Ashdod, Israel: The Holy Land, Part 1

Before I type anything else, today would be my Grandma Ruscup's 92nd birthday and I miss her like crazy!  I would give up all the travel in the world just to have her here!

I've been to Israel before and did a tour through Jerusalem and the Old City. With the recent events in Egypt, where we were supposed to go today and tomorrow, we have altered our course and redirected to Ashdod and Haifa Israel. None of the other girls on the team had ever gone into these ports, but Martin, our manager, had and was trying to give us general overviews of the area (and for me, it was a MAJOR refresher because all the areas seem to run together). Lucky for us, Martin arranged that we would have a private car and guide to take us to all the sites that our guests see in one day.

Within seconds of our morning dispatch concluding, the Shore Ex girls met in the office ready for a day out in Ashdod and seeing the sites of Jerusalem and the Old City. Our guide, Avi, a local tour guide (and a wealth of knowledge) picked us up and started the hour and half (give or take a few) drive to Jerusalem. A quick photo stop to see a panoramic view of Jerusalem was about 20 minutes into the ride. The stop gave us perspective to see where we’d be going and how close everything was in the area. We took a few photos there of some catacombs and broad-view shots before getting back on the road to make it into Jerusalem.

In Jerusalem, we ventured into the Old City to see as much as we could in such a limited amount of time. The room of the Last Supper was one of the first spots we stopped in. The room wasn't the actual room of the last supper, but the location where the Last Supper occurred and the land had since been built upon time and time again during the different time period. A few minutes’ walk and around the corner from the Last Supper spot was King David’s tomb. Now, King David’s body has never been found, so this is just a “temporary” spot until they body/Skeleton is found and laid to rest in a more permanent location.

            

Leaving King David’s tomb, we made our way through the old city underground that is wall to wall shops and is broken up into the religious blocks, the most obvious being the Muslim area and Temple Mount. Eventually, we came out at the entrance of the Church of the Holy Sepulcher which is the most prominent of locations in Jerusalem (at least for me) when it comes to the religious aspect. Within the Church (still owned by multiples churches within – the Orthodox is the most obvious to me when inside), the spot in the rock where the crucifix sat sits inside where people bow at the altar to catch a glimpse of what had once been there. Like herded sheep, you continue down the stairs to where the marble slab sits where Jesus’ body is said to have been anointed with oil after his crucifixion. Drones of people were taking freshly purchases rosaries and other religious trinkets and rubbing them on the stone to absorb its healing powers that the stone is said to carry.

From there, we continued around to a room which had some of the old catacombs on the outside, but in the center a very tiny shrine (I’m not sure what else to call it) that is built over the actual tomb of Jesus Christ. You can enter from two sides, but the first side has a massive line that wraps around the room for folks that want to see the tomb. If you enter from the opposite side, you can see the limestone of the tomb, but not the entire tomb. Because of the line and time constraints, we went just to the other side to see the chunk of limestone tucked underneath a small shrine of candles and other religious figurines, etc.

After our full tour through the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, we ventured down the Muslim quarter and over to the entrance of Temple Mount that has two large mosques situated on top: Al-Aqsa and Dome of the Rock. Unfortunately, only Muslims can enter Temple Mount (Haram Es Sharif) and the two mosques, so here’s a picture showing how close you can get if you aren't Muslim. We turned around after the guards tried to pose for our photo and headed towards the Western Wall or the Wailing Wall as some know it. Again, I had seen it before, but it was a great refresher. The Wailing Wall is where folks go to pray. It is still segregated into male and female sections, so we walked to the right and wrote our own personal prayers on sheets of paper and tucked them into the wall. I’m not sure of the significance, but many people would walk backwards away from the wall after placing their prayers on it. We all met up again at the entrance and set off for the long trip back to the ship, and a few more hours at the desk. I must admit, we were all exhausted, but it was really neat to see so much in one day without dealing with a huge group! Definitely another perk to the job!

Athens, Greece: A Night at the Plaka

Several of our newer itineraries now give us at least one overnight, sometimes two, in certain ports. When we have our embarkation in Piraeus (Athens), Greece – we have two overnights and offer an evening tour that takes folks into Athens to the Plaka (basically, the marketplace) where we walk to a restaurant right in the center. The restaurant is very old and long rectangular tables fill the room, with all the tables leading to the stage at the front of the room.

