Wednesday, November 23, 2005
Lizzie's World Travels
well...i have some bad news. my laptop broke somehow. i don't know what is wrong with it but that means that i will not be blogging until it is fixed. when i get home i will post my last 4 blogs as i will be writing them by hand until then. sorry for the inconvienence. i am really upset. i just hope that the problem is not going to erase all my pictures from my trip. before i go i will just tell you about the highlight of my day yesturday. i woke up to find out that the massages were on sale for 50% off. so i got a hot stone massage and i will never get another kind of massage again. it was incredible. well talk to you soon! Love you!
Monday, November 21, 2005
November 21, 2005 Bermuda
November 21,2005 1:30am Bermuda aka Heaven
Happy Birthday again Mom! I don’t think I can say that enough since I’m not there. It was great talking to you on the phone today! I hope you had a great time at the theater. Now I just want to let everybody know that today I stepped into heaven and I didn’t want to leave. Bermuda was incredible!! We got off the ship a little bit late (at 11:00AM) and we needed to be back on the ship by 3, so we knew that we needed to hurry. We hopped on a city bus, but it wasn’t just ANY city bus. It was a pink and brown bus that on the front had the number 7 (my lucky number) and said SPECIAL on the front in large letters. It was my kind of bus. The pink special bus! We rode the special bus past tons of houses of many different bright colors, and beautiful golf courses and we even went past south Hampton beach. We finally got off at Horseshoe Bay, and it was kinda funny because today I realized that I wasn’t the smartest packer for this trip, because I didn’t have any flip flops. So I had to wear my high heels, which was actually kind of comical as we walked down this large hill that took us to the beach, but I made it safely. Painfully, but safely. As we were walking down the road, we could look through the green shrubbery, and see little glimpses of the beach we were about to arrive at. When we got down to it, we saw the glistening white sand, and the beautiful turquoise water that glistened in the sun, and was so clear that we could see to the white sand on the bottom. The beach was so clean, I think the cleanest beach I’ve ever seen. Not too much seaweed, no garbage, and hardly any people at all. We found a place to put our stuff, and we hurried and jumped in the water. Once we got in we realized that the water was not cold at all, but it was not hot either. It was just right. We did not want to leave once we got in. We would just stand where we could barely touch with our tippy toes, and when the waves would come we would jump and let them take us away. It was the best ever! We also did the usual burying someone under the sand. Sally was the victim this time. Susan made her into a short, fat, rather voluptuous mermaid with the princess sea witch hair. The time at the beach was over way too soon and we headed back up to the bus. The bus ride back was just as crazy as the bus ride there, and like everywhere in Europe the drivers are crazy. I got a little bit car sick. We got back on the boat just in time and we went upstairs and ate at the buffet (of course), and hopped into the pool since we hadn’t had enough swimming already. It was great because the indoor pool had become the outdoor pool because they opened up the sun roof over it. It was also fun because the pool was about 95 degrees and felt like a hot tub. It’s kind of ironic though, because the hot tubs on the trip so far haven’t even been hot. All the old people would be angry to know that the pool was so warm, and they can’t even get the hot tubs to work. We stayed in the pool for about 2 hours, switching between the “indoor” pool and the outdoor pool at the back of the ship, and watched the sunset over Bermuda as we rode away. After a long day of swimming, even though we had already eaten, after we showered we went and ate again. We had a quick bite, and went to a show (which quite possibly may have been the worst show production I have seen in my life). Let’s just say it was lip syncing at its finest. When we were done, we did a little more shopping, and I found a little pink sapphire ring for $300.00 that I almost bought, then I decided the money could go toward more clothes. Then we went to karaoke night. Karaoke night was kind of a flop, which was a disappointment because even Ed came to cheer me on. It was finally my turn to perform and the CD for cabaret was scratched, so I couldn’t sing it. After making me stand up there and I almost outed myself on stage about being a Princess employee in front of my boss, they made me sit down and pick a new song. I was a little apprehensive about that, because I couldn’t find a song that I knew well enough that I could make it sound good. Sally ended up picking out Shania Twain’s “Whose bed have your boots been under” and it went well… as expected. Like I had just picked out a song for karaoke. When it was over, we went up to eat again… cuz…. That’s what we do. For the past 2 hours Heather and I have been hanging out, and I have been talking on the phone for an hour with my onboard boyfriend who works on the ship, and I’m not allowed to hang out with. It was quite exciting. So luckily I have a great and beautiful friend who would suffer through typing a letter for my family, so I wouldn’t be here until 3 in the morning. Needless to say it was an incredible day. Bermuda is a piece of heaven on earth, and we really didn’t want to leave at all! I hope everyone had as great of a day as I did. By the way… how’s winter going for you guys? Cuz my summer is great! Happy birthday again Mom! Your birthday present will be on its way once I get to Fort Lauderdale. Love you!
Happy Birthday again Mom! I don’t think I can say that enough since I’m not there. It was great talking to you on the phone today! I hope you had a great time at the theater. Now I just want to let everybody know that today I stepped into heaven and I didn’t want to leave. Bermuda was incredible!! We got off the ship a little bit late (at 11:00AM) and we needed to be back on the ship by 3, so we knew that we needed to hurry. We hopped on a city bus, but it wasn’t just ANY city bus. It was a pink and brown bus that on the front had the number 7 (my lucky number) and said SPECIAL on the front in large letters. It was my kind of bus. The pink special bus! We rode the special bus past tons of houses of many different bright colors, and beautiful golf courses and we even went past south Hampton beach. We finally got off at Horseshoe Bay, and it was kinda funny because today I realized that I wasn’t the smartest packer for this trip, because I didn’t have any flip flops. So I had to wear my high heels, which was actually kind of comical as we walked down this large hill that took us to the beach, but I made it safely. Painfully, but safely. As we were walking down the road, we could look through the green shrubbery, and see little glimpses of the beach we were about to arrive at. When we got down to it, we saw the glistening white sand, and the beautiful turquoise water that glistened in the sun, and was so clear that we could see to the white sand on the bottom. The beach was so clean, I think the cleanest beach I’ve ever seen. Not too much seaweed, no garbage, and hardly any people at all. We found a place to put our stuff, and we hurried and jumped in the water. Once we got in we realized that the water was not cold at all, but it was not hot either. It was just right. We did not want to leave once we got in. We would just stand where we could barely touch with our tippy toes, and when the waves would come we would jump and let them take us away. It was the best ever! We also did the usual burying someone under the sand. Sally was the victim this time. Susan made her into a short, fat, rather voluptuous mermaid with the princess sea witch hair. The time at the beach was over way too soon and we headed back up to the bus. The bus ride back was just as crazy as the bus ride there, and like everywhere in Europe the drivers are crazy. I got a little bit car sick. We got back on the boat just in time and we went upstairs and ate at the buffet (of course), and hopped into the pool since we hadn’t had enough swimming already. It was great because the indoor pool had become the outdoor pool because they opened up the sun roof over it. It was also fun because the pool was about 95 degrees and felt like a hot tub. It’s kind of ironic though, because the hot tubs on the trip so far haven’t even been hot. All the old people would be angry to know that the pool was so warm, and they can’t even get the hot tubs to work. We stayed in the pool for about 2 hours, switching between the “indoor” pool and the outdoor pool at the back of the ship, and watched the sunset over Bermuda as we rode away. After a long day of swimming, even though we had already eaten, after we showered we went and ate again. We had a quick bite, and went to a show (which quite possibly may have been the worst show production I have seen in my life). Let’s just say it was lip syncing at its finest. When we were done, we did a little more shopping, and I found a little pink sapphire ring for $300.00 that I almost bought, then I decided the money could go toward more clothes. Then we went to karaoke night. Karaoke night was kind of a flop, which was a disappointment because even Ed came to cheer me on. It was finally my turn to perform and the CD for cabaret was scratched, so I couldn’t sing it. After making me stand up there and I almost outed myself on stage about being a Princess employee in front of my boss, they made me sit down and pick a new song. I was a little apprehensive about that, because I couldn’t find a song that I knew well enough that I could make it sound good. Sally ended up picking out Shania Twain’s “Whose bed have your boots been under” and it went well… as expected. Like I had just picked out a song for karaoke. When it was over, we went up to eat again… cuz…. That’s what we do. For the past 2 hours Heather and I have been hanging out, and I have been talking on the phone for an hour with my onboard boyfriend who works on the ship, and I’m not allowed to hang out with. It was quite exciting. So luckily I have a great and beautiful friend who would suffer through typing a letter for my family, so I wouldn’t be here until 3 in the morning. Needless to say it was an incredible day. Bermuda is a piece of heaven on earth, and we really didn’t want to leave at all! I hope everyone had as great of a day as I did. By the way… how’s winter going for you guys? Cuz my summer is great! Happy birthday again Mom! Your birthday present will be on its way once I get to Fort Lauderdale. Love you!
Sunday, November 20, 2005
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!! November 21, 2005 At sea
November 20, 2005 12:00am At Sea
Well I don’t quite understand the blog site and my computer but I don’t think that it is compatible all the time. I write my blogs and some days they show up and some days they don’t. Sorry that you haven’t received a blog for the past couple of days. I have sent them I promise. Today was the best at sea day that we have had. The movement of the ship doesn’t get to me anymore. For the first time since we got on the ship it was sunny enough to lay out by the pool. We got on our swimsuits and put on tanning oil, and for about 20 minutes we had sun. It was great! I really felt like I was cruising. Other than tan we went shopping and I didn’t buy anything. But I will say there is some great jewelry on board. It is not a good idea to put such great jewelry shops so close to me. They are practically in my house if you think about it. When I am at such close quarters with the jewelry, $500 starts to seem like a small price to pay for a cute ring. I mean, it used to be $950 so it is a good deal, right? To make things worse, tomorrow there is going to be a big sale on all of the sapphire jewelry. I will restrain myself, don’t worry. After the shopping, we ate second breakfast or first lunch something like that. Then I did something that mom, you had better make sure that you are sitting down for this, I did my laundry. Yeah, weird, I know. I am on vacation and I am doing laundry. When you are with two other girls for 10 days and no one is doing laundry, your room starts to stink. Our room steward does the best he can, but the clothes are still in the room. So Sally and I did our laundry and it made a big difference. I got dragged to a show tonight. I just didn’t think that it was going to be my cup of tea. The performer was doing a tribute to Nat King Cole. I know that doesn’t sound like something that I would enjoy. But I went and it was incredible. He did all my favorites. His second song he sang was Orange Colored Sky. It was funny because he is from England and he pronounced it as “Arange colored sky”. it made me laugh but he was really good. I went and hopped in the hot tub after and it was SO hot. I was in for less than 5 minutes and I had to get out. I felt like I was getting fried. The man that I talked to about the church a while a go was in there and we had a fun time talking again. This time we talked about picking the right husband, goal setting, how to cut a business card so that in fits around your head and other important things. He was a really nice guy. When he went to bed I hopped into the pool. It was so fun to play in the pool with the ship moving because it made it feel like I was in the ocean. Heather and Susan came and talked to me while I was in there and they told me that one of our waiter friends was going to get us some ice cream. It was some great cookies and cream. What a nice guy. Now I am about to go to bed but I was sitting here thinking about my old mom. The only thing that I can give you for your birthday right now is a blog. I hope you like it because it is the best I can do right now. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I LOVE YOU!!! I hope that it is everything that you were hoping that it would be. Aren’t you glad that you don’t look 50. You are so beautiful and wonderful! Thanks for being the best mom in the world! Tomorrow is Bermuta and I will write you tomorrow to let you know how it goes. Love you!!
