Here are a few more updates:

April 4th

Things keep happening too quickly to write it all down, but I'll try and write the best stuff down.

on the 31st where I wrote my last blog, I was in Piraeus again. That was my second and last time in Greece, so I walked around the port area for a while before taking a train into downtown Athens. Unfortunately I didn't have a lot of time to spend there, but it was a cool area, right at the foot of the Acropolis. The area I was at was a shopping district with lots of vendours, but there was also some ruins around the area to check out.

The experience was soured a bit by going to a bar and being ripped off the price of a couple drinks - well, not really since they did charge me the menu price, but the menu price for the two drinks came out to 60$ USD - but I guess that's also part of the Greek experience.

One more day in Izmir was well spent, I walked all through the city to the local Bazaar. I was tempted to buy all sorts of things but ended up just buying a pipe for 40 lyra - less than half the price it would have been back home. 

It was a friday and thus the Islamic holy day, and it was interesting to see Muslims throughout the city kneeling down in groups, listening to a voice coming from loudspeakers throughout the city, presumably a sermon. 

Saturday, the 2nd, we got back to Istanbul again. It was pouring rain and cold that day so I didn't go out during the day. That evening we had a show with a singer, Katy Setterfield, who is a singer from England who won on the british tv show "The One and Only", a show seeking to find the best tribute act in the UK. She performed with us tributes to Dusty Springfield, Annie Lennox, Cher, and Tina Turner, each one progressively better than the previous. It was a really fun show for us to play since as it went on it became more and more rock oriented, and playing 80s and 90s pop is a genre that seems to be lacking on cruise ships, so it was fun to fill in that gap.

After the show a whole bunch of people went out to Taksam square, the night-life district of Istanbul. Between saturday and sunday night, I must have seen at least 15 different musical acts in that area without even trying.

The music scene in Istanbul is extremely inspiring. The way that music is integrated into the culture is very powerful, and there is a huge appreciation for music here. Every performance was profound in a different way, from the haunting solo woodwind player playing middle-eastern sounds in a near deserted street in the dead of night, to the rowdy 3-4 piece bands playing a fusion of middle-eastern and western pop-rock to a a highly energetic and receptive crowd. The open air setting of nearly all of their bars works in the musicians' favour, and in every case the locations with the music were much busier than the other places, to the point where we were turned back a few times before finding places with space. 

I don't believe there is any other city in the world like Istanbul. It has a bit of everything in it, culturally speaking - Middle-eastern, Western, Asian, European, all mixed together into a very unique culture. When walking through the city you are incredibly aware of the depth of history that the city has grown through, and it really transports you away from the rest of the world. 

Yesterday (sunday) I spent most of the day walking through the city, and managed to get lost for a good 40 minutes somewhere on the other side of the Grand Bazaar before finding my way again. I unfortunately discovered the local shoe-shinning scam the hard way. While walking behind a a shoe-shinner I noticed that his brush dropped onto the pavement, and so I called out to him to give it back. He was super appreciative and offered to shine my shoes in a way that strongly suggested it was complimentary, which it obviously turned out not to be. 30 Lyra. Throughout the day I had two other people try the same scam on me, dropping their brush in front, but I learned my lesson and brushed them off.

We are now at sea for two days. Musically speaking, we will have three days in a row of nothing but jazz sets, which is fine by me - we played for two hours last night, today for an hour and a half, and then tomorrow for another hour and a half. Jazz sets are especially fun because not only do we not have to read charts, our bandmaster, Alan, does not play with us, which makes the whole set much more relaxed and pleasant. 

April 9th

My last cruise before going home.

Overall the experience on this ship has been a very different one from the one I had on The Dawn. While this ship has been more satisfying musically, as well as having a cooler itinerary, I was much more emotionally attached to the Dawn, due to it being my first ship, and the length of time that I stayed there. Simply knowing that I won't be on this ship for as long has made me more detached about the entire experience, and less concerned with forming lasting relationships with people. As a result I am more looking forward to going home than I was at the end of my contract on The Dawn, even if I don't exactly know what my immediate future will hold.

Seeing these ports in Europe has given me a much better perspective with which to measure Vancouver, than did any of the ports in the Caribbean. The Caribbean ports were smaller and purely tourist destinations, whereas the places we've been to in the Mediterranean have been larger and tourism has been just one of several industries in the local economies. You have to be away from home to appreciate it, but unfortunately I know that I will cease to appreciate it again the moment I return. Still, it's nice to at least know intellectually that there really is something to appreciate.

Yesterday was my last day to spend in Barcelona outside of the airport, and I spent it walking along La Rambla street, and getting some wifi and americanos at a local restaurant.

Tomorrow will be the first day of my last shows of the Polka set, as well as Shout, the production show. 

April 11th

Yesterday I went on an amazing tour of Casablanca, which gave me a real new perspective and appreciation for the city. Our tour guide was very enthusiastic and informative, and clearly very proud of her country. She took us to an amazing mosque, which is the third biggest in the world, bigger than any of the ones I saw in Istanbul and much more beautiful. It was completed only recently, and so boasts such modern luxuries as a remote operated roof that can open to air it out, heated marble floors for when it is cold, chandeliers that can be lowered remotely in order to clean them, and artistically placed loudspeakers and amplifiers for prayers to be heard.

She also took us to a beach restaurant hub of the city, with some great views and cool looking nightlife. I was very pleased to have my initial bad opinion of Casablanca changed for the better. Last night we played my final dixieland set in the atrium, which was excellent, and a number of passengers who I talked to on the tour earlier on in the day came out to see it, which was nice.

Today we were in Agadir again, but with only limited time because we had a boat drill and entertainment meeting before we could get off. I went off for some quick wifi at the beachfront restaurant I stopped at last time I was here, before returning to the ship in time for rehearsal for tonight's show. 

The show tonight was put on by a singer named Marcus Jefferson, who was singing a tribute to Lionel Richie. Marcus did an amazing job, and it was a great show. I hardly knew Lionel Rihie before, so it was an educational experience, and was definitely one of the most rocking shows that we've played on the ship. An excellent second to last guest entertainer show for me.

Las Palmas tomorrow.

Here is a mega update including FIVE different blog posts, in chronological order. Enjoy!

March 24th

Here's an update on what the last few ports have been like.