We were all seated comfortably and began pouring the wine and water into our glasses and before we knew it, we were served with a variety of traditional Greek appetizers and snack foods. The show started and it was a girl who loved to hear herself sing backed up by a few older gentlemen who played the instruments. She would alternate with 3 ladies and 3 gentlemen Zorba dancers doing traditional Greek dances. Honestly, the food was the best part about the evening! The entertainment was ok – just a bit too long for my taste and I was tired. :/ Just chalk it all up to experience, right?

Santorini: Profitis Ilias & Oia Village

Of all the times I’ve been to Santorini, I’ve truly never left the local area of Fira. I’ve taken the cable car up to the top, shopped around and come back down. To be completely honest, I didn’t know how much more there was to Santorini. Today, I took an excursion entitled “Profitis Ilias and Oia Village.”
Profitis Ilias was a location where the busses stopped and we were able to get a fantastic panoramic view of the entire island of Santorini. Despite the fog, everybody took several photos of the island. Like I mentioned before, I didn’t realize how much there was to the island – it’s quite large and on the opposite side of where the tenders drop off the guests, it’s actually quite flat as well.

The main attraction of the tour is Oia (EE-YA) Village. Oia is probably one of the most photographed locations in the world. People from all over the world, come to Greece and want to see the famous white houses with the blue cupolas that Santorini is so well known for, which are located in Oia. In Oia, the guide showed us the best location to take photos and then gave us free time to walk around and shop in the village. Truly, aside from the photographic aspect of the village, it’s just another typical Greek town with the same souvenirs, cafes and shops that every other town has. It was nice to finally see it, though.

 

The bus brought us back to Fira (on top of the mountain, in front of the ship). Because of the narrow streets and uneven terrain, the bus cannot drive us all the way to the cable car pickup and we all had to walk about 15 minutes to get to the cable car station (one of three ways to get down the mountain aside from the donkey ride or walking almost 600 steps down). Our group separated from the guide where they were given free time to shop around Fira or take the cable car back down to the ship. I walked them through the town to the cable car station, but one gentleman from a jewelry store stopped us to let me know that the entire island had no power and the cable car is not operating. When I asked what caused it, he just told me that the power plant had a major explosion and the island has no power without any promise of when it would be back on. My mind starts racing and I let the guests know what’s going on and tell them to find a restaurant to grab lunch or a drink and keep our fingers crossed that the power will come back on.

I left the guests and literally ran down the donkey trail – almost 600 steps down a mountain (HUGE steps) and very slippery! It takes about 45 minutes to an hour to walk down and I made it in 30 minutes, dodging donkeys and donkey droppings. I was hopeful that I’d find out what was going on, but unfortunately no more information was waiting for me at the bottom. Luckily, our staff was on the ball and arranged buses for anybody stuck at the top, but with 2 ships in port, it’s close to impossible to communicate that we’ve arranged alternate transportation to get them back to the ship. We had lots of upset folks that day. Because we tend to have many elderly onboard with us, they struggled to walk down the trail not knowing of the options available. Our staff was at the cable car station directing folks to the buses, but when you have 7,000 people on a small island – there’s just no way to spread the word.

The day ended at my favorite restaurant at the very end of the pier, Georgio’s. Keep in mind, there was no power on the entire island, but they continued to cook their incredible food in the dark on the gas grills. With all the craziness of the day, I can’t complain because it ended with my favorite Greek Foods – Greek Salad and Tzatziki!

Ancient Olympia, Mercouri Vineyard & the Coffee Cup That Almost Put Me In Prison

Katakolon, Greece, is a port that not many people have heard of because it is a small, quiet fishing village with little to offer aside from shops peddling local Greek treasures and trinkets and a strip of cafes and restaurants with Greek fare and a long list of seafood varieties. I have been here many times over the last few years, but never ventured outside of the small port area. With this new job, I have to go out on the tours and excursions that we have to offer so that I have a full understanding of what these places are. Like I mentioned before, Katakolon doesn't have a huge assortment of places to go out and explore, but it is known for one thing – Ancient Olympia.

I’ll be completely honest – with all the ruins in Europe, they are all starting to look the same with similar stories for each, but you only live once, right? Might as well go!

After arriving at Ancient Olympia, we went through the iron gates and back thousands of years to explore where many traditions began with the Olympics that we know today. My favorite part was seeing a group of archaeologists working on excavating even more of Olympia to understand more of the culture and the area of that time period. We ventured through and made our way to the location where the Olympic torch has been lit from for each game since the tradition was reintroduced in 1928 (see below photo). In the back area, we entered through a stone archway and saw the area where the field used to sit. It truly is just a dirt field now, but it becomes more when you picture what they lived like in those days and how they practiced daily for the Olympic games – both men and women alike, although the women were clothed in dresses versus men in their natural glory.

