It’s 1:45am and I just got back to my room. Today was a great first day. I woke up at 7:30 this morning and Paolo and I went to the gym for 30mn. We then headed to the breakfast buffet!!! While we were having breakfast with mom and sis, we entered the port of Palma de Mallorca. We could already see from the boat that there were a lot of beautiful historical buildings and churches. We were ready for our first tour. We left the ship around 10 and took the bus towards the city center. The historical centre is very nice. Everything is maintained so well. We saw palaces, churches, an immense cathedral, more palaces, gardens… The weather was overcast but it was for the best otherwise walking around for 3 hours would have been a little less comfortable. After a zillion pictures (although my battery died and my brother's camera is acting up) and many “oohs” and “aahs”, we took the bus back to the ship. We needed a little food to recuperate from our long troll. We had a light lunch as the boat was leaving the port.
After lunch we went down to our cabins. Paolo and I started to watch a movie on my laptop but we both fell asleep after a few minutes. We rested and took it easy the rest of the afternoon.
We started to get ready around 7pm for the Captain’s Cocktail. Everybody dressed to the nine we went up to the lounge and met the captain and had a drink before heading to the dining room for dinner. We had a nice meal and our table mates got Dennis upset again!
Mom wanted to go see the show. I was a little scared but we all went anyway. Well, let’s just say it’s not the Queen Mary 2, but they did their best. After the “Parade of flags” mom went to bed and we headed to the disco for a little fun. The place got packed very quickly and it was really hot in there, but the music was good and we had fun. It is bed time now.
Sunday, August 26, 2007
4eme jour de vacances – 1er jour de croisiere – 19 Aout
The internet connection on the ship was so slow that my brother and I gave up after 10 minutes. The entries made on the ship will be posted now that we are back in Marseille. I will post some pictures after I gather them all from our 3 cameras.
*************************************************
My brother arrived in Paris around 1am and we talked with him, planning the continuation of his journey the next day. We finally went to bed around 2am.
We woke up around 8am and went down for breakfast. Afterwards, we walked around the hotel for a last sight of Marseille. We checked out and took the metro to go to the port. More surprises were in store for us. I don’t even want to relive that by talking about it. It was a stressful morning. Paolo’s phone ran out of “time” while we were talking to him after he landed in Paris. My sister’s died last night, and mine was almost out too. The cell phone system is different from ours and you “charge” your phone with a certain amount of minutes that gets depleted as you use it. You then have to “recharge” it. You need to buy more “time”. It’s not that complicated but it’s really not the most convenient system either.
Anyway, I was afraid I would have no way to reach my brother once he arrived in Marseille. I told him I would be waiting for him at the train station, but the crazy circumstances seemed to dictate that he would have to get to the port on his own. To quote my mom: “It was easier to give birth to 4 kids than bring Paolo here”. But after stressing for hours and probably a stomach ulcer, he made it to the ship in time and we’re just happy he’s here.
We checked in and boarded the boat and settled in our cabins. We watched Marseille disappear as the ship sailed out and spent some time talking and laughing. It is exactly how I imagined it. I feel like I’m back in time, when none of my siblings were married with kids and it was just us and mom. We make each other laugh with silly things, make fun of one another, and tease each other. We are all carefree the rest of our families thousand of miles away. We walk all over the ship, discovering where everything is, checking each deck (there are 7 decks).
