Barcelona, Spain - A "Parent Port"

On the sail to Barcelona we were super excited to see our parents and in turn were slightly distracted in class. We were also looking forward to receiving care packages and mail from home. By the time the last class rolled around on arrival day (math for me) we were too excited and preoccupied that the teachers just gave up.

We planned a bit of a performance for our parents as we docked. Some of the floaties dressed the yards on the foremast (that is, we were up the riggings in special formation waving to the folks on the dock) and the Sorlandet Music Group (also known as the Jam Club) dressed up as pirates and fittingly played the theme song from Pirates of the Caribbean as we rolled in. A massive crowd of parents and family members cheered and hollered at us in greeting.

It was really great to see mom – like having a small bit of home come to me. We had so much fun together! We shopped, went sightseeing and I had the opportunity to introduce her to all of my floaties as well as put her to work "brassing". Mom stayed in an apartment with four friends from her Jazzercise days. It was located in the center of the Gothic neighbourhood about a twenty-five minute walk away from the ship. Below the apartment there was a delicious little tapas bar. An ice cream parlour and an outdoor cheese market were also close by. We had the perfect spot! It was really handy to have an apartment. I got to nap in a real bed and shower EVERYDAY. The water was hot and I wasn’t limited to ninety seconds! It was BLISS. Mom even made me her homemade spaghetti.

It was delicious and I got to invite several friends, who did not have family visiting, to join us for dinner. We had a great time! No food lines, no rationing … it was super!

 

One of mom’s friends is a fitness teacher and she came down to the ship early in the morning to teach us Zumba for PE class. Check it out on You Tube!

One of my favourite things about Barcelona was the food market. It was AMAZING. There were colorful stands upon stands selling fresh fruits, smoothies, Iberian ham (if you ever visit Spain, you must try some!), other meats, mushrooms and numerous variety of nuts. The smoothies were the best ever. My favourites were mango coconut and kiwi coconut. Especially after the long sail, all that fresh fruit was HEAVENLY.

Barcelona is loaded with great stores and the shopping if fabulous! In Spain, shoes and accessories are no laughing matter. By the end of our shopping spree, our wallets were considerably lighter!  Mom and I also checked out some Gaudi architecture while wandering around the city. It was very cool.

For our port program we visited Monserrat – an old monastery town in the mountains. You may be familiar with the famous choir of young boys that live, study and sing there. We were fortunate enough to hear a performance in the massive cathedral that was in the centre of town. We also headed up the side of the mountain for what turned out to be a disappointing view: so foggy you couldn’t see two feet in front of you.

Luckily, by the end of the day it did clear up a bit and the view was quite spectacular and well worth the wait.

Barcelona was great! Although it was difficult to say goodbye, I really enjoyed the trip and spending quality time with Mom. Thanks for coming!

Cadiz, Spain

Apologies for the long break between updates! We are all very busy on the Sorlandet with schoolwork, watch duties, cleaning duties and port expeditions. I will try my best to keep up to date in future …

Hola todos! Cadiz was the first Spanish port and I was really excited to travel there. My first impression? Spain is beautiful and rich with culture.

 The city of Cadiz itself was built with many narrow, winding and criss-crossing cobbled streets – the perfect recipe for getting lost … shops, tapa bars and apartments line every inch of downtown. One street in particular was super cool (we later dubbed it girl haven!). It was lined with wedding stores, dress boutiques, shoe shops and accessory boutiques. It was AMAZING. Luckily the boys in our group led us away before we could clean out our entire wallets!

In the center of the city there was a massive cathedral. It was incredible and conveniently had Wi-Fi! As I sat on the steps outside the cathedral, corresponding with friends, a procession of hundreds of priests, bishops and other religious figures all dressed in white robes paraded through the streets. I witnessed the crowning of a new bishop.

It was a really neat experience. We also got the chance to watch part of the church service itself. However, because of the huge number of people in the cathedral, we had to sit in a second sanctuary that broadcast the service.

As one of our port programs, we visited the city of Seville. We spent the day exploring, wandering and picnicking (this seems to be a theme!). We found a beautiful spot along the river, beside a bridge and next to a Zen forest.

We sat for a few hours and it was really nice to spend time relaxing off the ship. Unfortunately, on our walk back, one of the guys kicked a pile of dog poo … with flip-flops! His feet were covered and we were all in stitches - yuk, poor guy!

Back in Cadiz we spent time lounging on the beautiful sandy beaches and wading in the water. It was just so beautiful. In fact, I think I could live in Cadiz no problem! One night, we all went out to a flamenco show. Fifty of us crammed into a tiny bar with a small stage – three dancers, a guitarist and a singer. They danced and played like there’s no tomorrow. It was bold, striking and passionate. We all had a great time and needless to say he boys were all totally mesmerized …

I had a great time in Cadiz. Barcelona next … can’t wait for more of Spain and mom's visit!

Porto, Portugal - Found the Blog!!!

Blog lost in cyber space! Stay tuned for recovery. In the meantime a few pics ...

Found it ... read on.