The guide had given everybody a bit of free time to wander out to the field area and gave us a meeting time and location to meet 15 minutes later. I went to the field and took a few photos on the winner’s podium (a pipe dream, I know) and came back fairly quickly. In my purse, I had my cup from my morning coffee that my Sorority sister and former roommate, Amanda, had given me. I thought it’d be fun to take a photo of the cup in Olympia just to send her a photo and say “hey…look where the Naked Grape cup has traveled!” I took a photo of it on two separate stones and thought nothing of it.

A few minutes later, one of the women who worked inside of the park came and told me that I had to delete the pictures I took of the cup. I asked her why and she just kept repeating for me to delete them. I told her to give me a reason and she said nothing new, so I just started to walk away and she threatened to call the police on me. Me, being the smartass that I am, told her to go ahead – I’d love to explain that I had the police called on me for taking a photo of my own cup. I could understand if I put it on one of the stones that was roped off – but I didn’t. People were leaning on the stones and taking photos all over the place! So – Amanda, if you’re reading this – I almost got arrested for a photo of the Naked Grape cup!

Needless to say, I was very ready to get out of Olympia and head to our next destination – the Mercouri Estate Winery and Vineyard for a tour and wine sampling. The property was absolutely beautiful with loads of flowers and greenery growing all over the rustic buildings. We walked all over the property and I took a ton of photos. At the conclusion of the tour, they took us to an open grassy area at the back where the vineyard sits. There were tables and chairs sitting under the trees providing a cooling shade and gentle breeze. Looking through the vineyard, we could see the rows of grapes and the sea right behind it – it was the perfect place to put up a hammock and relax for the remainder of the afternoon. I had absolutely no desire to leave there! At each table, we had a bottle of red, a bottle of their white, olive oil made from their olives and homemade cheeses, tomatoes, meats and cucumbers to rest beautifully upon freshly baked bread.

While at the vineyard, I managed to slip off and take a few photos of the grapes and even a photo of the Naked Grape cup in the Mercouri vineyards…I was looking over my shoulders for police, in case that was against the rules too!

Venice, Italy: That's Amore!

Quick....What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of Venice?

I don’t know about you, but a gondola ride with a man serenading his passengers while rowing through the flooded alleyways of the city is the first vision that pops into my mind. The ship offers a tour that takes guests on a 35 minute gondola ride and I figured what a better way to get my feet wet (not literally) than to just join the guests.

In Venice, the ship docks a bit of a distance away from the main part of the city and St. Marks square. Most guests travelling on their own will take a water taxi to get to the square, but if they were on a shore excursion with us, we provide a motor launch (a 60-seater boat) from the ship to reach the square and the start of the tour. The group for the gondolas took the motor launch over to the dock in the city where we walked 3 blocks or so and up and down three bridges to reach the area where we boarded the gondolas.

The guide had explained that when we embarked the gondola, there would be a hooker. Needless to say, this perked a few ears! A hooker is a man (maybe woman, but there weren't any there at the time) who stands at the side of the gondola with a long stick with a metal hook at the end. His function is to grab the side of the gondola with the hook and hold it into place while the Gondolier told people where to sit in order to balance out the gondola. The picture below of the gentleman with the white shirt, black pants and a long stick with a hook is a hooker.

As we rowed away from the docks, there was one gentleman serenading (in both English and Italian) all of the gondolas at the same time because his boisterous voice echoed through the alleyways between the buildings. One thing I had never thought nor realized about gondolas is how unbalanced they are. The guide pointed out was that the gondolas are a bit larger on the right (I believe) so that when the gondolier stands on the left to steer, it balances itself out. With five of us sitting in one gondola, there were several times where I was scared to move or breathe because of the sensitivity it had to motion and I felt as though I was fall right out! I will say that I’m glad I finally got the opportunity to do it, but I will never again do it with a group of five people – too many! I told Kieran that if we do it – it’ll just be the two of us….

Albanian Adventure via Greece

I can honestly say that Albania was never a place I saw on the list of places I had to go, but when the opportunity arose, I jumped at it. My new job on board is in the Shore Excursions department and it's now my job to go out and experience the tours that we offer in order for me to be a better saleswoman ;) It's a rough life!