At 5pm we have the mandatory safety drill and we all gather in our respective evacuation spots. This allowed me to have an idea of the rest of the crowd. The boat left from Genoa, Italy, so a big portion of the population is Italian. However there are also, Germans, French, Spanish, British… There are a few beautiful kids (and I mean from kids to teenagers). I know roommie, 16 will get me 20!!! There are a few cute men, with ugly wives and I don’t think I’m being bias; I know a pretty girl when I see one
We then have a meeting to know about all the excursions planned on this cruise. The only thing I learn was that it’s just incredibly expensive. We decide to do most of our tours on our own
We have dinner at the second seating (9pm). We have 5 tablemates, who are French as well. We meet our waiter Dennis, who is from the Philippines. My mom in her usual logic says: “Our waiter reminds me of Norman. I like Norman, so I like our waiter”. Quite some shoes to fill. Dinner goes well, until our tablemates annoy Dennis. At first this made me think he was gay, because he went from nice to prissy bitch in 6 seconds (I know something about that) but he’s married with children (although this has never stopped anyone before). It’s impossible to know if there are any gays on the ship. All the guys (well most of the younger ones) dress well and have “man purses”. Next to them, Ryan Seacrest looks butch and macho. It’s so much easier in the US.
After we went back to our cabin, Paolo and I talked for hours before finally falling asleep.
*************************************************
My brother arrived in Paris around 1am and we talked with him, planning the continuation of his journey the next day. We finally went to bed around 2am.
We woke up around 8am and went down for breakfast. Afterwards, we walked around the hotel for a last sight of Marseille. We checked out and took the metro to go to the port. More surprises were in store for us. I don’t even want to relive that by talking about it. It was a stressful morning. Paolo’s phone ran out of “time” while we were talking to him after he landed in Paris. My sister’s died last night, and mine was almost out too. The cell phone system is different from ours and you “charge” your phone with a certain amount of minutes that gets depleted as you use it. You then have to “recharge” it. You need to buy more “time”. It’s not that complicated but it’s really not the most convenient system either.
Anyway, I was afraid I would have no way to reach my brother once he arrived in Marseille. I told him I would be waiting for him at the train station, but the crazy circumstances seemed to dictate that he would have to get to the port on his own. To quote my mom: “It was easier to give birth to 4 kids than bring Paolo here”. But after stressing for hours and probably a stomach ulcer, he made it to the ship in time and we’re just happy he’s here.
We checked in and boarded the boat and settled in our cabins. We watched Marseille disappear as the ship sailed out and spent some time talking and laughing. It is exactly how I imagined it. I feel like I’m back in time, when none of my siblings were married with kids and it was just us and mom. We make each other laugh with silly things, make fun of one another, and tease each other. We are all carefree the rest of our families thousand of miles away. We walk all over the ship, discovering where everything is, checking each deck (there are 7 decks).
At 5pm we have the mandatory safety drill and we all gather in our respective evacuation spots. This allowed me to have an idea of the rest of the crowd. The boat left from Genoa, Italy, so a big portion of the population is Italian. However there are also, Germans, French, Spanish, British… There are a few beautiful kids (and I mean from kids to teenagers). I know roommie, 16 will get me 20!!! There are a few cute men, with ugly wives and I don’t think I’m being bias; I know a pretty girl when I see one
We then have a meeting to know about all the excursions planned on this cruise. The only thing I learn was that it’s just incredibly expensive. We decide to do most of our tours on our own
We have dinner at the second seating (9pm). We have 5 tablemates, who are French as well. We meet our waiter Dennis, who is from the Philippines. My mom in her usual logic says: “Our waiter reminds me of Norman. I like Norman, so I like our waiter”. Quite some shoes to fill. Dinner goes well, until our tablemates annoy Dennis. At first this made me think he was gay, because he went from nice to prissy bitch in 6 seconds (I know something about that) but he’s married with children (although this has never stopped anyone before). It’s impossible to know if there are any gays on the ship. All the guys (well most of the younger ones) dress well and have “man purses”. Next to them, Ryan Seacrest looks butch and macho. It’s so much easier in the US.
After we went back to our cabin, Paolo and I talked for hours before finally falling asleep.
