Turkish Haircut

It's been a while since I had a chance to write on here. I'll be doing a recap soon of the past few weeks. But today I'm in Kusadasi, Turkey and went to a local barber that my friend recommended. It was the most interesting haircut experience of my life. It began pretty normal, trimming the sides, cutting the top etc. They brought me a Turkish tea that I could drink in small breaks. The hair cut itself was pretty much how they do it in the states. Once he was done with that he used the trimmer to shape my beard a little, then went forward to do a straight razor shave on my neck. Again, something that's pretty common in the states. After that he asked if I wanted my eyebrows trimmed. In these situations while visiting other countries I've learned the answer is always yes. The eyebrow trim was pretty regular as well, until he asked if I wanted between them waxed. I said yes and he applied a thicker wax than I've ever seen in the sates between my eyebrows and down my nose all the way to pretty much touching my nostrils. He didn't put any paper or anything on the wax, but was just waiting for it to dry. While he was waiting he walked to the corner and got something out of a cupboard. He lit it up and I could see it was basically a big match. He let it burn for about 10 seconds then came over to me and started hitting my ear with it. I could feel a very quick burst of heat on my ear then it would go away quickly until he hit it again. He was hitting it pretty quick too so there wasn't much time between the burns. When he finished with my right ear he went over to my left and said "this is for the small yellow hairs." I hadn't actually gotten burnt...or burst into flames so I wasn't really concerned about him doing my left side. When he finished with that the wax was pretty dry, so he pried that off from the bottom of my nose and ripped it off slowly. Then he asked if I wanted my upper cheeks done (above the beard). Again the answer is always yes. He got some thread from his shelf and took a good bit of that, tightened it between his two hands and started forcefully scraping it against my upper cheeks. This was the more painful part of the whole haircut, and probably the most pain from a haircut I'll ever have. When he finished my right side I wanted to not have the left done, but I knew I could live through it. Then it was time to wash my hair. There was a sink right in front of my seat, he had me lean forward and put my head face down in it. It wasn't so much a hair wash as it was a full head wash. He put the shampoo everywhere, my hair, my beard, my ears, everywhere on my head, then used the sink to basically pore water over my head. When that was over he put on some after shave to basically my whole face and then proceeded with the roughest massage I've ever experienced, ending with him cracking my neck. I did feel relaxed after though, and got a great haircut/beard trim/eyebrow trim/head wash. 

I'm sure there will be more crazy Turkish experiences to come. For now I'm headed out to see the rest of Kusadasi, which has a ton of shops for very inexpensive, high quality things. More to come soon!

The Baltic

The Celebrity Constellation's time in the Baltic Sea has come to an end. I was only there for two cruises, which were each 12 days long. We embarked from Amsterdam, Holland, and went to Warnemünde, Germany; Stockholm, Sweden; Tallinn, Estonia; St. Petersburg, Russia; Helsinki, Finland; and Copenhagen, Denmark (not always in that order). My favorite of these ports were Stockholm, and Amsterdam, but Warnemünde, Tallinn, and Copenhagen were pretty great too. 

I had actually been to Stockholm and Amsterdam last year, so it was really nice to revisit those places. I was able to get off in Amsterdam both times and walk around the city a bit. Embarkation days we generally have to be back earlier because we have to take part in the boat drill so it was only ever a few hours. 

Amsterdam, Holland

Warnemünde was a small coastal German town that cruise ships dock in so the passengers can hop on a train to Berlin. I never got to Berlin because I had a jazz set in the afternoon, but it turned out that Warnemünde is an awesome town, so we were all happy to stay there.  It was also a late sail out time so we had plenty of time to hang. The first time I was there I was in training most of the day, so I only got out for a couple hours in the evening. The second time however I was able to walk around the town and see all of the sights. There was a long beach that was packed with these strange box chairs that I couldn't figure out how they worked.  They all seemed to be facing away from the water... I climbed a tower that gave me a Birdseye view of the town.  It really is a pretty place, nice and quaint. Eventually I ran into some of the cast, we found some wifi then went to the "Choo Choo Bar." I had actually heard of this bar the first time we were in port, and as I expected that was not it's actual name. It was near the train station and in the shape of a train engine, so the crew had named it the Choo Choo Bar. Non of us knew how long that names been around, but I would get as long as the Constellation has been doing the Warnemünde stop, which would be years. After I played the jazz set I went back out and met up with them at another bar called "The White Bar" and again that was not it's actual name. It was easy to find though, it was all white beds with high posts on the beach. After a few drinks there it was time to go back aboard and sail away. 

Warnemünde, Germany- Beach

Warnemünde, Germany- Choo Choo Bar

Warnemünde, Germany

Stockholm, Sweden of course is one of my favorite places I've ever been. Due to training I was only able to get off one of the days we were there and only for about 3 hours. I was with a couple friends and we just walked around Gamla Stan (the old town) and down a few other roads. It was great to be back there, I wish I would've had more time. Sorry, no pictures. 

