How can I escape Europe without telling everyone about the funny little idiosyncrasies that make Americans like me wonder, “How do they get away with that?” After a couple of months over here I’ve had my share of obstacles, challenges and mysteries that have made me understand the true meaning of “do as the Romans do.”
One of the things I began to wonder about was the seemingly non-existent bar soap factor. Where in Europe is the bar soap ya’ll? It seems that all over Europe (at least the countries I’ve been to thus far) there is plenty of liquid soap and shower gel but scarcely any bar soap. Lindsay and I had to go far and wide (ok, only to the super market in Sorrento) to find regular old bar soap! Oh, and add to that list shaving gel, make-up and just about any black girl hair care product too. Now I am not suffering on the black hair care product end because my good girlfriend Mable hooked me up with a couple of canisters of black girl hair conditioner before I left from Vegas. But I did notice the persistent lack of products for women of color over here. Good thing I brought extra lotion, shampoo, face moisturizer and hair products so that I could last until we get to Miami in December. However, the ladies and I were fully expecting to be able to find bar soap and make-up at least! All of us were searching for one thing or another. Molly needed tinted moisturizer. How do European girls LIVE?? Everyone needs a little tinted moisturizer in their lives! I thought that Europeans invented that stuff! Lindsay had the hardest time finding shave gel. Um, WHAT?! How do European ladies shave?! Are they still nabbing a dab of their men’s shave cream? Or are they just roughing it with the shower gel? And don’t think that they don’t shave because I’ve seen plenty of Venus razors over here! As for me, I couldn’t get my hands on any decent gum! Now, for those of you who know me, Orbit gum is one of my weaknesses. However, the Orbit brand over here is not the same as the U.S! It just doesn’t taste good! I have searched high and low to find a substitute brand of gum to get me through and have come up with some weak successors called BROOKLYN and TEZENIS. Suffice it to say Europeans are not into gum as much as they are into cigarettes and coffee. There is a tobacco joint on just about every corner, but just in case you missed any one of them, there are cigarette vending machines built into the buildings as you walk along the main shopping strips. Of course, there are cafes everywhere. All I can say is, “Wow.” But, the last product that I have given up searching for is chewable antacid. The folks over here must have stomachs of steel because after all of the pizza, pasta, sauces, meats, prosciuttos and cheeses you would think the pharmacies would be chocked and stocked full of chewable antacid tablets, but no! Ay Dios mio! I can’t even guess how they settle their stomachs at night.
Aside from the shopping perils there has been a beautiful mystery of architecture that makes me a little jealous for cities in the U.S. How is it that European cities have such old buildings and city designs that are still so beautiful today? I love that the sidewalks are patterned with small bricks in what I call an “Egyptian palm fan” design. I still can’t figure out how they get that pattern to flow together so flawlessly but it’s all over Europe and it’s beautiful. The old buildings seem to be built to last for hundreds of years and the attention to detail can be astonishing. Now I am not an architectural history major so I may be way off base when it comes to the exact date that most of these buildings were built, but there is something about these buildings that is timeless, therefore classic. Unlike a superdome in the U.S. the coliseums across Europe capture the eye from the exterior all the way to the interior with magical detail to doorways and archways with spacious attention to bathrooms and foyers. And applause, applause, applause for color! There are bright and muted colors mixed on every building making each town brilliant and unique in each different scheme. I will not forget the brilliance of Portofino on a cloudy day nor the vibrance of Valencia and Venice because of the brightly colored buildings, one after the other. I love that every time I look at one of these beautiful buildings, it’s possible that it was built several hundred years ago, and it still has the power to put me in awe.
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention this last unique aspect of European culture that either irks or amuses most Americans. This, my friends, is the every day occurrence of, drum roll please…………………………………………….SIESTA!!!! Gotta love siesta! Every day from around 1pm until maybe 4pm or 5pm everything shuts down in Europe. The only businesses that stay open are the cafes, restaurants and maybe a few tobacco shops and pharmacies. Transportation can be a bit sketchy too. This time of day is when everyone can get their eat on, chill out for a couple of hours, catch up with friends, read the paper or just take a nice nap. Now, how is it that daytime naptime is something that the Europeans have managed to instill into their culture, while people in the states abruptly banish it after kindergarten? As irritating as it can be to be an unsuspecting tourist who is being kicked out of a store at 1pm so that the store owner can go eat, I really dig and respect siesta and totally wish that it could be implemented into American culture. Instead of 9am to 5pm, you can get off of work at 1pm and go get your kids from school. Or meet up with friend during daytime hours. You could also pick up that prescription during the week instead of having to wait for the weekend and then fighting through weekend crowds. You could talk to your husband or wife face to face during some of the daylight hours of the day. Or even have a large family meal in the middle of the week, leaving the weekends free to spend with immediate family for trips or just taking a load off. And when you get back to work for only a few more hours in the evening you feel refreshed, rejuvenated and renewed and very connected (I imagine). There is something natural about siesta and I think Americans should try it!
Although I miss the States and cannot wait to get back, I have come to enjoy the little quirks of Europe. As we sail towards the Caribbean after next cruise I am sure to feel a sense of longing for those days of siesta, magic and mystery.
Signing off! Marsha
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Saturday, November 1, 2008
EVERYTHING IS BEAUTIFUL IN ITALY!
What can I say? Italy is just a gorgeous place to be! The last few ports in Italy have been pure eye candy. From the gorgeous buildings to the fabulous fashions, Italy is truly a gem in the heart of Europe!
First of all the shopping is INSANE!! Usually I am a casual window shopper who makes very small purchases here and there for souveniers and little snacks. I have never been very impressed with clothes, hats, shoes, boots and tourist crap in most ports. Nor do I usually spend any money on food. Our ports of call in Italy changed all of that!
