VILLEFRANCHE, FRANCE
Our first stop was Villefranche, France. This is the gateway town to go to Monaco, or Nice. There was no place for us to dock there, so we were anchored and used the tender boats to get onto land. As crew we had to wait and let the guests all get off first, so it took a while for us to be able to get off. I used that time to have breakfast upstairs in the buffet. I ate on the deck with a gorgeous view of the town. It was exactly how I pictured France before the cruise. The water was a beautiful shade of blue and completely clear, and the town rose up a hill from the water.
Once we could get off I went with a friend and we were planning on going to Monaco. When we got on land we took a quick look around and ended up at the beach. It stretched out for a ways, and the water looked too inviting, so we abandoned our plans to go to Monaco and went to find a ship that I could buy a cheep swim suit. We found one pretty easily and my friend bought a football (a soccer ball to us Americans). On our way out of the shop we ran into a few other musicians from the ship, so we all went to the beach. We spent about an hour and a half there kicking the soccer ball around. I got in the amazing water a few times. I was very happy we chose to stay there.
One of my "must do's" for this trip is to have a glass of red wine in France. So when we left we went searching for a place to do that. We walked up the hill into the town and found a street with a bunch of small shops and restaurants, sat down at one and drank a glass of red wine. After that we got a crepe from another restaurant and went back to the ship.
View of Villefranche from the ship
Beach in Villefranche
Drinking a glass of French wine in Villefranche
Walking around Villefranche
PISA (LIVORNO), ITALY
The next day we were docked in Livorno, Italy. This is the gateway city to Pisa and Florence. I went out with some friends to go to Florence in the morning. We got to the train station and I realized that in order to be back in time for rehearsal I would only have 45 minutes to an hour in Florence. So I got a ticket to go to Pisa instead and said bye to my friends while I went in search for my train. They knew their platform number because there was a sign that had it listed. Pisa wasn't listed though so I had to ask the lady at the counter where it was. She said platform 6, so I followed the signs there. On my way a few people came running past me obviously going to platform 6, so I decided I should run too. I got there with probably 5 minutes to spare and was hoping it was the right train because there wasn't a sign. I asked another passenger and they said it was so I got settled in a seat. Just as I was sitting down one of my friends that I had just left came down the isle. As soon as I saw her I thought "I'm on the wrong train!" It turned out that Pisa is just the first stop then the train continues to Florence, but for a second I though I had stumbled into a spontaneous train riding adventure.
I moved and joined my friends for a 20 minute train ride, then got off at the Pisa stop. I just walked straight out of the train station onto a street mall type thing. It was nice so I just kept going straight until I found a cafe that looked good. Another thing on my "must do list" is have good coffee in Italy. I went in and ordered a cappuccino (actually I stopped at one place before this one and ordered a latte to go....I didn't realize it was only milk until I was walking down the street again). I'm happy I found this cafe though because the cappuccino she brought me was delicious. As I was finishing it up a few friends of mine from the ship walked by, so I quickly paid and went off with them to do the one tourist thing there is to do in Pisa.....go to the leaning tower.
Honestly, I had never really thought anything about the leaning tower. It never seemed to be very interesting to me. But it turned out to be much more impressive then I had imagined. Now I understand why it's such a landmark. We spent a while taking all of the stereotypical photos of us holding it up. I found it interesting to look away from the tower and see crowds of people standing in funny looking poses. After we got tired of taking those photos we walked around the courtyard that the tower is in a looked at the two other impressive buildings that nobody seems to know about. We asked an Italian women what they were and her first response was "you have to pay go inside." We asked again and she seemed to understand and said that one is a museum and the other is an opera house. Based on her English I'm not sure if that's accurate, I'll do some research when I have some reliable wifi. After seeing those we went and found a place for lunch, then I had to get back to the ship for iHollywood rehearsal.
Holding the leaning tower up with my hands.... Pisa, Italy
Hands were too easy....lets try one finger...Pisa, Italy
In front of what we think is a museum in Pisa, Italy
ROME, ITALY
The next day we were docked about an hour and a half away from Rome, Italy. This is one of the ports I was most excited about for this contract. The HR and Shore Excursions departments offered a "Rome On Your Own" tour which was basically a bus ride to and from the Colosseum for $25 and you can go see Rome for a few hours. I figured that was worth it to not have to navigate the trains and worry about timing, so I went on that with a couple friends. As promised it dropped us off right at the Colosseum. That was an amazing sight and also one of the things I've always wanted to see. We spent a while taking picture and walking around that area. The line to get in was a couple hours wait at least, so we decided not to waste all of our time trying to get in. We got some really good pizza across the street and then headed off for the Trevi Fountain.
