Is there a point to this post?

[anastasiademi]

Why am I watching a documentary on the Travel Channel about the Saga Pearl II? Really, I would have thought I see enough of ships not to need to watch about them on TV (although it's doing the Norwegian Fjords and Bergen does look a lot more interesting that I had imagined

Comments

[anastasiademi]

Thank you! Favourite places? This'll probably change in the next few weeks but...

I love Georgetown in the Cayman Islands - admittedly we were going there out of season, and there isn't really much there, but was peaceful and relaxing - there was several nice coffee shops to chill at, and you could shop without the hassle that you get in many of the Caribbean ports.

Cozumel, part of Mexico, is brilliant too but it's a completely different atmosphere - cheap (and they sell some beautiful stuff there), cheerful, and there's always something to do or going on - there is very rarely a boring day in that port.

I liked what I saw of Barbados as well but we had the worse luck in the world for which days we were in port there on my last ship so I've seen very little of it - Bridgetown looked interesting when we drove through there, but for us Barbados is always the party island due to a bar called The Boatyard which turns into the crew bar whenever ships are in port.

I haven't been there on a ship, but it is a port our ships go to, but Stockholm is a beautiful city as well - I spent hours wandering the old town with my camera the first time I went there.

Another one we go to but I haven't been to on a ship is Osaka - it was by far my favourite city when I visited Japan and another place I can just spend hours wandering around.

I need to put more entries up for the last year at some point - I wrote quite a few on my computer but never got around to posting them. I'll see if I can manage to get some more up soon though.

As for reading... my book pile isn't too interesting at the moment:

Pamela Stephenson - Treasure Islands: Sailing the South Seas in the wake of Fanny and Robert Louis Stevenson (trying not to read too much as going to take it with me)
Simonn Winchester - Atlantic: A Vast Ocean of a Million Stories (interesting book but it's hardback which is a pain)
Sergei Lukyanenko - Night Watch (recc'd by a ship friend and it's good)
Ben Macfarlane - Cruise Ship S.O.S (I wouldn't rec it, there's better books about ship life out there)
Mike Brent and Fiona Elsa Dent - The Leader's Guide to Influence (kind of vaguely work related...)
Paul McGee - Self-Confidence (I don't really know what to make of this, but it caught my eye at the train station the other week)
Belle de Jour - The Intimate Adventures of a London Call Girl (rereading it as I found it whilst cleaning the other day)
Joe Buissink and Skip Cohen - Wedding Photography from the Heart (studying for work and personal interest)
Mark Gaouette - Cruising for trouble: Cruise Ships as soft targets for Pirates, Terrorists, and Common Criminals (Conspiracy theories for the win! It's kind of interesting but makes me want to bang my head against the nearest wall as well - reading this book means taking it with a serious grain of salt).

... I think that's about it. As for the OP rereading... I've been working my way through the East Blue books again as it's a year since I last read them (and in a rush at that), plus with the Fishman Island stuff I'm finding that rereading the Arlong chapters is pretty interesting.

Sorry about the mini-essay here... this got a bit long! ^^;

[sparkles_n15]

Wow, that's pretty amazing! I would love to hop on a boat and cruise around the world one day. I've never actually taken a cruise before but I would love to travel through Europe by one. I've been to London before, but I didn't get to see the rest of England. Hope to do it one day!

Osaka? Did you enjoy the castle? I don't really have a favourite place in Japan, but I really enjoyed Sapporo when I visited in 2008. It's not as much of a monstrosity as Tokyo, but it really reminds me of Toronto.

Well that's a bigger book list than I have currently!

[anastasiademi]

I'd love to do a world cruise myself - but only if I was working it; cruising as a vacation is definitely not my thing (but as a job I love it). You need to come back to the UK and see outside of London - I love London but it's so different than most of the country. And I'm sure you will one day! :D

Osaka castle was definitely interesting, but the main thing I learnt the day we went there was that I'm not keen on takoyaki (and that pigeons love them, apparently). I never got to head as far north as Sapporo but quite a few people have recommended it, and I don't think anywhere can be as much as a monstrosity as Tokyo. Toronto is a city I'd love to visit one day - I've only ever been to western Canada.

I start too many books then take forever to finish them - I'll get through most of them eventually but it'll take a while...