I love Tig Notaro, and I love Terry Gross. This is a great interview and a great discussion about life and cancer.
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I always wanted to be a Godmother, but never did I think I’d be a Godmother to a ship. I have been chosen as one of four women who will be christening the Celebrity Reflection in December. All four women work for Celebrity, two shore-side and two crew, and we have all been impacted by breast cancer. I’m very, very honored and proud to work with a company who has partnered with the Breast Cancer Research Foundation and is doing so much to promote awareness and raise funds.
big news
Still processing how to talk about this one, but a post will be coming later today. …good news…
Riedel wine workshop
As part of our welcome-aboard cruise for our new glassblower Catherine Ayers, we did the Riedel wine tasting workshop as a glass team. You know, for glass research purposes only. Never mind that we had some AMAZING wine in the meantime.
The Catherine-Laurie-Meg team in Venice
Montenegro coninued
Remember my epic mountain climb in Kotor? We went back a couple days ago and Emanuel, Rasmus, Jakob, and I made the smart decision to NOT go climbing this time. However, we did go back to the house that we found at the bottom of the hill where kind people rinsed us off, gave us cold water and helped us call a cab to get to our tender boat. I made a couple of special vases for them, and the boys gave them their album as a thank you gift. It was a really nice visit, and despite us not speaking the same language I now I have facebook friends in Montenegro.
Turkish Baths
So I don’t have an official bucket list, but if I did, I don’t think that adding ‘take a Turkish bath’ would have occurred to me. Having now experienced a Turkish bath, I encourage everyone else to try it too.
We were in Kusadasi last cruise and Catherine, Emanuel and I took the advice from other crew and tried it out. After a little van ride and negotiating a price of $15/person, we were dropped off at the bath. It was in a really pretty building that had a fancy garden with topiaries, a nice looking rooster, an outdoor bar, and Turkish men playing cards in the courtyard. Inside, there’s a lobby area with seating around a fountain in the middle of the room. The room is two stories tall with domed roof in the middle. The second story has a balcony in a ring open to the first floor and the dome.
We were ushered upstairs, a man pointed out bath flip flops lined up for us, and directed us to the lockers. After we changed into swimsuits we were ushered back downstairs and sent through a wooden arched door into the bath. This was a huge room with another mosaic tile dome in the center with many little skylights. Everything was either marble or mosaic. Centered below the dome was a giant round marble table that was probably 15’ in diameter. All around the edges of the room were little sinks and two showers. It was really warm and really steamy inside.
The man told us to lie down on the marble, and said we could shower off any time to cool down. For the first twenty minutes or so Catherine, Emanuel, and I were the only ones there, and we were really impressed with the sound in the room. Laying on the marble under the dome was like being inside a bell the way the overtones echoed, and Emanuel sang a little bit. Gradually, about six other people came in and joined on the marble table. We got to steam and relax for about thirty or forty minutes before a couple Turkish men wearing plaid towels around their waist (and nothing else…unless you count chest hair…) came in. First, I was exfoliated with a scratchy mitten and it felt really nice, then showered off. After that I lay down on the marble again and he filled up what looked like a giant pillowcase with foam and smooshed it over my body so I was blanketed in bubbles, and that was followed by a really soapy massage. Next, he scrubbed and pumiced my feet. When I was all finished and rinsed off another man wrapped me up in towels and the three of us went into the lobby room to sit on couches by the fountain and relax. They served us cold drinks, and we sat and dried for about another half hour before the van driver told us to get ready to go. A super weird experience, but really fun and really relaxing.
Mykonos
Mykonos is fantastic for several reasons, but one key reason is that within walking distance from our port is a perfect beach and a perfect retaurant. Lauri, Jakob, Martin, Emanuel and I ate some amazing grilled squeaky cheese, caprese salad, and bread with oil and vinegar. AND there was wifi. Neat!
I had a big swim in the perfectly clear water, then fell asleep on the beach for a pretty epic nap.
Santorini
Santorini (on the previous cruise, belated post)
What a great day.
I woke up at 6:40 and got on the first tender boat off the ship at 7:00 AM with Jason, Emanuel, and Jakob. We waited at a coffee shop on the pier for Ashley, Jason’s girlfriend, who had to take a passenger tender a little while later. I drank some greek coffee after being encouraged to try it by one of the officers who was working at the tender station. This guy lives in my corridor on deck three, he is always smiling and friendly, but I can’t understand a word he says or pronounce his name, which seems to be all capital letters.
When Ashley joined us we went up the cliff in the cable cars and had about a five-minute walk to a place to rent ATVs. ATVs are an AWESOME way to explore Santorini. We were riding all around early in the morning taking in the most amazing views. There was mist in the mountains and it was so, so beautiful. Jakob led the way and took us to a neat area where we parked and had a mini-hike to a spot to swim. It was still cool in the morning and the water wasn’t super warm, so I stayed dry, but Jakob and Jason had a swim. I really enjoyed hanging out with Ashley, she’s good people. We got back on the ATV’s and had a huge ride for a couple hours that took us to the other end of the island and to a black sand beach. We had big naps in nice cabannas, I had an amazing chocolate milk shake and some fried potatoes, good conversations with Ashley while the boys continued to sleep, and spent some time with my toes in the water.
Rode back to the city, then of course we walked down the donkey path back to the tender boat.
I love Santorini.