Agadir is a great port with beautiful beaches. It seems to be more or less a tourist beach resort town, and the beaches are amazing. There is a boardwalk full of restaurants and such right on the beach, and me and a few others from the ship stopped there for some coffee and free wifi, before walking along the beach. All in all Agadir reminded me of a more European flavoured version of a Carribean island. Except in Africa. All in all a great port, if not particularly exciting on a cultural level.

The City of Las Palmas on the island of Grand Canary is another great port. It is a huge city - I think 350,000 people or so, making it the biggest European city outside of Europe. It is quite a thing to see a full size city like that on such a seemingly small island in the middle of nowhere ( well, really not that far off the coast of Africa I guess). As a rule I dislike any port which where their only significant Industry is tourism, since they're usually devoid of any culture, and Las Palmas is clearly not one such of these. While it does have spectacular beaches and shops to offer tourists, it clearly has a thriving downtown core which supports multiple industries.

Today we were in Funchal, on the Island of Madeira - A Portugese colony. Funchal, along with Valetta, are probably the two most picturesque towns that I have seen in the Mediterranean so far. Funchal is a beautiful old medieval looking city situated in a valley overflowing with lush greenery. I went on a tour today which took us on a cable car up the mountain, presenting many breathtaking views of the city below, and it was incredible to behold. 

The tour itself was a very good one. Before the cable car, we were taken to a wine store to sample some famous Madeiran wine, which was excellent though not entirely to my taste. Still, nothing starts of a good tour like free wine. 

Next the cable car took us up a good portion of the mountain, where we then walked a ways to meet up with our transportation to take us down: toboggans. I've never been on a toboggan that slides on pavement, and it was a pretty cool way to descend the mountain, being pushed and guided by Portugese men clad in white, wearing straw hats. Upon descending the mountain, the bus took us back up and much further, to virtually the very top of the mountain. The view, as much of it as we could make out through all of the fog, was spectacular. We were then taken down to the ship, which was an uneventful trip but full of many more spectacular views. 

Tomorrow is a sea day, and then we are on to our last port of this cruise, the last port that I will get to see in the Mediterranean that I have not yet already seen - Malaga.

March 26th

I went on a tour yesterday in Malaga, which was generally excellent, if somewhat predictable - the more tours I go on, the more they seem to be the same sorts of things. However, there were a few things that stood out in Malaga to make it more unique.

The first stop was a Castle at the top of a hill called Gebralfaro (Gebral means "mountain", like in "Gebralta"), which provided an excellent view of the entire city. From that view we were able to see the stadium where they hold bull fights, a good view where the locals can go watch if they don't want to pay the exorbitant price at the stadium (something like 70 euros). 

We walked through the town a little bit as he showed us the older parts of town with narrow streets, stopping to show us a 250 year-old fig tree, a recently excavated Roman Amphitheatre, and the cathedral. The Cathedral in Malaga was magnificent, a huge building built between the 16th and 18th century. The paintings and sculptures inside were awesome, portraying such biblical episodes as the angel Gabriel coming to Mary, the supper where Jesus' feet are washed and dried by a woman's tears and hair, the beheading of St. Paul, and various others. The massive organ they had in the church was beautiful. I am not much of a museum person, but as far as old churches and cathedrals go, I am always amazed and this was no exception.

At the end of the tour I intended to go out into the city again as it was only 1pm, but I ended up napping for a good four hours after which there was no time. In the evening we played a relatively traditional big band set, featuring lots of Glenn Miller tunes (String of Pearls, 

The audiences on this ship, as compared to the dawn, are much more appreciate of big band music, and the dance floor was completely packed to every tune we played, making it much more enjoyable.

Today was a sea day. At four o'clock in the afternoon we played a set of the music of Burt Bacharach, transcribed by our sax player AJ. I enjoyed playing set, and I think the audience appreciated it too even if they were quiet because the music is calm and relatively non-energetic. I, being used to playing shows without much audience applause, was not perturbed by it, but the others in the band were - this ship tends to spoil musicians in that respect, as every other show we do is extremely well received, though in no small part because the musicians in the band and the bandmaster are very talented, and the arrangements are all very good. 

March 28th

Yesterday was a fantastic day. I rented out a bike, and went out into Barcelona around 10:30. My main mission for the day was to see as many Gaudi pieces as I could. First of all I biked to the La Padrera, which was a residence built by Gaudi for some wealthy Barcelonans in the early 20th century. The outside of it is curved giving the impression of waves, with some black metalic curved parts that look like spider webs. Inside everything was decorated in his signature style, conveying a flowing, organic quality that mimics nature while remaining highly functional. The roof-top was the most impressive, with statues rising like pyramids and waves, sometimes vaguely humanoid, connected by bridges that leads around two massive courtyards which you can look all the way down into. The rooftop also gives a fantastic view of the surrounding streets of Barcelona.

Next I biked to the Sacrada Familia, Gaudi's masterpiece, a grand cathedral that is the most recognizable icon of Barcelona, and is absolutely breathtaking. In typical Gaudi style, the cathedral is build around towers which try to replicate a forest, and it was engineered in such a sound way as to not need the support of extra buttresses, as are often required for such buildings 0One of many examples demonstrating Gaudi's talent for imaginatively combining aesthetics with function. 

After the Sacrada Familia I biked all the way to the far north of Barcelona to Park Guell, a park designed by Gaudi on a giant hill overlooking the rest of the city. It was designed to replicate the English Garden City, and as such the english word "Park" is used in the name. It is filled with all sorts of buildings (reminiscent of gingerbread houses), bridges, columns, walls and paths all designed to mimic and be a natural extension of the surrounding nature. It provides some spectacular views of the city, and also has several squares that are hotspots for vendours, artists and musicians. I saw a great latin band playing cuban music;  I was particularly impressed with the sound of the washtub bass. 

Afterwards, I slowly made my way back to the ship, choosing a different main street from the one on which I had come down. This proved to be a good choice, as block after block was filled with amazing statues, a gate and then eventually a large park and the Barcelona Zoo (which I didn't enter). In the spirit of trying to see absolutely everything in one day, I decided to find the beach and see it just so I had been there at least once. On the way I found another great latin band, this time with a real upright bass. The beach itself was stunning, and I may try and spend more time there on my next (and last) visit to Barcelona. 

All in all, an amazing day. To top it off, it was the orchestra's night off so I proceeded back to the ship, after a quick wifi stop, to go and relax for the night. 