Our first Italian port was the city of Rome and although I didn’t spend very much money there, my eyes gorged themselves with the eye candy that is Roman architecture. Trevi Fountain was a treasure to behold! We made our way there after doing some window shopping and picture taking around the beautiful Spanish steps. Then we skipped off to the Piazza Navona for a nice long lunch. This spectacular piazza is lined with numerous cafes and artists peddling their works. We slipped into a café and drank Peroni, the local beer, and, of course, ate pizza and pasta! Our last stop on this trip was Saint Peter’s Basilica. Um, like, WOW! That place was HUGE! I didn’t venture inside though because I was too tickled pink with the gelato place that was blasting salsa music down the road! Girl next door, Lindsay and I popped in there for some REAL Italian ice cream. All I can say is: yummy, yummy, yummy! These places, and other key landmarks in Rome, are all spread out around the city so you have to do quite a bit of walking to get from one attraction to the next. But the beauty of it all is in walking from place to place. Everywhere you go there is a beautiful building, an interesting fountain, ancient ruins or a supremely designed square. And if the architecture isn’t enough there are cute cafes, gelato vendors, Italian fashion stores and, of course, shoes!
Now I managed to keep my budget intact throughout our little tour of Rome, but I broke the bank shopping in Bari!! Oy! You wanna talk about a port for shopping? Mama Maria! The clothes, shoes and accessories in Bari were so beautiful that I was literally gasping! The designs of the commonplace stuff were blowing me away! And the shops seemed to go on forever. In the worldwide corporate stores like Nike, Zara and H&M the selection of styles and shoes is intensely better than in the US. The real Italian shops and boutiques have insanely beautiful fashions. We stopped in an Italian boot and shoe store that nearly broke my heart. For one thing, there were so many beautiful shoes and boots that I wanted to buy them all (Hello Imelda!), but the killer was that the height of each shoe heel was at least five inches! (Hello Next Top Model!) To be perfectly honest, I did not go totally crazy shopping in Bari, but I did manage to pick up two beautifully crafted sweaters that I hope will last forever. Even if they don’t, the memory of shopping in Bari for them will.
The last, and greatest of all these ports is Venice. Ahhh, Venice! Venice encompassed the best of shopping, cultural interest, eating and city design out of all three ports. This was the only place where all of the touristy stuff that I never buy became completely irresistible. The major tourist items were the masks for ****the carnival celebration. **** These masks are so divinely colorful and diverse in style and creation that I could have spent a month’s salary on them alone! The local mode of transportation is by boat, which in itself is too crazy to believe until you see it. Like the subways in New York or the bus stations in any major city there is a little map on each boat showing each stop the boat makes and what it’s route is. There aren’t any cars! There aren’t ANY cars! I could really get into this city!
Like in Rome, most of the beauty of Venice is in walking through it. The architecture and city design is stunning with all of the mini bridges and streets that wrap around themselves like ribbons of stone. Getting lost is not only easy, but preferred. While wandering the streets I stopped at several gelato vendors to have a taste from the fantastic assortment of flavors. My favorites included Snickers, peanut butter chocolate and caramel: Again, yummy, yummy, yummy! Local shopping included shoe shops, clothing stores, jewelery stores, pastry shops, souvenier shops and free standing vendors with just about anything you could ever need or want. Wine bars and cool cafes abound at every turn although we found a gem of a local pizza shop that was selling slices for very cheap. Lucky for us we stayed in Venice overnight and also had a chance to experience a little night life! We went to a little “Jazz” bar called Bacaro. Now I put jazz in quotes because this place is not a live jazz bar but a really cool place where they play jazz as background music. I was a little let down by this fact until the delicious smorgasbord of bruscetta, fries and beers arrived. How on earth do they get the food to taste so good? The unique décor included bras hanging from the ceiling in rows. They are hung in a beautiful array, arranged by color and size and there is a tradition kept there: If you leave your bra to be hung on the ceiling, you can get a free T-shirt. If I wasn’t wearing one of my favorite bras that night I would have had a free T-shirt! Oh what a night!
Signing Off! Marsha
First of all the shopping is INSANE!! Usually I am a casual window shopper who makes very small purchases here and there for souveniers and little snacks. I have never been very impressed with clothes, hats, shoes, boots and tourist crap in most ports. Nor do I usually spend any money on food. Our ports of call in Italy changed all of that!
Our first Italian port was the city of Rome and although I didn’t spend very much money there, my eyes gorged themselves with the eye candy that is Roman architecture. Trevi Fountain was a treasure to behold! We made our way there after doing some window shopping and picture taking around the beautiful Spanish steps. Then we skipped off to the Piazza Navona for a nice long lunch. This spectacular piazza is lined with numerous cafes and artists peddling their works. We slipped into a café and drank Peroni, the local beer, and, of course, ate pizza and pasta! Our last stop on this trip was Saint Peter’s Basilica. Um, like, WOW! That place was HUGE! I didn’t venture inside though because I was too tickled pink with the gelato place that was blasting salsa music down the road! Girl next door, Lindsay and I popped in there for some REAL Italian ice cream. All I can say is: yummy, yummy, yummy! These places, and other key landmarks in Rome, are all spread out around the city so you have to do quite a bit of walking to get from one attraction to the next. But the beauty of it all is in walking from place to place. Everywhere you go there is a beautiful building, an interesting fountain, ancient ruins or a supremely designed square. And if the architecture isn’t enough there are cute cafes, gelato vendors, Italian fashion stores and, of course, shoes!