Well I don’t quite understand the blog site and my computer but I don’t think that it is compatible all the time. I write my blogs and some days they show up and some days they don’t. Sorry that you haven’t received a blog for the past couple of days. I have sent them I promise. Today was the best at sea day that we have had. The movement of the ship doesn’t get to me anymore. For the first time since we got on the ship it was sunny enough to lay out by the pool. We got on our swimsuits and put on tanning oil, and for about 20 minutes we had sun. It was great! I really felt like I was cruising. Other than tan we went shopping and I didn’t buy anything. But I will say there is some great jewelry on board. It is not a good idea to put such great jewelry shops so close to me. They are practically in my house if you think about it. When I am at such close quarters with the jewelry, $500 starts to seem like a small price to pay for a cute ring. I mean, it used to be $950 so it is a good deal, right? To make things worse, tomorrow there is going to be a big sale on all of the sapphire jewelry. I will restrain myself, don’t worry. After the shopping, we ate second breakfast or first lunch something like that. Then I did something that mom, you had better make sure that you are sitting down for this, I did my laundry. Yeah, weird, I know. I am on vacation and I am doing laundry. When you are with two other girls for 10 days and no one is doing laundry, your room starts to stink. Our room steward does the best he can, but the clothes are still in the room. So Sally and I did our laundry and it made a big difference. I got dragged to a show tonight. I just didn’t think that it was going to be my cup of tea. The performer was doing a tribute to Nat King Cole. I know that doesn’t sound like something that I would enjoy. But I went and it was incredible. He did all my favorites. His second song he sang was Orange Colored Sky. It was funny because he is from England and he pronounced it as “Arange colored sky”. it made me laugh but he was really good. I went and hopped in the hot tub after and it was SO hot. I was in for less than 5 minutes and I had to get out. I felt like I was getting fried. The man that I talked to about the church a while a go was in there and we had a fun time talking again. This time we talked about picking the right husband, goal setting, how to cut a business card so that in fits around your head and other important things. He was a really nice guy. When he went to bed I hopped into the pool. It was so fun to play in the pool with the ship moving because it made it feel like I was in the ocean. Heather and Susan came and talked to me while I was in there and they told me that one of our waiter friends was going to get us some ice cream. It was some great cookies and cream. What a nice guy. Now I am about to go to bed but I was sitting here thinking about my old mom. The only thing that I can give you for your birthday right now is a blog. I hope you like it because it is the best I can do right now. HAPPY BIRTHDAY!! I LOVE YOU!!! I hope that it is everything that you were hoping that it would be. Aren’t you glad that you don’t look 50. You are so beautiful and wonderful! Thanks for being the best mom in the world! Tomorrow is Bermuta and I will write you tomorrow to let you know how it goes. Love you!!
Saturday, November 19, 2005
November 19th, 2005 at sea
so it is another day at sea and lucky for us the waves have calmed down a bit. all we do on days at sea is sit around because the pools are closed due to the waves. there is starting to be a little bit of tension around the cabins. luckily for now i am not involved. i think it is just the close quarters. it will all work out though. i still love it out here. today we have another fun show to go to so that will be fun. and i think tomorrow night is another kareoke night. i hope i make it to the finals. i am going to sing Cabaret next time. hopefully it will be a better track than route 66 was. well i am off to the arcade. i am feeling some air hockey coming on. i am halfway through my cruise and i am already over my spending limit. so sorry everyone...no suvineers this trip. better luck next time! i love you all!! and keep commenting on my blogs i love it and look forward to it everyday. they really help me get through these at sea days. one more to go until we reach Bermuta! hey mom, are you counting down the days to the big 50? i am! i wish i was going to be there to celebrate with you! hey if any of you have time could you fill me in on all my shows? who has been fired, kicked off, and let go? give me the dirt! i love you!
Friday, November 18, 2005
November 17, AT SEA and SICK
November 17th, 2005 7:00pm Azorez Islands
Here we are again setting sail to another destination. This time we have 3 days at sea before we hit our next destination. But before I start talking about what’s coming up next, I have to tell you about what happened today. When I woke up we had a dance party in the room. I was a little crazy some might say. When we looked out off the deck, we saw how gorgeous the island was. This town was a great town for me. Wanna know why? Lots of great shopping! The bad part about it, was about ten minutes into the shopping I got lost and separated from all my friends. So it was just me shopping today. Good alone time. The bad part about that, is I don’t have their good common sense to tell me when I’m spending too much on jewelry. At this shop they gave me a free key chain and a map of the island. I ended up buying a whole jewelry set of pearls. Pearl necklace with an invisible setting with about 40 pearls on it, a pearl ring with diamonds on the side, and dangly pearl earrings with 2 pearls on them. One of them has a little bit of pink in them, so I had to get them. After I shopped for about four hours I met up with Dave Arnott and his new girlfriend. They are so cute! They met one week before his first cruise on a blind date and hung out every night after that. With three days before his cruise on the Queen Mary he told her that he couldn’t see himself going on the cruises with out her. So to this point they have known each other for a total of one month and they are so perfect for each other. It is like a fairy tale story. They both think so as well. So it looks like we might have a new addition to our Alaska family. Speaking of the Alaska family… being on this cruise really makes me think that I should go up to Alaska for the summer then go on my mission. That way when I get back I can go straight beck up there so that I don’t have much down time after my mission. This idea is definitely being pushed by Ed and Dave. I was talking to Sarah and she said the night that I told Dave that I was not going to come back up, he said about three times that he was disappointed because they had big plans for me up there. Then later on I was talking to him and he hinted at me coming up early and helping before, basically offering me a full time position. And Ed keeps telling me that I need to talk to the church and see if they will let me split up my mission around the summers so that I can come up there and not miss any summers. I keep telling him that that is not how it works but he is convinced that I need to just ask and they will let me. What a silly man! Anyways…back to the cruise. I realized that on this cruise I have something that you all had before I was born. I have a Philipeano maid. He comes in everyday, twice a day. In the morning he cleans our room and makes our bed. In the afternoon he comes in again to clean our room and turn down our bad and he always leaves chocolates on our pillows. I think I want to take him home with me! I think he would come too. The other day he left a flower on my pillow. And two days ago I showed him my pictures of us with Fred and Ginger our donkeys and that night he had made a donkey out of our hand towels with a note saying, “I am a happy donkey. Goodnight ladies.” and left it on my bed. He told me later that it was Ginger my favorite donkey. I talk to him everyday and he is a very nice guy. But don’t worry family…I won’t really bring him home with me. Our new favorite thing is to sit by the pool and read. It is really fun! We have cute men that bring us our favorite drinks whenever we want. I don’t know if there could be anything more perfect for me! They played Miss Congeniality 2 and right after was Princess Pop star. I sang Route 66 and it was quite possibly the slowest version of that song I have ever heard. But I think that I still showed the audience my personality. When they called my name I ran up there screaming like I had just won on a game show. Then when I reached the stage I did a cartwheel. During the song I kept on making little jokes to the audience. When I was done Michael said that he felt like he was watching a Saturday Night Live skit. Needless to say, I had a good time being on stage again. We went outside to the big screen after and watched Monster in Law. It was funny during the movie because the boat started hitting the big waves of the Atlantic making the pool go CRAZY. It kept on splashing up against the side and getting up as high as the screen then it would come and splash us. It was so cold but the movie was good. After the movie we went back to our rooms to go to bed but the ship was going crazy. It became systematic when the ship would go down on a wave another huge wave would come and smash up against the ship. It sounded like we were under attack. Bombs going off about every 5 minutes. Sally and I were fighting so hard to not get sick. We both took two motion sickness pills to try and knock us out. We kept on talking to try to calm ourselves while we waited for them to kick in. this morning it is the same thing. It is 2:00pm on the 18th and I am chillin by the indoor pool watching it go crazy. It is like I have my own indoor raging ocean. They have to continuously mop around us. You would think by now that they would have emptied the pools. I think that they keep them filled because all the guests love watching it. We also have a ton of guests relaxing by it because of the soothing beach water sound it makes. And when they are around the pool they drink which brings in sales. Can’t get rid of that! Well….time for BINGO! Talk to you later!!
Here we are again setting sail to another destination. This time we have 3 days at sea before we hit our next destination. But before I start talking about what’s coming up next, I have to tell you about what happened today. When I woke up we had a dance party in the room. I was a little crazy some might say. When we looked out off the deck, we saw how gorgeous the island was. This town was a great town for me. Wanna know why? Lots of great shopping! The bad part about it, was about ten minutes into the shopping I got lost and separated from all my friends. So it was just me shopping today. Good alone time. The bad part about that, is I don’t have their good common sense to tell me when I’m spending too much on jewelry. At this shop they gave me a free key chain and a map of the island. I ended up buying a whole jewelry set of pearls. Pearl necklace with an invisible setting with about 40 pearls on it, a pearl ring with diamonds on the side, and dangly pearl earrings with 2 pearls on them. One of them has a little bit of pink in them, so I had to get them. After I shopped for about four hours I met up with Dave Arnott and his new girlfriend. They are so cute! They met one week before his first cruise on a blind date and hung out every night after that. With three days before his cruise on the Queen Mary he told her that he couldn’t see himself going on the cruises with out her. So to this point they have known each other for a total of one month and they are so perfect for each other. It is like a fairy tale story. They both think so as well. So it looks like we might have a new addition to our Alaska family. Speaking of the Alaska family… being on this cruise really makes me think that I should go up to Alaska for the summer then go on my mission. That way when I get back I can go straight beck up there so that I don’t have much down time after my mission. This idea is definitely being pushed by Ed and Dave. I was talking to Sarah and she said the night that I told Dave that I was not going to come back up, he said about three times that he was disappointed because they had big plans for me up there. Then later on I was talking to him and he hinted at me coming up early and helping before, basically offering me a full time position. And Ed keeps telling me that I need to talk to the church and see if they will let me split up my mission around the summers so that I can come up there and not miss any summers. I keep telling him that that is not how it works but he is convinced that I need to just ask and they will let me. What a silly man! Anyways…back to the cruise. I realized that on this cruise I have something that you all had before I was born. I have a Philipeano maid. He comes in everyday, twice a day. In the morning he cleans our room and makes our bed. In the afternoon he comes in again to clean our room and turn down our bad and he always leaves chocolates on our pillows. I think I want to take him home with me! I think he would come too. The other day he left a flower on my pillow. And two days ago I showed him my pictures of us with Fred and Ginger our donkeys and that night he had made a donkey out of our hand towels with a note saying, “I am a happy donkey. Goodnight ladies.” and left it on my bed. He told me later that it was Ginger my favorite donkey. I talk to him everyday and he is a very nice guy. But don’t worry family…I won’t really bring him home with me. Our new favorite thing is to sit by the pool and read. It is really fun! We have cute men that bring us our favorite drinks whenever we want. I don’t know if there could be anything more perfect for me! They played Miss Congeniality 2 and right after was Princess Pop star. I sang Route 66 and it was quite possibly the slowest version of that song I have ever heard. But I think that I still showed the audience my personality. When they called my name I ran up there screaming like I had just won on a game show. Then when I reached the stage I did a cartwheel. During the song I kept on making little jokes to the audience. When I was done Michael said that he felt like he was watching a Saturday Night Live skit. Needless to say, I had a good time being on stage again. We went outside to the big screen after and watched Monster in Law. It was funny during the movie because the boat started hitting the big waves of the Atlantic making the pool go CRAZY. It kept on splashing up against the side and getting up as high as the screen then it would come and splash us. It was so cold but the movie was good. After the movie we went back to our rooms to go to bed but the ship was going crazy. It became systematic when the ship would go down on a wave another huge wave would come and smash up against the ship. It sounded like we were under attack. Bombs going off about every 5 minutes. Sally and I were fighting so hard to not get sick. We both took two motion sickness pills to try and knock us out. We kept on talking to try to calm ourselves while we waited for them to kick in. this morning it is the same thing. It is 2:00pm on the 18th and I am chillin by the indoor pool watching it go crazy. It is like I have my own indoor raging ocean. They have to continuously mop around us. You would think by now that they would have emptied the pools. I think that they keep them filled because all the guests love watching it. We also have a ton of guests relaxing by it because of the soothing beach water sound it makes. And when they are around the pool they drink which brings in sales. Can’t get rid of that! Well….time for BINGO! Talk to you later!!