Tallinn, Estonia was a bit of a surprise. I had never really thought about Estonia, but it was gorgeous. We spent the whole time in the old town, which was very similar to the old town in Stockholm. It was all cobble stone streets with little shops and big towers from palaces and churches. We ended up at the Beer House both times and had their honey beer, which I'd never had before bit it was quite good. If you're going to the Baltic, Tallinn is a destination to add to your list. 

Tallinn, Estonia

Tallinn, Estonia

Tallinn, Estonia- a friend rented a segue, they're kind of hard to ride...

I actually didn't ever get off the ship in St. Petersburg. I had heard from the other crew that it was hard to get around after you had paid for the shuttle to take you in, and there wasn't much to see unless you were on a tour. So I used that day to rest and go to the specialty restaurant on board called Tuscan Grille. It was an amazing meal!

I was able to get off in Helsinki for a small amount of time both times we visited, but had to get back to the ship early for training, so I didn't really get out of the downtown mall area which was too bad. 

Copenhagen I did get to walk around for a while. Two other musicians from the ship just wandered for a few hours and then took a really nice walk through a few parks back to the ship. I didn't find anything too special about it, though I would still like to go back there and spend some more time in the city. 

Copenhagen, Denmark

So now we're done with all of that and the Atlantis Charter in under way. We're making our way down to the Medeterreanian. More to come on what the Atlantis Charter is and where I'll be in the next few weeks!

Life On a Ship

So I've been living and working on the Celebrity Constellation for for 3 weeks now and am starting to get used to life on a ship. As you would guess it's much different from life on land. So this post is a run down of what life on a ship has been like for me so far.

As an orchestra musician I share a cabin with one of the other musicians. The cabins are pretty small with bunk beds to save space. That leaves us an area to stand, a small desk with a tv on it and a fridge under it, four 1'x1' cubbies (two per person), two small wardrobes with 3 drawers under them (1 per person), a chair, and a bathroom. The beds have curtains you can draw for privacy and to keep your light from waking the other person up. I have some friends who were fortunate enough to get portholes, I was not so lucky. That's one thing to get used to on a ship, it always feels like the middle of the night in your cabin unless there's a light on. This makes it hard to wake up in the morning. 

For food there are a few crew mess halls, one healthy one and the others with different options. As a musician though, I'm allowed a majority of the time to eat upstairs in the guest areas, so I generally do that. There are a few restaurants with an additional charge that we can go to as well, priced from $5 to around $20, by far the best meals I'll ever have for those prices. The general rule to eat in these areas is if it's not too busy. This subject of course leads to the gym, which has the same rule for us to use it. 

Being a musician in "The Orchestra" really means you are in the production show band. We have Trumpet, Saxophone (woodwinds), Trombone, Guitar, Piano, Electric Bass, and Drums (me). I find it funny that we're called an orchestra when we actually have no orchestral string instruments. We play several different types of shows on the ship. So far a general cruise (of the 2 cruises I've done) we play the welcome aboard show in the theater, the "iHollywood" production show in the theater with the "Stars of the Constellation" (the cast of singers and dancers), any guest entertainers show who needs a backing band (most of them) in the theater, big band and jazz sets around the ship, and maybe a party here and there around the ship. The day I boarded the ship I was thrown right into the mix of playing the shows with little to no rehearsal time. The welcome aboard show is like a production show that showcases the orchestra at one point, what ever guest entertainers are on board at that moment, and a selection with the cast. For this there's generally a rehearsal where we just run the show down, then 2 shows. It's the same process for production shows like iHollywood which is a fully choreographed show on Celebrity Ships. These types of shows are on a click track which keeps the orchestra in line with the cast and the recorded instruments that are playing along with us in the house. The guest entertainer shows are the wild card. Celebrity rotates guest entertainer between their ships and they can be singers to jugglers to comedians to magicians....or at least that's what I've seen so far. Most of them require a band there, so we'll generally have a rehearsal the night of, which is the first time we'll have seen the music, then 2 shows that night. Depending on the guest entertainer these can be to a click track also, but generally aren't. The big band sets and jazz sets that we play around the ship are nights when we're not required in the theater. The music for the big band sets is chosen by our music director (trombone player), and we generally sight read for the show. Once you've done a few cruises you know most of the book. The jazz sets we just call tunes on the band stand, most tunes I already know, so I don't have to read them. Then every now and then we play a party which con be accompanying vocalists, playing a choreographed piece with the cast, or just playing tunes. We play pretty much every night, but sometimes get a night off. 

Since most of my work is at night, I generally can get off the ship at the ports. There is a crew all aboard time that I need to make sure to be back by, or back earlier if I have to work. The only other duties I have are to participate in crew safety drills which take place 3 times a cruise. I have been designated the job of demonstrating how to put on a life jacket to the guests on embarkation day during the drill that the passengers take part of. For night life we have a couple of crew bars that we can go to, with rules for intoxication of course. 

That's a pretty general description of life here. Of course it's a very interesting life style to be in a different country everyday, and one that I'm enjoying so far. I'll post on here as often as possible about my times in port. Today we left Copenhagen and are headed back to Amsterdam after a sea day. After that we're leaving the Baltic and headed to the Mediterranean. Keep checking back for posts!