You Might Work on a Cruise Ship If...

 Somebody asks what day it is and your reply is a city, not a day of the week.

You have a wallet full of bills and coins but not one of them is from your home country or the country in which you are.

You don’t know have any of your friends’ cell phone numbers.

You think clocking fifty hour constitutes an easy work week.

Weight and packability are among your requirements when shopping for clothes.

You have visited dozens of countries since renewing your passport but only have a handful of stamps, most of them from your home country.

You think a group with an average age of 58 is a “young crowd.”

It's funny because it's true. Feel free to leave a comment with your own scenarios.

St. John's, Newfoundland

Due to weather challenges, we skipped another port and docked in St. John’s the evening before our scheduled arrival. Jo got off early the next morning for a run and scouted out a route for her “Homes and Gardens” tour.

I followed Jo up the streets of St. John’s (I came back from the Voyage of the Viking with awesome calf muscles) and there was plenty to see. The houses were colorful to say the least. After walking for a while I spotted a cemetery and knew it was out destination.

We spent almost an hour exploring. Cemeteries are neither creepy nor morbid to me, but they have so many stories to tell. Unlike in Scandinavia, the majority of this cemetery’s occupants had lived short lives and many head stones told stories of how they had died. This cemetery was also interesting because some sections were divided by occupation. There were a few sections dedicated to priests, a section for the teachers of the city, a section of nuns, and several sections military. I think we could have spent much longer there. Although the cemetery was old and could have used a little TLC, it was beautiful. Another great adventure in another great port.

Akureyri, Iceland

One of the reasons Jo and I enjoy exploring ports together is we both enjoy going off the beaten tourist track and exploring other parts of the city; we call it Jo’s Homes and Gardens Tours. Jo is an avid knitter and crocheter and someone had told her that a grocery store about two miles from the port had a basement dedicated to yarn, so we left the ship and started to climb. Although it was all uphill, it was a nice climb and lived up to the title of “Homes and Gardens Tour;” we passed everything from beautiful historic homes to shabby apartment buildings.

The store had so much yarn in so many colors! Jo was like a kid in a candy store and her enthusiasm was contagious; I ended up with two skeins of wool so I could learn to knit. I’m not sure how much wool Jo ended up with but it was two bags full.

Akureyri was so steep that walking downhill was just as slow as walking up. We still had some time when we got back near the port, so we visited the local church and wandered through a few of the shops. I tried to get Jo to take a picture with a troll, but she refused. Too bad, it would have been a nice memory.

Seydisfjordur, Iceland

Seydisfjordur is a tiny, rustic town in Iceland; it is absolutely beautiful. Jo and I had planned on hiking some waterfalls, but that didn’t end up happening. Instead we walked through town (that didn’t take long) and along the river.

 We passed a cemetery, so on our way back we decided to spend a few minutes exploring; Jo shares my fascination. 

There isn’t a whole lot to say about Seydisfjordur, so I’ll just let the pictures do the talking.

Tόrshavn, Faroe Islands

I only had a few minutes in Tόrshavn because I was on IPM so I had to be back on board before Krista finished work. It was okay, though, because the day we were there was a Danish holiday, so most places were closed. But, I did manage to get some pictures of this beautiful island.

Dublin

Although we did not arrive in Ireland until noon, I woke up early that morning like a child on Christmas. Through my grandmother was born in the United States, she was 100% Irish and spoke with an Irish brogue until the day she died, so I have always wanted to visited the land of her heritage.

My friend Jo and I hopped on the port shuttle bus and headed downtown. Just before the bus stop we saw this store. We just looked at each other and nodded, there was no question as to where we would stop first. We loaded up on chocolate (and Jo had what she described as the best mocha she has ever had) before we started to explore.

We wandered in and out of the shops along Durbin Street, Dublin’s main road. We found a shop that sold fascinators and spent a good ten minutes trying them on. I have an obsession fascinators and if I ever move to the British Isles I will wear one on a regular basis. We walked into a cheese shop because every adventure with Jo involves cheese, chocolate, or both. We found a street cart selling jewelry where I found a dainty shamrock charm for my bracelet.

At the end of Durbin Street we found a park, but the park was packed full with thousands of zombies. We weren’t real sure what we had gotten ourselves into the middle of, but we found out later that it was a parade to support cancer research. It made for an exciting end to the afternoon.

The next morning none of my friends wanted to get off, so I headed into the city on my own. I wanted to see St. Patrick’s cathedral, but it was closed for mass and it’s fenced off so it was difficult to get a great exterior shot for the front. A city park lines the back of the cathedral, so I got a few shots from there. From the cathedral I headed to Dublin castle, but on my way it started POURING down rain and as rain was not in the forecast I was not prepared. I walked past the castle and kept on walking until I got to the shuttle bus stop. I looked like I had jumped into a pool, but that’s okay.

When things cleared up a little later I was able to get a few nice shots from the sports deck. I definitely need to go back and spend a week or two to see everything I wanted to see.

Plymouth, England

In Plymouth I decided that I want to live on the English sea shore. I don’t really want to live at the beach, but the beach and the seashore are two very different things; the beach implies sand and surf and sun (all nice, but sand gets stuck in every crevice and they do not make an SPF high enough for my Swedish/Danish/Irish complexion) while the seashore implies a rocky shoreline and lighthouse and ships sailing gracefully past. I’ve added it to my bucket list.

Shortly after docking, my roommate Alyssa and I got off to explore. We had planned to walk downtown, but apparently Plymouth has two city centers; we headed towards the first one. It was a nice city, but similar to many places in America with chain stores and fast-food restaurants lining the streets.

When we found the city center it had been turned into an Olympic park of sorts. Olympic flags surrounded a seating area that faced a giant screen and official vendors lined the perimeter. JACKPOT! I love the Olympics and was sad to be missing them (even though we spent two days in England right in the middle of the games). My family began collecting Olympic pins for the Atlanta Olympics and continues when the games were in Salt Lake City, so I couldn’t resist adding a London pin to our collection. Time was limited because we docked late (we were actually there early but the ship using the pier before us was an hour late leaving), so I watched about twenty minutes of swimming before I had to head back. It may not have been the most exciting city on the itinerary, but I got to watch twenty minutes of the Olympics live and that was exciting to me!