No reservations in Amsterdam!

Wow!  I never expected to see so much nudity and drug paraphernalia openly displayed for all to see and purchase.  Today I went out with Steph and we weren’t really sure what the city had to offer so we decided to stroll the busy streets of Amsterdam and see where we would end up.  Close to the port, we found the hop-on hop-off bus station and we thought it would be a good idea to do it since we had a few hours off – until we looked at the prices.  Stephanie and I decided that we would use the map from the hop-on hop-off bus and get ourselves to a few of the tourist spots.  Instantly, the Anne Frank House caught my attention and I said I wanted to head that way. 

We bobbed and weaved our way through many blocks and clouds of smoke (and no folks, we’re not talking cigarettes – we’re talking those funny ones) that puffed out of windows and doors of all sorts of places! I, having never done a drug in my life, truly believe that I was high by the end of the day simply from walking through all of it!  Eventually, we made our way to the Anne Frank House.  The only way we figured we were in the right place was the line that wrapped around the entire block!  We took a couple pictures in front of it, but didn’t want to waste our day in Amsterdam waiting in a line.  I’ll be back, right?  (I hope!)

     

By the time we finished walking all the way to the Anne Frank House, we were both hungry and ended up at the “Next Door Restaurant” and ate outside because the weather was so nice.  That’s one thing about Europe at this time – the weather is absolutely incredible!  Steph ordered a chicken sandwich that had curried chicken in a pita and I ordered a sandwich of some sort (I can’t remember what, to be honest!).

 

Once we finished our lunch, we decided to walk in the direction of the ship and see what we came across.  Of course, we found souvenir shops that were selling some things that you could only buy in stores that check ID at the entrance and have the windows blacked out and the rest of the items were completely illegal to buy in the US of A.  There were even these little shops that were strictly for the selling and smoking of pot.  Here’s two of them…

 

I personally wanted to buy some Stroopwaffels for myself and my friend Brandi because she was leaving the ship soon and we both love them!  We walked in one shop that had them shelved at the entrance and as we explored, we found much much more!  In this picture, there is cannabis in a cookie form (and perfectly legal to bring into the US), lollipops and gummies and so many other options.  I don’t think it’s even the drugs that shocked me as much as the sex paraphernalia – the post cards were worse than most porn magazines and they are just out on the racks (no pun intended ;) ) for anybody and everybody to pick up!

   

And my favorite find of the afternoon!

Quote of the Day:  “Missing someone isn’t about how long it’s been since you’ve seen them last or the amount of time since you last talked.  It’s about that very moment when you’re doing something and you wish they were right there with you.”

Pursuit of happIness

It’s one of those days where ship life sucks and have to do our “In Port Manning” so I was stuck on board most of the day.  But – it does have an up side, which is doing laundry, going to the gym when it isn’t busy and getting other things done for work.  The other upside to spending the day in Warnemunde, Germany is that we are there until 10:30PM because most of the guests go into Berlin and don’t get back until late.  When I finished work around 5:30PM, I called one of the girls in my IPM rotation to see if she was back onboard and she was!  I changed my clothes and decided to go for a long walk because the weather was just incredible! 

I followed the same path that I always had and walked into the town passing the “Train bar” where the crew always gathers for drink and a bratwurst and continued down the same road and into the city center.  Most things were closed because it was around 7PM.  I turned around and followed along the river to see if I could find the beach that everyone always talks about.  There was a beautiful breeze, the sun was starting to set and lots of couples took advantage of the opportunity for a stroll hand in hand.  Honestly, made me a bit sad and lonely – so I put my headphones in and decided to listen to my iPod.  My favorite playlist has a bunch of songs that make me reflect and think, so I selected that one.

When I listen to music like that, I think of it like a soundtrack to life.  Some of the songs that would come on would make me think of different events or functions that made me happy.  I would take big deep breaths of fresh air and just smile thinking of life and all that I’m blessed with.  Also, I’ve been reflecting on what’s to come in the very near future.  I’ve been getting lots of questions about my Facebook status updates and what’s going on with the plane ticket purchases etc.….so here it is!

