him that we wanted to go around the city alone and after a long time he finally left us alone. We found a guy that spoke Spanish very well to show us to another market place that was huge and we found out that it was very close to where the bus dropped us off at. Supposedly people get lost in the market and then little kids will show you how to get out for about 50 cents. We stayed on the street and found some leather camels to buy and a magic box that has a secret way to open it. We went back to the ship to eat lunch and then we decided to go back to the market place to find a spoon for my mom. When we got there we were bombarded by people wanting us to buy stuff we didn’t want to buy. We told someone we wanted a spoon and it sounded like they didn’t know what we were talking about and they were trying to get us to buy a watch or something. All of a sudden out of no where he pulled a spoon out, but he wanted 10 Euro. We said that was too much, and we got him down to 3 Euro. It was kind of fun bargaining with the people, but we felt so pressured and bombarded by the people. After walking around the market for a while we went back to the ship. Casablanca is an interesting city.

Portimao, Portugal

There wasn’t much at all to see in Portimao. Jake and I walked around the city when we got to port. We saw some fountains that looked pretty cool. We also saw a couple of Catholic churches, but it seems like all the churches are starting to look the same. We went shopping for a souvenir from Portugal and found some of the clappers flamenco dancers use in their dancing and they said Portugal on them, so we got them as a souvenir. After that we went back to the boat because there wasn’t anything else to do in the city. It was a pretty boring port, compared to a lot of the ports we have been to in the past.

Lisbon, Portugal

Lisbon was an interesting city. There were lots of pick-pocketers. There were several people on our ship that got pick-pocketed while in Lisbon, good thing it wasn't us. We walked all around the city. We walked to a cathedral and saw the inside. All of the cathedrals are starting to look very similar. We walked to a castle, but didn't pay to go in. They wouldn't give us a family discount because our baby was in my tummy not outside my tummy. We saw lots of memorials and a tall tower that had a great view of the city. Lisbon has a bridge that we saw that was modeled after the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. It looks just like it. They also have a big statue of the Redeemer, like the one in Brazil. We walked around a lot in Lisbon.

Cadiz, Spain

Cadiz was a really pretty city. We walked to the main Cathedral in the city. The ceiling is starting to crumble, so they have put up nets to catch the pieces that fall off. It is a pretty building. We then walked to a castle. We took the long way there, but it was a pretty walk. We saw two really pretty parks on our way. The first castle we saw just had a lot of artwork in it. The buildings were pretty cool, but some of the artwork was weird. There was another castle next to it. To get out to that castle, we had to walk down this long path, with the sea on both sides of us. When we got to the castle, we found out you couldn't go in because they still used it for military purposes. So we had walked down that long path for nothing. We walked a lot while in the city. We ended up taking the bus back to the boat.

We returned to Cadiz a couple days later. Since we had already been there, we didn't get off the boat until later in the day. The first time we went we had seen that there was an underwater archeological museum, but it didn't open until 5pm. So on our second trip, we walked over to the building to see it. There wasn't much to see. Just a whole bunch of photos of the ocean and beaches. Cadiz was a beautiful city. It is the oldest city in Europe and legend has it that it was founded by Hercules.

Gibraltar, Great Britian

The Rock of Gibraltar was pretty cool. We got off the boat early so we could hopefully see the rock before going to church. We walked from the ship to the rock. We asked people how to get up there and everyone kept telling us a different way. We got a little lost, but we finally found our way to, not the entrance, but the exit. The entrance fee was more than we thought, so we didn't have quite enough euro, but they let us in with what we had. We first went to the castle that was right there at the exit. There were monkeys all over. The castle was fairly small, but still pretty cool. We then walked to where most of the monkeys were, which was a long walk. We had asked the guy at the exit if the monkeys could open zippers. He said they couldn't. Well, when we got to the monkeys, Jake held out his hand to a monkey to let him get on his back. The monkey then started pulling our umbrella out of our backpack and the monkey opened a zipper and started pulling out the stuff in the pocket. We had our passports in this pocket. Normally we didn't carry around our passports, but right before we got off the ship, we picked up our passports from the front office of the ship and we hadn't gone back to our room to put them away, so they were with us. We didn't think the monkey could open the zipper, but he did and he started taking off with our passports. When I saw what the monkey had, I hurried and grabbed them from him. That wouldn't have been good at all because that was the only ID that I had left. After that I took the backpack from Jake and a guy wanted to see a monkey climb on Jake, so he invited the monkey on again. The monkey started pulling Jake's hair, so Jake was trying to grab the monkey off his back and the monkey bit Jake. It barely broke skin, but it did bleed a little bit. We were walking and we saw some herbalists that were on our ship (they were from Nature Sunshine, a MLM company). We told them what happened and they asked us if we had any silver, like everyone carries around silver. We were like, what? They then pulled out this little bottle of silver and sprayed it on his hand. Supposedly it kills bacteria and viruses and stuff. After seeing the monkeys, we went to the cave and saw a lot of stalagmites. The cave was pretty amazing. The pictures didn't turn out great that we took in there, but some of them are okay. While on the rock we asked a tour guide how to get to the city where the church was. We had to go into Spain to go to church. He said the buses only ran to the border and then from there we had to catch another bus that only ran every hour. By then we didn't have time to get to the church, so we missed it, which was sad. We ended up going to a multidenominational church that was held on the cruise ship. We walked a lot in Gibraltar, probably 7 miles or more. I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed going to the Rock.