Oporto was especially cool for me because Portugal is unlike any country I had ever visited before. We were docked in a small town twenty minutes outside of the city itself. For morning P.E. class every day we ran to the beach and watched the waves crash on the sand. The water glistened a turquoise blue and the sand stretched along the coast as far as the eye could see. It was something like paradise. The restaurant right on the beach was a hotspot for us to hang out. What a view! And there were surfers too …

 

The buildings are embellished with azulejo tiles with rich pigments of blue and yellow, and wrought iron adornments are everywhere.

For our first port program we headed on the bus into the city of Oporto and visited a Factory House. Factory Houses are grand buildings built for the top administrators in Port Wine producing companies. It’s almost like a country club, but the only members are the company heads. We visited the Graham Port Wine Factory House. Inside there was a great entrance hall, a ballroom with a magnificent grand piano, two formal dining rooms for traditional eleven-course meals held at the house and a library archive of thousands of books in multiple languages. There were poetry books, encyclopedias, hand-written weather records, newspapers and magazines dated back to the 1800’s – everything you could imagine. It was phenomenal. We could have been in there for hours just exploring and looking at the different books. It was super cool! (Especially for a bookworm …) Following the Factory House tour, we went to an actual Port Wine Factory and learned about the port winemaking process. It was really interesting and quite complicated. After the tour and lecture, we all sat down and had a tasting of some ten-year-old port. It tasted fiery and sweet. I liked it.

Cheers!

Exploring the streets of Porto

After winetasting, a group of us headed off to explore the city. We spent the time just wandering around, taking it all in. It was really fun. I liked the feel of the city; nothing was perfect. The brightly coloured buildings had paint chipping off and the cobbled streets were well worn. Everything seemed laid back and relaxed. My favorite part was the fact that laundry was hung outside of every apartment window, which added something to the surrounding streets. After a great day of exploring, we miraculously figured out the Portuguese metro system and made our way back to the ship - quite the adventure.

Having had lots of successful and delicious picnics in Brest, we thought it would be a great idea to try it again in Oporto – big mistake. I’m not saying anything against Portuguese grocery stores, but let’s just say it was a combination of unfortunate events that led to the worst picnic ever. First of all, it took us ages to find the grocery store. Once we got there, it was disappointingly small and I struggled with cheese and vegetable decisions. We made our way to the beach and on the way, stopped at a bakery. Finally arriving at the beach, we missed the sunset and it was rapidly getting dark. Then, someone realized that they had left their picnic groceries back at the bakery. We half jogged six blocks (uphill!) back to the bakery, although first we ran too far and completely passed it – whoops. After retrieving the grocery bag, we headed back to the beach and ate our picnic in the pitch black. We could not even see the water and I ate the plastic around the pepperoni sticks, To make matters worse the cheese turned out to be butter. It was a disasterous meal. We took it in stride though, and laughed about it. Afterwards, we spent some quality cultural time at MacDonald’s. McFlurrys make everything better.

The next day went to small village and walked along an ancient pilgrimage trail. The trail was built on a dusty, narrow roman road that passed through great big vineyards and hillsides. It was beautiful. We ate grapes right off the vines and chatted while we walked down the trail. After a while, we stopped at a break in the path and the bus picked us up and took us to a restaurant where we had a lovely meal of buns, squash soup, rice, carrots and pork. It was SO GOOD.

Portugal was fantastic! I’ll be back…

Brest, France

Brest, France was a resting port for me. With our extremely busy routines, we are so exhausted at the end of the day. I spent the time just to hang out on the ship, clean my trunk and locker, nap and catch up on homework. It was really nice to lay back a bit and relax.

In the city of Brest itself, there was not that much to do on foot. We did manage to occupy ourselves somehow though ... Oh, la nourriture française, comme c’est délicieux! YES: French cuisine. We ate an outrageous amount of pain au chocolat and croissants de beurre. It also became a lunchtime tradition to pick up some baguettes, cheeses, meats, cherry tomatoes, peaches and chocolates to go out for a picnic in the park. I will NEVER get tired of French food!

Our port program was a BLAST. We went to a sailing club and rented Hobby Cats (Catamaran sailing dinghies) and raced them around. For the crew of a fully-rigged tall ship, you would be surprised how inexperienced we were when sailing the dinghies. By the end of the afternoon there were several capsized boats and many soaking wet, tired and cold teenagers.

Brest was all in all a really great port with lots of food and fun!

Swim Call! - October 2, 2011

Yesterday brought a fun surprise for the Sorlandet crew. As soon as we were dismissed from math class, the Captain came on the P.A. and announced our first official swim call! There were screams and cheers as we all ran to our bunks, quickly changed and mustered on deck in our suits. We were anchored right outside of Brittany, France and the water was C-O-L-D. We dove off of the boat deck (deck raised above the main deck) into the icy water. We continued to canon ball off the ship into the water for a little while and finished up with a nice hot shower. It was SO MUCH FUN! Thank you Captain.

Oh, Cornish Pasties!