All of my things are sitting in a storage unit in Mobile, Alabama.  I NEED a long vacation – just some time to decompress, enjoy life, relax and grab hold of what’s next in life.  Not sure whether or not that is ships anymore –but I think I’ll keep doing it for awhile longer.  I love my job, I love the people I work with and the places I see – but I’m getting tired and starting to crave a sense of normalcy and routine that I don’t get here.  Don’t get me wrong – I love the fast pace and constant change that I encounter and I have a strong suspicion that I will get quite bored on land – but I am up for a new challenge.  Anyways – back to the topic at hand….my trip.  Since I need/want a long vacation, I needed a place to do it where it was financially feasible for me to do so. Alabama/Florida will not allow me to take a long vacation by the time I rent an apartment (which would be hard to do for only 3 months) as well as a car – but I can do it in the Philippines with money to spare!

On October 10th, I will fly to Mobile from Quebec city when I disembark the Eurodam.  I’ll stay there with a friend of mine until October 16th, when I’ll fly to Orlando before leaving for Manila.  I’ll stay in Orlando from the 16th until the 20th when I fly to Manila.  Currently, I have no return ticket because even the Marine fares are quite high for the time I’m looking at.  Once I’ve received my next contract (to begin in January, hopefully) I’ll book the return ticket based on that date.  Some people are asking if I’m going for anybody specific or who I will stay with….the answer is nobody.  I’m doing this for me.  If you read my post a few days ago (Share.Your.Passion), one of the lines says “Travel Often; getting lost will help you find yourself.”  I hope this is my “Eat.Pray.Love” in a sense – a chance for me to get my mind straightened out and move forward. 

Am I 100% confident in this decision?  Pretty damn close. I’ll never stop being the “what if” girl regardless of how hard I try.  I’m really excited about this, but scared all at the same time.  So excited that I am going to have a place of my own and experience a culture and life completely out of my comfort zone but scared because the only time I’ve ever been there, Sherwin (my ex-boyfriend) took care of it all.  Lucky for me, I have lots of friends that are within an arms reach and I know they will do whatever they can for me to make sure that I’m ok (and hopefully cook lots of Filipino food for me!).  I’ve prayed about it and really feel that I’m headed the right direction in all of this – I feel God’s map is pointing me “this way”.

That’s the update on all of it right now – the flights are purchased and the condo is almost there.  I’m debating among a few different locations and areas to stay in, but I will definitely post more when I decide on which one.  Please keep me in your prayers…I can always use an extra voice :)

I think this was Grandma’s way of saying hello in Germany the other day!

A few pictures around Warnemunde since it was our last time (these are on my little point and shoot…the shutter is dead on my SLR…so bummed!)

 

Pennies from Heaven…

Today was the day my most favorite person in the world was born 90 years ago...Grandma Ruscup. May she rest in peace and continue to be my lighthouse from above. Grandma, I love you and miss you more than words could ever express!  I get my passion for what I do from you and you’re what keeps me going every day.

 

Me and Grandma…floating in the ocean and singing this…

Every time it rains, it rains

Pennies from Heaven

Don't you know each cloud contains

Pennies from Heaven

You'll find your fortunes falling

All over the town

Be sure that your umbrella

Is upside down

Trade them for a package of

Sunshine and flowers

If you want the things you love

You must have showers

So when you hear it thunder

Don't run under a tree

There'll be pennies from Heaven

For you and me

Trade them for a package of

Sunshine and flowers

If you want the things you love

You must have showers

So when you hear it thunder

Don't run under a tree

There'll be pennies from Heaven

For you and me

I bought an elephant!

This morning the weather looked terrible and it really upset me because I was hoping and praying for a beautiful day in Copenhagen – especially since it’s our last port day here.  Around 10:30, I met up with Steph, Cass & Chantelle and we headed out with two missions in mind:  buy and elephant and see the Little Mermaid.  Now that I’ve put those two ideas into writing, I realize how lofty those goals must sound, so just wait and I’ll get you an explanation by the end of this post.