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
November 16th cont...
November 16th, 2005 At Sea
We had another BINGO day today. They only play on at sea days. I am not allowed to play because I am underage. So sally buys the tickets and I help her on her cards. We never get very good cards it seems like. But Michael on the other hand did very well. In one game we all knew that he was only one away from BINGO so we were all rooting for that number. All of a sudden they called it and all five of us shouted BINGO so loud! We were so excited! He won $150! It was great for Sally because right before he won it she asked him that if he won if he would share the money with her. I wish I were in that cut. Tonight you would be proud of me family. We sat down to a friendly game of Balderdash and it took me back to our family night days when I would NEVER win or when you would let me win so that I would keep playing with you guys. Well this evening I kicked their butts!!! It was great! We had a great time playing. Before we played the game I went to a show. It was a one person show, a lady performer. She sang a whole bunch of songs from big band to broadway. She has my dream job and my dream voice. She was so great. I could have listened to her all night. She did all love songs. A lot of her songs were ones that I have performed or wanted to perform except for she could hit the high notes perfectly. She was so good! At one part though she was singing LOVE like Natalie Cole when she had the audience help her out by singing the sentences after she sang the letters. Of course I sang really loud because I love that song and because the old people were scared to sing along. After I sang the cute little couple sitting next to us that we had become friends with leaned over to me and said that I had such a beautiful voice. It was so sweet of them. When Heather and I were done watching her we met up with everyone else who were watching The Bourne Supremacy on the big screen outside. After that was over we played our game. Tomorrow night is the first round of Princess Pop Star. Sally says that I have to go and try out. I think it will be fun. I know a lot of old people songs. I think they will like me. I will let you know how it goes. I guess if you win you get a whole bunch of stuff. I like stuff! that’s perfect for me! Love you!
We had another BINGO day today. They only play on at sea days. I am not allowed to play because I am underage. So sally buys the tickets and I help her on her cards. We never get very good cards it seems like. But Michael on the other hand did very well. In one game we all knew that he was only one away from BINGO so we were all rooting for that number. All of a sudden they called it and all five of us shouted BINGO so loud! We were so excited! He won $150! It was great for Sally because right before he won it she asked him that if he won if he would share the money with her. I wish I were in that cut. Tonight you would be proud of me family. We sat down to a friendly game of Balderdash and it took me back to our family night days when I would NEVER win or when you would let me win so that I would keep playing with you guys. Well this evening I kicked their butts!!! It was great! We had a great time playing. Before we played the game I went to a show. It was a one person show, a lady performer. She sang a whole bunch of songs from big band to broadway. She has my dream job and my dream voice. She was so great. I could have listened to her all night. She did all love songs. A lot of her songs were ones that I have performed or wanted to perform except for she could hit the high notes perfectly. She was so good! At one part though she was singing LOVE like Natalie Cole when she had the audience help her out by singing the sentences after she sang the letters. Of course I sang really loud because I love that song and because the old people were scared to sing along. After I sang the cute little couple sitting next to us that we had become friends with leaned over to me and said that I had such a beautiful voice. It was so sweet of them. When Heather and I were done watching her we met up with everyone else who were watching The Bourne Supremacy on the big screen outside. After that was over we played our game. Tomorrow night is the first round of Princess Pop Star. Sally says that I have to go and try out. I think it will be fun. I know a lot of old people songs. I think they will like me. I will let you know how it goes. I guess if you win you get a whole bunch of stuff. I like stuff! that’s perfect for me! Love you!
November 15 & 16 2005
November 15, 2005 7:30pm Lisbon time
Another great port today! Lisbon was beautiful! I woke up at 8:00am and went outside and the sun was just rising and it was incredible. The oranges and yellows against the new cities was something great to wake up to. When we pulled into Lisbon there was a large Christus statue like the one they went to in the amazing race. Right next to it was a big red bridge that spanned across the water. I loved it. After eating breakfast I went back to the room to try to get a little bit more sleep while I waited for everyone else to wake up. Luckily Susan came to the rescue and we decided to not wait for everyone and to just go into town. I hurried and got ready and we jumped onto the shuttle that would take us into town. When we got there we went shopping a bit then we started our trek up to the Castle of Jorge. We didn’t know it would be as uphill as it was. It was a beautiful day and the way the streets and buildings were set up, it reminded me of a mixture between San Francisco and Greece. It was good cuz then I sort of got my taste of Greece like I wanted. When we finally made it there we were panting and sweating because it was so uphill. And because we are both so out of shape. The castle was very interesting because almost everywhere we looked there was huge pictures of donkeys. It made us laugh. It was almost like a tribute to them. When we were inside the actual castle there were real donkeys inside. We became friends with them. We also named our two favorites. They are now Fred and Ginger. I never knew that donkeys were so soft. They were really cute. Near the donkeys was a staircase that went to the top of the castle. We went up there and the view was of all of Lisbon. It was perfect. We could even see our ship down at the port. When we were done at the castle we walked down to a church. It had a couple of tours that we could go on. One was of the treasury and one was of the renovations that they were doing of an old roman town. Up in the treasury there was such beautiful jewels. They also had the old outfits for their leaders. The fabrics were all so beautiful with maroons, greens and blues with gold designs all over them. They also had old crowns and scepters and I loved it! (it is now 12:45pm Nov. 16th, I had to stop writing for the night because the boat was rocking so bad I could not sit up anymore. It was horrible! I had to just go to sleep cuz I was so sick!) Anyways, we walked all the way back down to the shopping area and I continued my search for a charm for my bracelet. I just couldn’t find what I wanted. I really wanted a charm of an old boat but couldn’t find one. All day around town everywhere we looked we saw roosters. I have no idea the significance of them. But I decided that I should get one. The guy at the store said that I will bring me good luck. Mom, you should be proud of me for buying a rooster that I am going to wear on my wrist every day. After I finally found my charm, we went back to the ship. On the ship we went to lunch and we were going to go swimming but we were tired from eating. So we went back to the room and The Notebook was on. We watched it then went to dinner. After dinner Sally and I went to the gym and did pilates. Then I came back to the room and the end of The Notebook was on again. It was at that point that the boat started getting bad. It was so bad that I basically crawled to my top bunk and tried to fall asleep. Eventually I had to take a second pill to get myself to sleep without heaving. Once I fell asleep everything was great. I woke up in the middle of the night like usual but made myself fall back to sleep. Now it is the next day and I am lounging by the pool. We all just got some ice cream from the ice cream bar. I had oreos and a cone in vanilla ice cream. It was pretty good. This morning I watched Sharks Tale. It was a cute movie. I ordered room service and had breakfast/lunch in bed. What a life I am living. The ocean today is so beautiful. Everyday I have to pinch myself that I am really doing the things that I am doing. I am going to go hop into the hot tub now. Love you!
Another great port today! Lisbon was beautiful! I woke up at 8:00am and went outside and the sun was just rising and it was incredible. The oranges and yellows against the new cities was something great to wake up to. When we pulled into Lisbon there was a large Christus statue like the one they went to in the amazing race. Right next to it was a big red bridge that spanned across the water. I loved it. After eating breakfast I went back to the room to try to get a little bit more sleep while I waited for everyone else to wake up. Luckily Susan came to the rescue and we decided to not wait for everyone and to just go into town. I hurried and got ready and we jumped onto the shuttle that would take us into town. When we got there we went shopping a bit then we started our trek up to the Castle of Jorge. We didn’t know it would be as uphill as it was. It was a beautiful day and the way the streets and buildings were set up, it reminded me of a mixture between San Francisco and Greece. It was good cuz then I sort of got my taste of Greece like I wanted. When we finally made it there we were panting and sweating because it was so uphill. And because we are both so out of shape. The castle was very interesting because almost everywhere we looked there was huge pictures of donkeys. It made us laugh. It was almost like a tribute to them. When we were inside the actual castle there were real donkeys inside. We became friends with them. We also named our two favorites. They are now Fred and Ginger. I never knew that donkeys were so soft. They were really cute. Near the donkeys was a staircase that went to the top of the castle. We went up there and the view was of all of Lisbon. It was perfect. We could even see our ship down at the port. When we were done at the castle we walked down to a church. It had a couple of tours that we could go on. One was of the treasury and one was of the renovations that they were doing of an old roman town. Up in the treasury there was such beautiful jewels. They also had the old outfits for their leaders. The fabrics were all so beautiful with maroons, greens and blues with gold designs all over them. They also had old crowns and scepters and I loved it! (it is now 12:45pm Nov. 16th, I had to stop writing for the night because the boat was rocking so bad I could not sit up anymore. It was horrible! I had to just go to sleep cuz I was so sick!) Anyways, we walked all the way back down to the shopping area and I continued my search for a charm for my bracelet. I just couldn’t find what I wanted. I really wanted a charm of an old boat but couldn’t find one. All day around town everywhere we looked we saw roosters. I have no idea the significance of them. But I decided that I should get one. The guy at the store said that I will bring me good luck. Mom, you should be proud of me for buying a rooster that I am going to wear on my wrist every day. After I finally found my charm, we went back to the ship. On the ship we went to lunch and we were going to go swimming but we were tired from eating. So we went back to the room and The Notebook was on. We watched it then went to dinner. After dinner Sally and I went to the gym and did pilates. Then I came back to the room and the end of The Notebook was on again. It was at that point that the boat started getting bad. It was so bad that I basically crawled to my top bunk and tried to fall asleep. Eventually I had to take a second pill to get myself to sleep without heaving. Once I fell asleep everything was great. I woke up in the middle of the night like usual but made myself fall back to sleep. Now it is the next day and I am lounging by the pool. We all just got some ice cream from the ice cream bar. I had oreos and a cone in vanilla ice cream. It was pretty good. This morning I watched Sharks Tale. It was a cute movie. I ordered room service and had breakfast/lunch in bed. What a life I am living. The ocean today is so beautiful. Everyday I have to pinch myself that I am really doing the things that I am doing. I am going to go hop into the hot tub now. Love you!
November 15 & part of 16th
November 15, 2005 7:30pm Lisbon time
Another great port today! Lisbon was beautiful! I woke up at 8:00am and went outside and the sun was just rising and it was incredible. The oranges and yellows against the new cities was something great to wake up to. When we pulled into Lisbon there was a large Christus statue like the one they went to in the amazing race. Right next to it was a big red bridge that spanned across the water. I loved it. After eating breakfast I went back to the room to try to get a little bit more sleep while I waited for everyone else to wake up. Luckily Susan came to the rescue and we decided to not wait for everyone and to just go into town. I hurried and got ready and we jumped onto the shuttle that would take us into town. When we got there we went shopping a bit then we started our trek up to the Castle of Jorge. We didn’t know it would be as uphill as it was. It was a beautiful day and the way the streets and buildings were set up, it reminded me of a mixture between San Francisco and Greece. It was good cuz then I sort of got my taste of Greece like I wanted. When we finally made it there we were panting and sweating because it was so uphill. And because we are both so out of shape. The castle was very interesting because almost everywhere we looked there was huge pictures of donkeys. It made us laugh. It was almost like a tribute to them. When we were inside the actual castle there were real donkeys inside. We became friends with them. We also named our two favorites. They are now Fred and Ginger. I never knew that donkeys were so soft. They were really cute. Near the donkeys was a staircase that went to the top of the castle. We went up there and the view was of all of Lisbon. It was perfect. We could even see our ship down at the port. When we were done at the castle we walked down to a church. It had a couple of tours that we could go on. One was of the treasury and one was of the renovations that they were doing of an old roman town. Up in the treasury there was such beautiful jewels. They also had the old outfits for their leaders. The fabrics were all so beautiful with maroons, greens and blues with gold designs all over them. They also had old crowns and scepters and I loved it! (it is now 12:45pm Nov. 16th, I had to stop writing for the night because the boat was rocking so bad I could not sit up anymore. It was horrible! I had to just go to sleep cuz I was so sick!) Anyways, we walked all the way back down to the shopping area and I continued my search for a charm for my bracelet. I just couldn’t find what I wanted. I really wanted a charm of an old boat but couldn’t find one. All day around town everywhere we looked we saw roosters. I have no idea the significance of them. But I decided that I should get one. The guy at the store said that I will bring me good luck. Mom, you should be proud of me for buying a rooster that I am going to wear on my wrist every day. After I finally found my charm, we went back to the ship. On the ship we went to lunch and we were going to go swimming but we were tired from eating. So we went back to the room and The Notebook was on. We watched it then went to dinner. After dinner Sally and I went to the gym and did pilates. Then I came back to the room and the end of The Notebook was on again. It was at that point that the boat started getting bad. It was so bad that I basically crawled to my top bunk and tried to fall asleep. Eventually I had to take a second pill to get myself to sleep without heaving. Once I fell asleep everything was great. I woke up in the middle of the night like usual but made myself fall back to sleep. Now it is the next day and I am lounging by the pool. We all just got some ice cream from the ice cream bar. I had oreos and a cone in vanilla ice cream. It was pretty good. This morning I watched Sharks Tale. It was a cute movie. I ordered room service and had breakfast/lunch in bed. What a life I am living. The ocean today is so beautiful. Everyday I have to pinch myself that I am really doing the things that I am doing. I am going to go hop into the hot tub now. Love you!
