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

Keep Oslo in your Prayers

We are overnighting tonight in Oslo, Norway and up until just a couple of weeks ago, I was quite excited about it.  With the devastation with the bombing and the killing of all of those children, I was anxious to see what the city looked and felt like after everything had happened.   Myself, Stephanie (Youth Staff) and Cassandra (Youth Program Coordinator) went in search of the site of the bombing (as bleak as it may sound) to see things first hand.  We were a bit scared to ask anybody about is as not to offend or upset anybody.  It came down to “this looks good” or “this looks interesting” when we had to choose between turning left or right.  It didn’t take long before we saw a huge crowd of people surrounding barricades that had been set up around of the flowers, candles, letters and photographs that mourners placed in memory of the deceased and missing.  This particular location was not the exact site of the bombing, but it’s where the largest portion of the memorial resides.

There is no way to describe the energy and sadness that filled the air along with the perfume from the flowers.  The silence was deafening.  I walked around the perimeter of the barricades, took a few photos and looked at the photos that had been placed next to candles  which had been placed next to stuffed animals and flowers.  No words can describe it – so here’s a few photos. 

   

There were so many things written in foreign languages and I must admit that I’m glad I couldn’t them.  I don’t know if that’s something I could have handled.  I have so many more pictures – I’ll post them on facebook soon so you can see even more and see a bit more of what I saw – jaw dropping. 

Around the corner is where the actual bombing took place.  The memorial is not too evident here – it seems as if they are keeping the area clear while they clean up some of the damage to the buildings and surround areas.  Lots of the businesses and store fronts all have shattered windows along with other damage.  As I said before – it’s indescribable. 

Once we saw all of this, we talked about how lucky we are and how terrible some of these families (especially the parents of those children killed) must feel and how much their hearts must hurt.  WE began to wander deeper into the city and found that people have literally put flowers everywhere – in the fountains, on the statues – anywhere and everywhere they could find. 

 

I was ridiculously thirsty, so we stopped at a café and ended up sitting to chat for awhile.  Again, this was a picture perfect day of weather which makes me feel guilty.  It’s hard to think of myself having a wonderful day enjoying my friends and the weather and feeling so carefree when so many people are struggling with the current events.  After sitting for awhile and reflecting, we decided to walk to the other side of the city to see the new opera house that they’ve recently finished.  Before crossing the bridge to the opera house, we found a few ::ahem:: interesting sculptures. 

 

The opera house is right on the water and once we reached it, I didn’t want to leave at all!  There was a live band setting up for the evening and since we were overnighting, I was so tempted to sit and enjoy it but unfortunately, Cass and Steph had to go back to work.  We took a few pictures of the opera house and the multi-million dollar moving iceberg thing in the water before  heading “home”.  Apparently, this iceberg sculpture cost over $3 million dollars…for what?!?

   

Grateful for new friends these days!  God bless Oslo, Norway – please keep them in your prayers!

Quote of the day:  “The best way to get even is to forget.”

A day with the crazy Russians….

This morning was crazy...I didn't sleep well (as usual) and the clocks went hour forward (again) and Russian immigration gave me a hard time (typical!!).  By the time I made it through immigration, I was sure I had missed my tour because it was so late, but luckily the shore excursion manager got me on a different bus instead...so, crisis averted!  I would have been so disappointed because the thing I really liked about this tour is that there was three hours of free time where I could explore on my own minus the narration from a tour guide. 

The weather was highly unusual for St. Petersburg - there was sunshine and not a cloud in sight! Beautiful weather is definitely something we needed this cruise since we had already missed Warnemunde, Germany because the weather was so awful and it poured down rain in Tallinn, Estonia (I could ring out my clothes they were soaked so much...three hours later).  These guests (and crew) were definitely ready for a nice day of sunshine and warmth. 

This tour had lots of little stops, which was unfortunate in the sense that we couldn't go in anywhere only take photos from the outside.  But hey...at least I'm here, right?  The first photo opportunity was at St. Isaacs Cathedral which is the 3rd largest cathedral in the world.  The columns on the outside weigh 100 tons EACH!  Then, a quick stop to take a photo of the sphinx statues along the Neva river, which were gifts from Egypt to Russia.  The ones in Egypt were better :)

   

We stopped by the Spit of Vasilievsy Island to see St. Peter's cathedral (St. Peter and Paul Fortress) and the spire,  these two rust colored  columns called the "Rostral Columns" that were originally lighthouses for St. Petersburg because it was one of the original ports for Russia and the Trinity bridge.  