Today was a sea day, and being the first sea day of the cruise, started like they always do, with a polka set outside of the garden cafe, and then two shows of Shout. Yurie, a sax player I worked with on the dawn, has now joined the orchestra on the Jade, replacing AJ. it is always nice to have another familiar face from the Dawn on this ship.

Tomorrow we are in Civitavecchia, the port of Rome, and I am all signed up to go on an all day tour into the eternal city. It will be my first and last trip there while on this ship.

March 30st

Yesterday was I went to Rome.

I was on a passenger tour, and we left the ship bright and early at 7:45 or so, getting into Rome around 9:30. 

Our first and longest stop was in the Vatican. On arriving to the Vatican State which is surrounded by a great wall, we saw blocks of people lined up to get in - considered to be quite a small line for here and expected to get much longer come summer. Luckily, being part of a tour with a reservation, we were able to skip the line and go straight into the Vatican museum.

The museum was overwhelming in every way - size, amount and quality of art, quantity of tourists.  The main hallway went on for blocks, and every ceiling and wall was covered in stunning tapestries and mosaics. In addition there were scores of sculptures all around. The amount of people was similarly overwhelming, and there was a constant jam of people moving at a relentless slow pace through the museum, leaving little choice but to follow the flow. That one hallway alone would have been enough material to look at for an entire day, but we probably were only in them for 40 minutes or so.

The museum led straight to the entrance of the Sistine Chapel. Before entering, our guide gave us a lengthy explanation of what we would see upon entering, as there is supposed to be little to no talking once you are inside. The side walls depict the lives of Moses and of Jesus respectively, while the main wall out of which you enter depicts the masterpiece painting of the Last Judgement, in which Michaelangelo put a cameo picture of himself as well as his friends and enemies, being cast into heaven or hell respectively.

The ceiling had pictures depicting the creation of the world, depicting the story of Adam and Eve, original sin, and the events that followed.

It was an amazing room and we were given only 15 minutes on our own to take it in. It was a smaller room than I had imagined, not in height but in depth and width, but it is a chapel so I guess that was to be expected.  That in no way diminished the experience however - words fail to properly describe it.

The Vatican seems to have all of the important parts adjacent to one another, and so the other side of the Sistene chapel led almost immediately to the entrance of St. Peter's Basilica. 

Outside the Basilica, in addition to the main entrance, there is another "Holy Door", which is walled off by bricks, and only on special religious occasions such as the year of Jubilee is the wall torn down and the door opened by the pope. it is then kept open for a year, and during that time people can enter through it, in the tradition of the year of Jubilee, and have their sins forgiven them.

St. Peter's Basilica is, on it's own, reason enough to visit Rome - to steal a quote used in wikipedia, "St Peter's Basilica is the reason why Rome is still the center of the civilized world. For religious, historical, and architectural reasons it by itself justifies a journey to Rome, and its interior offers a palimpsest of artistic styles at their best."

It is the largest church in the world I believe in every dimension. One feature in the church which I absolutely love is the placement of comparative markers of the size of other churches, measured from the far end, as if it's grandeur alone is not enough so they had to rub in just how much bigger they are than all other churches. Only in Rome, New York, and likely Toronto...

While photography, in particular flash photography, was strictly prohibited in the Sistine Chapel due to the damage of flashes to the paintings, there were no restrictions whatsoever inside St. Peters. This is because all of the pieces of art are mosaic, built into the plaster, and as such unaffected by the flash. Mosaics, sculptures, and decorations abound all throughout the mammoth structure. It is subdivided into smaller parts with various chapels, monuments and relics throughout. The centre piece of the church is a Baldachin, a kind of canopy, which covers the Pope's alter. Underneath this alter are stairs leading down to the traditional burial spot of St. Peter.

Nearby is a statue of St. Paul, and the foot of the statue has been worn after centuries of pilgrims coming to kiss his foot.

At the very back of the church is an elevated throne, 'The Chair of St. Peter', presumed to have been used by St. Peter himself, and symbolizing the apostolic succession from him down to the current day pope.

Another notable feature in the church is the preserved body of pope Innocent XI in a casket on display, covered in wax. 

The church is extremely overwhelming, and I very much hope to visit it again.

Outside the church is St. Peter's square, a huge outdoor space surrounding by the church, the pope's residence, and a few other buildings. In the centre of a square is an Obelisk called "The Witness", originally from Egypt, which was present at the location of St. Peter's martyrdom. The square is used by the pope to address the public and can hold some 500,000 people. 

After our visit to the Vatican, we were taken to a local restaurant and stuffed with pasta, salad, beef, wine and glorious cappuccino cake. From there we were driven to the Colosseum and the Arch of Constantine for a chance for some photos, and then back to the ship.

That evening we had another dixieland set in the atrium that went extremely well.

March 31st

Yesterday was a sea day, which was pretty standard for the most part, except for the evening. We accompanied a guest entertainer named Nicola Loud, a virtuoso violinist. 

The show was amazing. it's easy to get used to some pretty cheesy if well presented acts on cruise ships, but to play with such an outstanding musician as Nicola was a breath of fresh air. The material we played was very familiar cruise ship standards like Sway, Over the Rainbow, Sweet Georgia Brown, and a few classical pieces, but the arrangements, energy, and the mastery that she displayed on the violin made all of the difference. Not only wasthe  music amazing, but she was very charming while talking to the audience, without speaking for too long - this is a sensitivity that many guest entertainers lack, and can make the difference between a good show and an excellent show.

 It was a privilege to be able to play with Nicola. So far each guest entertainer we've played with on the Jade has been better than the previous one. We are playing with an opera singer in the next few days, and I hope but sincerely doubt that she will be able to outdo Nicola.

March 16th

Today we were in Valletta, Malta. Architecturally speaking, it is one of the most beautiful cities I have ever seen. The cityscape creates a powerful impression through the uniformity of the it's lightly coloured stones, as well as the design itself, which gives the entire city the look of a fortress.  This is largely because this city was created by the knights Hospitaller, or the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, in the wake of a large Ottoman Invasion on the island, and as such there are bastions, palaces, and curtains abounding. 

The city is nicknamed "Superbissima" which means "most proud/Illustrious" in honour of it's beauty and splendour, and was described by Benjamin Disraeli (British Primer Minister) as a city that "equals in its noble architecture, if it does not excel, any capital in Europe" and as "a city of palaces built by gentlemen for gentlemen." The city is also recognized as a world heritage site.