Another great port today! Lisbon was beautiful! I woke up at 8:00am and went outside and the sun was just rising and it was incredible. The oranges and yellows against the new cities was something great to wake up to. When we pulled into Lisbon there was a large Christus statue like the one they went to in the amazing race. Right next to it was a big red bridge that spanned across the water. I loved it. After eating breakfast I went back to the room to try to get a little bit more sleep while I waited for everyone else to wake up. Luckily Susan came to the rescue and we decided to not wait for everyone and to just go into town. I hurried and got ready and we jumped onto the shuttle that would take us into town. When we got there we went shopping a bit then we started our trek up to the Castle of Jorge. We didn’t know it would be as uphill as it was. It was a beautiful day and the way the streets and buildings were set up, it reminded me of a mixture between San Francisco and Greece. It was good cuz then I sort of got my taste of Greece like I wanted. When we finally made it there we were panting and sweating because it was so uphill. And because we are both so out of shape. The castle was very interesting because almost everywhere we looked there was huge pictures of donkeys. It made us laugh. It was almost like a tribute to them. When we were inside the actual castle there were real donkeys inside. We became friends with them. We also named our two favorites. They are now Fred and Ginger. I never knew that donkeys were so soft. They were really cute. Near the donkeys was a staircase that went to the top of the castle. We went up there and the view was of all of Lisbon. It was perfect. We could even see our ship down at the port. When we were done at the castle we walked down to a church. It had a couple of tours that we could go on. One was of the treasury and one was of the renovations that they were doing of an old roman town. Up in the treasury there was such beautiful jewels. They also had the old outfits for their leaders. The fabrics were all so beautiful with maroons, greens and blues with gold designs all over them. They also had old crowns and scepters and I loved it! (it is now 12:45pm Nov. 16th, I had to stop writing for the night because the boat was rocking so bad I could not sit up anymore. It was horrible! I had to just go to sleep cuz I was so sick!) Anyways, we walked all the way back down to the shopping area and I continued my search for a charm for my bracelet. I just couldn’t find what I wanted. I really wanted a charm of an old boat but couldn’t find one. All day around town everywhere we looked we saw roosters. I have no idea the significance of them. But I decided that I should get one. The guy at the store said that I will bring me good luck. Mom, you should be proud of me for buying a rooster that I am going to wear on my wrist every day. After I finally found my charm, we went back to the ship. On the ship we went to lunch and we were going to go swimming but we were tired from eating. So we went back to the room and The Notebook was on. We watched it then went to dinner. After dinner Sally and I went to the gym and did pilates. Then I came back to the room and the end of The Notebook was on again. It was at that point that the boat started getting bad. It was so bad that I basically crawled to my top bunk and tried to fall asleep. Eventually I had to take a second pill to get myself to sleep without heaving. Once I fell asleep everything was great. I woke up in the middle of the night like usual but made myself fall back to sleep. Now it is the next day and I am lounging by the pool. We all just got some ice cream from the ice cream bar. I had oreos and a cone in vanilla ice cream. It was pretty good. This morning I watched Sharks Tale. It was a cute movie. I ordered room service and had breakfast/lunch in bed. What a life I am living. The ocean today is so beautiful. Everyday I have to pinch myself that I am really doing the things that I am doing. I am going to go hop into the hot tub now. Love you!
Tuesday, November 15, 2005
November 14, 2005 At sea
November 14, 2005 11:40pm Spain
Today was an ‘at sea’ day which means we were on the boat all day. It was so great. I slept til noon and got up and took a shower. I just relaxed all day. Sally has Sheri Dew’s new book and she let me start reading it. It is really good. It was nice because as I read I used my ipod and my view as I read was great. The sea was all around me and there were clouds in the blue sky. Around six this evening we passed through the strait of Gibralter. I had both Morocco and Spain in view at the same time. The sky was cloud as we were coming up on it then the sky opened up just as we were going through. Morocco looked so beautiful with sun gleaming off of it. Also at the same time there was a large double rainbow that went around the ship. I took so many pictures. Tonight was our first formal night. It was so fun to dress up with everyone and go out to a beautiful dinner. After the dinner we went to Broadway Showcase. The performers did the lullaby of broadway, Phantom, Oklahoma, Sunset Boulevard, Cabaret, and a Gershwin tribute. I sure do love this place!! The only downside is that there is too much good food and the ship that rocks like crazy to try and get you to lose the food you are eating. Right now I am just watching a movie in my room and relaxing. Tomorrow will probably be a big day.
Thanks for writing me! Steph, how did your dinner go? Oh and by the way, could you e-mail me your home address asap? Thanks! Mom, it sounds like the room is coming along. That is great! And I am not surprised that you are so busy at work. It is nothing new. I love you tons talk to you soon!
Today was an ‘at sea’ day which means we were on the boat all day. It was so great. I slept til noon and got up and took a shower. I just relaxed all day. Sally has Sheri Dew’s new book and she let me start reading it. It is really good. It was nice because as I read I used my ipod and my view as I read was great. The sea was all around me and there were clouds in the blue sky. Around six this evening we passed through the strait of Gibralter. I had both Morocco and Spain in view at the same time. The sky was cloud as we were coming up on it then the sky opened up just as we were going through. Morocco looked so beautiful with sun gleaming off of it. Also at the same time there was a large double rainbow that went around the ship. I took so many pictures. Tonight was our first formal night. It was so fun to dress up with everyone and go out to a beautiful dinner. After the dinner we went to Broadway Showcase. The performers did the lullaby of broadway, Phantom, Oklahoma, Sunset Boulevard, Cabaret, and a Gershwin tribute. I sure do love this place!! The only downside is that there is too much good food and the ship that rocks like crazy to try and get you to lose the food you are eating. Right now I am just watching a movie in my room and relaxing. Tomorrow will probably be a big day.
Thanks for writing me! Steph, how did your dinner go? Oh and by the way, could you e-mail me your home address asap? Thanks! Mom, it sounds like the room is coming along. That is great! And I am not surprised that you are so busy at work. It is nothing new. I love you tons talk to you soon!
Sunday, November 13, 2005
November 13, 2005 Barcelona
November 13, 2005 3:15am Spain time
Today was another glorious day at port. When we first got off the ship we went and took a shuttle into town. It dropped us off at the Columbus Monument. It was raining when we got there and everyone was complaining, so I said “I am going to see Spain. If anyone wants to see Spain, come on with me!” Susan decided she wanted to come, so we went and found a metro and it was actually pretty cheap, which is a change for this trip. The subway in Spain is so nice. It can get you anywhere so easily, it’s easy to read. The first place we went was the Segrada Familia, a chapel by Gaudi. It was beautiful! It was also very different than what I thought it was going to be like. After, we didn’t know what we wanted to do, because I didn’t know everything I wanted to see while I was there, so we just walked around that area of town. When we realized it was such a big city that just by walking around we wouldn’t see anything, we eventually found a metro and hopped back on. Because of the book I bought, we knew where we wanted to go and so when we were on the metro and saw the different stations, we found that we were only one stop away and could have walked there if we wouldn’t have been so stupid and read the map. Oh well! The metro is a fun experience. When we were going in we found a photo stop machine and took cheesy photos that turned us into Cupid and has a Spanish saying on it that we can’t understand, but it was fun! We were going to see Gaudi’s big park with the statuettes in it (which I still wish we would have seen), but we decided that since we had paid for our one metro trip we might as well fully use it instead of going one stop. So we found out where the Picasso museum stop was and hopped back on. After we got off we were very lost but it was exciting because the street that the Picasso museum was on was called Princesa Street. That made me happy. As we were searching for the museum, which was in the middle of a little alley way, we ran into the cathedral of Santa Maria. It was a beautiful cathedral! Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any pictures because the services had already begun. We eventually wandered upon the Picasso museum and it was incredible! It started out with the beginnings of his artwork and then went through his different stages, and ended up with his paintings, which were breathtaking. My favorite section was his pictador section. He had told a friend that if he hadn’t had been a painter he wanted to be a bull fighter. So he had many paintings of bull fights that were just dots on a page that you had to search through to find what the picture was. I also loved his late paint work. All he used were little splotches of paint about a half inch wide with different colors to make his whole painting, not even blending it at all. It’s incredible. When we were done, we begun walking through the street to find out where we needed to go next to get back to the ship. We finally asked a very nice young good looking Spaniard where we needed to go. He told us that we were very close. He told us to go straight down the street, and if we went down that street we would find many things. Even the most famous street in Barcelona, which was Las Ramblas, and if he was wrong he would buy us a beer. He kept on accentuating buying us a beer. I think he just wanted to get us liquored up. We walked down the street and we found a very interesting shop. I wanted to buy just about everything in there. It had antique jewelry and old pill boxes, and perfume bottles. In there I found my charm for this leg of the race, and it was a pictador with a bull to remind me of the Picasso museum and my favorite piece of his work. The best part about it was it was only 7.50 Euros. We kept on walking and we found Las Ramblas. When we had first been on that street at the beginning of the day, there wasn’t much to it, but in the evening once everyone had gotten out of church, it was a huge market street with so much jewelry I was about to go crazy. It was really interesting to watch the street gamers as they tried to con people out of their money. What they would do is the silly game of which of the three cups the ball was under. I took a picture and after the flash went off, the gentlemen playing looked at me like I was committing and sin and they were going to get caught by their wives. It made me giggle, as well as making me want to run (and pee my pants at the same time). We went back to the Columbus statue, which was the meeting place for our bus back to the ship, when I saw a sign that said “take an elevator to the top of Columbus” (in so many words) . It only cost me 2.50 Euros. When we got to the top, the view was incredible! I could see all of Barcelona every which way. I took pictures out of every single window I could find (It is really weird right now, because I feel like I’m in my own floating hotel that keeps rocking back and forth like mad! It’s crazy!!) Anyways… We finally got back to the ship, and everyone else had spent about 45 minutes in Barcelona, then came back to do laundry (boring!). I’m glad I had my fabulous adventure in Barcelona. We went to dinner tonight (again) and it was really good. I had a spinach turnover in a light cheese sauce, a Mediterranean salad with a really good dressing, and chicken parmesana. For dessert I had a lemon sorbet and Lemoncello cake. It was very tasty! And yes… I can tell I’m getting fatter, and it is hard to get myself to care. I was exhausted after dinner, not only from my long day of walking, but I took another motion sickness pill (only one this time) so I went and took a nap. My nap made me miss two comedians. A magic guy, and an acrobat. Heather says I didn’t miss much. They called and woke me up, and we went up to the Skywalker’s Night Club. It is a bar/night club that is a long room suspended over the back of the ship. We were the only ones dancing, and I bet everyone thought we were drunk (which you get used to around here). It’s really neat to be dancing, then go over to the window and see the waves coming from the back of the ship that follow in a long line from where we’ve been. We were so hot from dancing, that we decided to go swimming. Little did we know it was raining outside, so we just played in the hot tub. It was just Heather and I, and we had a great time talking while we cooked our gizzards, as Heather would say. She told me she was hungry, and we weren’t tired yet, so we went and threw on clothes, and went up to the buffet where we stuffed our faces with a midnight (or 2:45 am) chips and salsa run. When we were eating, I was thinking I would be too tired to write my email, then Heather stepped up and said she was an amazing typist. So here we are now writing to you, me dictating to my own stenographer. So thanks to Heather, you get an email today. You owe her big time (or I guess I do. One of the two). It is now 3:50 am, and I guess we should try to go to sleep. Lucky for us, it is an at sea day so we could sleep all day if we wanted to. Hope things are well at home, and you really should write me. Love you!