Barcelona, Spain

It was great to be in Spain where we could speak the language. We were a little confused at first, because everything looked like it was written in Spanish and French. Why would there be French everywhere? Well, we found out that it wasn't French but it was Catalan. I had always thought that Catalan is like Spanish, but it's not. We first went to the Castel de Montjuic. On our way there it started to rain, and we were stuck without a jacket or an umbrella. After walking clear around the castle, we finally found the entrance and went to the souvenir shop and bought an umbrella. We decided that would be our souvenir from Spain. There was a military museum in the castle. We weren't going to go because we didn't think it would be worth the 3 euro each it cost to go in. While we were walking around the castle, we found a door open, so we walked in and lo and behold, we were in the museum. So we saw part of the museum without paying. I'm glad we didn't pay. It was cool, but not worth 3 euro. After we went to the museum, we headed over to the Sagrada Familia church. The church has been under construction for over 100 years and it still isn't finished. It is leaning to the front a little bit and part of it looks really new and part of it looks old. It has statues from the life of Christ all over it. It is a cool looking building. From a distance and from a certain angle it kind of looks like the Salk Lake Temple because it has the six spires like the temple. After that we went to a Le Parc Gruell. It is a park that was designed by the artist Gruell that was never finished. It is a pretty cool park. there are buildings that look like gingerbread houses there. We didn't have to be back to the cruise ship until fairly late so we headed back to by where the castle was to see some fountains. When we got there the fountains weren't on. You could tell that they would have looked really pretty when they were on. We really enjoyed Barcelona a lot. It was a really pretty city. When we got on the boat, we saw a show of Flamenco Dancers. That was pretty neat watching that.

Monte Carlo Monaco and Eze, France

Monte Carlo and Eze, France were really pretty! We walked A LOT again. Monaco is a tiny country that is straight up a mountain side. We first walked up a really steep hill to the castle of the Prince of Monaco. The Prince of Monaco married Grace Kelly. It was a really steep hike. We didn’t go inside because they wanted 10 euro just to enter, but we saw a really pretty view of the city and of the ocean. After, we walked to the train station and after a lot of walking we got a train to go to Eze, France, which wasn’t very far away. We figured since we were so close to France, we might as well go into France and see part of it. Eze was a pretty cool little village. We took a bus clear up the mountainside to a medieval village that was built in the mountains in I think the 1500’s, maybe earlier. Up there, there is a perfume factory. We went through it. They showed us how they made perfume. It was pretty interesting. At this place you can make your own scent and they will keep the formula in the computer so you can order it any time you want. If you wanted to sell it, they would help you manufacture it and sell it. It was pretty cool. After, we walked through the medieval city. It was really pretty. It was like a maze of little art shops, restaurants and hotels. There was also a beautiful view of the sea. I really enjoyed visiting the little city. After visiting Eze, we headed back to Monte Carlo and went to the boat. We took pictures of the famous casino, El Casino Royal, which was in the James Bond movie that was made recently. I really enjoyed this place. It was really pretty.

Rome, Italy

Rome was an amazing city. It was our favorite place that we visited on our trip. We got off the boat and walked to the train stop. We just barely missed the train into Rome by like 30 seconds, so we had to wait a half hour for the next train. When we got to Rome we took a bus to the Coliseum. We were going to go to the Vatican first, but we found out that the Pope was giving his weekly address there that morning and there would have been a crazy amount of people there so we decided to see the Coliseum first and then go to the Vatican. On our way to the Coliseum we saw Italy’s huge statue to their unknown soldier. It was a really big monument. It was pretty cool looking. We walked a lot while in Rome. We’ve walked a lot in all of the port cities we’ve been in so far. While walking from the bus stop to the Coliseum, we saw thousands of students protesting something about education. It was kind of crazy. We weren’t planning on paying to go into the Coliseum, but being their by it, we wanted to go inside and see it from the inside. So we ended up paying to go in. While waiting in line we talked with a French couple. When we got up to pay we were a euro short of entrance fee and they didn’t take credit cards or English dollars. The French couple was really nice and paid the extra euro for us, so we were able to go in. The Coliseum was pretty amazing. I never thought I’d see it. I can’t really describe how cool it was to see. Our ticket also let us into Palentino Hill. It is where Julius Caesar was killed. That place was really cool too. It is amazing how many ancient buildings there are right in the middle of Rome. There was so much to see. After seeing Palentino Hill, we took a bus to Vatican City to see St. Peter’s Basilica and the Sistine Chapel. On our way over on the train, someone tried to pick-pocket Jake. He saw who did it, but all they took was our entrance ticket into the Coliseum, so we didn’t care that they took it. We first went into St. Peter’s Basilica. That Cathedral is amazing. There is so much art work and carvings. It is very elaborate. It’s hard to describe how amazing it was. After walking through St. Peter’s Basilica, we went to the Vatican Museum, where the Sistine Chapel is located. It is impossible to take in everything that is in the Museum in the short amount of time we had. It would take days to see everything in the museum. Some of the things in there are so amazing. The ceilings are all painted elaborate. There was one hall that had hundreds of different scenes painted on the ceiling. There was a room called the room of Immaculate Conception that the paintings on the wall were pretty grotesque. The Sistine Chapel was pretty amazing. It was a lot bigger than I thought it would be. Sadly, we couldn’t take any pictures. We tried to take video, but it turned out super dark. All the paintings on the walls and on the ceilings in there were just amazing, it was beautiful. I really enjoyed the museum. Too bad we didn’t have longer to enjoy it. After seeing the museum we had to get back to the train to make it back before our ship left. It would have been nice to have been able to have stayed in Rome a few days, because I know there was a lot of amazing things we didn’t have time to see. Jake did fairly well communicating with the people there. He was able speak half Spanish half Italian and the people were able to understand.