I spent four hours today just walking through the city, and the deeper you go the more it sucks you in. I'm very glad I will get another change to visit it, and hopefully get myself on one of the passenger excursions, which would provide a free ticket into many historic buildings. 

Traveling to all of these countries in the Mediterranean has inspired me to read up more on the history of these places - it was so much easier not to care when I hadn't seen them, but now that I have I am actually quite intrigued. We'll see if this inspiration actually amounts to anything.

Because one of the guest singers who we were to support had to leave due to illness, a variety show was put together last night, in which the Jade Orchestra was featured for the first five songs. We opened with Stevie Wonder's "Do I Do", arranged by our sax player, which was probably one of the coolest arrangements i've yet played on a cruise ship. The other four tunes were supporting singers from the production cast. 

Tonight we have a couple of big band sets in the Spinnaker Lounge and that's it. Tomorrow is a sea day, and then after that I'm back to Barcelona, the end of my first cruise on this ship. Hard to believe it's only been one cruise, because it's been such a long one. So far I have been to five new countries, and all going well (ie no riots) I will see three more new countries this week. 

march 20th

I am now on my second of four cruises, and about a third of the way through my contract. Music continues to be good here - we played a blues night Thursday night, the last night of last cruise, and it was basically the exact same set as I had played on my first blues night on the dawn, as it was hosted by Dave Webb, the lounge pianist who started it up on the Dawn as well. It was a fun night, and I got some scotch and green beer during and afterwards to probably mark St. Patty's day.

Today, Sunday, we were in Cassablanca, which was not certain to happen; apparently the last time around the ship did not come to either Cassablanca or Agadir, the two Moroccan ports, due presumably to recent protests of some kind. 

The first thing I noticed about Cassablanca was that it is smelly. It is definitely not a clean city by any means, and the streets are littered with garbage in varying degrees. Even the pavement in the port area had an unpleasant smell.

I was only out in Cassablanca for a couple of hours, walking around with the guitarist, Steve, and most of our time was spent trying to find a free wifi spot. The city itself was pretty unimpressive looking, the only notable thing on the skyline being a distant mosque which I didn't have time to get to to see. The city reminded me a bit of some of the ports I visited in the Caribbean, which is to say hot and tropical, but uninspiring from a cultural or architectural point of view.

This isn't to say that there was nothing good about it. The people were interesting to see, with an interesting mixture of traditional and modern clothing. French-speaking though Morocco is, most of the locals who I heard speaking french were virtually impossible to understand, and so I decided against practicing my french on anyone. 

The feeling I got from Cassablanca was that it was one step more middle-eastern feeling than Turkey, but probably one step less than Egypt - a point that Steve confirmed, who had been to Egypt before. It definitely did not have the same feeling of inclusiveness that I found in Istanbul, but it still felt like it had some potential as a tourist destination - unrealized potential, but potential. I think the way to really enjoy Morocco would be to go on a tour, which I didn't get organized to do in time.

On to the one noteworthy event that happened. A shuttle bus ferried us from the ship to the downtown area, and the first thing we did after getting off was to continue a little bit further in the direction that the bus had been taking us. Up ahead we saw a huge crowd of people, and heard lots of noise. As we got close we saw that it was a marching protest, with thousands of people, banners written in standard and (presumably) arabic writing, and people shouting and singing/chanting something. Tourists and locals alike were taking lots photos, and the protestors seemed pretty much like any would be in North America - a wide variety of people who were non-agressive but purposeful in their protesting. 

One man however got really upset at me while I was filming a bit of it, and proceeded to say a bunch of stuff that I could not understand. I decided it would still be prudent to not try my now terrible french, and just play the clueless North American. As he kept at it, a few others came, asking me what he'd said to me, to which I replied I had no idea. I got the impression that  the others were trying to calm him down by saying that plenty of other people were taking photos, and so not to get upset about it. At any rate, at that point I quietly went away, and decided to avoid the rest of the protest.

I did get some good photos of the protest, and I even filmed a little bit of them singing/chanting. It's pretty amazing to see. This all sounds extremely irresponsible on my part, but it really was not as bad as it probably sounds, and the protest was very peaceful and seemed pretty good-natured. Of course it's possible that I'll turn on the news tomorrow and see that it turned out to be a revolutionary event that turned violent and that that guy was the leader, and now carries a banner with my face on it with a slash through it, but I doubt it.

Tomorrow we are in Agadir, which I've heard good things about.

here's my back-log of blogs I never get around to posting. I will try to post something with more thought put into it at some point, but this will have to do for now.

March 7th

Apparently they've found my bass, and are sending it to meet up with the ship in Athens. This is excellent news, and now I have nothing left really to worry about.

Today I had early familiarization training, which I had to do because despite having been on the Dawn, the Jade is not technically a 'sister ship', meaning that the layout is ever-so-slightly different. It was no big deal though, since all of the other training I did on the Dawn does apply here and so I shouldn't have to do any more for the duration of my stay.

At noon I had my first gig with the Jade Orchestra, as they are known here. We played on a part of the ship that doesn't exist on the dawn - an outdoor patio extension of the deck 12 buffet, at the very back of the ship. The gig was billed "Beer Fest with the Jade Oompa band", which is exactly what it was - two sets of non-stop Polka music. I was skeptical at first, but it turned out to be a very well received gig by everyone. The other members of the band seem to really enjoy themselves, which I take as a good omen. I mean what's not to love about playing Polka on a sunny outdoor patio in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea?

Actually, I was hardly in the correct mindset to fully appreciate the music, since I was nervous with it being my first gig with the band, and having to sight-read a lot of new charts. Being told that your predecessor was a killer bass player who's a former student of John Pattitucci's is never good for the ego when going into a new gig. 

There were some hiccups but I came through the other side of the gig more or less in one piece. At any right it was a good crash-course in Polka music, and I feel like I have a bit more of a feel for the stylistic idiosyncrasies.

There are some extremely good musicians in this band, which I could already tell based on relatively simple music - I can tell that this band will really shine when we play the jazz sets. That the standard of musicianship is high will hopefully push my own musicianship to a higher level by the end of the contract.