Today was another glorious day at port. When we first got off the ship we went and took a shuttle into town. It dropped us off at the Columbus Monument. It was raining when we got there and everyone was complaining, so I said “I am going to see Spain. If anyone wants to see Spain, come on with me!” Susan decided she wanted to come, so we went and found a metro and it was actually pretty cheap, which is a change for this trip. The subway in Spain is so nice. It can get you anywhere so easily, it’s easy to read. The first place we went was the Segrada Familia, a chapel by Gaudi. It was beautiful! It was also very different than what I thought it was going to be like. After, we didn’t know what we wanted to do, because I didn’t know everything I wanted to see while I was there, so we just walked around that area of town. When we realized it was such a big city that just by walking around we wouldn’t see anything, we eventually found a metro and hopped back on. Because of the book I bought, we knew where we wanted to go and so when we were on the metro and saw the different stations, we found that we were only one stop away and could have walked there if we wouldn’t have been so stupid and read the map. Oh well! The metro is a fun experience. When we were going in we found a photo stop machine and took cheesy photos that turned us into Cupid and has a Spanish saying on it that we can’t understand, but it was fun! We were going to see Gaudi’s big park with the statuettes in it (which I still wish we would have seen), but we decided that since we had paid for our one metro trip we might as well fully use it instead of going one stop. So we found out where the Picasso museum stop was and hopped back on. After we got off we were very lost but it was exciting because the street that the Picasso museum was on was called Princesa Street. That made me happy. As we were searching for the museum, which was in the middle of a little alley way, we ran into the cathedral of Santa Maria. It was a beautiful cathedral! Unfortunately, I couldn’t take any pictures because the services had already begun. We eventually wandered upon the Picasso museum and it was incredible! It started out with the beginnings of his artwork and then went through his different stages, and ended up with his paintings, which were breathtaking. My favorite section was his pictador section. He had told a friend that if he hadn’t had been a painter he wanted to be a bull fighter. So he had many paintings of bull fights that were just dots on a page that you had to search through to find what the picture was. I also loved his late paint work. All he used were little splotches of paint about a half inch wide with different colors to make his whole painting, not even blending it at all. It’s incredible. When we were done, we begun walking through the street to find out where we needed to go next to get back to the ship. We finally asked a very nice young good looking Spaniard where we needed to go. He told us that we were very close. He told us to go straight down the street, and if we went down that street we would find many things. Even the most famous street in Barcelona, which was Las Ramblas, and if he was wrong he would buy us a beer. He kept on accentuating buying us a beer. I think he just wanted to get us liquored up. We walked down the street and we found a very interesting shop. I wanted to buy just about everything in there. It had antique jewelry and old pill boxes, and perfume bottles. In there I found my charm for this leg of the race, and it was a pictador with a bull to remind me of the Picasso museum and my favorite piece of his work. The best part about it was it was only 7.50 Euros. We kept on walking and we found Las Ramblas. When we had first been on that street at the beginning of the day, there wasn’t much to it, but in the evening once everyone had gotten out of church, it was a huge market street with so much jewelry I was about to go crazy. It was really interesting to watch the street gamers as they tried to con people out of their money. What they would do is the silly game of which of the three cups the ball was under. I took a picture and after the flash went off, the gentlemen playing looked at me like I was committing and sin and they were going to get caught by their wives. It made me giggle, as well as making me want to run (and pee my pants at the same time). We went back to the Columbus statue, which was the meeting place for our bus back to the ship, when I saw a sign that said “take an elevator to the top of Columbus” (in so many words) . It only cost me 2.50 Euros. When we got to the top, the view was incredible! I could see all of Barcelona every which way. I took pictures out of every single window I could find (It is really weird right now, because I feel like I’m in my own floating hotel that keeps rocking back and forth like mad! It’s crazy!!) Anyways… We finally got back to the ship, and everyone else had spent about 45 minutes in Barcelona, then came back to do laundry (boring!). I’m glad I had my fabulous adventure in Barcelona. We went to dinner tonight (again) and it was really good. I had a spinach turnover in a light cheese sauce, a Mediterranean salad with a really good dressing, and chicken parmesana. For dessert I had a lemon sorbet and Lemoncello cake. It was very tasty! And yes… I can tell I’m getting fatter, and it is hard to get myself to care. I was exhausted after dinner, not only from my long day of walking, but I took another motion sickness pill (only one this time) so I went and took a nap. My nap made me miss two comedians. A magic guy, and an acrobat. Heather says I didn’t miss much. They called and woke me up, and we went up to the Skywalker’s Night Club. It is a bar/night club that is a long room suspended over the back of the ship. We were the only ones dancing, and I bet everyone thought we were drunk (which you get used to around here). It’s really neat to be dancing, then go over to the window and see the waves coming from the back of the ship that follow in a long line from where we’ve been. We were so hot from dancing, that we decided to go swimming. Little did we know it was raining outside, so we just played in the hot tub. It was just Heather and I, and we had a great time talking while we cooked our gizzards, as Heather would say. She told me she was hungry, and we weren’t tired yet, so we went and threw on clothes, and went up to the buffet where we stuffed our faces with a midnight (or 2:45 am) chips and salsa run. When we were eating, I was thinking I would be too tired to write my email, then Heather stepped up and said she was an amazing typist. So here we are now writing to you, me dictating to my own stenographer. So thanks to Heather, you get an email today. You owe her big time (or I guess I do. One of the two). It is now 3:50 am, and I guess we should try to go to sleep. Lucky for us, it is an at sea day so we could sleep all day if we wanted to. Hope things are well at home, and you really should write me. Love you!
Saturday, November 12, 2005
November 12, 2005
November 12, 2005 2:55am Cannes, France
Today was a great day! We were all so tired that we slept in until noon. It was so nice to sleep in. then again we stayed up til 4 the night before. I was up that late because I was writing you but while I was writing you I realized that the boat was starting to rock a bit. It was my first time on a boat and I didn’t realize that I get sea sick. At about 4 am it was really hitting me so I went for a walk to get some fresh air. When I went back to my room I felt a bit better. Since I have been here I have been waking up exactly 8 hours after I go to sleep. It drives my friends crazy. So today I took advantage of it. When I woke up I took a really long shower and took my time getting ready. It was way nice. When my friends woke up at around 1 we ordered room service. French fries and potato chips. Healthy huh? They all got ready and we went to horizon court (the buffet) and had breakfast/lunch. Here in Cannes they do not have a port for us so they have to anchor down the ship in a big bay area and then they use tenders to take us to the land. It was funny because at about 7 this morning there were these extremely loud noises that woke me up. I don’t even know how to describe them. I thought we were going down! Sally woke up as well and at first she didn’t know what it was but then she remembered that it was the chains lowering down the tenders. She laughed at me so hard the next day because I was in my just woke up, don’t know what is going on, freaking out mode. It was funny. Anyways… we got on the tender and went to shore. It was a fun little town. I loved listening to the locals talk as we passed by them. French is such a beautiful language. Today was my first day on the way that I got ice cream. It was funny though because on the sign it had a coconut on it and I thought I saw chocolate chunks in it so I got it. When I tasted it I realized that it wasn’t coconut at all. It was raisin ice cream! Gross! We walked down a little street and ran into the cutest shopping area. The streets were small and they winded around each other and on either side of them there were shops. They weren’t streets for cars, just big enough for people to walk through them. It was my favorite shopping so far. I couldn’t find a charm for my new charm bracelet and I was getting sad. Then I saw one of those cute name plate silver bracelets and Heather told me that I should get that for my charm in this port. So now I have a cute bracelet to put my charms on. I put the charms on it and it is so cute. We were walking past this shop selling meat and with their poultry they do not take off the heads and feet. It looks so gross. Don’t worry…I got pictures. I also found the cutest shoes. They are kind of chinesey looking. I like them a lot. We were at this port for about 2 hours cuz we needed to get back to the ship by 5. This was my favorite shopping port. It was great!!! When we arrived at the ship on the tender, we had to wait a long time for the other people to get off. The tender was moving a lot because of the current and I started to feel a little queasy. We got a sprite but in the room I was still not feeling too great. Heather’s mom packed some motion sickness medicine in her bag so she gave me some. We read on the back that it said that it may cause drowsiness. That was an understatement! We went for the first time to a sit down dinner. While there I started to feel a little loopy. It just got worse and worse as we at. At one point I was fighting so had not to go into a laughing attack. My eyes were watering really bad and I was squeaking a little. Sally was laughing at/with me and like you all know, that kept me going. It was a really fun dinner. I left right at the end of the meal and went straight to bed. I was out for the count that’s for sure. Now it is early in the morning and there is a huge storm outside. Which means the ship is moving a lot. I still have a little bit of the drugs in me so it is not bothering me but it did keep me awake. They were giving me some really weird dreams. Like me being at a house near the beach with a huge storm and waves filled with blood 60 feet high leaving bits of torn animals on the ground where it hit. Yeah I know…weird dream! Maybe next time when I take the motion sickness pills I should just take one. Well that was my crazy but great day! Love you!
Today was a great day! We were all so tired that we slept in until noon. It was so nice to sleep in. then again we stayed up til 4 the night before. I was up that late because I was writing you but while I was writing you I realized that the boat was starting to rock a bit. It was my first time on a boat and I didn’t realize that I get sea sick. At about 4 am it was really hitting me so I went for a walk to get some fresh air. When I went back to my room I felt a bit better. Since I have been here I have been waking up exactly 8 hours after I go to sleep. It drives my friends crazy. So today I took advantage of it. When I woke up I took a really long shower and took my time getting ready. It was way nice. When my friends woke up at around 1 we ordered room service. French fries and potato chips. Healthy huh? They all got ready and we went to horizon court (the buffet) and had breakfast/lunch. Here in Cannes they do not have a port for us so they have to anchor down the ship in a big bay area and then they use tenders to take us to the land. It was funny because at about 7 this morning there were these extremely loud noises that woke me up. I don’t even know how to describe them. I thought we were going down! Sally woke up as well and at first she didn’t know what it was but then she remembered that it was the chains lowering down the tenders. She laughed at me so hard the next day because I was in my just woke up, don’t know what is going on, freaking out mode. It was funny. Anyways… we got on the tender and went to shore. It was a fun little town. I loved listening to the locals talk as we passed by them. French is such a beautiful language. Today was my first day on the way that I got ice cream. It was funny though because on the sign it had a coconut on it and I thought I saw chocolate chunks in it so I got it. When I tasted it I realized that it wasn’t coconut at all. It was raisin ice cream! Gross! We walked down a little street and ran into the cutest shopping area. The streets were small and they winded around each other and on either side of them there were shops. They weren’t streets for cars, just big enough for people to walk through them. It was my favorite shopping so far. I couldn’t find a charm for my new charm bracelet and I was getting sad. Then I saw one of those cute name plate silver bracelets and Heather told me that I should get that for my charm in this port. So now I have a cute bracelet to put my charms on. I put the charms on it and it is so cute. We were walking past this shop selling meat and with their poultry they do not take off the heads and feet. It looks so gross. Don’t worry…I got pictures. I also found the cutest shoes. They are kind of chinesey looking. I like them a lot. We were at this port for about 2 hours cuz we needed to get back to the ship by 5. This was my favorite shopping port. It was great!!! When we arrived at the ship on the tender, we had to wait a long time for the other people to get off. The tender was moving a lot because of the current and I started to feel a little queasy. We got a sprite but in the room I was still not feeling too great. Heather’s mom packed some motion sickness medicine in her bag so she gave me some. We read on the back that it said that it may cause drowsiness. That was an understatement! We went for the first time to a sit down dinner. While there I started to feel a little loopy. It just got worse and worse as we at. At one point I was fighting so had not to go into a laughing attack. My eyes were watering really bad and I was squeaking a little. Sally was laughing at/with me and like you all know, that kept me going. It was a really fun dinner. I left right at the end of the meal and went straight to bed. I was out for the count that’s for sure. Now it is early in the morning and there is a huge storm outside. Which means the ship is moving a lot. I still have a little bit of the drugs in me so it is not bothering me but it did keep me awake. They were giving me some really weird dreams. Like me being at a house near the beach with a huge storm and waves filled with blood 60 feet high leaving bits of torn animals on the ground where it hit. Yeah I know…weird dream! Maybe next time when I take the motion sickness pills I should just take one. Well that was my crazy but great day! Love you!
