Dec 20th

We're approaching the end of the first cruise of my contract, after which I have two more cruises before going home.
Since my last blog post we have been to Izmir, Turkey, where I went on a passenger tour to see the ruins of Ephesus. The ruins were pretty amazing, and I was surprised at how much they have unearthed, and how much there still is left underground.

We next spent a day and a half in Istanbul, which was fun although I didn't do a great deal of exploring, since I've already been to the main tourist attractions. Still, it's a fun city just to walk around in which I did, picking up a (working!) secondhand macbook charger in the process. The  evening of the first day there I went with some of the entertainment department to a pretty generic club, which really had absolutely nothing going for it. The next day however I went to see the Hobbit in town, which was great not only because it was an amazing movie, but also the theatre was really cool and we were almost the only ones there. I was surprised when there was an intermission halfway through the movie, but I guess that's how they do it over there.
That evening we played Shout, the second production show that the band plays for, which is easy but relatively uninteresting musically. After that there was an entertainment department christmas party, which was fun, as all department parties tend to be.

Life on the ship continues to be good. Cruise ships are known as places of abundance, and I've been a prime partaker. I've had more sleep, good food, drinks, socializing, and free time since I've been here than I've had for quite awhile. It is definitely a good vacation from regular life, and I'm glad I have two more cruises after this, though I am also glad that my contract is not any longer than that. There is so much routine to living on a cruise ship: hanging out with the same people, eating at the same places, staying in the same cabin, working with the same people, going to the same crew bar, that to do it for more than a month (except for your first contract) gets monotonous. This is true musically too, although the musical repetition is over a longer time, and I will only play any given set three separate times over the course of my contract, which is  a good amount.

We are now on our second sea day since leaving Istanbul, and are on our way back toward Civitavecchia - we passed by Sicily not long ago. Tomorrow we are in Naples, and I really have no plan for what I will do there,  but hopefully some pizza will be involved. My sleep schedule has gotten extremely late, so I will hopefully be able to get up in time to probably explore the place.