March 8th

In Civitavechia today. Only two hours to spare off the ship before I have to head back and work on music for the first production show, "Showdown". Last night I went over the music with the bandmaster, Alan, and it looks like it'll be a really fun but really challenging show, at least for the first few weeks until I really know how it goes. Since the show is completely live, it's going to take a lot of attention to get through since it is an extremely fast-paced show, and the bass is featured quite prominently since it is mostly Motown music. 

March 10th

So much stuff to learn and see every day, so little time...

Tuesday night, after Showdown rehearsal, we had a Dixieland set. Everybody in the band was telling me how amazing this set is, and I had to see it to believe it, but it really was an amazing show. Passengers really like Dixieland apparently, and combined with the fact that the band's horn section is really quite amazing made for a very high-energy, well-executed show. 

Yesterday we were at sea, and that night we did Showdown. It was a terrific show, and I felt really good about my part. It wasn't just my first time performing it, but also the first time for the entire production cast, who arrived on the ship the same day as me. they did extremely well, and are overall a talented group of singers with good intonation. They are also easy-going and good-natured, and so I look forward to working with them more. 

Today we were in Athens. I went on an excursion that drove us around various parts of the city, and then took us to the Acropolis. I didn't really know what to expect when going to see it, and so I was quite blown away by the spectacle of the temple, and the commanding view that it provided of the entire city of Athens. It was cool to see the nearby hill where the apostle Paul preached the gospel to the locals, in the face of this magnificent monument to the Greek gods. 

As a city, Athens is extremely densely populated, and traffic is lethal. Apparently half of the Greek population lives within the city, which is extremely believable once you are in it. 

The Architecture was distinct - with flat-roofed, short, marble structures packed extremely densely together, giving the city an overwhelming urban look. The spaces between the buildings seem to disappear once they are just a few blocks away  and there is little greenery to speak of. We passed at one point what was apparently the only park in the city of Athens, which to me is incomprehensible. Amazing city, but I would not want to live there.  

March 13th

Last night we played Shout, the second of the two production shows that the band is involved in. It went very well, and while the music (british 60s pop) isn't quite as interesting as in Showdown, It is a fast-paced show with a lot of cues and transitions to keep it interesting.

On friday we arrived at our first port in Turkey, Izmir. I only spent a couple hours out in the city as we had to be back in time for a rehearsal and then some big band jazz sets, but I still got a bit of a feel for it. It has a nice major pedestrian walk-way surrounded by shops and restaurants, and there were a lot of people out and about on the streets. 

Yesterday and today we have been in Istanbul, which has been amazing. Last night me and a few others went out to Taksim Square, the local night-life hub, went to a Hookah Bar and another couple places for a beer and then doners. I could not get over the quantity of people out, the buildings, and the ways that the streets curved into the most bizarre and unlikely ways - it felt very cinematic, and I am at a a loss for words to properly describe it. We got back to the ship around 3:30 and I went straight to bed.

Four hours later I got up and went into town as an escort on a passenger tour to see some of the main tourist attractions of Istanbul - The Blue Mosque, the Agia Maria, the underground cisterns, the spice market. 

The blue Mosque was spectacular in itself, but the Agia Maria really captivated my interest. Having been built 1500 years ago over the span of only five years (after having built and burned down twice), it was the largest cathedral in the world for about a thousand years. It was a Roman Catholic church during this time, until it was taken over by the Ottoman Turks who turned it into a mosque. What is interesting about it is how the Turks' policy on Christian decorations was ambiguous, so that while they covered up the faces of the cherubims on the ceiling, they left untouched all of the many paintings of Jesus Christ being worshipped. 

After going to the spice market, I went back to the ship to catch up on some much needed sleep, before heading out and grabbing some free internet at a nearby Hookah bar.

I promise to write a real blog which doesn't end abruptly one of these days...

It's been an eventful but ultimately good last few days, with moments of stress and excitement intertwining unexpectedly.

In the last week I managed to both lose my passport and chip my tooth, racking up unnecessary bills. The tooth I got fixed extremely quickly if rather expensively, and for an express fee I also managed to get my new passport the day I was leaving Vancouver. Of course, as fate has a twisted sense of humour, I immediately found my old passport upon getting home from getting the new one. I was less than enthusiastic.

My nine hour flight to London was quite enjoyable, and I spent it watching The King's Speech (great movie) and The Black Swan (good, but super creepy if you're in a daze, over the middle of the atlantic ocean, in the dead of night, and everyone around you is asleep...) as well as a few TV shows. My second flight, to Barcelona, was pleasantly short, and I had good conversation with the two people next to me. There was a spectacular view of the snow capped Pyrenees mountains,North of Barcelona. We arrived in Barcelona 7:30pm local time, or 10:30am Vancouver time, which I've decided not to contemplate, with the hope of tricking my body clock into overlooking the anomaly of dealing with effectively 24 straight hours of daylight.

Then my bass decided not show up at the airport - leading to a good hour and a half of waiting and filing the lost luggage report. This was somewhat disturbing as my bass literally is my livelihood on the ship, without which I would be expendable. I decided not to worry about it, and got the shuttle to my hotel, which was a Best Western. It was a nice hotel, and after showering, getting my free meal, and meeting some others who would be on the ship I was feeling pretty good about things again. My bass situation was effectively taken care of with the new knowledge (given to me by the guitarist who I'd just met) that the previous bass player was going to leave his bass on the ship while he was away, so I could use that while waiting for my own bass to turn up.

This morning was asuper early start, though technically by Vancouver time I got up at 8:30 at night, which I guess isn't that bad. We were on the ship before 8 in the morning o'clock local time, and I settled in really quickly, met lots of people, filled out the paperwork, and have now wandered into Barcelona, which is spectacular. 

I feel guilty in saying that of all of the amazing looking cafes on picturesque patios I am at a Macdonalds, ONLY because it was the one place I could tell without a doubt had free wifi. Lame, but practical.

That's all for now. This is just the beginning.

I continue to have lots of free time while I'm in Vancouver, and I've spent a lot of that time reading and assessing my life. I came across a quote in a book which basically states "If you had all of the time and all of the money in the world, what would you do?" Since reading that, I have spent a lot of time trying to figure this out.

 I find that I have subconsciously told myself that whatever it is must be limited to music, but I think it would be beneficial for me to convince myself that that is not true, and that really anything is a possibility. I know for sure that part of what I want will include music because music performance is definitely one of the most exhilarating experiences for me. There is even a good chance that all I do will be music - but giving myself the flexibility of knowing that what I end up doing could be other things too is somewhat liberating. A new question that I found in the book "The Four Hour Work Week" which I think is one degree easier to deal with than " What would you do?" is "What excites you?" 