Lizzie's World Travels
November 12, 2005 2:55am Cannes, France
Today was a great day! We were all so tired that we slept in until noon. It was so nice to sleep in. then again we stayed up til 4 the night before. I was up that late because I was writing you but while I was writing you I realized that the boat was starting to rock a bit. It was my first time on a boat and I didn’t realize that I get sea sick. At about 4 am it was really hitting me so I went for a walk to get some fresh air. When I went back to my room I felt a bit better. Since I have been here I have been waking up exactly 8 hours after I go to sleep. It drives my friends crazy. So today I took advantage of it. When I woke up I took a really long shower and took my time getting ready. It was way nice. When my friends woke up at around 1 we ordered room service. French fries and potato chips. Healthy huh? They all got ready and we went to horizon court (the buffet) and had breakfast/lunch. Here in Cannes they do not have a port for us so they have to anchor down the ship in a big bay area and then they use tenders to take us to the land. It was funny because at about 7 this morning there were these extremely loud noises that woke me up. I don’t even know how to describe them. I thought we were going down! Sally woke up as well and at first she didn’t know what it was but then she remembered that it was the chains lowering down the tenders. She laughed at me so hard the next day because I was in my just woke up, don’t know what is going on, freaking out mode. It was funny. Anyways… we got on the tender and went to shore. It was a fun little town. I loved listening to the locals talk as we passed by them. French is such a beautiful language. Today was my first day on the way that I got ice cream. It was funny though because on the sign it had a coconut on it and I thought I saw chocolate chunks in it so I got it. When I tasted it I realized that it wasn’t coconut at all. It was raisin ice cream! Gross! We walked down a little street and ran into the cutest shopping area. The streets were small and they winded around each other and on either side of them there were shops. They weren’t streets for cars, just big enough for people to walk through them. It was my favorite shopping so far. I couldn’t find a charm for my new charm bracelet and I was getting sad. Then I saw one of those cute name plate silver bracelets and Heather told me that I should get that for my charm in this port. So now I have a cute bracelet to put my charms on. I put the charms on it and it is so cute. We were walking past this shop selling meat and with their poultry they do not take off the heads and feet. It looks so gross. Don’t worry…I got pictures. I also found the cutest shoes. They are kind of chinesey looking. I like them a lot. We were at this port for about 2 hours cuz we needed to get back to the ship by 5. This was my favorite shopping port. It was great!!! When we arrived at the ship on the tender, we had to wait a long time for the other people to get off. The tender was moving a lot because of the current and I started to feel a little queasy. We got a sprite but in the room I was still not feeling too great. Heather’s mom packed some motion sickness medicine in her bag so she gave me some. We read on the back that it said that it may cause drowsiness. That was an understatement! We went for the first time to a sit down dinner. While there I started to feel a little loopy. It just got worse and worse as we at. At one point I was fighting so had not to go into a laughing attack. My eyes were watering really bad and I was squeaking a little. Sally was laughing at/with me and like you all know, that kept me going. It was a really fun dinner. I left right at the end of the meal and went straight to bed. I was out for the count that’s for sure. Now it is early in the morning and there is a huge storm outside. Which means the ship is moving a lot. I still have a little bit of the drugs in me so it is not bothering me but it did keep me awake. They were giving me some really weird dreams. Like me being at a house near the beach with a huge storm and waves filled with blood 60 feet high leaving bits of torn animals on the ground where it hit. Yeah I know…weird dream! Maybe next time when I take the motion sickness pills I should just take one. Well that was my crazy but great day! Love you!
Today was a great day! We were all so tired that we slept in until noon. It was so nice to sleep in. then again we stayed up til 4 the night before. I was up that late because I was writing you but while I was writing you I realized that the boat was starting to rock a bit. It was my first time on a boat and I didn’t realize that I get sea sick. At about 4 am it was really hitting me so I went for a walk to get some fresh air. When I went back to my room I felt a bit better. Since I have been here I have been waking up exactly 8 hours after I go to sleep. It drives my friends crazy. So today I took advantage of it. When I woke up I took a really long shower and took my time getting ready. It was way nice. When my friends woke up at around 1 we ordered room service. French fries and potato chips. Healthy huh? They all got ready and we went to horizon court (the buffet) and had breakfast/lunch. Here in Cannes they do not have a port for us so they have to anchor down the ship in a big bay area and then they use tenders to take us to the land. It was funny because at about 7 this morning there were these extremely loud noises that woke me up. I don’t even know how to describe them. I thought we were going down! Sally woke up as well and at first she didn’t know what it was but then she remembered that it was the chains lowering down the tenders. She laughed at me so hard the next day because I was in my just woke up, don’t know what is going on, freaking out mode. It was funny. Anyways… we got on the tender and went to shore. It was a fun little town. I loved listening to the locals talk as we passed by them. French is such a beautiful language. Today was my first day on the way that I got ice cream. It was funny though because on the sign it had a coconut on it and I thought I saw chocolate chunks in it so I got it. When I tasted it I realized that it wasn’t coconut at all. It was raisin ice cream! Gross! We walked down a little street and ran into the cutest shopping area. The streets were small and they winded around each other and on either side of them there were shops. They weren’t streets for cars, just big enough for people to walk through them. It was my favorite shopping so far. I couldn’t find a charm for my new charm bracelet and I was getting sad. Then I saw one of those cute name plate silver bracelets and Heather told me that I should get that for my charm in this port. So now I have a cute bracelet to put my charms on. I put the charms on it and it is so cute. We were walking past this shop selling meat and with their poultry they do not take off the heads and feet. It looks so gross. Don’t worry…I got pictures. I also found the cutest shoes. They are kind of chinesey looking. I like them a lot. We were at this port for about 2 hours cuz we needed to get back to the ship by 5. This was my favorite shopping port. It was great!!! When we arrived at the ship on the tender, we had to wait a long time for the other people to get off. The tender was moving a lot because of the current and I started to feel a little queasy. We got a sprite but in the room I was still not feeling too great. Heather’s mom packed some motion sickness medicine in her bag so she gave me some. We read on the back that it said that it may cause drowsiness. That was an understatement! We went for the first time to a sit down dinner. While there I started to feel a little loopy. It just got worse and worse as we at. At one point I was fighting so had not to go into a laughing attack. My eyes were watering really bad and I was squeaking a little. Sally was laughing at/with me and like you all know, that kept me going. It was a really fun dinner. I left right at the end of the meal and went straight to bed. I was out for the count that’s for sure. Now it is early in the morning and there is a huge storm outside. Which means the ship is moving a lot. I still have a little bit of the drugs in me so it is not bothering me but it did keep me awake. They were giving me some really weird dreams. Like me being at a house near the beach with a huge storm and waves filled with blood 60 feet high leaving bits of torn animals on the ground where it hit. Yeah I know…weird dream! Maybe next time when I take the motion sickness pills I should just take one. Well that was my crazy but great day! Love you!
Friday, November 11, 2005
November 11, 2005
November 11, 2005 12:50am
We made it through another day but just barely. I think that today is going to be my favorite day to look back on. It was crazy! I woke up at 8:30am thinking that it was like 5:30am. The room has no windows and the bottom of the door is tightly sealed so no light comes through. When I woke up everyone else was sleeping so I just went and logged onto our site to see if anyone made any comments. Thank you mom, it was so great to hear form you. I love to hear about what is going on at home and what you think about my adventures. I had 8 minutes left on my wireless time so I tried to send mom some pictures. I am going to try to send them again but it takes so dang long! While I was playing on my computer a couple that I became friends with came up to me to tell me that there was a train that could take me to Florence for 5 Euro. I was so excited that I hurried back to my room to get ready. It was about 9:15am so I decided that I would just go whether or not anyone else wanted to go. As I was getting ready I woke everyone up and they decided that it sounded like a good deal as well. When I was about done everyone else was slowly getting up. Finally we went up to breakfast and as we were going up I said “it is getting really close to the next shuttle leaving we should probably just grab an apple or something.” after that they all laughed and said, “are you kidding us! We didn’t get our fat bodies by just eating apples!” and we got a kick out of that. So we went in and had a sit down breakfast and slowly made our way down to the shuttle where everyone complained that it would cost 4 Euro each way. When we got to the center of Livorno we went to the tabacco shop to buy our bus and train tickets. It cost 15 Euro each and that was for our whole trip there and back. By the time we got on the bus we realized that if we went all the way to Florence that we would only be able to be there about 30 minutes. So we decided even though we had already paid to go to Florence, we only had time for Pisa which was on the way. So we got to the station and we had just missed our train so we had to wait an hour for the next one. When it finally arrived, we got on and heading to Pisa. Heather and I listened to my new IPOD Shuffle during the short trip. In Pisa, we walked 3 miles to the tower through little streets and alley ways. It wasn’t that crowded and there were beautiful men everywhere. We got to walk across a bridge where at the edge of it was this tiny cathedral thing. It was beautiful like everything else here in Europe. Everything here is just so neat. The buildings have such character. When we got to the end of one of the alleyways, there was a sudden opening to the gorgeous square that the tower was located on. The tower is so beautiful! The first thing we did (of course) was take a ton of pictures of us holding it up. Then I went and looked at all the little shops along the side of the road. There was a ton of the usual cheesy touresty stuff but among that were little treasures. Beautiful handmade shawls, authentic bracelets and I finally found the perfect purse. I think that you will like it a lot. I got stopped by some West Africans selling fake watches. It was so something out of the movies. We were right in the middle of talking when a police car drove by. It was so funny cuz he totally stopped talking to me about it and shut his little briefcase until the car drove away. Like the police are stupid enough to not know what they are doing! Well, I found a fake Rolex that I liked and I took him from 50 Euro to 25 to finally 20 Euro. It is a really cute watch and I needed one so bad. It was really funny cuz he asked me if I was from America and I said yes so he said, “I love you, don’t you love me?” of course I said no but it sure was funny. After that I started walking to find everyone else and I could not find them anywhere. So I decided that I had been gone long enough and it was getting kind of close to get back so I walked back by myself. It was a really tranquil walk back and I was able to take some more pictures. They were not at the station when I arrived so I just got to wait. Sally that morning had talked me into wearing a tank top which was funny to wear because everyone around was wearing jackets and sweaters. I thought it was a very nice day. As I was sitting and waiting I had three Italian men ask me in Italian why I was wearing something so cold. Of course they said it in a sarcastic and with a joke but I just had to reply that I spoke English. They made me laugh. One of those men come up to me and he spoke no English whatsoever but some how we had a conversation about how I was waiting for my lost friends and that he was waiting for a 5o’clock train. He then proceeded to ask me if I wanted to go have a drink with him in the bar and I tried to tell him that I was underage. I don’t think that he got that but he got that I didn’t drink. I waited for them for an hour before they finally got there. What I learned later was that they were able to go inside the cathedral that was there by the tower for free. I didn’t even know that there was a cathedral. I hear that it was so beautiful that Cari cried. On their way back they stopped for a bite to eat and Susan found some charms for her charms bracelet and I did not. I am definitely kicking myself now for getting lost. When we got reunited we hopped on our train and headed back to the ship. The first thing we did when we got back was head up to dinner. It was a good thing too cuz I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. It is really neat because we have a room steward that is in charge of our room for the whole trip and he is Philipeno. He is so nice and I asked him where he is from and he said a little town in Dagupen. I had him write down the name but I left it in the room. (PS. Steph I found and bought the thing you were looking for. I will ship it to you from Barcelona when I can try to speak Spanish at the post office.) After dinner there was a comedian and the princess dancers performing in the theater. The comedian was pretty funny and the Princess dancers were scantily dress and not that great. But it was still fun. They had waiters walking around getting everyone drinks. I got myself a virgin pina colada. It was really good. During the show I got REALLY tired so I went up to take a nap. I zonked out! An hour later I was having this weird dream that someone kept knocking at the door and my roommates were trying to open it but they couldn’t or something. But the knocking continued no matter what. It was really weird. Finally I realized that it was heather trying to wake me up but I was so out that I had slept through it for 10 minutes. Finding Neverland was playing on the outside screen so we were going out to the pool. It was really cold and they didn’t have the hot tubs available at the pool so I just went to the inside pool’s hot tubs to relax. It was just me and then a nice old man in a speedo got in next to me. We had a great talk about what we have seen so far and where we are from and what we do. I told him that I was planning on going on a mormon mission and we then began talking about religion. He had lots of questions and I gave him a background of the church. It was after my short but very detailed background of our religion that he told me that he was an athiest. We continued on in our discussion about religion in schools and the government. He made an interesting comment that the founding fathers tried to get away from religion so it should be out completely. Then he asked me why a loving god would bring so much pain and disasters into the world. I just him about how we believe in an afterlife so those that past on are going to be ok and with every disaster brings the bringing together of people and many lessons learned and more service and love in the world. He was such a nice man and it was a great discussion. He was from Georgia and that makes me want to go there on my mission so I can talk to him again. At least I planted a seed. After my hour and a half conversation in the hot tub I decided that I was completely prune-I-fied. I returned to my cabin to find out that it was midnight chips and salsa time. We enjoyed our food and now I am writing to you. It is now 2:35am and I am ready to post this and head to bed! I hope all is well at home. I will try again to send some pictures but you might just have to wait til I get home! Love you!!