Coming alongside the dock in Falmouth, I was lucky to be on lookout at the bow and so got to be involved in docking (sometimes you find yourself down below for classes and when you eventually surface on deck you find yourself in a different part of the world - it’s a weird feeling).

Falmouth is a seaside village much like Salcombe where we spent a vacation with friends from London. As I walked down the streets, I had flashbacks of visiting England - I wish you were here mum and dad!

The houses are painted pastel colours and the cobbled streets are cluttered with little shops and cafes. Our shore leave was spent wandering the streets eating Cornish pasties (delicious and mouth-watering pastries filled with soft potato, roast beef and caramelized onions) as well as having Cornish whippy (the most delicious and creamy soft ice cream in the world!).

We bussed to Penzance where we learned about a sustainable carbon footprint reduction project called Transition Penwith. It is an initiative whereby towns work towards being environmentally conscious and leave little impact on the planet. After an interesting lecture, we headed to the Bosavern Community farm for an amazing, organic meal that was one-hundred percent grown on their land. We ate thick slices of home-baked, whole-wheat bread, heaping bowls of to-die-for vegetarian chili, fresh green salad and tea. And, to top it off, we had massive slices of coffee cake for dessert.

The next day, we visited a local public high school. It was the craziest high school I’ve ever seen. They get tons of government funding and because of that everything about the place was really impressive. There were topnotch facilities for every subject area, professional sport fields, fancy uniforms and a prefect and school “houses” system just like in Harry Potter! My favorite part though was the rock wall that went up the side of the school’s main building - SO COOL! It was also really neat to have the chance to talk to students our age and learn about what life is like for teenagers in England. We ended off the day with a trip to the beach. White sand and bright blue water – paradise! We had so much fun!!

Back on the dock where our ship was moored, another tall ship arrived. It was another tall ship called the Frederic Chopin with a bunch of Polish high school students on board. We showed off our respective ships and had a tug-o-war, relay racing and rowing competition against their crew. Team Sorlandet won (of course) and to resolve any tall ship tensions we had a dance party on their main deck. Everyone had a good time. 

A Day in the Life

I really cannot believe that it’s October already. Our one month  anniversary aboard the Sorlandet has come and gone and time continues to fly by. In my blog posts so far I have described our adventures in port but I haven’t even begun to tell you about our time at sea. Although I must stay true to the rule of “what happens in international waters stays in international waters”, I will let you in on some of the ship's day-to-day news. However, firstly let me share what daily life aboard entails.

Every second day we wake up for P.E. class at 06:30 (on non-gym class days we get to sleep in until 07:15!) and head up to the boat deck for our daily physical activity. We do punching sequences, yoga and mini-dance parties during our allotted P.E. time. The best part is doing core workouts because if you time it with the waves, you can do a sit-up without expending any energy at all! On the other hand, the tree pose in yoga is quite entertaining especially considering that standing on both feet is challenging at the best of times.

After these intense workout sessions we head down for a 07:00 breakfast. Cold breakfast is served everyday with cereal, milk, apples, oranges and yogurt. It is survival of the fittest and our portions are closely monitored. If you happen to be last in line, none of the good stuff is left. Within seconds the peanut butter jar is empty ... we learn to be quick!

At 08:00 it’s time for colours. Colours is our morning assembly. The crew, faculty and students all muster on deck for ringing of the bell, daily notices and raising the flags. If you are late for colours, you are given two hours of early bird watch the next morning from 06:00-08:00. Ouch!

During colours, our sleeping quarters are inspected. Every morning we have to dismantle our bunks as well as fold and put away all the bedding. If you're the last one to reach the bedding lockers, it takes some skill and patience to shove everything in. The bosun (foreman of a ship's crew) was not happy when we broke the door. Failing inspection (that is, if the area surrounding your bunk zone is left untidy) is the worst! If you fail twice in one sail, you receive port suspension and you are left behind onboard while everyone else gets to spend a couple of hours exploring a new city!

After colours we have cleaning stations until 09:00. That’s right, we clean the entire ship from top to bottom EVERY DAY. We are assigned to stations such as cleaning the heads (toilets and showers), scrubbing the decks or doing the ship’s laundry. There is always work to be done aboard a tall ship.

From 09:00 to 18:00 we have classes, day watch and free time. On average, we have four classes a day, two hours of watch and a couple of hours of free time (including a lunch break). In addition to P.E., I am taking Sociology of Community, Seamanship, English, Math and Political Science. I have never before been in a moving classroom where the white board is swinging, the teacher is sick and lying on the ground and students are occasionally running out of the room to throw-up. However strange this might sound, it has become normal to us floaties. Day watch is basically just working up on deck. We furl sails, clean, hold physical watch positions or… clean. Free time is not that free. We sleep, eat or do homework.

Dinner is at 18:30 until 19:00. Carlos our cook and Jill the cook’s mate are AMAZING! Despite rationing and limited fresh supplies the food is always absolutely delicious. After dinner, we have club meetings, social time (barely!) and more studying to do. Lights out is at 23:00 and night watch begins at 20:00. The secrets of night watch will be released later. After a long and busy day, we head to bed. Zzzz….