Every other time we’ve been in Copenhagen, we’ve docked so far out that we have to purchase tickets to ride a shuttle bus into the center of town.  Today, we were told that we were much closer and didn’t need the shuttle and that town was about a 10 minute walk.  Not a single one of us had any clue or idea as to where we were or how to get into the center of town.  We ventured out one end of the pier and walked for close to 30 minutes asking any random person how to get to Tivoli Gardens (the theme park where Walt Disney got his ideas).  We found this sign along the way….I think it was a hair salon?!?!

Stephanie knew where the Elephant store was but she had to get to the center of town so that she could navigate her way to the proper location.  About 40 minutes later, we arrived at the center of town and Stephanie knew exactly where we were.  There was some type of religious hoopla happening where they had music and dancing – looked like lots of fun to be honest! All of the participants were wearing USA flags and jackets – so something in favor of the USA from what I could tell.  Steph took us down this side road and warned us that the area seems a bit shady until we got to the other side where the bookstore containing the elephants was.  We rounded the corner and sure enough, there was the elephant store and it was going to open in 10 minutes (we were concerned that it would be closed considering that it’s Sunday).  Since we still had a few minutes until they opened, we decided we would go find lunch and walk a bit more.  There was a Burger King, tons of Schwarma stands, Chinese food, crepes, ice cream, waffles – all sorts of good “fast” food.  After walking in a few small restaurants and looking at the menus, we decided on the Chinese food stand right on the street.  We all got a box of food where they throw a few different items in the box and continued walking around for a few more minutes until we finished. 

As soon as I finished my Chinese, I was so excited about going to pick out my very own elephant!  To give you a bit of background on this elephant situation…  Around the city of Copenhagen, there are close to 100 elephants (probably about 5 feet tall) that artists have painted and they all have fun names.  They are beautiful – all with a different message or theme from maps to Copenhagen, love, nature, flowers etc.  They’re incredible and the purpose of these elephants is to raise awareness and funds for the health and rehabilitation of the elephants in Thailand.  Copenhagen will have the “Elephant Parade” for another month or so and they will then auction off all of the large elephants around the city before starting a new one in Singapore (I believe).  Here’s a couple that I found the first time I was here…

 

When I saw my first elephant back in June, I think- I fell in love.  A guests had later told me that they sold replicas and I started my mission to purchase one before repositioning back to the states.  The replicas are all hand painted and numbered and range in sizes from 4 centimeters to 20 centimeters and they even had some that were plain so that you could paint your own.  I couldn’t afford the super large ones because even the smallest ones were close to 60US dollars.  I bought the elephant named “Bouquet” and he’s 10 centimeters tall and I love him – he was one of the very few that was sitting down and his coloring and pattern really struck me – so I can’t wait to have a house to put him in!

 

We were so excited with our elephant purchases that we decided on dessert!  Cass wanted something from the bakery.  While she looked inside, we posed with our “We Save Elephants” bags…

The bakery was packed, so Cass came out empty handed, so we all decided on this little ice cream and crepe shop a few doors down. Chantelle and I were so excited about GOOD ice cream (we just don’t have the good stuff on board – which is probably a good thing!) and Cass got a crepe with Nutella and bananas.  The only thing I can say is YUM!

We had accomplished one of our goals for the day and the other was on the way back “home”.  We passed the coolest bike – had seats for 6 people and a table in the middle with champagne!

I said “hello” to the world’s tallest man and the worlds “largest” man ;) !

 

Kristin, the techspert on board, and her boyfriend Grahame were walking and we joined up with them for the long walk back to the ship.  There was an Iron-Man triathlon going on throughout the entire city – we were weaving in and out of runners, bikers, divider tape and even getting in the middle of the course at times and getting yelled at in different languages!  We finally ended up at the end of the triathlon course where there were some coca-cola representatives passing out small cans of coke and letting people take photos on surfboards (which are really difficult to balance on!).

