Our alarm went off at 11am today (8am ship time). We slowly got out of bed. We tried using emergency eject buttons on each other to launch ourselves from bed, but they weren’t very impressive. Davin said, “I’m pushing your eject button!” and I slowly sat up and got out of bed. It was a very pathetic eject.
Anyway, we finally got up early enough, (though it was the same time to us!), to get to the sit down breakfast. We tried it out. The menu was largely identical to what you could get from the buffet, so there seemed little point in going to the sit down breakfast. I guess you know you are getting fresh food at the restaurant though. We both ordered a waffle because that is one thing you can’t get at the buffet. The restaurant was packed and it took forever for our food to come. Our waiter continually harassed us about eating some snack, toast etc., while we waited. The servers on the ship don’t seem happy to see their customers sitting around simply waiting. We must be happy, happy, happy! So, instead of leaving us alone, they persistently try to stuff us like pigs! Do they think eating will make us happy? If so, I suppose that means that they are only trying to make their guests fat out of the goodness of their hearts! Or, perhaps beneath their friendly, servile exterior, there lurks a resentful rebel who is secretly engaged in an evil plot to fatten up, and therefore, uglify all the superior rich people who snottily send back their tea because the water tastes “horrible” and “disgusting”... I don’t mean me, of course. (I’ve never sent anything back in my life! And I certainly wouldn’t be snooty about it if I did. ) It was the German couple sitting next to us, but in their case the evil fattening plot is too late, they are already busting at the seams with rolls of fat.
Our waffles finally arrived! I also had a side of hash browns. Davin had eggs and hash browns as well. The waffles actually came with banana on top, but the server had the topping put on the side. He called it some fancy word that started with an R...rakiri or rikitikitac, or some such thing! Obviously the word didn’t get filed in my permanent database! Whatever it was, the definition of the word was simply ‘on the side’. Then another man came and absolutely smothered my waffle in maple syrup! I wasn’t expecting them to offer too much syrup, so in my surprise I didn’t manage to stop him in time. Oh well. The waffle was better than a bisquick waffle, although it did have the inferior taste of being made from a mix. The syrup was ok. Davin said is obviously wasn’t REAL maple syrup with the way they lavishly poured it all over our waffles! It tasted about equivalent to Aunt Jemima. I was absolutely stuffed before I even finished my waffle, and felt overloaded by sugar. Davin didn’t finish his food either. Since we couldn’t even stomach an entire meal, I guess it’s a good thing we resisted our servers attempts to bring us more food!
After breakfast, we walked around outside briefly. It’s getting more and more humid every day. We are already dreading our arrival in Florida! We took in the view, the same beautiful view as always, and then headed back to our room.
The first thing I did was to finish reading Kurt’s memoirs. When I finished reading and mapping Kurt’s trip, I mapped my trip on the same map so I could see the difference. (Kurt’s trip is in red, and mine is in BLUE!) The two trips are, not surprisingly, totally different, but I think it is amusing the few times they overlap! For example, we both visited the Roman Baths in Bath, England, and then we both visited the house where Mozart was born all the way in Salzburg, Austria! Funny stuff!
My first reaction to Kurt’s trip is that I would not have enjoyed it much at all! Not for any good reason, of course. Simply because of ALL THE SOCIALIZING!!! My god you know a ton of people Kurt! Jeezus. I should’ve counted all the times Kurt had to tell a new set of friends or family (and we’re sometimes talking super, ultra distant family!) about his travels thus far. I can get behind saving money by crashing with them all, but I’d be going out of my mind if I went on a three month trip bouncing from friend to friend. But that’s just me, since I can count all my friends on ten fingers, and only one of them lives in Europe, I don’t have to worry about experiencing a trip like Kurt’s. If you love socializing, and seeing tons of friends and family, then Kurt’s trip was definitely a dream trip come true. I’m really impressed with Kurt’s ability to maintain all those friendships and relations with such distant family members. One time he visited something as crazy as a grandmother’s brother’s wife’s cousin, or something like that. It’s amazing to have a congenial relationship with such an obscure relation. Obviously, Kurt is a really likeable guy, but that isn’t news to those of us who know him.
Kurt saw all kinds of interesting sights. I especially enjoyed reading about his experiences in Spain. Kurt also sure seems to like small, old churches. I can appreciate a church now and again, but Kurt visited a couple dozen more than I would have been able to tolerate. My step-mom is already a Cathedral Fiend. Growing up around her, my little brother and I learned that if you want to get home any time soon you better blind fold her and lock her in the car, cause if she catches sight of a cross or bell tower it’s game over! Once she’s through those doors, you’ve got about thirty minutes of thumb twiddling to do while you wait for her to come back out again!
Another main difference between my trip and Kurt’s trip, is that Kurt puts more of his time to ‘good’ use. He literally ran around cities and saw absolutely as much as he could possibly see. He was out there sight seeing til the darkness forced him to stop! He walked and hiked so much that both pairs of his shoes fell apart! If reading about the socializing tired me out, than reading about Kurt’s sight seeing made my feet hurt! I have to say I was very impressed with Kurt’s motivation and energy!
I’m a much more leisurely traveler myself. I LOVE to see new, interesting, absolutely amazing things for four to six hours a day. After that, my feet hurt, my shoulders hurt, I’m tired, and I’m ready to go ‘home’. (Of course, we only have about six hours from when we finally leave our lodgings until all the attractions close anyway.) Once I’m tired, I just want to go back to my nice comfortable hotel (not hostel!) and relax with a bath, or some Star Trek, or a computer game. The sorts of relaxing things you might normally do when you are at home. I’m sure Kurt would consider this a waste of time when you are on the trip of a lifetime. But, it’s my way of traveling for several reasons. (If you’re tired of hearing random stories of my life that amuse me, you should skip to the end of this blog entry!)