I know that travel definitely excites me, as does meeting new people. Music excites me as well. Ideas excite me. I continue to toy with the idea of being a high school teacher, but I'm not entirely sure if that's what I want to be doing. I feel like it's something that I wouldn't mind doing, but the thought of it doesn't particularly excite me. Still, volunteering at a school would be a great thing for me to do so as to get a feel for whether I like it or not.

Backtracking to my thoughts about being back on land instead of on the ship. Life is good here, and I've been able to reconnect with a lot of people. One thing that I haven't mentioned which I've  been realizing is the difference between socializing on land and socializing on a ship. It took me a week or so to remember how to do here it properly, because I find that being on a ship makes you perceive people in a different kind of way.  I enjoy the richness of relationships and people back home a lot, because any one single relationship on the ship is rarely quite as deep because you never spend a lot of time with just one other person on the ship. I think you assign more value to time spent with friends on land, simply because it's so much harder to come by. On the ship, you can hardly escape people, so every moment spent with other people becomes devalued due to it's excess, like everything in life. 

Two more days until I am off again, this time to the Mediterranean. I really feel connected again in Vancouver, which is nice because I guess in the back of my mind I was kind of afraid that I would lose contact with people I had spent time with before, but in fact I've had a lot of people contact me who I did not expect to hear from at all, which has been a very pleasant surprise. I feel a little bit guilty leaving again so soon, but it's much better this way rather than getting myself too re-established on land, which would then make it that much harder to pick up and leave again. Better to do my travels and adventuring all at once, I think, in one big chunk, and then somewhere down the road put down roots again and build and rebuild relationships that I will not be disconnecting myself from all of the time.

Tuesday feb 22nd

I've now been back in Vancouver for 11 days.

The first couple of days back home were very strange, and I felt extremely strong nostalgia towards being on the ship, and I also felt completely lost as to what to do with my time, feeling overwhelmingly bored. I guess one of the perks of being on the ship is that, since you are very limited in what you are able to do, the decision of what to do with your time becomes somewhat easier. Whereas, on land, there is infinite possibility of what to do, but any given course of action takes a whole lot more time and commitment to achieve. Since I am only in Vancouver for another couple of weeks before going on another ship again, it doesn't feel like it's worth the effort of investing myself too much into any given course of action while I am here.

As a result I've spent most of my time relaxing and contemplating the future. I did buy the travel-bass that I have been wanting to buy, and now the only thing stopping me from bringing it onto my new ship is the colossal price of the flight-case, which costs almost as much as the bass itself - utterly criminal.

One difficult thing about going on a five month adventure on your own, is that upon returning home, all that you have left of your trip is in your head, and it can be a bit difficult realizing that you have no one with whom you can truly share the experience. On a ship gig you are surrounded by people who are living the same life as you, but once that is done with, it can be a tough realizing that  you must learn to let go of the experience - this is not to say to forget it, but simply to accept where you are, and to accept that it has now become a purely personal experience. I guess that the most valuable lasting quality of such a trip, beyond memories, is the degree to which is changes you and matures you as a person, and the degree to which you retain those changes once you leave. A certain amount of those changes are very context specific, and will probably only reappear for me when I am put again in a similar context, away from the people and places where I grew up. A certain amount of them I think are with me even here, but they are subtle, and require more time spent away from home to develop.

One comforting discovery I have made is that I now know that I am able to function on my own in a completely new environment where I do not know anybody at all, and I am able to recreate a new network of friends and acquaintances. A tough thing about returning home is that it is a lot more difficult here to meet new people, because you do not automatically have something assignificant as a workplace in common with all of the people around you. You really have to go out and make the effort if you want to break into or create new networks of people in the city, involving yourself in things that connect you to new larger circles of people within certain confined area. On the ship, this is already done for you.

I am home for two more days, then I am up on the sunshine coast for a long weekend with family, and then I will be back in Vancouver for a few more days before heading to the Mediterranean. After that, I am not certain what will happen. Being back in Vancouver has gotten me back into thinking about my long-term career and what my dream situation would be, and I seem to change my mind about this every day. One important thing that I have realized is that I need the outside pressure of something unfamiliar to keep me motivated, and I operate much better when I am not in my comfort zone. Unfortunately Vancouver in general has become a giant comfort zone for me, and while I realize that there is a lot more to experience and to do here, I think that for the short term at least it will be very good for me to stay outside of it, so that I can come home and feel that I have changed enough to find it novel again. 

This is from yesterday:

I have 4 cruises left including this one before getting home. 

Last week we had a charter cruise for a jewelry company called "Silpada", and it was a reward for the top 3% of the company. It was a small but really energetic and appreciative audience. The charter went to Cozumel and then to Key West. I was sick for all of Cozumel, but I got out in Key West. Key West is sort of like Newport with palm trees - it's very much more like the Atlantic Canada and New England ports than it is like the ports in the Caribbean. It has a small town feel with lots of old-school looking bars and pubs, as well as lots of tourist shops. It has quite a strong hippy flavour to it as well, with Bob Marley shops and tie-dye shirts abounding. 

This week takes us back to the kinds of crowds that we had before the busy christmas season, which is to say elderly. Old also means nice and appreciative, however, and our shows have been extremely well attended so far this week. After this week I have only one more regular five day and one more regular nine day cruise, as my last week here is the five-day rock charter.

I was asked just yesterday if I wanted to extend for one more nine day cruise. I was tempted to for the money, but after thinking about it and talking to a few people I decided not to. Extending for the extra cruise would mean I'd only have just over two weeks to spend back home before going on the next ship, rather than three and a half weeks. Also, I feel that I am read to be home again, and that extra nine days would be pushing the limit of my tolerance. I have loved this experience enormously, but I would like to leave it wanting more, not less. I have made some amazing friends on this ship and I hope to keep in contact with them in the future. I am feeling however that I have grown as much as I can from this ship and have become a little too comfortable here, and am no longer operating at all outside of my comfort zone. 