Now I managed to keep my budget intact throughout our little tour of Rome, but I broke the bank shopping in Bari!! Oy! You wanna talk about a port for shopping? Mama Maria! The clothes, shoes and accessories in Bari were so beautiful that I was literally gasping! The designs of the commonplace stuff were blowing me away! And the shops seemed to go on forever. In the worldwide corporate stores like Nike, Zara and H&M the selection of styles and shoes is intensely better than in the US. The real Italian shops and boutiques have insanely beautiful fashions. We stopped in an Italian boot and shoe store that nearly broke my heart. For one thing, there were so many beautiful shoes and boots that I wanted to buy them all (Hello Imelda!), but the killer was that the height of each shoe heel was at least five inches! (Hello Next Top Model!) To be perfectly honest, I did not go totally crazy shopping in Bari, but I did manage to pick up two beautifully crafted sweaters that I hope will last forever. Even if they don’t, the memory of shopping in Bari for them will.
The last, and greatest of all these ports is Venice. Ahhh, Venice! Venice encompassed the best of shopping, cultural interest, eating and city design out of all three ports. This was the only place where all of the touristy stuff that I never buy became completely irresistible. The major tourist items were the masks for ****the carnival celebration. **** These masks are so divinely colorful and diverse in style and creation that I could have spent a month’s salary on them alone! The local mode of transportation is by boat, which in itself is too crazy to believe until you see it. Like the subways in New York or the bus stations in any major city there is a little map on each boat showing each stop the boat makes and what it’s route is. There aren’t any cars! There aren’t ANY cars! I could really get into this city!
Like in Rome, most of the beauty of Venice is in walking through it. The architecture and city design is stunning with all of the mini bridges and streets that wrap around themselves like ribbons of stone. Getting lost is not only easy, but preferred. While wandering the streets I stopped at several gelato vendors to have a taste from the fantastic assortment of flavors. My favorites included Snickers, peanut butter chocolate and caramel: Again, yummy, yummy, yummy! Local shopping included shoe shops, clothing stores, jewelery stores, pastry shops, souvenier shops and free standing vendors with just about anything you could ever need or want. Wine bars and cool cafes abound at every turn although we found a gem of a local pizza shop that was selling slices for very cheap. Lucky for us we stayed in Venice overnight and also had a chance to experience a little night life! We went to a little “Jazz” bar called Bacaro. Now I put jazz in quotes because this place is not a live jazz bar but a really cool place where they play jazz as background music. I was a little let down by this fact until the delicious smorgasbord of bruscetta, fries and beers arrived. How on earth do they get the food to taste so good? The unique décor included bras hanging from the ceiling in rows. They are hung in a beautiful array, arranged by color and size and there is a tradition kept there: If you leave your bra to be hung on the ceiling, you can get a free T-shirt. If I wasn’t wearing one of my favorite bras that night I would have had a free T-shirt! Oh what a night!
Signing Off! Marsha
A BIRTHDAY TO REMEMBER
This year’s birthday was certainly one for the books! There was a perfect mix of fun, discovery, friendship, dancing and delicious food involved so it was hard to get anything wrong. It helped that I had my girls Molly and Lindsay to help make the day super-girly-fantastic! From midnight Tuesday night until 3 AM Thursday morning there was a perpetual party! Let me tell give you the rundown:
11:59 pm Tuesday night – Our lovely cruise director, Sue, buys a drink for me at the Looking Glass (the ship’s nightclub). I get one of the sweetest toasts ever and manage to keep my age to myself! We dance to some hot tunes, work up a nice buzz and then go to the crew bar!
1AM Wednesday morning it is officially my birthday and we go dancing to thump and bump house music in the crew bar. The spa girls sing happy birthday and I get a bourbon and ginger. We shake our thing until the crew bar closes at 2AM. Then Molly sings HAPPY BIRTHDAY all over again!
8AM I wake up and take a peek at my email inbox. There are 35 new messages! I LOVE my friends! They have all wished me Happy birthday on Facebook! I am laughing in my bed early in the morning at all my messages and I am thinking, “This is a great way to start my birthday!” I hop in and out of the shower and hear a little knock at the door. It’s Molly and Lindsay and they are singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me through the door. I feel so bad that I am running late for breakfast with them so I frantically swing a towel over me so I can open the door and tell the ladies I will be late. I opened the door to find they had taped balloons all over the front of it!! I am ecstatic and half nekked! We are all laughing so hard because I am thanking them and telling them I am running super late and apologizing and promise to look more decent in a few minutes! I am truly over the moon!
9:45AM I arrive at Windows, our ship’s buffet restaurant and every guest and server I see wishes me a Happy Birthday! Everyone knows about it because I told them in the show the night before. I feel like a total movie star! I slide over to a table to have breakfast with Molly, Lindsay and Karen Granger. We dish girl talk until our cute environmental officer, George, stops by to wish me happy birthday! Fun, friends, celebrity and eye candy in the morning! What more can a girl ask for?
10:30 Off into Split, Slovenia where I’ve never been! It’s a cute little town with loads of shopping and we girls LOVE to get our shop on! Billy tagged along with us but, being a guy, could not keep up with the shopping! By the time we got to ZARA (one of our favorites), he was ready to go! Poor guy! Amidst the shoes, the silky tops, the swingin’ coats and casual dresses I found a fantastic, basic black dress to wear for the evening. Full throttle into our shopping ventures, we parted ways with Billy and continued on until our bellies started grumbling. That’s when we found this little local bar set on the second floor of a building in the café area. What a cool little place this was! We sat at the bar overlooking the street, cafes and people walking by. It was a cute little getaway with an even cuter waiter! And what did we devour for birthday lunch? Local beer and fries! Yes, ya’ll! I had beer and fries for lunch! Talk about a renegade birthday meal! Afterwards we skipped over to the local gelato stand for some yummy deliciousness and then headed back to the ship. There we had a proper lunch and went to our cabins for a little down time.
4PM Nap Time! Isn’t it lovely to have a nap in the middle of the day? It makes you miss preschool and kindergarten!
8PM – Running late again! I put the finishing touches on my make-up, threw on my fabulous new black dress and ran up to the Cabaret Theatre with Molly and Lindsay to see Karen Granger’s show. She was fantastic, as usual, and she even used me as one of her audience victims! Well we all had a laugh and the night was just getting started!