We made it through another day but just barely. I think that today is going to be my favorite day to look back on. It was crazy! I woke up at 8:30am thinking that it was like 5:30am. The room has no windows and the bottom of the door is tightly sealed so no light comes through. When I woke up everyone else was sleeping so I just went and logged onto our site to see if anyone made any comments. Thank you mom, it was so great to hear form you. I love to hear about what is going on at home and what you think about my adventures. I had 8 minutes left on my wireless time so I tried to send mom some pictures. I am going to try to send them again but it takes so dang long! While I was playing on my computer a couple that I became friends with came up to me to tell me that there was a train that could take me to Florence for 5 Euro. I was so excited that I hurried back to my room to get ready. It was about 9:15am so I decided that I would just go whether or not anyone else wanted to go. As I was getting ready I woke everyone up and they decided that it sounded like a good deal as well. When I was about done everyone else was slowly getting up. Finally we went up to breakfast and as we were going up I said “it is getting really close to the next shuttle leaving we should probably just grab an apple or something.” after that they all laughed and said, “are you kidding us! We didn’t get our fat bodies by just eating apples!” and we got a kick out of that. So we went in and had a sit down breakfast and slowly made our way down to the shuttle where everyone complained that it would cost 4 Euro each way. When we got to the center of Livorno we went to the tabacco shop to buy our bus and train tickets. It cost 15 Euro each and that was for our whole trip there and back. By the time we got on the bus we realized that if we went all the way to Florence that we would only be able to be there about 30 minutes. So we decided even though we had already paid to go to Florence, we only had time for Pisa which was on the way. So we got to the station and we had just missed our train so we had to wait an hour for the next one. When it finally arrived, we got on and heading to Pisa. Heather and I listened to my new IPOD Shuffle during the short trip. In Pisa, we walked 3 miles to the tower through little streets and alley ways. It wasn’t that crowded and there were beautiful men everywhere. We got to walk across a bridge where at the edge of it was this tiny cathedral thing. It was beautiful like everything else here in Europe. Everything here is just so neat. The buildings have such character. When we got to the end of one of the alleyways, there was a sudden opening to the gorgeous square that the tower was located on. The tower is so beautiful! The first thing we did (of course) was take a ton of pictures of us holding it up. Then I went and looked at all the little shops along the side of the road. There was a ton of the usual cheesy touresty stuff but among that were little treasures. Beautiful handmade shawls, authentic bracelets and I finally found the perfect purse. I think that you will like it a lot. I got stopped by some West Africans selling fake watches. It was so something out of the movies. We were right in the middle of talking when a police car drove by. It was so funny cuz he totally stopped talking to me about it and shut his little briefcase until the car drove away. Like the police are stupid enough to not know what they are doing! Well, I found a fake Rolex that I liked and I took him from 50 Euro to 25 to finally 20 Euro. It is a really cute watch and I needed one so bad. It was really funny cuz he asked me if I was from America and I said yes so he said, “I love you, don’t you love me?” of course I said no but it sure was funny. After that I started walking to find everyone else and I could not find them anywhere. So I decided that I had been gone long enough and it was getting kind of close to get back so I walked back by myself. It was a really tranquil walk back and I was able to take some more pictures. They were not at the station when I arrived so I just got to wait. Sally that morning had talked me into wearing a tank top which was funny to wear because everyone around was wearing jackets and sweaters. I thought it was a very nice day. As I was sitting and waiting I had three Italian men ask me in Italian why I was wearing something so cold. Of course they said it in a sarcastic and with a joke but I just had to reply that I spoke English. They made me laugh. One of those men come up to me and he spoke no English whatsoever but some how we had a conversation about how I was waiting for my lost friends and that he was waiting for a 5o’clock train. He then proceeded to ask me if I wanted to go have a drink with him in the bar and I tried to tell him that I was underage. I don’t think that he got that but he got that I didn’t drink. I waited for them for an hour before they finally got there. What I learned later was that they were able to go inside the cathedral that was there by the tower for free. I didn’t even know that there was a cathedral. I hear that it was so beautiful that Cari cried. On their way back they stopped for a bite to eat and Susan found some charms for her charms bracelet and I did not. I am definitely kicking myself now for getting lost. When we got reunited we hopped on our train and headed back to the ship. The first thing we did when we got back was head up to dinner. It was a good thing too cuz I hadn’t eaten since breakfast. It is really neat because we have a room steward that is in charge of our room for the whole trip and he is Philipeno. He is so nice and I asked him where he is from and he said a little town in Dagupen. I had him write down the name but I left it in the room. (PS. Steph I found and bought the thing you were looking for. I will ship it to you from Barcelona when I can try to speak Spanish at the post office.) After dinner there was a comedian and the princess dancers performing in the theater. The comedian was pretty funny and the Princess dancers were scantily dress and not that great. But it was still fun. They had waiters walking around getting everyone drinks. I got myself a virgin pina colada. It was really good. During the show I got REALLY tired so I went up to take a nap. I zonked out! An hour later I was having this weird dream that someone kept knocking at the door and my roommates were trying to open it but they couldn’t or something. But the knocking continued no matter what. It was really weird. Finally I realized that it was heather trying to wake me up but I was so out that I had slept through it for 10 minutes. Finding Neverland was playing on the outside screen so we were going out to the pool. It was really cold and they didn’t have the hot tubs available at the pool so I just went to the inside pool’s hot tubs to relax. It was just me and then a nice old man in a speedo got in next to me. We had a great talk about what we have seen so far and where we are from and what we do. I told him that I was planning on going on a mormon mission and we then began talking about religion. He had lots of questions and I gave him a background of the church. It was after my short but very detailed background of our religion that he told me that he was an athiest. We continued on in our discussion about religion in schools and the government. He made an interesting comment that the founding fathers tried to get away from religion so it should be out completely. Then he asked me why a loving god would bring so much pain and disasters into the world. I just him about how we believe in an afterlife so those that past on are going to be ok and with every disaster brings the bringing together of people and many lessons learned and more service and love in the world. He was such a nice man and it was a great discussion. He was from Georgia and that makes me want to go there on my mission so I can talk to him again. At least I planted a seed. After my hour and a half conversation in the hot tub I decided that I was completely prune-I-fied. I returned to my cabin to find out that it was midnight chips and salsa time. We enjoyed our food and now I am writing to you. It is now 2:35am and I am ready to post this and head to bed! I hope all is well at home. I will try again to send some pictures but you might just have to wait til I get home! Love you!!
Thursday, November 10, 2005
November 9 & 10
November 9, 2005 11:00am Germany time
Well I made it through my first two flights and I have 30 min. until I am officially in Rome. So far our trip has been…well…long. Our first flight to Chicago was 2 and a half hours. Our second flight was a whopping 9 hours. On that flight I sat by a really nice lady from Chicago who has lived in Hong Kong for the last 9 years and now her husband, her and her 2 year old live in Germany and they are both lawyers. We got to talking and she told me that they are looking for a nanny…and she gave me her card. Can you imagine me in Germany? That would rock! Also on that flight we had a choice of 8 movies and we all had our own personal T. V.’s. It was great! I watched my new favorite movie Willy Wonka. (That would be a great Christmas gift for me by the way *wink*wink*) I didn’t get that much sleep. Mom gave me sleeping pills and I took two halfs and all it did was give me a headache. We had little maps that we could watch our progress in the air as we went and I know I fell asleep halfway over the ocean and I woke up again when we were flying over Ireland. Which was about two hours…and that is it. I am really tired right now but I decided to get ready and get caught up in writing before I was blinded by wonderful Rome and forget everything that I have done so far. When we got to the airport in Germany I was looking at the gift shop and I decided that in every stop that I go to along the way I am going to buy two things. A charm for a bracelet of travels I am starting and a postcard. I am excited. The little towns from the airplane are so cute!! We have started our decent!! Talk to you soon!!
2:45pm Rome time
We made it to the Villa Rosa Hotel after driving through the crazy streets of Rome. People really drive differently here. The way they drive reminds me of how Dan drove when he first got back from his mission. They don’t even bother to put lines on the road because people just drive where they want to. The best is watching the people on mopeds. They weave in and out of the cars like they are just obstacles in a race. It is scary to watch but kind of fun. I know that I couldn’t EVER drive here. I would crash after the first five minutes. I will try to get a video of it for all of you. (of the cars not of me crashing) our hotel is very Podunk. And it is in the middle of nowhere. I feel bad because we are not even near any of the sites. It cost us 60 euro to get to our hotel and our diver even got lost. It was interesting driving past all of the graffiti on all the buildings leading to our hotel. Bad hotel choice on me. I will do better next time. Right now we are sitting in our hotel getting naps. We are exhausted but I just want to go and explore Rome. Oh and the exchange rate is crazy here! I exchanged $200 at the airport and got 148.11 euro back. They took out the 1.25 for the exchange and then an extra 6.5% for commission. LAME! Oh well…what do you expect? I think I am going to go to sleep now for a little while and dream about the hot Italians I am seeing everywhere. I will write later if we do anything cool.