First, another step mom story! My stepmom LOVES to see new places in exactly the same way that Kurt does. Inevitably, on her previous visits to see her German family, poor, young, tired Kristin, and her even smaller little brother were dragged (note: entirely against their will) around cities, through churches, to cathedrals, to museums, around lakes, across bridges, up mountains, down mountains by her overly energetic step mother. Thanks to her step mom, Kristin saw a myriad of wondrous things, and visited a myriad of wondrous places. (Most of which I don’t remember clearly because I was too young, and my long term memory is absolute crap!) The result being that adult Kristin absolutely HATES running around to see amazing things. I’ll take two amazing things a day, with a side of lazy sitting for tea and cake at a café, followed by a bath and television in the early evening, thank you very much! (Note: I happen to get my love of having tea and cake at cafes from my step mom as well. Baerbel has had quite a formative influence on my development, despite the fact I don’t get to see her all that often.)
Another reason I have a leisurely way of traveling is simply because I’ve traveled a lot already. Visiting Europe isn’t as amazingly special for me as it is for others. This trip is the twelfth time I’ve visited Germany. That averages out to a visit every other year of my life, though, since my first visit was at age 7, it’s actually been more often than that. I also used to go for the ENTIRE three month summer, and the last time I tallied up my total time spent in Germany it amounted to a little over two years. Now it must be closer to three. So, I’ve definitely taken full advantage of my Dad’s relocation to Europe. I think the end result is that when it comes to traveling I’m a little bit spoiled, a little bit jaded, and a little bit lazy. I still LOVE to travel though, as long as it’s leisurely, and what I love most of all is eating!!! I think Whitney caught onto that awhile ago! ;p
Davin disagrees with my claim of leisurely traveling. He says that, in his opinion, we look at each site so thoroughly that we would absolutely be going out of our minds if we saw anymore. Also, with the long driving times between some of the places we visited, it simply wouldn’t have been possible to see more. He also says, that when you are seeing so many places, there is no point in seeing everything in too much detail, because your brain will only remember impressions and not all of the minutiae. He also thinks that one city looks much like the next, so he prefers to see sites of historic importance and natural wonders to people and cities. He added, that he certainly hopes that this is NOT a trip of a lifetime either! That would be pathetic considering that he has (hopefully) a long life ahead of him, and if this is as good as it gets, then it’s not really that good. Also, he pointed out that we didn’t go to any cafes on this trip, because he thinks cafes are a stupid waste of time and money! I still have to say that a relaxing sit at a café is preferable to seeing yet another cathedral though. The lesser of two evils perhaps?
Clearly, Davin and I both have unique attitudes about traveling! Davin also says that my blogs are getting too ridiculous and long, so I will try to tone it down again in the future. I guess I have too much time on my hands on this cruise! It has been amusing me at least, if not my readers, and I think my future self will still find it amusing in said future, so it’s worth writing all my ridiculous thoughts down for posterity’s sake! :p
Anyway, after I finished reading the blog and writing yesterday blog update, we went to lunch. The sit down lunch was unimpressive, so we just had some fried chicken and Indian food from the buffet. We brought lunch to our room and watched a Voyager while we ate!
After lunch, I worked on B&B the rest of the afternoon, and Davin beat Max Payne 2. Then he went back to working on his RPG. Around 8pm our time, we went downstairs to run. When we got outside we were hit by a disgusting blast of humid, warm air. Davin reiterated his dread of visiting Florida. He says that moving to anywhere in the Gulf area is out of the question simply because the weather is horrid.
We did our two lap run. I actually did an extra half a lap. Poor Davin decided to try to run after me and over did it. Apparently his calves are really out of shape. I only have problems with my breathing when I run, but Davin feels the burn in his legs. He hobbled back to our room. Then he decided we should go in the jacuzzi for his legs’ sake. By this time, my legs were starting to hurt too, a delayed reaction, though they weren’t as bad as Davin’s. He kept making horrible grimaces of pain! We Tenhunens are just not built for athletics. We’re all brain and no brawn, I’m afraid.
We relaxed in the jacuzzi for at least an hour. Sunset was at 6:50pm ship time, which is 9:50pm our time. I commented to Davin that it’s nice that it’s still light out past 10pm. It’s just like summer in southern Europe. When we got out it was going on 11pm our time. We got dressed and went to the restaurant for dinner.
My server was slow tonight so I had time to put my napkin in my lap myself without it being awkward. Score: Servers ~5/Kristin 1. I had a delicious soup for an appetizer, and Davin had a fruit cocktail. For an entree, I was brave and ordered the Vegetarian Mexican Burritoes. It was a gamble, and it paid off, more or less. I’ve had much, much better, but it was decent. It was more like a fajita than a burrito though. Davin had the Greek Chicken, which he said was decent but the one from J.K’s Greek Café is better. Davin had Pumpkin Praline Pie for dessert. I skipped dessert, I was stuffed already. We noticed that very few people came to eat in the restaurant after 8pm ship time. I was amused that, as far as Davin and I were concerned, we were eating dinner at 11pm!
Back in the room, Davin finished up working on his complicated lock hacking system. I tried to read investment articles but I couldn’t focus on them. Then we watched a Voyager before going to bed at 12:30pm (9:30pm ship time).
No comments:
Post a Comment