Don't Worry, I'm Developing Arm Muscles

This blog has greatly suffered, I know. These 7 day cruises don't leave much time for snuggling in with Dexter (my computer!) and typing away at my adventures.

The Mediterranean is entirely too relaxing to go on tours. Once the sun goes away and the bitter winter hits I'll start boarding buses with guests to see the things I want to. Cannes has the best beaches (next to home, of course) ever. I just drag myself out to the sand, surrounded by French speaking children and soak in the sun. We're there on Sundays so families are everywhere. Hands down, Cannes is my favorite port on this run - maybe my favorite of this contract... maybe. I have a slight obsession with French people, language, culture, etc. I usually get ice cream and then dip in the water of the French Riviera. As I'm acclimating my body to the freezing water I look around and notice the water. It's so perfectly clear I can see the outline of my toenails at the bottom of the water and I raise my head to see a skyline of mountains. Who couldn't help but giggle to themselves?

Portofino is perfect for a glass of wine. Luckily the wine in Italy is almost cheaper than the water! I have one cafe with really great white wine. The word "city" insults this place, and "town" is not enough. It is the epitome of "village."

Livorno's gross. There's great shopping, but that's about it. Not worth it for the 2 Euro it costs to take the bus into town from the ship. That's my deck 7 day. Myself and many crewmembers go out to the crew pool and lay on chairs, making jokes and throwing each other in the pool. Patrick practices his "awesome" jumps and John squirts me with the water gun. Nikki snorts as she laughs and we lose volleyballs off the side of the ship. Innertubes, floaties and "wavemakers" keep us entertained, and once so far we've had the pleasure of having the 4 year old son of the Adage Duo, Ivan, come down to play with us in his dolphin floaties. I have a great crew.

Civitavecchia finds me on deck 7 again, it's quieter then. I don't waste the whole day there, though. The Subway has free internet... hence the recent slight increase of pictures on Facebook. Slowly but surely I'm getting them downloaded.

Naples is where the whole crew crams into the tiny sidewalk area of an Italian restaurant whose owner once worked on ships, and loves us. 4 Euro margheritta pizza and 5 Euro carafts of wine - the best house white I've ever had - and we stay there for hours.

Then we start over again. Eventually I'll venture out to see the Sistine Chapel, Monte Carlo, and Capri, but as you can see I've got a pretty awesome routine setup now.

The job's more intense with 7 day cruises, plus my old cruise director has come back to replace our current one. His vacation left him with lots of ideas - ideas that involve me making even more videos. It's exhausting, but at least I feel like I'm doing something. Naples night I was shooting from 6:30 p.m. until around 9:45. Doesn't sound like too long, I know, but consider I'm dragging all of my equpiment, my camera, and a tripod about 3/4 the size of me up and down 12 decks across a ship the length of three football fields. We're all feeling the impact of cramming our normal 12 day work into 7.

I've adjusted well here. I still have moments where I find myself counting down the days until I come home (39) and other days I can't imagine not seeing these same people everyday. When John has me laughing so hard my sides ache, or when Anna and I sing "Benny and the Jets" at karaoke, or I simply see the Carlton hotel from where I swim in the French Riviera I realize the complaints I make every night are so worth it.