Slow Boat to Barcelona

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Day 1 At sea

This morning I awoke at 6 and headed straight to the fitness center to burn off several hundred calories. The gym is not that big. I ran/walked on the treadmill for 30 minutes then did some upper bpdy weights. After the gym I went to the spa to lounge in the therapy pool and use the sauna, Jacuzzi, steam room and plunge pool…..freezing. I am currently typing this from the Aloha Nui café, where I am having coffee.

I had a breakfast of fruit, oatmeal, eggs and salmon.

I am all alone (work prevented Jimmie from joining me) with thousands of strangers on a ship headed across the Atlantic to Barcelona. I bought 250 minutes of internet and I have the unlimited spa usage, so hopefully, that will keep me entertained for our 1 week out at sea. The ship is quite nice and I like the whole freestyle dining on this ship, the Norwegian Jade. The ship was originally docked in Hawaii, but there was not enough business there, so it is moving to Europe.

I am trying to get used to typing on the tiny keyboard of this tiny micro pc that Jimmie bought me for traveling and because my other pc was beginning to crap out. I have to hold this little pc like a gameboy and type like I would text, with my thumbs.

I am really going to miss talking to my family and friends for this week at sea. Once I get to Portugal, I will find free internet and skype.

Day 2 At sea

I put the do not disturb sign on my door. The time changed to one hour later, and it is now 9:20 ship time, 8:20 EST. I am lying in bed, looking out at the ocean, which is going by pretty quickly. The ship going about 20 knots per hour. We will see no land until Friday. Today is Sunday. I will get up after I type this and go workout then hit the spa. I ate a fabulous pumpkin gnocchi last night for dinner and I really need to work it off. I also met a lady that has been cruising by herself for years. It turns out, there several passengers that are on the ship alone. I am going to go online later and see if I can find a place to stay in Barcelona. Hopefully, I won’t have to stay at the hostel.


Day 3 At sea

I met Fran and her crew at lunch today. Fran is a travel agent from Ft. Lauderdale. Her entire group of about 15, consists of old Jewish women from Ft. Lauderdale. They decided to take me under their wing. After hanging out with them at dinner and the show, I needed some alone time, so I bade them farewell and headed for the fitness center.

Day 4 At sea

Rough seas today. We are facing 12 ft. swells and it is a little difficult to walk. It was really hard on the treadmill. I had to hold on several times this morning. In the therapy pool, the water was sloshing around so much; it felt like I was really floating around in the ocean. The internet is so slow onboard that I am down to just two hours left. The bandwidth is not enough to support skype. It’s been 4 days since I’ve spoken to anyone in my family. The first thing I am going to do when we reach Portugal is find a post office and a telephone. We have two more days at sea. I went to the show tonight, but left early. It just wasn’t good. It was a ventriloquist telling bad jokes.

Day 7 Land Ho!

I don’t think I have ever been so happy to get to a port of call. The seas for the last couple of days have been very rough. We were in waves of about 18 feet. It was unreal. At points I would wake up thinking the ship was flipping over and I would listen to the constant creaking of the cabin. I quit wearing my motion sickness patch after day 3, so I am truly amazed that I never felt sea sick. After 6 days of no verbal and very little electronic, communication with my family, I finally have the chance to speak with someone. We docked at Porto Del Galdo, San Miguel, Azores, Portugal. I walked into the small, quaint town looking for a post office (corrieos) and an internet café. I was lucky to find a postal worker that spoke English and could give me great directions to get online. Since there is quite a time difference and I only had a few hours in port, I wasn’t able to actually talk to anyone except Jim. He finally answered his skype on the third try. We got to put our video cams to the test. I love technology. Here I was, in Portugal, looking at and talking to my sweetie, thousands of miles away, online, virtually free. I don’t think I will ever cruise alone again, if I can help it.

Day 8 On a ship swimming with seniors

I am officially tired of “cruise chatter.” “Where are you from?, “Is this you first cruise?”, etc. I’ve gotten to the point, if I am not just wearing my headset, listening to music and reading a book, that I start making things up about myself. Even this has become mundane. Sometimes I just sit in a place and watch all the seniors streaming by. With all this time at sea and the weather and sea making sitting outside not an option, people just tend to wander endlessly around the ship. The Aloha Nui café (buffet) tends to fill up, and stay that way all day. This is where I take most of my meals. Unless there is something good on the only other free casual restaurant, that has a changing menu. Luckily for me, the Aloha Nui appears to have a good Indian chef. I happen to be one of the few consumers of this cuisine, Some of the dining room staff, of the Indian persuasion, seemed both pleased and surprised at my food choice. I have been rigorous in my working out daily and going to the spa. I say this even though I didn’t work out yesterday or yet today. I’ve managed to finish both “Angels & Demons’ and the “Da Vinci Code’ since embarking. I am now working on “Odd Thomas.’ I have also seen “Elizabeth: The Golden Age.” “The Martian Child,’ “Annapolis (A shameless “An Officer and a Gentleman” redux), “The Nanny Diaris,s” “The Lookout,” “Rocket Science,” “Gracie,” an episode of “house,” and endless FOX news (that is the only real channel we get. Rupert Murdock has a long arm.