Every few blocks we would ask someone what direction to go and they would point. The walk took us by ancient ruins of the old city. They were interesting to look at, I would have liked to have someone with us who could tell us what they were exactly. Eventually we passed a huge building that we're pretty sure is a palace. The few people we asked couldn't tell us. A couple blocks further we were pointed down a walkway with a bunch of street vendors and one very impressive spray paint artist who was painting them right in front of everyone. At the end of that was the Trevi Fountain. It was another impressive sight. My friend from the ship who does a seminar of the art in Rome told me that the superstition of the fountain is if you throw one coin into the fountain with your right hand over your left shoulder with your back facing the fountain then you will return to Rome safely; if you do the same with two coins you will find love in Rome; with three coins someone you know will get married or divorced. I threw one coin in.
Once we were done there we quickly made our way to the Spanish Steps. We were starting to run short on time so we just saw the steps from the bottom then got a cab back to the shuttle back to the ship.
At the Colosseum in Rome, Italy
At the unknown to us palace in Rome, Italy
NAPLES, ITALY
The next day I was in Naples, Italy. I'd been looking forward to this port because we were docked with the Celebrity Reflection, which my friend Bryan is working on right now. He's actually the guy to referred me to get this job. We made plans to meet up and when I walked off the gangway there he was. We went walking and explored Naples for a bit, then found a cafe near port for some coffee. After a while we met up with a few other musicians from his ship then went off for some pizza. Bryan knew a good place for pizza so we followed him. The pizza I got wasn't so good, but Bryan gave me a slice of his and it was delicious. I think I just ordered the wrong one. After eating pizza we wandered a bit more, then went back to the coffee place we were at earlier. It was a good day and good to see Bryan. We made plans to play music when we both get home to LA and he gave me some advice on what to do and where to go at my upcoming ports. That advise came in handy.
Me and Bryan in Naples, Italy
CATANIA, SICILY, ITALY
The next day we were in Catania which is on Sicily, Italy. I went out with some buddies of mine and we wandered a little bit. We found a restaurant and went in for beers. The restaurant had wifi so when we ordered I was looking at emails and didn't hear what the other guys got, but I knew we were there for beers, so I just said I'll have the same. It took a bit longer for them to bring our drinks out then it should have, especially because we were the only people there. I understood why when they showed up with a liter of beer for each of us. It was great. Of course we were there for a while and had a good time. When our beers were getting low the server came over and said something to one of the guys with us and he said ya. I assumed it was asking for the check and was surprised again when a shot of Grappa showed up for each of us. Grappa is an Italian liquor that is somewhat similar to vodka. So we each drank those and then got the check.
We walked around the city kicking Jordan's soccer ball the he bought in Villefranche. That turned out to be a lot of fun, we even got a few local people to kick it back a forth. There wasn't much to do so we ended up sitting down at another cafe and getting cannoli's. Apparently cannoli's originated in Sicily, and these were delicious. After that it was time to get back to the ship. Right in front of the port we had enough time to find one GeoCashe, then we boarded.
From left: Mark, Adam, Jordan, Seb, and me with grappa shots in Sicily
The next day was a sea day, which all I did was play a few sets though out the day, work out a bit, and hang out with friends in staff bar. Sometimes it's nice to have a sea day, but generally it means more sets, but this one was pretty nice.
PIREAUS, GREECE
The day after the sea day we were in Pireaus, Greece. It's the gateway to Athens. Unfortunately I had an early rehearsal time, so getting into Athens wasn't doable. So I stayed in Pireaus with a couple of friends. We went out and started walking with the goal of good Greek food....then we realized it was Sunday morning when we noticed that pretty much everything closed. We just kept walking hoping to find something good, and after 30-40 minutes we did. We stumbled across a local restaurant with outside seating and got some kabobs. They were delicious. We had a good time eating there, the. We started heading back towards the ship. We found a place with wifi, which if I haven't mentioned it before, places with wifi are constantly sought out by cruise ship employees. I stayed there until I had to go back to rehearsal.
Rehearsal was just me, the bassist from the orchestra, and the guest entertainer Naki Ataman. He is a piano player and his show is called "Around the World." The night before Brian, my music director, said that his music was on the desk and I should check it out because he's heard from other ships that it's a difficult show. What made it difficult was that it was 50 minutes of non stop music with lots of song changes and different grooves, etc. I did take a look at the music the night before so coming into rehearsal I had a good idea of what I was in for. The first thing I noticed when I walked into the theater was the band set up, which is always set by the theater tech crew by the time we get to rehearsal. The drums and piano were set at the front of the stage and so that our backs would be facing the audience. I must have given the stage manager a confused look because as she was passing me she said, "yeah, that's the set up."