     

This ship was also located alongside the bridge – it was a gift from Holland to Russia.  It’s no longer a working ship, but now a very fancy restaurant!

As with any country, theme park or tourist attraction, we had to stop at the token souvenir shop.  The shop was huge and full of Matryoshka dolls (the dolls that have 5or 10 smaller dolls stacked inside of it) with pictures of every political figure like Obama painted on the front.  There was amber in every form of jewelry as well as glassware, books, key chains and every other trinket (or dustables) as mom would say.  I glanced as the prospective purchases but Chose to head to then restrooms and tea that the guide told us were waiting at the back.  I was pleasantly surprised when I reached the back of the shop to find coffee, tea, vodka and plum liqueur.  I opted for the plum liqueur...it is only 10am and didn't want ton hit the hard booze too early :).

It took about 45 minutes, but we finally got all of our guests out of the souvenir shop and back onto the bus.  We only drove about 15 minutes and arrived outside of the Church of the Spilled Blood which would also be our meeting point following our three hours of free time.  I chose to go inside of the Church, so I jumped in the long line to wait for tickets.  The detail on the façade is incredible – vibrant colors painting scenes on individual tiles that border the church and the texture on each of the bulbs all over the top.  Inside the church (aside from a million people) the walls felt like they were a mile high with paintings and mosaics decorating the walls from floor to ceiling. 

     

Here’s the spot where Russian Tsar Alexander II was assassinated – giving it the name “Church of the Spilled Blood”…

It only took me about 15 minutes to be OVER all the people in the church, so I ducked out the back exit to explore the city a bit and get some food because I was hungry!  After about an hour of wandering around and looking at menus, I found “Mama Roma’s”  (yes, I came all the way to Russia to eat Italian food).  When I walked in, Stephanie (one of my friends on board) called my name.  She was on a tour as well and came in to grab lunch – so I sat down with her and ordered a Cesar salad and a pesto pizza.  Before my meal arrived, she had to go meet up with her tour, so I ate alone and read my book on my iPad.  I absolutely loved it – great food, fresh air (because the restaurant was outside) and a good book.  I was HAPPY!  After eating, I walked slowly around St. Petersburg and took a few photographs and just enjoyed the fresh air. 

Next cruise (our last cruise through Russia), I REALLY want to go and do the White Nights cruise but I think it might be too late in the season because the White Nights might be close to over…maybe next year?!?!

Would you like a Corny Bar?

Nynashamn, Sweden (The Gateway into Stockholm)  - Jo and I had talked about going into Nynashamn that morning but didn't have any idea what we would do. I had asked around to other crew about the port and nobody had much feedback so were ventured in blindly. The ship actually has to tender this particular port because there is no true dock, only a small floating pontoon that can easily accommodate the ships tenders. It happened to be another one of those amazing European summer days where the sun was shining, the flowers were in bloom everywhere and the sky was perfectly clear. As soon as we got off the tender, we found some new friends...

The walk into the center of town was close to 20 minutes but because the weather was so nice and the town was so clean and pretty – it felt like no time at all!   Everyone had huge pots of brightly colored flowers on their patios...made me crave for my own place even more!

Nynashamn was very quiet...I think most of our guests took the train into Stockholm (30 minute train ride), so it left lots of places for us to roam without crowds to get in the way. We ended up walking into lots of clothing stores as well as home type shops. Jo,like me, really wants a place of her own. When the two of s walk into a store like that, we sound like two women ogling over newborn babies when in all actuality we're admiring sheets and towels. After an hour or so of whirlwind shopping, we were both hungry (I know your probably not surprised that I was hungry because when am I not?) and found a small cafe with sandwiches and salads. I went with a baguette with a shrimp salad of sorts and I think Jo ted for a chicken sandwich. Mine was alright...nothing to write home (or blog) about. After lunch, there really wasn't much left to do there. I noticed that there was a grocery store next to the restaurant and those are one of my favorite places to go in any foreign country. Not sure of I like them because they make us feel like "normal" people or just because I love to see the foods and items that they sell. For example, check out this "Corny bar Big"...

Thirty minutes later, Jo and I made our final purchases as well as an ice cream bar (they had the Magnum Ice Cream bars which are amazing...I saw they are starting to pop up I the states as well) for the walk "home". Jo wanted to see if she looked like the advertisement we saw for the ice cream....

Close, Jo...you almost look like the girl on the poster! An ice cream bar and long walk later we arrived back at the tender pier and waited for our chariot to take us back to the ship....and back to work :(  We just followed the sign to the “Utfart”!