After disembarking the Noordam in the morning, we took a 2 minute (literally) shuttle ride to the terminal of the port and then walked another 2 minutes to board an old Russian hydrofoil boat. It was exactly what I had anticipated simply because I had seen these in Russia about a month prior. It looks very similar to a large airplane on the inside with comfortable seats, except everybody carries their luggage at their feet and loads up the entrances with the larger suitcases (safety codes aren't a high priority over here!) Thirty minutes and 5 lives in Candy Crush later, and we arrive on Albanian soil to meet our guide.

My first observation of Albania was simple - it was hot! But, it’s that time of the year and here in the Mediterranean it’s about the same temperature as it is in Florida. All 29 of us climbed into the bus dying for air conditioner. Driving through Albania was an eye-opening experience and it is one more country where I'm reminded to count my blessings. The beaches lining the roads were absolutely stunning with water so richly blue, I wanted nothing more than to go for a dip - it looked so refreshing and relaxing. But then looking to the other side of the street, the tiny dilapidated houses with laundry dangling outside representing the large families living within its four walls, was a stark contrast. We’d see buildings that looked brand new, but housed nobody and other buildings that looked like great houses to live in or places to start a business, but had been knocked over from one side. The guide told us that these houses/buildings are perfectly fine, but the government would knock them over if they were built without the proper permits. It begs the question as to how they were allowed to complete the house and THEN the government stepped in.

   

Thirty minutes later, we arrived at Buntrint National Park, which is a UNESCO World Heritage site and basically an amalgamation of monuments representing over two thousand years of history, from the Hellenistic temple buildings of the 4th century BC, to the Ottoman defenses created in the early 19th century. The group spent about an hour and half walking around the site exploring the Roman Baths, the city walls and gates, the Great Basilica, the theater You’ll see in a couple of the photos that the sites are slowly sinking under water. It makes me sad to think that before too long, it will all be underwater and other folks might not get to see the ruins.

 

Anyways, I’ve attached pictures of the many photographs I took on the Butrint property - I’ll post more on Facebook for all to see as well.

Ninety minutes and four bottles of water later, we were back on the bus and off to lunch at a restaurant with an absolutely incredible lunch with a view to match! We had fresh Albanian tomatoes, cucumbers, cabbage, olives (I left plenty for others to enjoy :)), tzatziki, veal, potatoes and meatballs. It was so fresh and delicious. Definitely not somewhere I saw myself travelling to, but somewhere I won't soon forget!

                                                                       

Party Planner (now Culinary Arts Center Host) in Training

I submitted this to the Holland America Line Blog and here's the posting:

Culinary Arts Center Host for a Voyage

Thanks to Ryndam’s Culinary Arts Center Host Sydney Ellis for sharing with us this fun story about a young cruiser with great aspirations!

Last summer on the Veendam, I met a lovely young lady by the name of Gabby. She approached me after a cooking demonstration and was curious about the “Party Planner” (now the Culinary Arts Center Host) position. We chatted for quite a bit and by the end of the conversation, she was determined to become a future party planner for HAL. I gave her my email in case she had any more questions that I could help her answer. Within a few months, Gabby had contacted me and explained that she was sailing aboard the Nieuw Amsterdam in April and wanted to see if it would be possible to shadow the party planner there and see what the job as well as ship life was all about. We arranged for her to get a hands-on experience and she had an incredible time. When she arrived home, I asked if she’d send me a little bit about her experience so that we could share it with the blog. Big thanks to Jacob and Blair aboard the Nieuw Amsterdam for making this one a happy and excited young lady!

In Gabby’s own words:

 

Gabby Wesley, center, stands between the Tournant Chef and Jacob from Nieuw Amsterdam’s Culinary Arts Center.

From April 7 to the 14 I got to job shadow party planner Jacob Churchman on the Nieuw Amsterdam for my high school senior project. The experience was fabulous! I met a lot of people and learned new things, from towel folding to cooking demonstrations and much more. Jacob took me under his wing and gave me a behind-the-scene look and got into the details of working and living on a cruise ship.

I got interested in being a party planner because I enjoy hosting and presenting in the Culinary Arts Center, as it is very relaxed and intimate. You’re hanging out with a smaller audience rather than speaking to the entire ship like in the Show Room at Sea.

Overall, I can’t thank enough fellow party planner Sydney Ellis for setting this up for me after I met her on the Veendam this past summer. Without her, none of this would have been possible. Also big thanks to party planner Jacob Churchman for letting me shadow him. With this experience, I am locked into becoming a party planner (name soon to be changed to a Culinary Arts Center Host) with Holland America Line. Happy 140 years Holland America!