One of the greatest thing about being on this ship is being surrounded by people who don't think like I do. This has forced me to adapt, and it has made me notice new things about myself and how I act. Talking to people who don't think like yourself is incredibly refreshing because your thoughts all of a sudden gain new life in the eyes of others, and their input can be so different from what you would have come up with on your own that they can alter the course of your thinking, give you new lines of thought, or even fundamentally change the way you think. Not just the way people think has influenced me, but seeing different people's habits of day to day living and recreation have had an influence on me too. I am curious to find out how much of this, if indeed any, remains when I get home. An advantage to being away from home is that you are presented with a huge opportunity for uninhibited growth. The expectations and assumptions about yourself held by your friends and family can limit your potential to change as a person. If you take all of that away, you are left with nobody but yourself who knows the person that you think you are or have been in the past, leaving you free to define yourself as you so choose. 

Today has been a great day for music. A group of us sat in on our guitarist's solo set and played jazz as a quartet, something I haven't done much of at all since being here, and it was a lot of fun to play some jazz tunes and exercise my technique a little bit. After that we played two South Beach Rave shows, the second of which was really high energy and a lot of fun to perform. Tonight's been one of those good-feeling kind of nights, filled with slightly inebriated heart-felt good conversation about life and ships and everything else. These are the nights where I feel like I could do this forever, and when I really appreciate the full scope of how good I have it here. 

Tomorrow we're back in Barbados, and I'm thinking about hitting up a new beach and doing some snorkeling after our morning Neil Diamond rehearsal. Tomorrow night we have our Neil Diamond show, and then our Blues Night, shi which should be a grand old time.

Here's a post that I wrote about a week ago which I wanted to keep writing on but never got around to it. I'll post the unfinished post now seeing as I will probably never get around to adding to it.

Friday January 7th

Yesterday I went Jet-skying in Barbados. It was my first time Jet-skying on my own (the last time having been with my dad when I was probably around 8 years old, clinging to the back and terrified), and to get to do it in the warm Caribbean water was incredible.

Today I went to a new beach in St. Kitts which was beautiful but pretty standard tourist fare. After having spent three full months in the Caribbean I am finally taking advantage of all of the beaches, and they have taken up the majority of my free time for the last two weeks. I have to say that before coming here I was never a big fan of beach-going, but I think I have finally been converted. The warm turquoise water has definitely helped, not to mention my sudden realization that if I don't have at least the vague beginnings of a tan when I return home then people might doubt that I ever really came to the Caribbean.

Due to the ludicrous sleeping schedule that I  find myself on in the ship (which I justify by saying that I am still on Vancouver time), I have gotten in the habit of hunting for food around 2:00am, and I've discovered that, in addition to the random late night food that is provided in the messes for late shift workers, there are additional windows of time where the cooks make food for themselves to eat - stuff that is off of the regular menu. Between 1:30 and 2:00 is the time that a group of Indian cooks make their food, and I have lately started crashing their meal, which has been a surprisingly good experience. The first time I did it, I was with one of the lounge pianists, and the Indian cooks beckoned us over to take a seat and eat with them. We both ate the amazing food (Lobster and yogurt rice - hot and cold in a most refreshing blend), and only discovered upon cleaning our plates that they were waiting for us to eat our fill before they even touched their own food! The respect that they showed for two complete strangers was amazing, and I only later discovered that they hadn't eaten anything since 3:00pm before that, and in one guy's case it was his first meal of the day. These cooks who had been working the entire day while I had been lounging at the beach, eating meals every few hours, had still waited for us to eat before them, as guests. We made sure that in the future they would not wait for us, since we would no longer be guests but hopefully viewed as part of their own group. 

At this point maybe I should write something about my impression of the different cultures on the ship. As I have just mentioned, the Indians have shown the utmost respect and been incredibly polite and interesting to talk with.  I have befriended the Caribbean band all of whom are from Jamaica, and they as well as others from Jamaica on the ship have essentially fulfilled the stereotype of being an easy going and relaxed people. I have really appreciated their pleasant attitude and openness to conversation, and had some great conversations with the drummer and singer of the band about different kinds of music. 

I have already talked about Filipinos who work on the ship, but as I said before, they are very hard-working people, and are generally quite outgoing. They are very talented musically as a culture, and they overall have quite a good attitude about their work on the ship. 

I will have to generalize a lot of eastern European countries into a single stereotype, mainly because it is pretty accurate on this ship. In general, they at first seem intense and reserved, but once you get to talk to them they all turn out to have great senses of humour and are generally quite nice people. Of course, the funniest stuff they say is always the unintentional result of their hilarious broken English. Our saxophone player, Yurie, who is from the Ukraine, has a large collection of amazing quotes and I will do my best to record as many of them as I can before he leaves.

The people from South African are generally nice people but intense. 

The Canadians, Americans and people from the UK are much harder for me to generalize and so I will avoid it for the time being, and most of whoever reads this is Canadian or American anyways. 

There are a fair number of Peruvians, Indonesians, and Africans, but I haven't had as many opportunities to interact with them and so am unable to make any generalizations.

I've been very lazy about posting my blogs lately, but I have written a few entries over the last month, so here they are, starting from early December and ending with today Enjoy!

December 9th

On monday, we got our new piano player, the replacement for the previous one who had to leave for emergency eye surgery. He is a good pianist, but more importantly he has a great attitude and really has fun when he's playing on stage, which is infectious. 

All week long I've been in basic safety training, STCW, which stands for Seafarers Training Certification and Watch keeping. It is a general safety course that spans a couple of weeks that in theory everyone who works on ships is required to take. In theory because there are always a few people who manage to sneak by under the radar without anyone every realizing that they haven't taken it. I was not one such person, and so have been in the Learning Centre on just about every port day this week. 

So far I have taken Personal Saftey and Social Responsibility, first aid, and fire fighting. With the exception of the first, it's been a interesting and informative experience. I relearned CPR after forgetting what I knew from high school, as well as re-learning the Heimlich Maneuver and how to treat/ respond to a few other basic injuries. 

For fire fighting, we spent the first day learning the theory behind it, such as how smoke will accumulate to the ceiling until it layers and heats up to 650 degrees C at which point the smoke itself catches fire and shoots a fireball downward - or about back drafts, which will do a similar thing to anyone who opens the door on a room in which there was a fire which has burned out all of the oxygen and appears to have gone out. 

The next day we dressed up in full Firemen's gear, oxygen mask and all. After that, we were sent through a room filled with fake smoke, still donning our oxygen masks, and required to find our way out to the other side without being able to see anything. We then briefly got to play with a firemen's hose before finishing for the day. Only two more days of training and then I'm done. 

