Day 1 of serenading the seas

A sign of a good holiday is to need a holiday from the holiday, and that is what this week is - a chance to relax after the crazy of Stockholm last week.

Sunday morning I flew to Copenhagen. Had a ship transfer set up through Royal to get from the airport to the ship. Whilst this process went nice and smoothly, there was one small hiccup - having to listen to a few select passengers who were complaining about the wait for the bus (15 minutes, not the end of the world). Took about 45 minutes to get to the port, and we took the scenic route through Copenhagen, so it was a nice drive. Before we knew it they had our luggage and we were lined up for check in.

Line was pretty long, but moving pretty swiftly. Only aggravation at check in was when they pulled the My Time Dining people aside and made you make a dining reservation before you could board. I had actually already done this, so I wasn't overly impressed at being made to stand in line only to be told that I was good to go.

Made it on board and the cabin was already available. Despite the freezing temps I wanted to try out the balcony.

That building down below is the cruise port. 

I'd only had three hours sleep the previous night, so used the time before muster for a quick nap in my stateroom. Luggage, for the record, ended up taking about three hours to arrive. 

Headed down to the theatre for muster.

Decided to go for a wander around the ship and get my bearings. The foyer was impressive.

Given the freezing temps there were not many people hanging by the pool except this little guy.

It was time to depart port, and it was at this point I realised we were racing, and we were not in the lead!

That's the MSC Musica trying to leave us for dust as we all departed Copenhagen. 

As it was my birthday I decided to treat myself to dinner at Izumi.

I started with a hibiscus mojito, which may be one of the nicest cocktails I have ever had.

The pork gyoza was amazing.

There was also some sushi and sashimi to be had.

They even throw in come complimentary edamame. I mentioned to my lovely waitress that it happened to be my birthday, so I ended up getting a lovely surprise at the end of the meal with all the staff coming over to sing! Dessert came complete with a candle to blow out.

Then it was time for bed. 13 hours of sleep, I was clearly more tired than I thought! Sea day update to follow tomorrow.

Run, run, dance, dance dance, dance, dance - either way the feet hurt!

As always, Eurovision distracted me and made me slack when it comes to updating my adventures. But, with Eurovision over for another year, I am back on track. So what has happened over the past week?

Well, when I last wrote, I was in Geneva. I decided to go and check out the United Nations HQ - a field trip that made it feel an awful lot like I just paid to go to work!

Believe it or not, one of the main tourist attractions in going to the UN is the broken chair sculpture out the front. Who knew broken furniture can be considered art as opposed to a reason to visit the tip...

Inside we got to visit various rooms including the general conference room, the human rights room and the main room used for peace negotiations. The ceiling in the human rights room was spectacular.

The colours of the sculpture on the ceiling are different on each side to symbolise the different ways that people can see the same issue or event. 

The peace negotiations room is of course steeped in a huge amount of history. I was however concerned a little about the tour guides commentary. He showed us a painting in the ceiling and told us it was to 'symbolise the five most important continents'. Sooooooooo, which continents are NOT important to the UN? This is the offending artwork. 

I think the peace room may have also provided some of the inspiration for The Lion King...

No tour is complete without a trip to the gift shop. This one has the most impressive collection of flags I have seen in my life (and I go to Eurovision!).

All that talk of bureaucracy really built up an appetite, so I was then out in search of lunch. I proceeded to eat the most expensive 6" sub in my life. A pizza sub and small drink set me back AUD$16! How does anyone afford to live in Geneva? Seems some people were not even aware that the Swiss ate the same food as the rest of us. I overheard a group of tourists (American) who were shocked, SHOCKED, that there was sushi available. I mean, who knew they ate sushi in Switzerland???

My Saturday night was spent running 6.5km through the Swiss countryside with 1400 women from 120 countries to raise money for UNICEF. It was actually a great vibe - people came out of their houses and were eating picnics outside whilst cheering us all on. 

Sunday morning I was up again to run the half marathon. We spent a lot of time running through fields of canola and vineyards until we came back to Geneva and enjoyed (?) the last 10kms through the city and around the lake. The route was packed of people who taught me that cowbells were not just for alpine skiing events. They were all very supportive - with our names on our bibs they would call encouragement out to each individual. I knew the point in the race where I hit the wall - it was the drinks stop where I could not longer think of niceties in French. Fuck it, I was exhausted, it was English or mute. 

Having made it to the finish line alive, it was time to limp back to my hotel room and eat all the things and watch the marathoners finish their race (my hotel was at km 39 of their course). Room service were a little judgemental when they bought lunch, but when he saw my medal and bib on the bed he said "oh, I guess you earned all this food".