Saturday, August 18, 2007
3eme jour de vacances
For some reason I had a very hard time falling asleep and staying asleep last night. (hmm I need some....what's the name of the commercial for the sleeping pill with the butterfly again?) Anyway, I'm not sure why but I couldn't get some rest. Maybe I was just excited about the day ahead. I got ready and left for Orly where I was catching my flight to Marseille. After an uneventful short trip (about 1:30) there I was so close to seeing my family. I hadn't planned on seeing my brother in law with my niece and my nephew but they decided to drop off my mom and my sister in Marseille and make it a day trip. We all met at the hotel. My nephew who is 13 is officially taller than both his parents, and my niece is on her way too. I have not seen them in almost 2 years and they've grown so much. We hang out at the hotel for a little bit and then decide to go drive around and visit some of the town. My mom wants to go see the Cathedral Notre Dame de la Garde, which sits on the highest hill of the city overlooking it on all side. The view from there is breathtaking. The city is enclosed between the ocean and a chain of mountains.
I had been there once before with Olivier and some friends, but I think we just drove through and hadn't seen really anything at all. The oldest part of the city is a "maze". A labyrinth of narrow streets going up and down hills and north or south one second and suddenly east or west the next. Try asking for directions and you give up rather quickly. The explanation becomes so complicated that you'd better take your chances and go.
After the cathedral we go down to the "Vieux Port" area (the old port) that advances into the city. We look for a place to have dinner and we end up on "La Canebiere" a famous street here (probably the most famous one). It's been written about in songs and poems. It's a big boulevard starting from the old port and taking you further in the city. Gilles says that they've been doing lots of changes to make it more people friendly. There are fewer lanes for traffic and the sidewalks have tripled in size allowing for a nice troll, while you're window shopping or looking at the architecture.
We check out several places for dinner and finally agree (no small feat when you have kids in the group, who would be happy with Mc Donald) on a Tunisian restaurant. It's a small place but it looks like the customers are local people and that generally is a good sign. That was a good choice, because the food was excellent. We all cleaned our plates. After dinner, Gilles, Jean and the kids drop us off at the hotel and go back to Avignon (about an hour away) where Gilles lives. My sister, my mom and I go back to my room to deal with my brother!
Paolo's saga: They finally lifted the red alert on Guadeloupe and the airport was re-opened. My brother would keep us updated via text messages, but the information would change every 5 minutes. They were leaving…they were not… they were… or maybe not. I couldn't make any arrangements for him in Paris until I was sure when and where he was arriving (Paris has 2 airports). This morning, I did try to see if I could change his plane ticket but because it was a non-refundable one, they charge you an arm and a leg. I begged and used my charm but nothing worked. The round-trip plane ticket is lost. You can't even use the return portion only. To avoid fraud (because of course a round trip ticket costs less than a one way) they will make you pay the rate of the day that you travel on which in this case was about 3 times the price of the ticket with an advance purchase rate.
Paolo's last text was that he was on the aircraft and that they would be leaving soon, arriving at Charles de Gaulle (instead or Orly) around 1am local time. At the hotel we started to look at options. Spend the night at Charles de Gaulle and take the TGV from there seems to be the most efficient, although not the cheapest. But we figured that he had not slept a lot for the past 3 days with the hurricane and then all these trials and tribulations about his flight, so we would just keep it simple. However we still could not book anything, because no one knew what they would do with the passengers once they got to Paris. The scheduled arrival airport is 2 hours away on the other side of Paris and the airline has to get you to your original destination somehow. Nobody seemed to know how that would happen though. If my brother didn't have access to his luggage until Orly, he obviously couldn't stay at Charles de Gaulle. Anyway, we just waited up until he arrived. Luckily they were giving people a choice, so Paolo got his bags. He will take the train in the morning and will be here with plenty of time before embarking on the ship. We found him a hotel and were just relieved that he had finally made it. We all went to bed.
The hurricane is leaving Guadeloupe now and moving on to other targets. Although there are no death accounted for in Guadeloupe (there are 2 in Martinique) it is one of the strongest storms in the past 20 years. The damages will mostly be seen in the agriculture. 70 to 100% of most plantations were completely flattened. 2/3 of the island is still without power and some roads are still blocked with debris cutting access to some people.
