Travelogue #2 (5/9 – 5/10) with Pictures

I’m finally caught up with all my favorites! I still have some photos to upload, but I’ve got plenty for now and more than enough to illustrate my next couple entries.

9 May 2011

9:35 AM EDT, Atlantic Ocean

We’re passing in and out of rain showers, going from clouds to sun. I’m up on Deck 13 in the bow, enjoying the breeze.

I’m definitely feeling the motion of the ship and it’s more unpleasant than I’d like to admit. It’s not at all like sailing. In sailing you have a better appreciation for your motion. The waves are more noticeable, but that actually helps. On this ship, you are much more divorced from the motion of the sea, but you’re still moving. It’s rather like being in an airplane. The sense of your body in space is very different from what your body is actually doing. I feel better outside or when I’m moving.

I slept pretty well, although Grammy’s snoring woke me up in the middle of the night. I had to put my headphones in and drown her out with Charlotte Church. Good thing I have noise-cancelling headphones.

I felt quite sick when I woke up, and hardly had any breakfast. A work-out helped. I put the elliptical on Resistance 7 and barely felt it. My blood isn’t used to being at sea-level again, so it’s super-oxygenated. Very good for working out.

Surprisingly, I didn’t feel at all queasy in the shower, which is seriously awesome.

 

10 minutes later.

I’ve been forced under cover. I don’t mind rain, but it makes it hard to write or read. So now I’m at a poolside table. I’ve been genuinely surprised by some of the rudeness and bad manners I’ve seen thus far. When we were leaving New York we went up to the bow on the top deck. There are big rattan loungers there, all of which were occupied. Grammy asked a couple of women if she could sit on the edge of theirs (the loungers being about the size of a double bed) and they replied that it was a private party. They seriously denied a seat to an eighty-year-old woman! When a man came up to the rail shortly afterward to take photos, they actually told him her was in their way and to move. Are you kidding me? Really? Luckily the deck and railing became so crowded that they couldn’t see anyway.

Another incident happened at karaoke. A large group came in and sat near us. They’d all obviously been drinking pretty much since coming aboard, but one woman was particularly sloppy. She was making incredibly loud, rude comments about pretty much everyone, including my mom who has a lovely, operatic voice. I was very glad when they left. If they’d kept at it, I might have had to say something to her and make an issue out of it.

Maybe I shouldn’t be surprised. Manners have gone out the window, and somehow people think that paying the money they do for a cruise entitles them to behave like assholes.

 

9:25 PM EDT, en route to Bermuda

Privacy is no easy thing to find on a ship, even one as large as thin. However, it seems that the Promenade on deck 7 is usually unoccupied, so here I sit on a lounge chair about amidships. The few people out are walking, keeping warm, I suppose. It is a bit chilly.

The waves have picked up as well. I find it fairly uncomfortable because it doesn’t feel like a boat — it’s more like an elevator. It gives that awful weightless sensation — rougher seas would almost be welcome because the motion would be more definite, less vague.

I keep thinking of the Bible’s exhortation, I think in Revelations, to be hot or cold, but never lukewarm. This is a lukewarm sort of motion.

For dinner I ate mostly bread, not feeling inclined for much else. At 7:30 PM we went to a show — a sort of revue of 70’s music and pop cultures. It was really quite well done. At one point, the ship swayed rather alarmingly.

I think it would help if I could just sleep out here. Cold air has always made me feel better when I’m a bit off.

I’m having a hard time existing in the same space as my mother and grandmother. Particularly my mom. We always got along well as I was growing up, but it seem like the last few years, her very presence irks me. I can’t quite put my finger on exactly why — it’s a million and a half things, really, not one of them all that important. The walking around naked bugs me, especially in a semi-public place like this. I’m not a prude, but come on! Wear PJ’s when you’re with people who aren’t your spouse! Or turning lights on and leaving them despite bright daylight. Or not wearing sunscreen. Or a thousand other things.

I miss Alan — I feel incomplete without him around, without even the allusions to his existence of uniforms, hats, and sneakers littering the house. I want very much to go home.

~Lizzie

10 May 2011

11:10 ADT, NW of Bermuda

Today was a quiet, lazy day. I had a decent breakfast, a good work-out, and spent lots of time reading. The sun was in and out all day, as was the rain, and it was very windy in the morning. We’re in more tropical climes now, though, and after dinner my mom and I played shuffleboard, which was both entertaining and aggravating. I wished that I was playing with Alan instead. I’m just so much less self-conscious with him — I can trust him to behave appropriately. My mother is just so… crass.

Short entry today. At sea. We’ll be in Heritage Wharf, Bermuda tomorrow. Very exciting. I’ll be happy to be on land again.

~Lizzie

Some pictures taken aboard ship:

 

Next entry will be picture-heavy and will comprise only our trip out to Ft. St. Catherine and St. George’s.

~Liz