 

Our second goal was to see the Little Mermaid….and here she is in all her glory!!

I am SO grateful for the amazing weather we are having these last few weeks in Europe…so blessed!

Quote of the day (found on the bags from the elephant store):

And onto the next adventure…

Share.Your.Passion.

 

Read this to yourself out loud and slowly.  Listen to yourself.

Marla (a family friend for a long time) recently “liked” this on Facebook and it popped up on my news feed.  I love quotes and inspirational things and this one definitely tops a lot of them.  I read it the first time in a cafe and then returned to the ship and read it out loud to myself again – very slowly.  It’s so true and so right on.  I’m personally challenging you all – ask one person per day what their passion is.  After they share theirs, share yours.  It’ll give you a whole new perspective on your own passion, your own life and the person you’re sharing the information with. 

Step out of your comfort zone and try it.  To anyone reading this, please comment and tell me YOUR passion…whatever it may be.  If you don’t want it to be on here…send me an email.  I want to know yours!

Quote of the day:  “You only live once, but if you live right – once is enough.”

Belgian waffles, fries & beer…yum!

I’ve found a new favorite port!  A week or so ago, Stephanie, Cassandra and I talked about going into Brugge, Belgium to get some waffles and today we were so excited to follow through with those plans.  At 10:00AM this morning, the three of us along with Carly, Jess and Gabe met on the gangway and headed towards the shuttle bus.  We are actually docked in Zeebrugge, Belgium so we had to take a few different modes of transportation to get into the actual city of Brugge – first the shuttle from the ship to the Blankenberge train station (only around 10 minutes away from the ship) and then an 11 minute train ride from the train station to Brugge.  Here’s Cass and I on the train!

Once we arrived in Brugge, Cass was hungry so we started walking through the town in search of a place for her to grab a bite.  Within about 2 minutes of getting off the train, I was IN LOVE with Belgium.  The city of Brugge is picturesque with beautiful historical buildings painting its walls, the horses trotting town the way with carriages, the sound of the church bells singing and the thick smell of hops and chocolate filling the air.  Lucky for us, we had amazing weather – the sun was shining but there was a beautiful breeze to keep us from being uncomfortably warm. We found a little walk-up café where Cass and Steph got a pizza, Jess got a beer and an omelet.  There was a lace store across the street (if you don’t know – I love lace.  When I picture getting married, it will be in a lace dress) so I told them I’d be back.  Let’s just say I walked out very quickly when I saw this amazing small round table cloth and then saw its price tag bearing a hefty 350Euro price tag (if you don’t know…that’s around $530!).  Sorry to say that it’s not in the budget right now…

We sat for awhile at the table while I played with my camera (my SLR is giving me an error  message and I can’t bring it back to life :( and everyone ate their food. These two guests from the ship sat down next to us and really starting bothering us about the ships internet and complaining, so we packed up and headed out to explore.  The street that ran perpendicular to the café hosted lots of little chocolate shops – but only a few in comparison to the 100’s around the city itself.  I found this horse fountain and it made me think of Evan and Piper!

Twenty minutes later, we found our first of several food stops along the way (this was definitely not one of my healthy eating days and was 100% not on any diet!  BUT – I only live once) where we grabbed some Belgian fries.  Four of us got a “pack” of them – I had mine with curry Ketchup (yes, I have finally learned to love curry!).

 

After a bit longer of walking and finishing up our fries, three of us (Carly, Cass and myself) saw the boats going down the river and decided that we should give it a shot.  Along the water, there were several little sales stations set up where you could purchase tickets for a 30 minute boat ride up and down the river(?) and see a bit of Brugge from the water as well as get a bit of historical information.  You know me and my bargaining – I got us all kid rates for being crew!  The boat pier was so beautiful with lots of flowers lining the railings on the dock. 