9PM – Dinner at Prime C with Molly and Lindsay. Anyone who has experienced fine dining on a ship knows that the food and the service are unbeatable but the experience I had at Prime C was pure magic! Our waiter Brian and assistant waiter Jose were so sweet! They told us about everything on the menu and told us if we wanted to have one of everything we could have it!! We were tempted to take them up on the offer but knew that we could not manage to eat it all so we settled into our choices. Karen G. stopped by to have some wine and soup (which we tasted and it was tha bomb!). Our cruise director Sue stopped by to check in to see if everything was going all right (how sweet is that?). Then the cutest chef in the world came out to chat with us: Chef Kyle!! What a complete HOTTIE! I guess they sent him out to keep me preoccupied because I didn’t see the birthday cake coming from a mile away! The waiters sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY and I almost started to cry! I was so happy!
11PM – Drinks and dancing at the Looking Glass where my good friend Earl has ordered champagne with strawberries! Oy! To add to the fun the musicians in the orchestra are hanging out too! We chat it up until DJ Ron starts playing Motown and you know what happened next: DANCING!!! I can’t believe Ron even played James Brown’s SEX MACHINE! So you know I got a chance to “shake my money maker!” Oh but the night didn’t end there! By 1AM Molly, Lindsay, Gary and I were down in the crew bar for a raucous night of craziness! Mind you I’ve had about two Jack Daniels and some champagne too so I am on a buzz FOR REAL! Plus, to make the night a little interesting, I took about twenty single dollar bills to the crew bar to see how scandalous the folks could get. Well they showed me a thing or two (to say the least) and I have to tell you that I will never, ever, ever, ever, EVER be able to run for public office for the rest of my life!!! Or I will just have to pull an R. Kelly and deny it all: “It wasn’t me! I swear it wasn’t me!”
2AM – Birthday Cake at the staff mess! Remember that birthday cake they brought out for me in Prime C? Well they saved it for me so that I could have it for later and have it we did! At the end of the night that cake was devoured in our drunken silliness! I haven’t had such a good time since my 29th birthday party. Needless to say the next morning I woke up with a teeny weeny little hangover. But it was all worth it!
Thank you to everyone who made that day ever so special. It will go down in the history of birthdays as one of the best!
Signing off! Marsha
11:59 pm Tuesday night – Our lovely cruise director, Sue, buys a drink for me at the Looking Glass (the ship’s nightclub). I get one of the sweetest toasts ever and manage to keep my age to myself! We dance to some hot tunes, work up a nice buzz and then go to the crew bar!
1AM Wednesday morning it is officially my birthday and we go dancing to thump and bump house music in the crew bar. The spa girls sing happy birthday and I get a bourbon and ginger. We shake our thing until the crew bar closes at 2AM. Then Molly sings HAPPY BIRTHDAY all over again!
8AM I wake up and take a peek at my email inbox. There are 35 new messages! I LOVE my friends! They have all wished me Happy birthday on Facebook! I am laughing in my bed early in the morning at all my messages and I am thinking, “This is a great way to start my birthday!” I hop in and out of the shower and hear a little knock at the door. It’s Molly and Lindsay and they are singing HAPPY BIRTHDAY to me through the door. I feel so bad that I am running late for breakfast with them so I frantically swing a towel over me so I can open the door and tell the ladies I will be late. I opened the door to find they had taped balloons all over the front of it!! I am ecstatic and half nekked! We are all laughing so hard because I am thanking them and telling them I am running super late and apologizing and promise to look more decent in a few minutes! I am truly over the moon!
9:45AM I arrive at Windows, our ship’s buffet restaurant and every guest and server I see wishes me a Happy Birthday! Everyone knows about it because I told them in the show the night before. I feel like a total movie star! I slide over to a table to have breakfast with Molly, Lindsay and Karen Granger. We dish girl talk until our cute environmental officer, George, stops by to wish me happy birthday! Fun, friends, celebrity and eye candy in the morning! What more can a girl ask for?
10:30 Off into Split, Slovenia where I’ve never been! It’s a cute little town with loads of shopping and we girls LOVE to get our shop on! Billy tagged along with us but, being a guy, could not keep up with the shopping! By the time we got to ZARA (one of our favorites), he was ready to go! Poor guy! Amidst the shoes, the silky tops, the swingin’ coats and casual dresses I found a fantastic, basic black dress to wear for the evening. Full throttle into our shopping ventures, we parted ways with Billy and continued on until our bellies started grumbling. That’s when we found this little local bar set on the second floor of a building in the café area. What a cool little place this was! We sat at the bar overlooking the street, cafes and people walking by. It was a cute little getaway with an even cuter waiter! And what did we devour for birthday lunch? Local beer and fries! Yes, ya’ll! I had beer and fries for lunch! Talk about a renegade birthday meal! Afterwards we skipped over to the local gelato stand for some yummy deliciousness and then headed back to the ship. There we had a proper lunch and went to our cabins for a little down time.
4PM Nap Time! Isn’t it lovely to have a nap in the middle of the day? It makes you miss preschool and kindergarten!
8PM – Running late again! I put the finishing touches on my make-up, threw on my fabulous new black dress and ran up to the Cabaret Theatre with Molly and Lindsay to see Karen Granger’s show. She was fantastic, as usual, and she even used me as one of her audience victims! Well we all had a laugh and the night was just getting started!