10:30pm Rome time
This hotel is starting to grow on me. The man at the front desk was very helpful and gave us a ton of information about where to go tomorrow and how to get to the ship. We are not going to the Vatican while we are here because it is so far out of the way. Instead we are going to the Collesseum, Trevi Fountain, and some other great places along the way. It will be a great day. I have come to grips with the fact that I am not going to the Vatican and it will be fine. It just means that I have to come back here. After our dinner of fresh fruit, fabulous spegetti, salad, French fries and pork we went and walked our little street. It is so fun to just look around at everything. Sally, Micheal and I went and got some ice cream at a little shop. We found some Vienntta like what I had almost everyday in England. Us three ate the WHOLE thing. It was great! I don’t know why I love ice cream so much but I do. It is so great being here with the people I am with. We are constantly laughing. I know by the end of the trip will have a laughing attack. I am just doomed for it. It has already almost happened about ten times already. I am going to sleep now cuz I took a sleeping pill so that I will for sure get some sleep tonight. Next time I write I will be on the glorious Grand Princess. Until then TA-TA!!
November 10th, 2005 9:10pm
I MADE IT TO THE SHIP!! Today was one of the best days of my life! We woke up and went down to the best continental breakfast I have ever had. In our hotel restaurant we had ham and swiss cheese, warm wheat croissants with a yummy honey in the middle, warm rolls with butter and peach jam and carrot juice. It was SO good. We then went to the trolley and started into town. We first saw some ruins right when we got off of the trolley. Then we walked down the street to the tomb of the unknown solider. It was spectacular! It had fountains and fire and statues. I got TONS of pictures. From the tomb we could see the colloseum. We decided that we were going to see that last. So we began walking up the street to Trevi Fountain. On the way we stopped in tons of shops. They were great. I found so many things that I wanted to buy. But I didn’t. I did buy my second charm though. It is a miniature colloseum. After our long walk and many stops in shops we made it to Trevi Fountain. It was beautiful and everything that I ever thought it would be. I got some great pictures. I even got a video tape of me throwing me my coins into the water. We continued on our adventure up through the alleyways and arrived in front of the Spanish Steps. From there we retraced our steps to the colloseum. When we arrived we were so tired and sick of spending money that we didn’t go inside for the tour. We walked around it, peeking through the archways to try and see inside. When we were finished, we had to hurry to the hotel so we could make our train to Civitiveccia. I was kind of sad because I didn’t get to see the mouth of truth. When we arrived at our hotel they kept on sending taxi’s that were too small for all of us to fit. We had to take two taxi’s to the station. On the way I was taking a ton of pictures then all of a sudden my driver told me in Italian that we were coming up to the mouth of truth and I freaked out. I was SO excited. Not only did he drive past it but he let me get out and take pictures of it. We didn’t find out until later that he was charging us while I was having my fun. At the Termani station we waited and waited for the second cab to arrive and after 45 minutes of waiting we just got on the train without them. Whil we were waiting though we saw some missionaries and I chased them down and asked them if they knew Elder Kotter. They did and they told me that he is down in Naples. I then got a picture of me with them to show him when I see him in February. The train ride was really long. It was an hour and 13 min. we made some friends on the way and shared a taxi to the ship. When we arrived the other half of our group was there but they had only just gotten there. They were on the train before us and when they got there they walked to the port with all their bags. They were crazy and so tired. We checked in and boarded onto our beautiful floating hotel. It is INCREDIBLE! We went strait to dinner. We had not eaten since breakfast. We went to the 24 buffet. It was really good. Heather and I then went to the top of the ship for when the ship first departed the port. We went swimming at the outside pool next to the big screen tv and watched a Tina Turner concert while we swam. It was heavenly. I took a stroll around the ship and it is huge! We are now relaxing and writing all of our e-mails in advance because it costs $10.50 for a half an hour to use wireless internet on the ship. A half an hour! Crazy!! I also just found out that for tomorrow, going to Florence, it would cost 350 Euro for a taxi for 6 people. My friends will not be wanting to go to Florence at that price. I might find some old couples and talk them into letting me go with them. If not I miss Florence. Sad huh? Well, at least I got to see Rome. I am going to enjoy my time here anyways. I will be continuing to write during my days here but I will only be able to put them up about every two days to save on the internet fee. Love you all and I will talk to you next when I am on my way to Lisbon!
Well I made it through my first two flights and I have 30 min. until I am officially in Rome. So far our trip has been…well…long. Our first flight to Chicago was 2 and a half hours. Our second flight was a whopping 9 hours. On that flight I sat by a really nice lady from Chicago who has lived in Hong Kong for the last 9 years and now her husband, her and her 2 year old live in Germany and they are both lawyers. We got to talking and she told me that they are looking for a nanny…and she gave me her card. Can you imagine me in Germany? That would rock! Also on that flight we had a choice of 8 movies and we all had our own personal T. V.’s. It was great! I watched my new favorite movie Willy Wonka. (That would be a great Christmas gift for me by the way *wink*wink*) I didn’t get that much sleep. Mom gave me sleeping pills and I took two halfs and all it did was give me a headache. We had little maps that we could watch our progress in the air as we went and I know I fell asleep halfway over the ocean and I woke up again when we were flying over Ireland. Which was about two hours…and that is it. I am really tired right now but I decided to get ready and get caught up in writing before I was blinded by wonderful Rome and forget everything that I have done so far. When we got to the airport in Germany I was looking at the gift shop and I decided that in every stop that I go to along the way I am going to buy two things. A charm for a bracelet of travels I am starting and a postcard. I am excited. The little towns from the airplane are so cute!! We have started our decent!! Talk to you soon!!
2:45pm Rome time
We made it to the Villa Rosa Hotel after driving through the crazy streets of Rome. People really drive differently here. The way they drive reminds me of how Dan drove when he first got back from his mission. They don’t even bother to put lines on the road because people just drive where they want to. The best is watching the people on mopeds. They weave in and out of the cars like they are just obstacles in a race. It is scary to watch but kind of fun. I know that I couldn’t EVER drive here. I would crash after the first five minutes. I will try to get a video of it for all of you. (of the cars not of me crashing) our hotel is very Podunk. And it is in the middle of nowhere. I feel bad because we are not even near any of the sites. It cost us 60 euro to get to our hotel and our diver even got lost. It was interesting driving past all of the graffiti on all the buildings leading to our hotel. Bad hotel choice on me. I will do better next time. Right now we are sitting in our hotel getting naps. We are exhausted but I just want to go and explore Rome. Oh and the exchange rate is crazy here! I exchanged $200 at the airport and got 148.11 euro back. They took out the 1.25 for the exchange and then an extra 6.5% for commission. LAME! Oh well…what do you expect? I think I am going to go to sleep now for a little while and dream about the hot Italians I am seeing everywhere. I will write later if we do anything cool.
10:30pm Rome time
This hotel is starting to grow on me. The man at the front desk was very helpful and gave us a ton of information about where to go tomorrow and how to get to the ship. We are not going to the Vatican while we are here because it is so far out of the way. Instead we are going to the Collesseum, Trevi Fountain, and some other great places along the way. It will be a great day. I have come to grips with the fact that I am not going to the Vatican and it will be fine. It just means that I have to come back here. After our dinner of fresh fruit, fabulous spegetti, salad, French fries and pork we went and walked our little street. It is so fun to just look around at everything. Sally, Micheal and I went and got some ice cream at a little shop. We found some Vienntta like what I had almost everyday in England. Us three ate the WHOLE thing. It was great! I don’t know why I love ice cream so much but I do. It is so great being here with the people I am with. We are constantly laughing. I know by the end of the trip will have a laughing attack. I am just doomed for it. It has already almost happened about ten times already. I am going to sleep now cuz I took a sleeping pill so that I will for sure get some sleep tonight. Next time I write I will be on the glorious Grand Princess. Until then TA-TA!!
November 10th, 2005 9:10pm
I MADE IT TO THE SHIP!! Today was one of the best days of my life! We woke up and went down to the best continental breakfast I have ever had. In our hotel restaurant we had ham and swiss cheese, warm wheat croissants with a yummy honey in the middle, warm rolls with butter and peach jam and carrot juice. It was SO good. We then went to the trolley and started into town. We first saw some ruins right when we got off of the trolley. Then we walked down the street to the tomb of the unknown solider. It was spectacular! It had fountains and fire and statues. I got TONS of pictures. From the tomb we could see the colloseum. We decided that we were going to see that last. So we began walking up the street to Trevi Fountain. On the way we stopped in tons of shops. They were great. I found so many things that I wanted to buy. But I didn’t. I did buy my second charm though. It is a miniature colloseum. After our long walk and many stops in shops we made it to Trevi Fountain. It was beautiful and everything that I ever thought it would be. I got some great pictures. I even got a video tape of me throwing me my coins into the water. We continued on our adventure up through the alleyways and arrived in front of the Spanish Steps. From there we retraced our steps to the colloseum. When we arrived we were so tired and sick of spending money that we didn’t go inside for the tour. We walked around it, peeking through the archways to try and see inside. When we were finished, we had to hurry to the hotel so we could make our train to Civitiveccia. I was kind of sad because I didn’t get to see the mouth of truth. When we arrived at our hotel they kept on sending taxi’s that were too small for all of us to fit. We had to take two taxi’s to the station. On the way I was taking a ton of pictures then all of a sudden my driver told me in Italian that we were coming up to the mouth of truth and I freaked out. I was SO excited. Not only did he drive past it but he let me get out and take pictures of it. We didn’t find out until later that he was charging us while I was having my fun. At the Termani station we waited and waited for the second cab to arrive and after 45 minutes of waiting we just got on the train without them. Whil we were waiting though we saw some missionaries and I chased them down and asked them if they knew Elder Kotter. They did and they told me that he is down in Naples. I then got a picture of me with them to show him when I see him in February. The train ride was really long. It was an hour and 13 min. we made some friends on the way and shared a taxi to the ship. When we arrived the other half of our group was there but they had only just gotten there. They were on the train before us and when they got there they walked to the port with all their bags. They were crazy and so tired. We checked in and boarded onto our beautiful floating hotel. It is INCREDIBLE! We went strait to dinner. We had not eaten since breakfast. We went to the 24 buffet. It was really good. Heather and I then went to the top of the ship for when the ship first departed the port. We went swimming at the outside pool next to the big screen tv and watched a Tina Turner concert while we swam. It was heavenly. I took a stroll around the ship and it is huge! We are now relaxing and writing all of our e-mails in advance because it costs $10.50 for a half an hour to use wireless internet on the ship. A half an hour! Crazy!! I also just found out that for tomorrow, going to Florence, it would cost 350 Euro for a taxi for 6 people. My friends will not be wanting to go to Florence at that price. I might find some old couples and talk them into letting me go with them. If not I miss Florence. Sad huh? Well, at least I got to see Rome. I am going to enjoy my time here anyways. I will be continuing to write during my days here but I will only be able to put them up about every two days to save on the internet fee. Love you all and I will talk to you next when I am on my way to Lisbon!
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
My Blog site
Hi family! This is my first blog on this site and I am here to let you know of the debut blog site called "Lizzie's World Travels" you can find it by clicking on my name and looking at my info. I am just about to leave on my trip and i will bring you along the whole way. Please feel free to comment on each day. I will try to give you the feel for what i am experiencing. I will tell you all about it!! Off I go!!
Off I go!
Well it is 8:40 on Tuesday morning and I am just about to head off to the airport for ROME! It is going to take all day for me to get there. My first stop is Chicago where we have a very short layover and hopefully I will make my plane. After 8 hours of sleeping I will arrive in Muich, Germany. I will be there for about an hour in a half. I know this is going to be such an exciting part of my trip. I will finally arrive in my dream city of Rome!! I am finally going!! It is going to be great! I will keep you posted about this trip along the way. It will be quite the adventure and it is definately this first travel log of many! See you on the flip slide, halfway across the world!!
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