Days One and Two

Well here we are. At sea. It’s 4am right now and we are both awake. Michael thinks it’s the time difference but I think it’s the constant creaking and listing back and forth.

Our journey here was smooth and relatively uneventful. The Paris airport is quite the feat of architecture and it is huge. We arrived at gate E2 and had to depart from F2 so you would think it would be a short little jaunt from one to the other. Nope. It took us a good 15 minutes to walk to the next gate and that was with the people movers speeding us along. It’s just massive! At the Paris airport I experienced my first rude French person. He was standing behind me trying to get through a huge crowd of people to see the TV monitors indicating the locations of gates and flights. He let off about 5 or 6 rapid fire “excuse me’s”

Excuse me.
Excuse me.
Excuse me.
Excuse me.
Excuse me.

In order to get out of his way I had to move into the way of other people (that said excuse me only once) so I looked back at him and said “I’m trying!”
He said “you’re trying?”

I got out of his way and into the way of the other people because, clearly, he was vastly more important.

Barcelona was completely amazing. I love it. There are crazy tiny little streets that cars actually travel on. You have to press yourself into a doorway to avoid being hit! We arrived at the hotel at 11:30 starving which was unfortunate for us because it was too early to check in and just try getting food at 11:30 in Barcelona. Apparently it’s an uncivilized time to eat. We did find a place and had some of the famous cured ham and sausage and white beans. Very nice.

Then we hopped on a tour bus. It would have been fun to explore the city without getting on a tour bus but when you have on day and a big list of things you want to see it’s totally the way to go. We saw the unfinished Sagrada Familia and it was pretty much worth the trip to Barcelona in itself. When it’s finished (if it’s finished) it will be even more spectacular. It is an absolute mammoth; this giant work of art in the middle of a functioning area of the city. Across the street are regular looking apartment buildings and shops, then you turn around and BAM you are in the shadow of this enormous structure. Sandra (the awesome lady at the hotel) made a great point. How did they build an entire Olympic village in a just a couple of years and it’s taken over a hundred years to halfway build a church. At 10 euro a pop for a tour it isn’t the money. Yes, it’s not just a building it’s art, but seriously. Finish it already. God is waiting. We also saw the Park Guell and got a pretty good feel for the city from the top of the double-decker.

Our one and only dinner on land was in Barcelona and I am convinced it was prepared by angles or fairies or something but no human can make something this good. I have the philosophy that when you are abroad you should a) always at least try the local cuisine and b) order simple food as it is often the best. I had pasta sauted with shrimp and it was the best pasta I have ever had, bar none. It was home made and the pasta and shrimp were tossed together in a highly heated pan so that parts of the pasta were crisped, almost toasted. Michael had steak, I know shocking right? Actually, yes it was a bit shocking. They didn’t ask how he wanted it prepared so he got it practically raw. Now, I like my meat medium rare but this was even too rare for me. Michael likes his meat cooked medium well so this was highly irregular for him. The meat was of such high quality that the rareness of it was not a factor even for Michael. He ate all but 2 bites, and he left those because he was full. Jenny and Dave would be proud!

Luckily our first day in Barcelona was nice because we got up the next morning and it was pouring. We got breakfast and walked around some then got lunch and walked around some more.

Then we got on the boat.

I have some things to say to the people that told me the following:

“Oh, you can’t even feel the motion you won’t even be able to tell you are on a boat.” – Okay, whoever said this must have been on a way bigger boat then we’re on because I can barely walk down the hallway without slamming into the walls. Michael says “If we can make it through the vacation without puking, we win.” Ah, a sexy honeymoon indeed.

“There is so much to do on the boat you won’t mind the days at sea and you may want to stay on the boat while you are at a port to have the ship to yourselves” – Now, granted we have only had one evening on the boat and we haven’t explored fully but 2 of the 3 bars we visited were playing an “It’s Raining Men/I Will Survive” medley. Not kidding. We have a few more bars to check out and I’m sure we’ll find our niche, but for now this is a means of transportation and nothing more. Bring on the ports, for the love of pete.

“You’ll gain weight the food is so good on the ship” – So far, not so. Dinner was very nice and the food was good but not that good and compared to the dinner in Barcelona it was not even close. You can’t even compare the two. Cruise ship food is clearly made by mortal men. Oh, and we requested a table for two months ago and didn’t get it. Apparently, there are 94 people waiting for a table for two so we are at a table for 4 with another couple that didn’t show up for diner last night, thank god.

I think different people have different versions of fun. Michael and I really just like to be left to our own devices, left alone really, so I don’t think that the cruise ship is our ideal vacation and we sorta knew that coming into it. Try everything once right? How else can you see all these cities? We were asked so many times if we wanted our picture taken that even if we had agreed to it a reasonable amount of times (like 2 or 3) we still would have been hounded 5 more times. The waiters asked us if we wanted more drinks so frequently that we were tempted to make a sign that said “No Thanks” and put it on the table. There were 5 or 6 waiters working the room and no assigned sections so every waiter that walked by asked if we wanted a drink. It was like being beaten up. At first I thought “wow great service” but, it went from great service to hard sell in a matter of minutes.

I don’t mean to be negative and I am sure this will get better and the ports are going to be amazing even if it does pour the entire time, which it’s supposed to. I am having fun! Michael and I are having a great time people watching, that’s for sure. Marsaillles is our first port and I can’t wait! We’ll be going to the Luberon villages in the countryside. Sounds great for photos! Hopefully tomorrow night is a better cruise experience. It’s formal night for dinner so I get to dress up.

OMG the friggin boat just shook like it went over a speed bump at 50mph. Sleep? Yeah right!