I had been there once before with Olivier and some friends, but I think we just drove through and hadn't seen really anything at all. The oldest part of the city is a "maze". A labyrinth of narrow streets going up and down hills and north or south one second and suddenly east or west the next. Try asking for directions and you give up rather quickly. The explanation becomes so complicated that you'd better take your chances and go.
After the cathedral we go down to the "Vieux Port" area (the old port) that advances into the city. We look for a place to have dinner and we end up on "La Canebiere" a famous street here (probably the most famous one). It's been written about in songs and poems. It's a big boulevard starting from the old port and taking you further in the city. Gilles says that they've been doing lots of changes to make it more people friendly. There are fewer lanes for traffic and the sidewalks have tripled in size allowing for a nice troll, while you're window shopping or looking at the architecture.
We check out several places for dinner and finally agree (no small feat when you have kids in the group, who would be happy with Mc Donald) on a Tunisian restaurant. It's a small place but it looks like the customers are local people and that generally is a good sign. That was a good choice, because the food was excellent. We all cleaned our plates. After dinner, Gilles, Jean and the kids drop us off at the hotel and go back to Avignon (about an hour away) where Gilles lives. My sister, my mom and I go back to my room to deal with my brother!
Paolo's saga: They finally lifted the red alert on Guadeloupe and the airport was re-opened. My brother would keep us updated via text messages, but the information would change every 5 minutes. They were leaving…they were not… they were… or maybe not. I couldn't make any arrangements for him in Paris until I was sure when and where he was arriving (Paris has 2 airports). This morning, I did try to see if I could change his plane ticket but because it was a non-refundable one, they charge you an arm and a leg. I begged and used my charm but nothing worked. The round-trip plane ticket is lost. You can't even use the return portion only. To avoid fraud (because of course a round trip ticket costs less than a one way) they will make you pay the rate of the day that you travel on which in this case was about 3 times the price of the ticket with an advance purchase rate.
Paolo's last text was that he was on the aircraft and that they would be leaving soon, arriving at Charles de Gaulle (instead or Orly) around 1am local time. At the hotel we started to look at options. Spend the night at Charles de Gaulle and take the TGV from there seems to be the most efficient, although not the cheapest. But we figured that he had not slept a lot for the past 3 days with the hurricane and then all these trials and tribulations about his flight, so we would just keep it simple. However we still could not book anything, because no one knew what they would do with the passengers once they got to Paris. The scheduled arrival airport is 2 hours away on the other side of Paris and the airline has to get you to your original destination somehow. Nobody seemed to know how that would happen though. If my brother didn't have access to his luggage until Orly, he obviously couldn't stay at Charles de Gaulle. Anyway, we just waited up until he arrived. Luckily they were giving people a choice, so Paolo got his bags. He will take the train in the morning and will be here with plenty of time before embarking on the ship. We found him a hotel and were just relieved that he had finally made it. We all went to bed.
The hurricane is leaving Guadeloupe now and moving on to other targets. Although there are no death accounted for in Guadeloupe (there are 2 in Martinique) it is one of the strongest storms in the past 20 years. The damages will mostly be seen in the agriculture. 70 to 100% of most plantations were completely flattened. 2/3 of the island is still without power and some roads are still blocked with debris cutting access to some people.
Friday, August 17, 2007
2eme jour de vacances
Because before I left for France I flew six days in a row, then got home and was rushing to be ready to leave again the following day, I did not really pay attention to the news; especially the weather. It turns out there is a hurricane over Guadeloupe right now. The island is on Red Alert and everything is shut down, and people are safely barricaded in their houses. I talked to my brother today and so far no extreme damages. The bad news, the airport is closed and they're not sure when it will open again. He was supposed to leave tonight and get here tomorrow in the morning. We would then have flown together to Marseille to meet my mom and my sister. Not going to happen. If he leaves on Saturday, he will get to Paris on Sunday and hopefully still have time to fly to Marseille and board the cruise ship. Boarding ends at 3:30pm and the boat sails at 4pm. If he misses the boat, I don't even know if they would let him catch up with us somewhere else. And that would be days later since the first stops are in some small islands in the Mediterranean Sea and I don't know how he would get there. I'm trying to think positive and hope that they lift the alert in Guadeloupe in time.
