Welcome to catch-up time with me.
I completely abandoned the idea of updating the blog while on the ship because of the WiFi as mentioned in the previous entry, so I will try to wrap up the cruise adventures in this entry, but it might require yet a third entry. We shall see.
I had an idea in my head that the days at sea would be divine as I have enjoyed the time spent sailing more than most anything on the other three cruises I had been on.
My prediction was absolutely true.
Contrary to the rest of this whole journey, where I have felt a pressure to be making the absolute most of every day and have beaten myself up when I have felt like I didn’t accomplish that, that feeling didn’t exist at all.
Wanted to spend the whole day in the cabin reading? Fine.
Wanted to stay up until the sun rises just for funsies? No problem.
I’m honestly not sure the last time I allowed myself to do that. I don’t consider this a vacation, but that would be the most similar experience to this, right? And I have felt that same aforementioned pressure to do at least *something* on pretty much every day of any vacation I ever have had.
So this was glorious.
I should have at least taken a day in there to use on planning what would come after we arrived at our final port of call, but that’s ended up working out just fine as you’ll find out. But still…
Anyways, so the sea days were amazing.
A “typical” day — or at least the kind of day I had a few times — went something like this: wake up, roll around in bed, go pee, roll around more in be, finally go eat breakfast at around 11 or 12 thanks to the all-day breakfast available up in The Galley, go down to The Dock (the space on deck on the back of the ship), go back to the room to read, get ready for dinner, have an amazing dinner, and wrap it all up with The Lee Boys at On the Rocks.
The Lee Boys were absolutely amazing. I had no idea that there was going to be a band that I would have followed around the Southeast in my younger days on the ship. Indeed, they played a couple songs that the North Mississippi Allstars (who I adore) have covered, they busted out a Robert Randolph tune.
It was fantastic, and I have no regrets about forgoing the rest of the on-board entertainment to go see them every night that they played which was nearly every night.
It took me a couple days to get adjusted to the constant movement of the ship while on the open seas, but thankfully the weather was quite pleasant for the vast majority of the trip.
The vast majority.
One night while at dinner and with rain clouds all around us, the ship suddenly leeeeeeeeaned over hard to the left.
You might have seen the story about it on the Weather Channel.
Yep, a waterspout hit us.
It was wild.
But other than that, I don’t think you could have asked for better sailing weather, and indeed there were no icebergs.
Our first stop after the days at sea was in Lisbon, and it quickly shot up the rankings of favorite places for me. First off, the trip into the port is absolutely amazing. We had the most amazing sunrise, and going under the Portuguese version of the Golden Gate Bridge was incredible.
I walked around town for a few hours, having decided to only book one shore excursion in our three ports of call, and it was fantastic. I will absolutely have to get back to Lisbon and explore more of Portugal in the future.
And I will come prepared this time to brush off the incredibly frequent offers of illicit drugs.
“You want smoke?” a guy randomly asked me. Uh no I’m good I thought to myself as I shook my head, thinking it was strange to be offered a cigarette on the street like that.
“What about coke?”
Why on earth would I want a … ohhhhh. OHHHHHH. Shake your head, keep walking, don’t make eye contact.
I was offered weed and cocaine several more times throughout the day, and this was right in the touristy city center!
Quite a different level from the various flying light-up machines and weird noise makers offered in the other European capitals.
I particularly loved all the color that was everywhere, and the funky designs of the tile in so much of that core area. It reminded me quite a bit of the personalities of those that I know who hail from Portugal.
Our next stop was in Cadiz, and this is where I booked an excursion, where we headed to a nearby town for a lesson in authentic paella making. This was quite a treat, and I was glad to have done it, especially since Monyca — who I had met at dinner a few nights prior — was also doing this.
The paella was amazing, and I can now cross off eating rabbit in addition to the other various seafood items that were in it. They also gave us a good taste of some of the wine used in the recipe, a fantastic sangria to go with the meal, and a shot of very good if also very strong brandy to cap the experience off. My reaction to the brandy caused my voice to go up several octaves, delighting the table of new friends.
Even as introverted as I am, when you’re on a floating small town for 15 nights, it’s hard not to meet folks, and I loved everyone that I did. From Monyca to Nitin who also made paella with us to Jamie who yelled at me for 40 minutes about not being introverted to Fabio.
Oh Fabio.
Fabio was… I’m sorry, I have to say it… the dreamy bartender that I didn’t meet until the next to last night of our trip.
I didn’t have any dinner reservations so I wandered down to Extra Virgin for some delicious Italian, and they asked if I would mind sitting at the bar. I did not. And I did not mind the next night either because Fabio and his colleague Slobodan put on an amazing show, entertaining us with great laughs and very, very good drinks.
I got to chat with Fabio some as dinner time on the last night was winding down, and there’s just something I’ve always enjoyed about making someone know they’re appreciated, especially when it’s obvious it means a lot to them. Those last two nights were a hoot because of them, and I’m glad I stumbled into that experience.
I have done an incredible injustice to this cruise.
Two entries cannot possibly cover it, but I really must get caught up. I’m already two cities away from arriving in Barcelona, so this will have to do for now. If you take nothing away from this but one thing, make it be this: doing a transoceanic cruise should ABSOLUTELY be on your bucket list. It was incredible.
I still have to tell you about Barcelona — which was amazing, I thought — but for now I have to get ready for some more trad music in a small Irish pub tonight.
What an adventure this is.
Rails to Ride 
what !!! no picture of Fabio ??
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