When I met Naki he said "I want you guys to play with me as if we're a band, not like you're accompanying me. So feel free to take artistic liberties and play out. And you'll see this show is more of a drum feature than a piano feature." I was happy to hear that. The rehearsal went pretty good and I was excited to play the show.
The way the show worked was we were each introduced individually by the cruise director and when our name was called we walked onto stage and took a bow. Once we were all there we started playing. The first part of the show was the theme song from Around the World in 90 Days, then we would segue into different songs from a particular country. When we would change countries We would play a short version of the theme from Around the World in 90 Days. It was a pretty cool concept. The first show went pretty well. Between shows we had a sound check on the pool deck for the deck party tonight, so right after the show I went back on stage and was taking my cymbals down and a lot of the people from the audience came up to the stage and were telling me great job and their favorite part of the show was the drumming. Turns out Naki was exactly right with his drum feature prediction.
The sound check for the party went fine but it was pretty windy. I thought there was a good chance that the party would be moved I side and there would be a DJ instead of us. As soon as we finished it I packed up again and went back to the theater and re set up for the second show. It went even better than the first and as I tore down again I got similar compliments from guests. Also, it turned out that Naki is from Istanbul. I made sure to ask him where to go to buy cymbals. He gave me directions to a street with a bunch of music stores. I will definitely go there while we're in Istanbul. After that I hurried upstairs for the party, set up and waited for it to start. It was starting to get really windy and right before we started playing my music stand almost blew over. This would have been scary enough we regular music on it, but for this show I was reading off my iPad (I tried reading off paper for the first show and it didn't work so well....ten pages in a breeze don't really stick around for long...). I immediately moved the iPad to the ground because it wasn't worth the risk. The hardest thing about that was when I had to turn pages I had to bend all the way down to tap the screen. That wasn't really the problem with the show though....the wind got really bad after we started, so anybody reading off paper was struggling and the people with iPads were trying to keep their music stands from falling. Then the wind really picked up and microphone stands that we're taped to the ground started coming up and stands were falling. We made it all the way through the show and ended together, but not without injury. My bandmaster cut his hand while trying to catch a flying music stand. Hopefully we don't have to play in wind like that again, but it did make for a funny memory.
Stage set up for Naki Atamans show
KUSADASI, TURKEY
The next day we were in Kusadasi, Turkey. This is the gateway to Ephesus, Turkey, but we're here many times and I had been planning for a while to stay in Kusadasi. Bryan told me this was a great port and that I had to get a hair cut here. He actually said this back in LA before I left and that he knew the place to go, so I had been waiting to get a haircut until we were here. When I saw him in Naples, he gave me directions.
The first thing I noticed about Kusadasi is that it's a gorgeous place. I saw it from the open deck eating breakfast. The water like all of the Medeterreanian was perfectly blue and clear. The town looked amazing along the coast. I couldn't wait to get off. Right as you get off you are in a street market type place. That's what the whole town seems to be. They have shirts, shoes, watches, anything you can think of. And you're supposed to haggle there. I was set on getting my hair cut so I didn't stop anywhere, just followed Bryan's directions as best I could and found it with no problem. It was the most interesting haircut of my life. You can read about it in my blog post from a few weeks ago when I got it.
After the hair cut, I went right across the way to the restaurant Bryan told me about for good food and wifi. I wasn't hungry but I got some coffee there. I wrote the blog post about my haircut there and took a picture with my iPad to post. This normally wouldn't be so interesting news, but a few days later Bryan posted on my Facebook saying "I was sitting at my favorite restaurant in Kusadasi, when I realized that I forgot to send you directions to get to this place. Then I found your blog, and your most recent post which included a picture. Then I realized I'm sitting in the EXACT same spot as you were yesterday. Didn't move at all to take this picture." Below that he posted a picture of me, and a picture of him, and you can tell by the painting in the background that we're sitting in the same seat. It was a funny coincidence.
After I finished with my wifi at the restaurant I decided to take a look around the town. I check out some shops, got some fresh squeezed orange juice (and by fresh squeezed, I mean he picked up two oranges, cut them in half, put them in the juicer and squeezed them into a cup which he then handed to me.....how much you ask, $0.50), and met up with a friend and had a delicious kabob. It was a good town. After the kabob we went back to the ship for all aboard time.
Bryan's post on Facebook
ISTANBUL, TURKEY
The next day we were going to be in Istanbul, but weren't getting there until 2pm. Some of my friends are the art auction department onboard and for a little extra money I help with the auctions. So the first thing I did was go to help with the auction. It was the first time I helped out there so I had no idea what to expect. I ended up registering the guests for the auction, then when it started I worked the computer and kept track of who bided on what. On the computer I had to listen to Jordan, the auctioneer, and when he would call up a piece of art he would say a code. I typed the code into the computer and all of the information for the artwork popped up. It wasn't a very hard job once I figured out what to do.