9PM – Dinner at Prime C with Molly and Lindsay. Anyone who has experienced fine dining on a ship knows that the food and the service are unbeatable but the experience I had at Prime C was pure magic! Our waiter Brian and assistant waiter Jose were so sweet! They told us about everything on the menu and told us if we wanted to have one of everything we could have it!! We were tempted to take them up on the offer but knew that we could not manage to eat it all so we settled into our choices. Karen G. stopped by to have some wine and soup (which we tasted and it was tha bomb!). Our cruise director Sue stopped by to check in to see if everything was going all right (how sweet is that?). Then the cutest chef in the world came out to chat with us: Chef Kyle!! What a complete HOTTIE! I guess they sent him out to keep me preoccupied because I didn’t see the birthday cake coming from a mile away! The waiters sang HAPPY BIRTHDAY and I almost started to cry! I was so happy!
11PM – Drinks and dancing at the Looking Glass where my good friend Earl has ordered champagne with strawberries! Oy! To add to the fun the musicians in the orchestra are hanging out too! We chat it up until DJ Ron starts playing Motown and you know what happened next: DANCING!!! I can’t believe Ron even played James Brown’s SEX MACHINE! So you know I got a chance to “shake my money maker!” Oh but the night didn’t end there! By 1AM Molly, Lindsay, Gary and I were down in the crew bar for a raucous night of craziness! Mind you I’ve had about two Jack Daniels and some champagne too so I am on a buzz FOR REAL! Plus, to make the night a little interesting, I took about twenty single dollar bills to the crew bar to see how scandalous the folks could get. Well they showed me a thing or two (to say the least) and I have to tell you that I will never, ever, ever, ever, EVER be able to run for public office for the rest of my life!!! Or I will just have to pull an R. Kelly and deny it all: “It wasn’t me! I swear it wasn’t me!”
2AM – Birthday Cake at the staff mess! Remember that birthday cake they brought out for me in Prime C? Well they saved it for me so that I could have it for later and have it we did! At the end of the night that cake was devoured in our drunken silliness! I haven’t had such a good time since my 29th birthday party. Needless to say the next morning I woke up with a teeny weeny little hangover. But it was all worth it!
Thank you to everyone who made that day ever so special. It will go down in the history of birthdays as one of the best!
Signing off! Marsha
Saturday, October 18, 2008
I'VE OFFICIALLY LOST MY HEART IN SPAIN!!
Hello folks! I know that it’s been a while since my last post and believe me there are good reasons. Aside from traveling for over twenty-two hours to get to the ship and then being whip lashed into rehearsals and trainings I’ve had my hands full!! I must say, though, that the crew on this ship is so friendly and accommodating! I’ve been dubbed as “Miss Cho-co-lat” by one of the officers on board (after, of course, I told him that not only do I LOVE chocolate but I AM chocolate!). I get a big kick out of that! So I am already having loads of fun, in general. Now on to my devotion (of the hour…)!
Now, keep in mind that I wasn’t able to get off the ship and go exploring for the first few ports of call, which included Marseille, Monaco, Portofino, Florence, Rome and Acaccio. Suffice it to say that I missed most of Italy! However, I know that part of my future belongs to Spain!
Among the ports that I was able to get off the ship were Casablanca (Morocco), Malaga (Spain), Valencia (Spain) and, of course, Barcelona (Spain too!). Not much to say about Casablanca but I am in LOVE with the architecture of all three Iberian cities! We arrived in the port of Malaga on a Sunday, so most of the city’s shops and retail places were closed. However, the city is sooo beautiful that I was almost gushing at every turn. Whoever said that the streets in America were paved with gold never made a stop in Spain at all! The streets of Malaga are divinely paved with bright marble that is clean, clean, clean! Walking down the shopping plaza on a sunny day is like walking through a palace. The little shops and cafeterias are cleanly and snuggly nestled together in an abyss of tapas glory and cheap shoes. Now it ain’t shoe heaven (I prefer Brazilian shoes myself), but it’s pretty close!
Next was Valencia, which took me completely by surprise because I didn’t realize how much of a serious metropolis it really was until we got there. The city reminded me so much of New York City with its streets busy with loads of people coming and going. Traffic was heavy with taxis, public buses, tour buses, and city cars. Vendors and tobacconists abound on every corner, with beggars, Green Peace and Save the Children solicitors. The historical sights like the bullring and the train station in the middle of town were total eye candy, but the best part was the fresh market. I don’t know what it is about a fresh food market that makes you want to get into it, but get into it we did and like a bunch of tourists took some fabulous pictures! Who doesn’t want a picture next to the meats and vegetables? I certainly do! Plus the building, with its domes and geometrical stained glass windows, was so beautiful that snapshots were a must!
Last, but certainly not least is Barcelona! What a city! The large shopping street, La Rambla, is ridiculously gorgeous. The center of the street is a pedestrian walkway, which is paradise. Along this tree lined walkway are numerous open-air cafes, tapas restaurants, newspaper vendors, flower vendors and live animal vendors too! Yes you can get a little bunny rabbit or a little chickie! Plus there were chipmunks, chinchillas, small birds, guinea pigs and small hamsters. However, the most uniquely positioned artists were the statue performers! These folks make part of their living dressing up and painting themselves to look like different statues. One guy was a copper pirate. Another was a golden knight in armor. Entertaining tourists with their ability to appear statue-like they would surprise and delight pedestrians by suddenly making a move to subdue a passerby. People usually responded by taking pictures and giving a little tip into their ever-ready pails. With all of this going on it’s easy to miss the food market and some of the most stunning architecture you might ever lay eyes on. I honestly cannot wait to get back!
The layout of the roads in each city is curvilinear, so you when you look down a street you can only see a short distance. However, this makes a pleasurable view for the architecture-loving tourist, like myself, to see the beautiful designs of the common buildings. It’s as if the city is a lovely lady, dancing and twisting and turning herself to show her most beautiful curves! I absolutely LOVE it! In addition to the kick ass layouts, the cities have the awesome landmark shopping venues El Corte Ingles and ZARA. ZARA is a European version of EXPRESS, one of my favorite stores in the U.S. Corte Ingles is a Spanish department store much like Macy’s. The largest Corte Ingles of the three cities is in Barcelona and it’s a lot like the Macy’s on 34th street in New York City: it takes up an entire city block and has ten floors of retail pleasure! And just like Macy’s, the first floor is devoted to cosmetics, perfumes and accessories! It’s like home away from home!