On tuesday, myself, the showband guitarist, one of our lounge pianists, and two of the cast of the comedy troupe Second City who happen to play drums and guitar respectively, got to perform a blues tribute night. The blues tribute is a very new show on this ship, started up a few weeks ago by our lounge pianist, and he had been backed by our old cover band Next Stage. Since they just left the ship, the aforementioned group of us filled in and have become the new blues tribute band.

It was a good show - actually it was an amazing show. It really shouldn't have gone nearly as well as it did, considering we only ran through the first 15 seconds or so of each song earlier that day, and no one really knew what was going to happen. But, for whatever reason, the audience just ate up every second of it, from greasy riffs to over-the-top endings to every guitar playing gimmick you can think of, such as Andrew using a shot glass with which to play slide guitar. The room was packed and we got a standing ovation at the end, which left me baffled but ecstatic. Overall an amazing night for everyone involved, and I am really looking forward to not only the continuation of blues night but also the same band will hopefully get to play other rock music in the crew bar on a weekly basis as well - a very therapeutic contrast to the great but less inspired music that we usually play in the showband. 

This morning I got up at 7 because I was convinced that I had safety training, only to discover upon entering the class at 8 that there had been a typo in schedule and that it was in fact tomorrow. I promtply returned to bed until 12:30. 

I went out into St. Kitts today briefly to use the internet, and on my way back I ran into Zuriel, one of the shore excursion workers from the ship, asking if I wanted to go on a Scenic Rail Tour, to which I obviously said yes.

We left around 2:30 on a bus that took us on a 45 minute ride to a train station, all the while the driver was filling us in on the history of St. Kitts. The train ride itself was incredible. It was a two hour train ride that took us all the way around St. Kitts, just a little inland from the coast. The geography of the island is spectacular, filled with mountains, hills, beaches, palm trees, cedars, and vast farmlands of sugar cane, which are apparently no longer harvested because they are no longer profitable in that area. There was a complimentary bar which supplied us with Pina Coladas for the trip, and we had another local with a Morgan Freeman voice as a tour guide, telling us more about the island, and about our train, traveling around 15 mph, "vacation speed", as he liked to call it. There was even an a-cappela quartet that came and sang for us a couple of times. All of the locals of the island were very friendly, waving happily at us as we road by on what is apparently the last railroad of the Caribbean. 

We returned to the ship at six o'clock. 

December 27th

Hello again.

Time has been flying by so fast this last month and I can hardly believe it's been this long since I last wrote a blog.

I have a new room-mate on the ship, Bryant, who is a trombone player from Chicago. 

The new production cast has come and the old cast has left, which has made each of the shows feel very different. The choreography to Band on the Run was changed a lot for the worse, unfortunately, by the new choreographer who came onto the ship with the cast; a lot of the best moments of the show were removed or tampered with. Other than that the shows are relatively similar but they definitely feel a lot different with the new group.

Christmas has come and gone now - the week leading up to christmas was a little crazy because we had the christmas show to rehearse and get together with only a couple days preparation on the part of the cast. All things considered it went quite well, with one show for the crew on the 23rd and then two shows for the passengers on christmas Eve. It contained a balance of different music, from traditional ("O Holy Night") to comtemporary ("Santa Baby"), and it also contained some comedy sketches provided by Second City. All in all it helped create a more authentic Christmas atmosphere on the ship. Christmas day felt a little weird since we had to player several different shows and it ended with a crew party rather than a family dinner, but the comradery of the group made it a lot easier to deal with. It was a week of parties though and so the 5 days off before new years will be a much needed break from all of the festivities.

I still have another month and a half left on the ship, but at the rate time is passing I know that it will be over before I know it. I know I will definitely have a lot of mixed feelings about being done. I feel like I have grown as a person since I've been here, and whatever happens next I don't want to return to everything as normal, which I am afraid is what it will feel like when I get back. The biggest concern I had about coming on the ship before I arrived was what the people would be like, and as it has turned out they have been the best thing about being here. Of course being able to perform on the bass every day and see other parts of the world have been good, but the lifestyle and fellowship of being on the ship has been it's most endearing quality. 

Saturday Jan 1st

Every day my opinion of being on the ship seems to switch, from loving everything about it to really wanting to be home. I expect and hope that over the course of this last month I will become more and more ready to be done with it all. Five months is a long time to be on a ship and I don't know if I would want to go on for quite that long again, but for a first contract I think it will turn out to be just about perfect. I have also just agreed to take a short contract on another Norwegian Ship, The Jade. Just like with my current contract, the timing of it fell into place perfectly and so I found it impossible to say no.  The Jade contract goes from early March to late April, and I am very much looking forward to the itinerary, which is in the Mediterranean. That means that I will have a full month off back in Vancouver before starting again, which I hope will make me appreciate being in Vancouver as much as possible while I am there. 

The last few days have been really busy for the showband, between our regular shows and New Years Eve. We played last night from 10:30pm-1:30am in The Atrium, which was a bit of a marathon, but at least we got to spend some time with friends afterwards as the New Years parties went on long into the night. This morning we had to be up in good time to play the Big Band Brunch from 11-1, which in my opinion was a bad move since most sensible people would not want to be up before the afternoon of New Years Day, but the turnout actually was not too bad. The trade-off for having had such a crazy past couple of days is that we will hopefully have the next day and a half completely off to recuperate. 

Monday Jan 3rd

I was just thinking about how life on a cruise ship could be looked at either as a relapse of childhood, or else as an early experience of retirement - the common factor being that you do not have any of the usual responsibilities of life that most people do. The amount of  guilt-free wasted time altogether on a ship by almost all people is really quite astounding, but because of the lifestyle and amenities provided, you really get away with it. While I am starting to look forward to a return to regular life, the everyday routine things that I've completely taken for granted here are going to give me a rude awakening back home. Cooking, cleaning, paying rent, commuting and traveling around town, having to answer phone calls and emails, find work and keep in touch with people, and just dealing with all of the unforeseen circumstances that come up all the time living with millions of other people that are not a part of the controlled, small-town life that is part of living on a cruise ship.

What I most look forward to upon returning home is a return to permanent relationships with people, and the idea of making new friends that you know you will be able to keep for the foreseeable future. Not to say that I won't still be friends with the people I've met on the ship, but the quality of relationships that really matter cannot easily be maintained properly with facebook, skype or phone-calls.