Yesterday, I had a nice evening with Valerie, our friend Yves and Valerie's brother and sister in law's "au pair" Kiki. Valerie's brother Jerome is married to a Danish girl and for the past 2 years they've had "au pair" girls from Denmark spending time with them and their son Alric who's now 3 and speaks French and Danish already. The 3 of them are in Denmark right now on vacations and I'm staying at their apartment in the 15th "arrondissement". So Kiki (a true Danish, blonde, blue eyed, beautiful 22 years old girl), Yves (who used to work with Valerie), Valerie (I worked with her when I lived here but we knew each other even before that), and myself had dinner at an Indian restaurant. Yves who lives in the suburbs took forever to meet us, because he cannot follow directions and got lost like 10 times!!! Kiki's French is still very limited (she's only been here a couple of months) so our whole conversation had to be in English. We had a wonderful time and laughed a lot. I was however getting really tired. We all got back to the apartment for hot cocoa and after a while I was literally falling asleep in the middle of a sentence. Finally Yves and Kiki left and Valerie and I went to bed. A looooong, fuuuuullll first day. I'm so happy to be here.
After a restful night I woke up to find a beautiful day outside. Sunshine and blue sky. Valerie left for work at 8:30am and I got ready to go for a jog. I felt happy running in the waking city with the great weather. After I came back, I had to finish bidding for my September schedule (the deadline is today) and that took a little while. I didn't leave the place again until 11am. I took the bus and the metro to go meet Valerie at her office. We had a nice lunch outside and walked around a little bit after before returning to her building. I stayed with her for a while, using her computer to check my e-mails, her phone to call my brother and my mom, and my ex Olivier. It's so nice to have a friend who's a Director!!! I made plans with Olivier, and we met at the Trocadero, facing the Eiffel Tower. The weather didn't stay as nice as this morning but it was okay. He took me to the bank of the Seine River to introduce me to "Paris Plage" (Paris Beach). It's something they do every year now and I had never seen it. For one month they close off miles of the road along the river and turn it into a "beach". Parasols, sand, lounge chairs, games, fountains, cafes, flowers and plants. It is truly amazing. You can walk along or stop and rest in one of the chairs and people watch or enjoy the "bateaux mouches" on the river as they go by. We walked for a couple of hours and then went to "Gare de Lyon" to meet Valerie. She's going to visit her mother for the weekend; a 3 hours ride south of Paris with the TGV (our bullet train). We had drinks at a cafe at the train station and chatted until it was time for Valerie to leave. Olivier and I decided to have dinner together and we went to a nearby "Brasserie". We had a wonderful time (except that we were surrounded by people smoking; it's time they pass the ban on smoking in public places). The food was great, and I guess people know it, because the place was packed. We finally left and parted ways. I took the metro back home.
Now that I've talked to my mom and my sister, I cannot wait to see them tomorrow. That hurricane better be gone so my brother can get here too...
Yesterday, I had a nice evening with Valerie, our friend Yves and Valerie's brother and sister in law's "au pair" Kiki. Valerie's brother Jerome is married to a Danish girl and for the past 2 years they've had "au pair" girls from Denmark spending time with them and their son Alric who's now 3 and speaks French and Danish already. The 3 of them are in Denmark right now on vacations and I'm staying at their apartment in the 15th "arrondissement". So Kiki (a true Danish, blonde, blue eyed, beautiful 22 years old girl), Yves (who used to work with Valerie), Valerie (I worked with her when I lived here but we knew each other even before that), and myself had dinner at an Indian restaurant. Yves who lives in the suburbs took forever to meet us, because he cannot follow directions and got lost like 10 times!!! Kiki's French is still very limited (she's only been here a couple of months) so our whole conversation had to be in English. We had a wonderful time and laughed a lot. I was however getting really tired. We all got back to the apartment for hot cocoa and after a while I was literally falling asleep in the middle of a sentence. Finally Yves and Kiki left and Valerie and I went to bed. A looooong, fuuuuullll first day. I'm so happy to be here.