So now you know why Spain has stolen my heart. I truly believe that there is a future for me in one of these fabulous cities. I promise I will post more pics because luckily we get to visit these ports a couple more times. God has blessed!
Signing off! Marsha
Now, keep in mind that I wasn’t able to get off the ship and go exploring for the first few ports of call, which included Marseille, Monaco, Portofino, Florence, Rome and Acaccio. Suffice it to say that I missed most of Italy! However, I know that part of my future belongs to Spain!
Among the ports that I was able to get off the ship were Casablanca (Morocco), Malaga (Spain), Valencia (Spain) and, of course, Barcelona (Spain too!). Not much to say about Casablanca but I am in LOVE with the architecture of all three Iberian cities! We arrived in the port of Malaga on a Sunday, so most of the city’s shops and retail places were closed. However, the city is sooo beautiful that I was almost gushing at every turn. Whoever said that the streets in America were paved with gold never made a stop in Spain at all! The streets of Malaga are divinely paved with bright marble that is clean, clean, clean! Walking down the shopping plaza on a sunny day is like walking through a palace. The little shops and cafeterias are cleanly and snuggly nestled together in an abyss of tapas glory and cheap shoes. Now it ain’t shoe heaven (I prefer Brazilian shoes myself), but it’s pretty close!
Next was Valencia, which took me completely by surprise because I didn’t realize how much of a serious metropolis it really was until we got there. The city reminded me so much of New York City with its streets busy with loads of people coming and going. Traffic was heavy with taxis, public buses, tour buses, and city cars. Vendors and tobacconists abound on every corner, with beggars, Green Peace and Save the Children solicitors. The historical sights like the bullring and the train station in the middle of town were total eye candy, but the best part was the fresh market. I don’t know what it is about a fresh food market that makes you want to get into it, but get into it we did and like a bunch of tourists took some fabulous pictures! Who doesn’t want a picture next to the meats and vegetables? I certainly do! Plus the building, with its domes and geometrical stained glass windows, was so beautiful that snapshots were a must!
Last, but certainly not least is Barcelona! What a city! The large shopping street, La Rambla, is ridiculously gorgeous. The center of the street is a pedestrian walkway, which is paradise. Along this tree lined walkway are numerous open-air cafes, tapas restaurants, newspaper vendors, flower vendors and live animal vendors too! Yes you can get a little bunny rabbit or a little chickie! Plus there were chipmunks, chinchillas, small birds, guinea pigs and small hamsters. However, the most uniquely positioned artists were the statue performers! These folks make part of their living dressing up and painting themselves to look like different statues. One guy was a copper pirate. Another was a golden knight in armor. Entertaining tourists with their ability to appear statue-like they would surprise and delight pedestrians by suddenly making a move to subdue a passerby. People usually responded by taking pictures and giving a little tip into their ever-ready pails. With all of this going on it’s easy to miss the food market and some of the most stunning architecture you might ever lay eyes on. I honestly cannot wait to get back!
The layout of the roads in each city is curvilinear, so you when you look down a street you can only see a short distance. However, this makes a pleasurable view for the architecture-loving tourist, like myself, to see the beautiful designs of the common buildings. It’s as if the city is a lovely lady, dancing and twisting and turning herself to show her most beautiful curves! I absolutely LOVE it! In addition to the kick ass layouts, the cities have the awesome landmark shopping venues El Corte Ingles and ZARA. ZARA is a European version of EXPRESS, one of my favorite stores in the U.S. Corte Ingles is a Spanish department store much like Macy’s. The largest Corte Ingles of the three cities is in Barcelona and it’s a lot like the Macy’s on 34th street in New York City: it takes up an entire city block and has ten floors of retail pleasure! And just like Macy’s, the first floor is devoted to cosmetics, perfumes and accessories! It’s like home away from home!
So now you know why Spain has stolen my heart. I truly believe that there is a future for me in one of these fabulous cities. I promise I will post more pics because luckily we get to visit these ports a couple more times. God has blessed!
Signing off! Marsha
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
EATING DISORDERS
WARNING: This is NOT a health post about how people should be aware of eating disorders!!
As a cast I believe that we are all obsessed with eating disorders. It’s not that we don’t like to eat because we most certainly get our eat on every lunch and dinner! It’s just that we love to make jokes about them! Yesterday Lindsay, our girl next door, confessed to us that she absolutely LOVES those Lifetime movies about eating disorders. This was after a hilarious discussion where we decided that we would take up one form of eating disorder or another while we trained for the shows. One of us would have Chocolatemia, another would have Overeatemia, and our Italian Stallion said that he would have Masterbationemia. I vowed to have Gymorexia. Tickled by that idea we all took a trip to the health food store last night after dinner. While we were there we mused over the teas and remedies that make you go poop! Anything and everything was there from “poop your brains out” teas to “smooth moving along” teas and powders. We were all discussing our movements with the extremely patient health foods guy and laughing our asses off. I purchased one of the “poop your brains out” teas and vowed to share one of the bags with Ms. Heartbreaker Molly. As we made our way back to the hotel Gary the Bari commented that he always wanted to be anorexic but just didn’t have the will power. Well that sent everyone into a laughing tizzy and the whole conversation started all over again!!! To top that off the conversation continued the next morning when we talked about colon cleansing on the way to rehearsal. On the way back we discussed starting a band called “Bulimia” with our hit being a remake of the song “Tomorrow” from Annie. The lyrics began “I’ll puke my brains out/Tomorrow!” Our future engagements included a battle of the bands with “The Anorexics!” Oh, gosh! I haven’t laughed that hard in a very long time!