Monday morning hearlded the start of Eurovision week, so off to Stockholm I went. Those who read this blog often would know that I have a particular travel bug bear - the baggage carousel. If everyone takes one step back, everyone can see if their bag is coming, but people have such sucky travel manners that they all crowd it making the problem worse. The Swedes will not tolerate this. They have drawn a line on this issue, literally. Most efficient baggage collection I have ever done. Thank you Sweden. 

I hit the ground running, going to a function for Dami Im, and then off to Jury Semi 1. It is not Eurovision unless they start taking over your wrists...

There was no escaping Eurovision in this town...

I decided to attempt some sightseeing on Tuesday, and hit up old town. Sadly, so did the passengers of the Celebrity silhouette, which was in port.

 

Semi 1 on Tuesday night did not disappoint. We had everything from a breakdancing astronaut to an interval act that was designed to entice a Hunger Games type revolt in favour of refugees. For the second night in a row there was also EuroClub. Someone asked me if the drinks were expensive at EuroClub, at which point I realised that despite having had many a drink this week, I'm not sure I paid for all that many (so thank you to everyone who bought me a drink, apologies for not always returning the favour, and remind me of this in the Ukraine so I can make it up to you all!). 

I'll be honest. I didn't get out and about much in Stockholm (thankfully I've been there before!). It was a lot of getting up at noon, trying to be functional all afternoon, going to the show, dancing the night away at EuroClub, getting home at 5am, going to sleep, and doing it all over again the next day. The midnight sun made you feel more than a little guilty. This was 3am.

I'm assured my ninja skills remain intact and that I didn't wake my hosts trying to sneak back into the house at 5am. 

Friday night I went home "early" (3am), so was able to be functional for the day. Got to have a lovely lunch with a view.

If I could take one thing back from Sweden with me it would be all the cinnamon buns. All of them. 

Also got to do a spot of shopping. I still question who has time to grate their own salt...

A pre-final dinner on Saturday night also revealed a rather aptly named bathroom fixture company.

Saturday night was what it was all about. An added surprise for those in the arena was a pre-broadcast performance from the Olsen Brothers. Overheard in the arena "wow, they are still alive?".

Then it was on with the show, standing in a sea of flags...

We also had a somewhat strange interval act - Justin Timberlake. It was good, but not very...Eurovision.

Eurovision is of course not complete without glitter. Lots of glitter. Be it the type one wears in their hair...

Or the type that falls during the winners announcement.

So. much. glitter. 

The Ukraine was of course crowned the winner. 

There currently seems to be an even bigger competition going on at the moment between Australia and Russia on just which one of them was 'robbed' more. As I write this I am watching a CNN story on Russia saying they will boycott next year (at least Australia hasn't gone that far). Australia may have won the jury vote, and Russia may have won the public vote, but at the end of the day it was the Ukraine who polled the most consistently over the two, and hence they are the deserved winner. 

And with that, another Eurovision is over. A lot of people talk of their PED (post Eurovision despression). I seem to more commonly suffer PEC (a post Eurovision cold). With that, it is back to bed with me to try to get myself better before this ship sails into Norway tomorrow morning.

A tale of four breakfasts

IThe annual pilgrimage to the Eurovision Song Contest has begun. It all started on a Wednesday afternoon at the Jacksons International airport in Port Moresby. And such an auspicious start it was. No sooner had I checked in for the first of three flights did the dulcet tones of the fire evacuation alarm ring throughout the terminal. One aborted evacuation attempt was followed by a second round of alarms and assurances from security that there was no fire. So I was on my way.

Upon arrival in Brisneyland I was met with a four hour transit time. Nothing a little trip to the Emirates lounge could not fix. I spent those four hours undertaking a demographic analysis of the mid week European traveller (retiree - and not the under 40 'I took a VR' kind of retiree, more their parents, or even grandparents of those folk...) and try to convince my Dad on the phone that there were ten people in the Ten Tenors (apparently the name doesn't give that away). I saved some time to try the culinary offerings (the smoked salmon cakes got a gold star - I went back for seconds).

Soon, I was settled in on board for the 14 hour trek to Dubai.

My loyal readers would know that I have learnt the hard way previously that Emirates concept of mild spice and my idea of mild spice in food are worlds apart. Turns out I didn't really learn anything last time. See that red soup on my tray below? Liquid lava. I was breathing more fire than one of Daenerys' dragons whilst I waited for my flight attendant to come and take the devil soup away. 

After cooling off the inside of my mouth with barramundi, lemon tart, a movie (The Big Short), and a drink at the inflight bar with a fellow pilgrim, it was time for some sleep (after all, it was almost 2am in Moresby by this point). There was just one obstacle. 15F. After snoring through take off and meal service, he had chosen the point where every other passenger in the cabin wanted to sleep as his opportunity to complain loudly about the inflight entertainment system to his travelling companion over the aisle. 

