Snow, snow, snow

When I first saw the red amidst the snow on this tree I assumed they were leaves.  Nope.  Apples.


















It's been a long time since I was in a winter wonderland...now I just want it to be warm again.  Although it is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

Like the Titanic, but with 100% less sinking!

After I made the decision not to stay in Europe as a TEFL teacher I started looking at air fare to come back home.  As I compared prices a thought struck me... It was about that time of year where cruise ships were re-positioning from Europe to warmer climates.  So, I thought to myself, "I could pay upwards of $1000 to be shoved into a coach seat for a million hours, probably next to a screaming child, or, OR I could extend my vacation and cruise home in comfort."  Guess which one I chose?



As I started looking at itineraries and prices there were a few options.  The first was pretty cheap (cheaper than airfare, even).  It left from Copenhagen, but only had one port of call beside NYC.  The second was a Carnival cruise leaving from I-don't-remember-where with several ports of call in the UK and Ireland, but it was sold out by the time I got serious about booking.  The final choice was a Holland America collector voyage that was basically back to back cruises.  The first seven days was a round trip out of Barcelona to the Western Mediterranean with a fourteen day transatlantic that skipped across the Spanish coast at the end.

I worried a little bit about being on a ship for 3 weeks, but I'd never had a problem with motion sickness and we would be visiting a lot of places I'd dreamed of visiting, so I emailed a travel agent and made it happen. The only downside is that now I am spoiled and think that 21 days is the minimum you should be on a ship!

I discovered there were a lot of previously unrealized pros and cons about cruising versus traveling on your own.  The biggest pros are:

• Everything is already taken care of.  I didn't have to worry about tours, transportation, meals, hostel reservations, public transportation, or navigational issues.
• Someone makes your bed (and turns it down) and cleans your room for you every day.
• You get chocolates on your pillow

The cons:

• You can get stuck on a boat for a long time with really annoying people that are hard to avoid because the ship ain't that big.
• You lose the ability to be spontaneous, and are always with killjoy tour group.
• If you don't like cruise food it can get pretty monotonous.

I really missed being able to set my own schedule and linger somewhere I thought was interesting.  I missed being able to set my own pace and do my own thing.  One thing I wasn't prepared for was all the bitching and moaning from fellow cruise passengers.  The excursions are coded with little "hiking people" icons to tell you how strenuous each excursion is.  One person = riding in a bus, Four people = lots of walking with uneven terrain, stairs, etc.  I signed up almost exclusively for four person tours.  I was here to see stuff! There were, unfortunately, a lot of people on every single tour that couldn't walk (or couldn't walk well), and complained the entire time, but old, rich, entitled, white people are really Holland America's bread and butter so I guess they just deal with it.  It annoyed the shit out of me, though.

I also really missed being able to immerse yourself in local culture.  When you're traveling solo you have to talk to other people.  Local people, other travelers from other cultures.  You have to figure out how to communicate, you get to eat in great local places (Hard Rock, Krakow excluded), and you get to learn a lot about other countries and a lot about how other people view America (and Americans) and the world in general.  It was fascinating.  On a cruise excursion it is very isolated from the local culture and you don't get to experience anything authentic.

Some random observations...

Holland America ships all end in "dam".  (I sailed on the Nieuw Amsterdam.)  This leads to a lot of punny branding.

I bought an honest-to-goodness-illegal-in-America Kinder Egg in the Azores, and documented the full wonderfullness of the experience.

I had some issues with the dining room staff.  I had initially been wait-listed for fixed dining, but when I got there the fixed dining had gone through.  The only problem was that I was seated at a table for six with one couple.  For those of you keeping score that means if the couple didn't show up I was seated at a table for six by myself.  Now, I have absolutely no problem eating by myself, but not at a table for six.  That is poor planning dining staff!  So, I requested a table for 2 instead, because see: don't mind eating by myself.  The Maitre d' was kind of rude and basically told me he'd let me know if he could work something out, and the next day (when I called them back) I was told that they'd given me a standing reservation in open dining. Fine.  Except the standing reservation was for 5:45 which is perfect for the old people on the ship, but a) it's a little early for me, and b) I had shore excursions scheduled that didn't return me until 6:30 most nights.

When I asked the assistant Maitre d' about moving my reservation to 6:30 - 6:45 he said, "See me after you eat and we'll work it out."  When I stopped after dinner he said, "New reservation at 8:30."  Wait, what?! Now we have a bit of a Goldilocks situation...I don't want too early or too late.  I want just right.  Anyhow, he said he that was the best he could do for me so I ended up a)going to other assistant Maitre d' the rest of the time, and b)going whenever I wanted and just requesting a certain area so I could have the same dining stewards.  I love having the same dining stewards because they learn what you like and what you don't and generally make sure you feel special.  For example, they will know I want a diet coke with dinner, that I'm allergic to shellfish, and that I love chilled soup.  They know that I'll almost always choose the chicken dish, and that I don't like nuts in desserts.  They also make you special tchotchkes...


When my dining stewards found out I was by myself on the ship they made me this little bird in a wine cork as a dining companion.  How cute and sweet is that?!

I also like that they change the elevator carpeting every day so you don't lose track.


And they'll give you a GIANT bag when you buy a watch.


And of course ...  towel origami.