We have all been bonding over potty humor and other remedies this week but the fun really didn’t begin until we got our VAN! Yes, ya’ll we traded in the Pontiac and got jiggy with a Toyota van that initially smelled like sex funk, bootyjuice and air freshener. We’ve got room to relax and spread out but, breathing those first whiffs of the air conditioned wind of funk made us want to puke our guts out! But that stank ass van is ours and we love it! Our first trip was to the bank where we greedily cashed our checks!! Noting like a little money in the pockets to get the weekend started!
Kicking off our weekend we got our first taste of the strip and saw Dolly, our sweet little Vocal Director, in an all chick band at the Orleans. Those divas really rocked the house!
We also met Bonnie, a real bonnie lass, who kicked a version of “Proud Mary” square in the balls and knocked it out! We all had a great time but the night was still young! Billy the Stallion and I went off to a club and put on a sex show with our clothes on! One guy offered us $200 to get on the stage but I was afraid of getting too wild and losing my wig so I graciously declined! J Gary the Bari tended to Jocelyn, his pregnant best friend after several rounds of Guiness. They apparently succumbed to her pregnant cravings of hot wings and doughnuts in the wee hours. Heartbreaker Molly and Girl Next Door Lindsay coupled off with Lindsay’s man, Alfredo and his hottie friend Justin. As per usual Molly broke his heart, spurning his advances since he is “not her type.” Still they managed to have a blast at the Dueling Piano Bar! And no one made it home before three AM! So there!
Before I go I must make mention of the wondrous and awesome beauty that God put on for us Monday evening. It very rarely rains in Vegas but on this evening there were storms mixed with sun which was the perfect recipe for, yes, you guessed it, RAINBOWS!! I have to tell you that God gave us a full fledged arch with every single color in the spectrum! We all had to stand for a moment and admire the beauty of it all. With all the glitz and glamour of the strip in the distance, it was still trumped by the awesome yet simple beauty of a rainbow. As usual, God Blessed everyone!
Signing off, Marsha
As a cast I believe that we are all obsessed with eating disorders. It’s not that we don’t like to eat because we most certainly get our eat on every lunch and dinner! It’s just that we love to make jokes about them! Yesterday Lindsay, our girl next door, confessed to us that she absolutely LOVES those Lifetime movies about eating disorders. This was after a hilarious discussion where we decided that we would take up one form of eating disorder or another while we trained for the shows. One of us would have Chocolatemia, another would have Overeatemia, and our Italian Stallion said that he would have Masterbationemia. I vowed to have Gymorexia. Tickled by that idea we all took a trip to the health food store last night after dinner. While we were there we mused over the teas and remedies that make you go poop! Anything and everything was there from “poop your brains out” teas to “smooth moving along” teas and powders. We were all discussing our movements with the extremely patient health foods guy and laughing our asses off. I purchased one of the “poop your brains out” teas and vowed to share one of the bags with Ms. Heartbreaker Molly. As we made our way back to the hotel Gary the Bari commented that he always wanted to be anorexic but just didn’t have the will power. Well that sent everyone into a laughing tizzy and the whole conversation started all over again!!! To top that off the conversation continued the next morning when we talked about colon cleansing on the way to rehearsal. On the way back we discussed starting a band called “Bulimia” with our hit being a remake of the song “Tomorrow” from Annie. The lyrics began “I’ll puke my brains out/Tomorrow!” Our future engagements included a battle of the bands with “The Anorexics!” Oh, gosh! I haven’t laughed that hard in a very long time!
We have all been bonding over potty humor and other remedies this week but the fun really didn’t begin until we got our VAN! Yes, ya’ll we traded in the Pontiac and got jiggy with a Toyota van that initially smelled like sex funk, bootyjuice and air freshener. We’ve got room to relax and spread out but, breathing those first whiffs of the air conditioned wind of funk made us want to puke our guts out! But that stank ass van is ours and we love it! Our first trip was to the bank where we greedily cashed our checks!! Noting like a little money in the pockets to get the weekend started!
Kicking off our weekend we got our first taste of the strip and saw Dolly, our sweet little Vocal Director, in an all chick band at the Orleans. Those divas really rocked the house!
We also met Bonnie, a real bonnie lass, who kicked a version of “Proud Mary” square in the balls and knocked it out! We all had a great time but the night was still young! Billy the Stallion and I went off to a club and put on a sex show with our clothes on! One guy offered us $200 to get on the stage but I was afraid of getting too wild and losing my wig so I graciously declined! J Gary the Bari tended to Jocelyn, his pregnant best friend after several rounds of Guiness. They apparently succumbed to her pregnant cravings of hot wings and doughnuts in the wee hours. Heartbreaker Molly and Girl Next Door Lindsay coupled off with Lindsay’s man, Alfredo and his hottie friend Justin. As per usual Molly broke his heart, spurning his advances since he is “not her type.” Still they managed to have a blast at the Dueling Piano Bar! And no one made it home before three AM! So there!
Before I go I must make mention of the wondrous and awesome beauty that God put on for us Monday evening. It very rarely rains in Vegas but on this evening there were storms mixed with sun which was the perfect recipe for, yes, you guessed it, RAINBOWS!! I have to tell you that God gave us a full fledged arch with every single color in the spectrum! We all had to stand for a moment and admire the beauty of it all. With all the glitz and glamour of the strip in the distance, it was still trumped by the awesome yet simple beauty of a rainbow. As usual, God Blessed everyone!
Signing off, Marsha
Thursday, September 4, 2008
Five Nights In Vegas
Fast, frenetic, fabulous and somewhat frazzled is how I can describe the past few days after getting into Vegas. I am here with Gary (the Bari), Molly (the Heartbreaker), Lindsay (the Girl Next Door) and Billy (the Italian Stallion) to make up the cast of five for Celebrity's AZAMARA Journey. We all arrived on Saturday the 30th of August and in only five days have managed to bond with potty humor, pity humor and "post traumatic stress from not having a car" humor! (Can we get to Wal-Mart and Trader Joes already!? I'm just sayin'!!) Our production crew has promised and promised and promised to get a vehicle for us and finally produced......drumroll please.............. a Pontiac? Ummm. WTF...? Can we say "Yikes!!"? Our crew may be slender but please get us some breathing room! My ass is cramping! LOL!