   

Thirty minutes later, we had seen the entire waterway packed full of old, beautiful and colorful buildings.  We saw 140+ swans flooding the water, a few interesting statues, the dog they refer to as the “King of Brugge" and we basked in the sun of the perfect summer day!  I must have said what an beautiful day it was close to 50 times throughout the day…I’ve really grown a huge appreciation over the last year for being outside.  I eat every single meal outside as well as read each night outside – I just find the fresh air “cleansing” in a way.  I credit Misty with this newfound appreciation!

When the three of us finished our “cruise”, we had to go find Jess, Gabe and Stephanie – all who had gone their own direction to walk around town on their own.  Once we all met up, Jess suggested we go grab a beer somewhere.  A left, right and “where the hell are we?” later – we found a bar that boasted a banner claiming that they had 100 different beers and WI-FI….PERFECT.  We sat outside and a red headed kid came out to take our order.  This carrot-top (sorry, Chris) was so rude – he had no interest in answering any of our questions and the minute he brought our beers out- he asked for the money and told us we had to pay right away.  Apparently, we didn’t look trustworthy.  I ordered a Peach beer along with Cass and Jess.  It was alright – still tasted like beer no matter how much peach flavoring was in it and I don’t do beer (unless absolutely necessary).  The most fascinating part of this bar was that for each of the 100 beers they had, they had 100 different glasses to match.  Gabe ordered a beer that was HUGE – so large that he couldn’t hold the glass up with one hand for very long!

My beer was the “Peche mel Bush”.  I know this is dirty – but we kept joking about how much head the beer had on it.  Things only got raunchy from there.  Here’s the conversation that took place between Jess and I.

Jess – “Damn, Peach bush has a lot of head on it.” and me responding with “Yeah – and it’s not going down very fast.” …tehehe.

 

Anyways….I had to start heading back to the ship because I had to work at 5 and desperately needed to catch the 3:36 train back to Blankenberge.  Cass and I still felt the need to eat a waffle, so we picked one up at this stand…

 

It wasn’t the freshest like we wanted, but still tasty with the chocolate and strawberry syrup on top.  A true Belgian waffle is a bit more like a cake consistency instead of the way we have them.  Even when they put them into the waffle iron, the consistency of the batter is completely different.  Ours is more of a liquid and here they put a ball of dough into the waffle iron.  Next time we’re here – I’m going for the fresh one straight off the iron!

We might have gotten that yummy waffle, but we didn’t get the 3:36 train.  I started to stress a bit – but I REALLY started to pray that there would be another train shortly after so that I would not be late for work.  As soon as we arrived at the station, I saw there was a 3:55 train which would still cut it very close but at least it wouldn’t be late.  At 4:40, I walked into my cabin, changed and arrived at the Culinary Arts Center just in time!  Phew! 

Today was an incredible day in so many ways – I took many deep breaths of fresh air, remembered how blessed I am, got really excited about these upcoming adventures (I’ll post more about those soon!) and just remembered why I do what I do.  This evening, I sat outside and had great conversation with a good friend which just topped the day off fantastically!

Quote of the Day:  "The laws of gravity cannot be held responsible for people falling in love." - Albert Einstein

Back to Edinburgh, Scotland!

We were here just a few weeks ago.  The weather was nowhere near as clear and sunny as it was today.  Myself, Cass, Stephanie and the Cruise Director Patti took the train into Edinburgh from South Queensferry.  It’s only a 20 minute train ride – so not too bad.  We didn’t have a ton of time to spend in the city (well – Cass and I didn’t), so we walked around for about 10 minutes, she took a few pictures and then we popped into a pub for some fish and chips along with a pint of Magner’s Apple Cider.

   

Yum!  A quick bite, a few breaths of fresh air before back to work!

Here’s an excerpt from a book I’m currently reading and I really like it:  “Emotions shaded her mind like colours on a palette – some lingering, some momentary, but all blended together in an inseparable wash.” ~Madeline Wickham, The Wedding Girl