After a restful night I woke up to find a beautiful day outside. Sunshine and blue sky. Valerie left for work at 8:30am and I got ready to go for a jog. I felt happy running in the waking city with the great weather. After I came back, I had to finish bidding for my September schedule (the deadline is today) and that took a little while. I didn't leave the place again until 11am. I took the bus and the metro to go meet Valerie at her office. We had a nice lunch outside and walked around a little bit after before returning to her building. I stayed with her for a while, using her computer to check my e-mails, her phone to call my brother and my mom, and my ex Olivier. It's so nice to have a friend who's a Director!!! I made plans with Olivier, and we met at the Trocadero, facing the Eiffel Tower. The weather didn't stay as nice as this morning but it was okay. He took me to the bank of the Seine River to introduce me to "Paris Plage" (Paris Beach). It's something they do every year now and I had never seen it. For one month they close off miles of the road along the river and turn it into a "beach". Parasols, sand, lounge chairs, games, fountains, cafes, flowers and plants. It is truly amazing. You can walk along or stop and rest in one of the chairs and people watch or enjoy the "bateaux mouches" on the river as they go by. We walked for a couple of hours and then went to "Gare de Lyon" to meet Valerie. She's going to visit her mother for the weekend; a 3 hours ride south of Paris with the TGV (our bullet train). We had drinks at a cafe at the train station and chatted until it was time for Valerie to leave. Olivier and I decided to have dinner together and we went to a nearby "Brasserie". We had a wonderful time (except that we were surrounded by people smoking; it's time they pass the ban on smoking in public places). The food was great, and I guess people know it, because the place was packed. We finally left and parted ways. I took the metro back home.
Now that I've talked to my mom and my sister, I cannot wait to see them tomorrow. That hurricane better be gone so my brother can get here too...
Thursday, August 16, 2007
1er jour de vacances
Apres 3 vols (San Diego-San Francisco; San Francisco-Francfort; Francfort-Paris) je suis finalement dans la capitale parisienne. De l'aéroport j'ai pris le bus jusqu'à la Place de l'Etoile, et de là un taxi jusqu'au Pont de Sèvres où j'ai retrouvé Valérie à son boulot. Elle travaille encore et j'en profite pour écrire ces quelques lignes.
Les gens qui me connaissent savent que Sydney est une de mes villes préférées. Mais en arrivant dans Paris, je ne peux m'empecher de penser que c'est la ville la plus belle au monde. Les grandes avenues bordées d'arbres, l'architecture, les monuments... bien que j'y ai vécu pendant plusieurs années, je suis toujours émmerveillé à chacune de mes visites. Le soleil essaye de briller un peu et on dirait un jour de printemps quand l'hiver s'est enfin retiré, que la température remonte et que les journées se rallongent. Ce n'est vraiment pas l'été, mais ça me convient tout à fait car Paris en pleine canicule est insoutenable.
Ce soir je dîne avec Valérie et Yves.
Les gens qui me connaissent savent que Sydney est une de mes villes préférées. Mais en arrivant dans Paris, je ne peux m'empecher de penser que c'est la ville la plus belle au monde. Les grandes avenues bordées d'arbres, l'architecture, les monuments... bien que j'y ai vécu pendant plusieurs années, je suis toujours émmerveillé à chacune de mes visites. Le soleil essaye de briller un peu et on dirait un jour de printemps quand l'hiver s'est enfin retiré, que la température remonte et que les journées se rallongent. Ce n'est vraiment pas l'été, mais ça me convient tout à fait car Paris en pleine canicule est insoutenable.
Ce soir je dîne avec Valérie et Yves.
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