Our hotel is a brand newbie with free breakfast, gym, pool, business center, coin laundry and almost everything we could want! Everything, that is, except a fridge and a microwave. We've been eating out every night and although the food choices around here are pretty good, we just want to have a nice, home-microwaved meal like any other normal American. Well, I guess we'll just have to hang that idea up because there's no way the hotel is putting a fridge or microwave in any of our rooms without an upgrade! So we just have to suck it up for another two weeks. It's a good thing that there is a SUPER GYM right next door to our hotel. I tell ya, if I had it my way I would live at that GYM!!! Now that place has EVERYTHING! There's a health food cafe, a pool, saunas, steam rooms, a track, a million treadmills, stairclimbers and cardio equipment (I'm not kidding!) and weight machines beyond your wildest dreams (or nightmares)! Plus two rooms for classes which include Yoga, Pilates, Latin Dance and Hip Hop too!! Ya'll know I am a gym rat, so my little head was about to pop off when I saw all of this! And New York Gyms ain't got nothing on these prices! For under forty bucks you can get a weekly pass or you can get three months for under a hundred bucks! This means that I could actually afford to join the gym and have full access! This is not a luxury I have experienced in New York (yet). Ah, the beauty of Vegas! I will not have to worry about my ass spreading because it is only steps away from the hotel!! OK, I am going to end that subject there because I am starting to sound like an infomercial!
I have to tell you a little about our production team which is a jolly, motley crew. Katie is a babycake who is doing all of the admin and also teaching staging and choreography. She gets the top award for wearing the most hats. Our producer Mike is a laid back storyteller who is always asking us if we know people we really don't know. Mike's famous opening line is, "Hey do you guys know...." and then follows it up with a story...or two...or seven. Bruce is our music supervisor who would rather live in New Orleans (without the hurricanes of course). He's always playing some down home, Zydeco style music while jammin' behind the makeshift work desk in the rehearsal hall. "Jam on, Bruce, jam on!" Dolly, our sweet, self effacing vocal director, is plunking and plinking out our notes for us and is always apologizing for her lack of rhythm, not wearing her glasses and going cross eyed after 2pm. Dolly may drive us all a little nuts sometimes but she's just a sweetie pie so we luv here just the same. Last, but most certainly not least, we have to say a word for the owner of the studio, Blair Farrington, and that word is: SUPERHOTTIELICIOUS!!! I think everyone's head snapped and tongues were wagging at his introduction! Yummy yummy coacoa puffs! He's as hot as Clooney!
So that's the crew. We've been whiplashed into rehearsals and have almost finished learning the music for the first show already. We'll put it on it's feet by Saturday and then start learning the next one. In the meantime I am sure that the craziness of show business will ensue!
Signing off!
Marsha
Our hotel is a brand newbie with free breakfast, gym, pool, business center, coin laundry and almost everything we could want! Everything, that is, except a fridge and a microwave. We've been eating out every night and although the food choices around here are pretty good, we just want to have a nice, home-microwaved meal like any other normal American. Well, I guess we'll just have to hang that idea up because there's no way the hotel is putting a fridge or microwave in any of our rooms without an upgrade! So we just have to suck it up for another two weeks. It's a good thing that there is a SUPER GYM right next door to our hotel. I tell ya, if I had it my way I would live at that GYM!!! Now that place has EVERYTHING! There's a health food cafe, a pool, saunas, steam rooms, a track, a million treadmills, stairclimbers and cardio equipment (I'm not kidding!) and weight machines beyond your wildest dreams (or nightmares)! Plus two rooms for classes which include Yoga, Pilates, Latin Dance and Hip Hop too!! Ya'll know I am a gym rat, so my little head was about to pop off when I saw all of this! And New York Gyms ain't got nothing on these prices! For under forty bucks you can get a weekly pass or you can get three months for under a hundred bucks! This means that I could actually afford to join the gym and have full access! This is not a luxury I have experienced in New York (yet). Ah, the beauty of Vegas! I will not have to worry about my ass spreading because it is only steps away from the hotel!! OK, I am going to end that subject there because I am starting to sound like an infomercial!
I have to tell you a little about our production team which is a jolly, motley crew. Katie is a babycake who is doing all of the admin and also teaching staging and choreography. She gets the top award for wearing the most hats. Our producer Mike is a laid back storyteller who is always asking us if we know people we really don't know. Mike's famous opening line is, "Hey do you guys know...." and then follows it up with a story...or two...or seven. Bruce is our music supervisor who would rather live in New Orleans (without the hurricanes of course). He's always playing some down home, Zydeco style music while jammin' behind the makeshift work desk in the rehearsal hall. "Jam on, Bruce, jam on!" Dolly, our sweet, self effacing vocal director, is plunking and plinking out our notes for us and is always apologizing for her lack of rhythm, not wearing her glasses and going cross eyed after 2pm. Dolly may drive us all a little nuts sometimes but she's just a sweetie pie so we luv here just the same. Last, but most certainly not least, we have to say a word for the owner of the studio, Blair Farrington, and that word is: SUPERHOTTIELICIOUS!!! I think everyone's head snapped and tongues were wagging at his introduction! Yummy yummy coacoa puffs! He's as hot as Clooney!
So that's the crew. We've been whiplashed into rehearsals and have almost finished learning the music for the first show already. We'll put it on it's feet by Saturday and then start learning the next one. In the meantime I am sure that the craziness of show business will ensue!
Signing off!
Marsha
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