I got to make some really amazing memories on this trip.  I got to play team trivia every day, I read nine books, I nerded out about art (both on and off the ship) and watched cooking competitions, demonstrations, and game shows. I ate cannoli in Sicily and pasta all over Italy.  I ate a croissant in France.  I saw limoncello factories and holy churches.  I inhaled the scent of a jacaranda tree in bloom.  I made some great friends (Hello, McIlroys!) who I will always remember and stay in touch with (and will visit if I ever get to Alabama).  I learned all about voting patterns in the 1960s, and ate the best coconut soup ever.  I was caught in a mid-Atlantic rainstorm, and saw the green flash during a sunset.  I had an amazing experience.  

Archipelago

The Azores have always been associated with the lost city of Atlantis, the mythical island kingdom quoted by Plato.  In fact, a pyramid (60 meters tall) has just been found off the coast.  This discovery was made only about a month before we were there so the island  was buzzing with the news.  As far as their actual history goes, references to nine islands in the Atlantic Ocean dates back to the 14th century.

Prince Infante D. Henrique registered the islands in the map of Europe with the Portuguese Maritime Discoveries.  The name Azores is also debatable, but the common theory is that buzzards that populate the islands were mistaken for goshawks (called acor) and the name of the misidentified birds stuck.

Animals were sent by Prince Infante D. Henrique in 1431 - 1432, and settlers arrived in 1439.

We visited the port city of Ponta Delgada on the largest island of Sao Miguel.  It is spectacular.


The archipelago (my favorite word in the English language, by the way) was formed by volcanic activity and the formations associated with that activity make the Azores stunningly beautiful to visit.


The main industry (and source of wealth) was the export of oranges to the mainland, primarily the U.K.  In 1870 the orange groves were attacked by a round of infectious disease that decimated the production, and many locals fled to America or Brazil.

Eventually new crops were introduced (pineapple, tea, hemp, and tobacco) and their economy was back on track.  We visited a pineapple plantation...


Even though I knew pineapples were bromeliads it was still weird to see an actual pineapple plant.



Tiny, baby pineapple!


Upon the fields of gold.


Flower within a flower





After the pineapple express we drove to Lagoa des Sete Cedades or Lagoon of Seven Cities.  Twin (ecologically separate and individual) lakes set in the crater of a massive volcano.  The lakes are situated in a way that on a sunny day (i.e. not the day I was there) one lake in blue (reflecting the sky) and the other is green (reflecting the magnificent foliage).


The color of the lakes is explained by an old story of a widowed king, a princess, and her star-crossed love - the sum of which is that the king forbade the princess to ever see her shepherd boy again, but she snuck off to meet him one last time.  They cried and cried she from green eyes, he from blue eyes until their tears were so many that they formed the lakes.  The more morbid tale says that they drowned in their tears.


The drive from Ponta Delgada to Sete Cidades is nothing short of awesome.  It is among the most magnificent natural landscapes I have ever seen.


Absolutely gorgeous.

In town many yards and fields are fenced by rock walls that are built with the basalt native to the volcanic island, but in the country the fields are fenced with hedgerows of hydrangea.  It is breathtaking.  I would love to come back to visit in the spring when the flowers are in full bloom.


The Azores are basically a closed ecological system so they don't worry too much about outside contaminants to their food system.  Cows are ever present, grass-fed, and their bovine population is completely free of threats from mad-cow disease.  The cows, however, have a habit of wandering outside their home field and it is quite common to wake up to cows in your backyard.  We even saw a number of cows perched on high hills and rocky ledges more like mountain goats than cows.  In the bus, we joked about how the needed signs that said "watch for falling cows" rather than falling rocks.




The population is primarily Catholic and many homes have these tiles over their doors of the various saints the house has been blessed by or dedicated to.











Igreja de S. Nicolau Parish Church








On our way back to Ponta Delgada we stopped at a volcano within a volcano.  This crater lake is inside the Sete Cidades crater.


By the time our group made it to this lake the fog was starting to roll in.  We were very fortunate to have such good weather on this side of the island.  As we reached the overlook between Ponta Delgada and Sete Cidades we could see the other half of the island was already shrouded in clouds. The other shore excursion did not have the magnificent views that we did.



After we were returned to the ship I decided to do a little walking around Ponta Delgada.  It is very Portuguese in style with black and white architecture and intricately patterned sidewalks.











Rare, but muted, color






I LOVE this picture SO MUCH!


Original city gate





The Azores have the youngest population in Europe, and you can tell just walking around.  There are a lot of kids everywhere!  Because there are so many young'uns running around they also have extensive after school youth activities.  There are sailing clubs, adventure clubs, farming clubs, scout groups, etc.  The day I was in Ponta Delgada there were several scout troops roaming the city participating in what appeared to be some kind of scavenger hunt.  They had stations set up where the groups would go and complete a team-building task before moving on.

There were also some awesome graffiti murals on the shore front




There were a variety of cafes and restaurants just outside of the port.  I stopped at one for lunch and ordered a chicken sandwich.  What was delivered to my table however ...

Was this.  You are seeing a corn, tomato, and lettuce sandwich.  I did not take even one single bite.  /Ick.

Initially when I booked a transatlantic cruise home with a port day in the Azores I thought it was kind of a cool place to say you'd been, but was really expecting a total "throw-away" day.  Now I dream of going back for a longer vacation.  It is lush; beautiful, friendly, wonderful, tropical, awesome.  It also makes a great stop-over if you are flying to Europe.  The airport was originally built for military use so they can land any type of aircraft.  They have direct flights that are only 3-ish hours from Boston (and maybe somewhere else on the USA side of the ocean) making it a great place to ease into European time zones and culture.  Definitely a highlight of my trip...weird, disgusting, sandwich aside.