Day 10 Gibraltar

Technically the UK, Gibraltar (home of The Rock), is a wealth of contradictions. They drive on the right, speak mostly Spanish, and barter using Pounds Sterling. I now have quite the mixture of coins in my pocket, the most worthless being, so far, the US dollar. Not a great time to visit for an American. Oh well, hopefully I’ll have better luck in some of the Eastern European countries that haven’t joined the EU yet. I can add “Odd Thomas” to my book list while on the ship. finished it this morning. Since arriving at Gibraltar, we pick up BBC CNBC and BBC World on our tv’s….hooray, now I don’t have to constantly watch “fair and balanced” reporting. I have also learned that the extreme strength of the Euro is apparently not good for it. I was lucky enough to meet this wonderful couple from England. They were so nice and very interesting to talk with. None of the usual cruise chat. They were also much closer to my age than many of the other passengers I’ve met thus far.

Day 11 Malaga, Spain

Malaga is a resort town. I went into town a walked around for a little while. I never found internet, but I didn’t look that hard. When I returned to the ship I ran into the English couple again and spent a long time talking to them after dinner and during the chocolate buffet. Hopefully, we (Tricia and I) will have time to look them up when we are in England. In the least, I may be able to stop and see them after Tricia leaves, should I decide to stay in Great Britain for a few extra days. I also managed to finish my fourth novel, "Forever Odd", today. Not bad.

Barcelona 3/13/08

I disembarked the ship around 0630 and there were no customs or passport checkers anywhere to be found. I did encounter some cruise line employees outside who informed me that the bus into town would not arrive for another 2 hours. They said the walk to the city wasn’t very far and pointed me in the right direction. It was 3 miles! I was carrying my backpack, my purse/laptop bag and another tote bag. It all got very heavy by the time I reached a metro station. Once in the metro station, it all went pretty smoothly. I got a 4 day unlimited ticket and figured out where to go. I needed to get to the Placa de Catalunya to catch a train to my hostel (no luck finding a couch). The INOUT Alberg (hostel) is in Valvidrere, a small community six train stops northwest of Barcelona. After missing my stop becase I was waiting for the train doors to open (who knew you had to manually open them at your stop), I finally made it to my Baixador de Vallvidrera stop and followed signs to the hostel, a ten minute walk up a huge hill. They failed to mention that on the website. No wonder they were the cheapest in town. I lucked out and caught a ride from one of the guests when I was about 3/4 of the way up the hill. This guy was from a small Catalonian country between Spain and France and he would always hang around and want to talk to me in spite of the fact that he didn't speak much English and I spoke no Spanish, Catalunyan , or French. The hostel was nice. it was really more of a resort, set within a big park with a restaurant and several buildings. After I arrived, I wanted to put my stuff in the locker, but the people cleaning the rooms (alll downs syndrome) took issue with that and scolded me in Spanish/Catalunyan. Finally, one of the girls helped me find a locker. I decide to do laundry, since I had only been handwashing my clothes in the sink the whole time on the ship. I needed change for the washer (my first of many only slightly successful exchanges) with the non English speaking staff. God, I wish I had learned some Spanish before I came. At one point I asked the barista for a bottle of water, in Spanish, and ended up with laundry detergent😉 This will be an interesting next 4 days.

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Photos

Me and Jimmie
Jimmie seeing me off at the pier. Port of Miami.

My cabin
Cabin 9672 on the Norwegian Jade.

My cabin
Cabin 9672 on the Norwegian Jade.

The Spa
Norwegian Jade.

The Spa
Norwegian Jade.

First Port of Call
Azores, Portugal

Portugal
From where I descend

Gibtaltar
The Rock

Gibtaltar
UK

Up The Hill
The walk to the INOUT hostel

INOUT
A portion of the hostel. The restaurant and some (mine) rooms.

INOUT
Hallway leading to rooms

Sign in INOUT bathroom
Que?