At this point I recalled the wise pre-take off words of Sally-Anne. Sal had suggested I try out the Emirates sleep cycle radio channel (she described it as '...all weird tinkly bells and electronic whales. Like the cult MindHead from Bowfinger' - how could you not want to try that, even without 15F?). Well, it turns out electronic whales are no match for an Australian with an axe to grind about the inflight entertainment system. So I tried a more direct approach. I told him to shut up. Slept like a baby for five hours after that. 

Before I knew it they were waking us up for first breakfast (twice baked soufflé on an aeroplane, who knew it was possible!) and we were in Dubai. I hit the lounge all over again, and given it was only 6am, and I hadn't eaten for a whole two hours, I went for a second breakfast.

Soon, I was on my way again for flight number three. After a debacle of a boarding process (hell hath no fury like a first class passenger told to sit and wait whilst they load the economy class passengers on the bus to the plane first as it turns out) we drove to the far reaches of DBX to find our aircraft. We drove so far I swear we were halfway to Switzerland before we boarded. Surely this would cut flying time? Did I accidentally sign up for a bus transfer to Geneva? Can you see the terminal in a desert far, far away?

In a surprise twist, the flight was delayed almost an hour (who knew it would be Emirates and NOT Air Niugini making me late to get somewhere?) when the cargo got stuck being loaded. Yes, stuck. Part of me was entertained watching it from my window seat. We got it loaded eventually and before I knew it we were in the air and third breakfast was being served (seriously). The movie Spoltlight and about 5 episodes of iZombie later and we were in Geneva. The view as we flew into Geneva was amazing. A sea of snow peaked mountains poking through the clouds...

I got off the plane, headed to my hotel, and was excited about getting out and about and doing something. It was an amazing day - sunshine, clear skies. What should I do?!?! Nothing. Because NOTHING is what was open. Having spent the last 7 years worth of months of May in Europe you would think I'd have worked out there are a LOT of public holidays in Europe in May. And guess what? Arrival day was one in Switzerland. I decided to do what every man and his dog (literally) was doing. I went for a walk around the lake. It was gridlock.

I learnt two things on this walk. Firstly, everyone in Switzerland has a dog that looks like something Paris Hilton would have owned in 2002, and secondly, the young men of Geneva are modelling their hairstyles on Dolph Lundgen circa Rocky IV (the youngsters might need to google that).

I proudly recalled enough French to order a speccolous gelato and check out the Jet d'Eau. The latter being a fancy French name for what Canberrans would call the Captain Cook Jet.

Apparently no trip to Geneva is complete until you have seen the two main tourist attractions - the Jet and the flower clock, and I knocked them both off on day 1.

I had grand plans of just hanging out in my hotel room for a few hours waiting for a suitable dinner time. Rookie mistake though, I laid on the bed. That was 6:30pm. Next thing I knew it was 1am and there I was, fully clothed, all the lights on, CNN blaring and my phone clutched in my hand mid-candy crush level attempt. Jet lag -1, Belinda - 0. 

The next morning I decided to try out the Swiss interpretation of an Eggs Benny. Something must have been lost in translation because this was an Eggs Booby.

Time to head out from the hotel in search of more coffee. Now for the record, I am staying at a very nice hotel in a good part of town. Yet I walked past three strip clubs between my hotel and the nearest coffee place. Guess we know what those UN types do with their travel allowance. On second thought, the Eggs Booby makes more sense in context...

Google told me to go check out a church tower, which when climbed gave you the best view of Geneva. They left out the fact that the tiny spiral staircase was terrifying, but I made it to the top and the view was close to worth it.

Once back at the bottom I discovered there was an archaeological site under the church, showing the excavations of the previous incarnations of the church from the 3rd century to the 12th. 

There was lots of interesting commentary about the way that construction evolved (the work got shoddier over time), the creation of the earliest heating systems in Geneva, and the evolution of baptism facilities over the centuries (surprisingly interesting). They had also built a number of wells, which tourists were filling with coins and drinking straws. Anyone with any insight on the latter, let me know.

Because it it Europe you have to go IN the church (no trip to Europe is complete without a church or 73). This is what it looks like in its current incarnation.

The other must do in any European city is to find the food hall at the cities fanciest department store. I discovered some inspiration to change my preferred champagne...something about the bottle.

I headed off to the marathon village in the afternoon to collect my bib for Sunday.

Before you ask, no, I am not crazy enough to run a full marathon immediately before Eurovision week. I am merely doing the semi marathon (the cute French term for a half marathon). Having said that I still may not be able to walk come Monday. What was I thinking? 

The finish line is already up. Fingers cross the weather on Sunday morning is as lovely as it was today.