After the auction we still weren't in Istanbul. When we did dock we had rehearsal so I couldn't go off until after the shows that night. I went with some other members of the orchestra around 10pm. We started walking in search of a beer. It seemed that nothing around the port was open so we eventually got a cab and asked him to take us to the Blue Mosque which we had heard there was a lot of cool stuff. The cab ride was crazy. He was zooming between cars, pulling into bus stops to pass people. He didn't speak English very well and we started half joking half seriously saying comments like "Are we in a race? I think we're loosing" and "if we're in a chase I think we've lost them." But we eventually made it, much quicker than we intended. He dropped us off near a bunch of restaurants and we went to one on a roof. The view was incredible. There were three or four big Mosques that were nicely lit up. I took a few pictures with my camera and set it down on the table while we were waiting for our food to come. When it did the waiter scooted it over a bit and my friend jokingly said "it's fine, you can just take it." The waiter had been joking with us all night so he caught on and very quickly picked the camera up, made like he was going to throw it off the ledge and he ACTUALLY LET GO!!!!! I was in shock. The camera (which isn't cheap) went flying put of his hand towards the ledge until it was stopped by the strap which he was still holding. It scared me to death, he thought it was pretty funny, and we all laughed. After he left we were still joking saying "what if that didn't work out so well. What if the strap was broken so it didn't work at all, what then....." Thank god it did work and I put it away in my bag the second I had it back in my hand. We had some good food at that restaurant and then wandered around that area for a bit. Around 1:30am I took a cab back with one of the other guys and went to sleep, because the next day is an early day.
That next morning was disembarkation for this cruise, and I had the pleasure of waking up at 6am to go for wheelchair duty. Basically that was assisting passengers with wheel chairs to disembark. It was very disorganized and we were left to figure out where to go on our own. It worked out in the end.
As soon as I was done with that duty I meet up with the guys from the orchestra and we set off for the music street that Naki had told me about. His directions turned out to be perfect. We left the port, turned left on the main road and walked for a while and then it ended at a big intersection and across the street was an entrance with a sign that said "Tunel." We went into that, it cost barely anything for a ticket and we rode a subway like thing that Naki had said was the oldest underground train in Europe. Once we got out of that we were on a street and you could see music shop after music shop down the road. We decided to split up and go do our own shopping. I went into every shop that had cymbals. Between a few I stopped at a juice stand and ordered the mixed juice. I watched them take all the different fruits and make my juice. It was delicious, and I think only cost $1. After I got that I walked into a shop and said I was looking for cymbals. One of the employees took me up some stairs and into a room that was full of cymbals. I described to him what I was looking for and he started putting cymbals on the stands and I started hitting them. There were a few that I liked, but didn't love. After a while I left the shop and kept going around. I went back to a few places I had already been, then decided I was going back to the place with the room full of cymbals. I ran into one of my buddies and told him where I would be. The same guy took me up to the room again and I started banging away again. Cymbal shopping is something that i could spend all day doing. Eventually one of my friends came up and saod they were ready to leave. I had been expecting that (the reason I told them where to find me)' so I told them to go ahead and I was staying to keep looking at cymbals. I was seriously considering buying one when I noticed one that we hadn't tried. We put it up and I loved it immediately. Now, the thing with buying cymbals is they don't always sound the same. They sound different depending what room you're in, what sticks you use, and even the way you hit them. So it's a good idea when buying a cymbal to try it in at least one other room, and play with it on a drum set. I asked him if I could test it out and he took me up more stairs to a studio. We set it up and I it still sounded great. It wasn't time to go yet though. We went back to the cymbal room and I started testing out hi hats. We found a pair that met my ear and headed back up to test those. They were a good match. He gave me a good price for the ride and the hi hats and threw in a cymbal bag too. That was nice, otherwise it would've been a rough walk back to the ship.
After buying the cymbals I asked the guy if he knew any good places for music. We'll be doing a few more overnights in Istanbul and it would be fun to see some local artists. He recommended a jazz club that wasn't far called Nardis. He game me some directions so I walked that way to see if I could find it. I got to see some cool things while walking, including a really cool tower that I wasn't able to figure out the name of. I eventually found the club, which was closed during the day of course, but I might go back there at night some time. I ended up walking back to where we boarded the Tunel before, which wasn't very far. There was a kabab stand there, so I got one of those. There's another name for them that I need to find out, but these are basically wraps that the meat is grilled like a kabob for. It was pretty good. Once I finished that I went back to the ship and we started a new cruise.
One of the mosques from the rooftop restaurant
Me with my new cymbal!
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