Thursday 8 September 2016

Travel Diary: Day 3 Stavanger

Today would be the first day in port. We docked in Stavanger at around 7:00 am in the morning, though we woke up a little bit earlier in order to watch the ship arrive at the port as we knew the scenery in the area would be particularly beautiful. I forced myself out of bed at 6:00 am when my alarm went off, fighting off my instinct to just shut my eyes, roll over and go back to sleep. I dressed quickly and we went right up to the 18th deck, as we would get the best view from there. As this was a perfect opportunity to take some brilliant photos, I made it a point to take the camera with me, and spent a fair amount of time snapping away at the scenery. Since we looked somewhat decent, and we were pretty close to the buffet, we decided to grab some breakfast, taking special care to nab a table by the window in order to savour the scenery while eating. We then returned to our cabins to finish preparing before we went out to explore the area.



With cruises, the majority of the time you can simply walk of the ship and into the town you've arrived at, so as soon as we had disembarked we were able to begin looking around. We started by walking up some pretty cobbled streets with a relatively steep incline- quite a work out considering the time of day! Luckily, this did also mean that we had the opportunity to burn off some of the food we'd over-consumed. We then made our way down to a beautiful park, where we sat and enjoyed the scenery for a short while. After relaxing briefly at the park, we headed over to a museum. However, as it turned out that you had to pay to enter (the cost of living is particularly high in Norway, which meant that everything, including entry to the museum, was ridiculously expensive) we didn't actually go inside. We did make good use of the free WiFi that we discovered the museum offered, however. Following this brief stint at the museum we ambled through more cobbled streets, checking out the shops that lined them and snapping away like nobody's business. Finally, we ended up at a cute little market area which offered trinkets, souvenirs and fluffy rugs, hats etc., many of which were made from reindeer skin. At this point we were pretty exhausted from the hours of walking, and our tummies were starting to rumble so, with the ship in sight, we thought it was just about time that we headed back and rushed over to the buffet. 




After lunch had finished, the others went off to watch 'The Jungle Book' at 3:00 pm in the cinema on board. I debated going, but ultimately decided to stay back as my hair was due a wash, dry and straighten, which takes me hours, so I really needed to use the time available to do that. Three hours later (I'm not exaggerating, though I did take a pretty long, hot shower) and my hair was all straight and nice and ready to go.

Having looked at the menu in the restaurant we decided that there wasn't anything that really caught our attention, so we thought that this time we'd opt for a more casual meal and check out the buffet instead. I enjoyed having dinner at the buffet a lot! It was nice and relaxed, and we managed to get a table with a view of the sea, which helped add to the atmosphere. They were serving east Asian food in the buffet, and everything was so delicious. About an hour after we'd finished eating, we watched a show that was being performed in the on board theatre. The show was pretty spectacular- it involved pulsing lights and catchy, modern music brought to life with amazing voices and breathtaking dance moves, all set against an illuminated background. The whole theatre was alive and buzzing. I thoroughly enjoyed it! The day was finished off with another fantastic sleep, worn out and exhausted after a long day of walking and sightseeing.

Sunday 4 September 2016

Travel Diary: Day 2 At Sea

I set my alarm for 8:00 am- I wanted to wake up early in order to make the most of every minute on the ship. Unfortunately, we did lose an hour as the clocks had been moved forward in order to match Norwegian time. This resulted in a little bit of a scramble to get ready for breakfast before the buffet closed, as what we thought was 8:00 am actually turned out to be 9:00 am (the buffet closed for breakfast at 10). I was especially keen to see what they had to offer, though I felt slightly disappointed as I felt the options were somewhat more limited in comparison to other cruises I've been on. I didn't let that stop me from enjoying my breakfast, however!

We had a day at sea, which was great as it provided us with some vital time to relax before we got down to exploring the ports. We decided to use some of this time to explore the ship in greater detail. Cruise ships are pretty big and this one looked amazing- it's such a fresh, modern ship, and I really love the decor. We started with a bit of window shopping, as there are a fair few shops on board, before seeking out the bars and lounges.


We then headed up for a bit of lunch  at the buffet (again, I can't remember what I ate, though it definitely involved chips), before heading to a talk in the theatre on the latter two ports we'd be visiting and the tours of these ports that we had booked (or could book, though most of them were sold out). We booked a tour afterwards (which was amazing, I'll discuss it more in another post), that involved visiting a church and what's known as the 'troll wall.'

The dress code for the evening was formal, so we got ready a bit earlier than we normally would, in order to allow enough time to get suitably ready. I usually enjoy getting ready to go out, but when you feel like you've managed to double your body weight you've eaten so much it's not quite as much fun. However, it was nice seeing all the other passengers looking so amazing in their formal wear. There was also an amazing atmosphere in the atrium, partly because everyone was dressed up, but also because they were serving free drinks (which included sparkling wine, whiskey, gin and tonic, red wine and orange juice), which is enough to put any normal person in a good mood (isn't anything that's free?)

I had been particularly looking forward to dinner that night because I had seen the menu before hand and it looked amazing. It included lobster that came in a delicious creamy sauce (which was so delicious; it was honestly the best dish I had in the restaurant) and prosecco soaked strawberries (which could have done with a stronger prosecco flavour). Our meal was rounded off with some champagne truffles, which were delicious, although I didn't quite have room for them after my lavish meal (I did make every effort to make that room, though I wish I could have enjoyed them on an emptier stomach).



We went for a quick wander round the ship, just to see what it was like a night time and to check out what was going on, though we quickly retired to our cabins for the night in order to prepare for an early morning and an inevitably tiring trip around Stavanger.

Thursday 1 September 2016

Travel Diary: Day 1, Southampton

I think it would be pretty awesome to be a travel writer, or having a travel blog. Unfortunately, I don't have the means to carry out the travelling part regularly enough to generate enough interesting content. Since I've (somewhat) recently returned from a week long holiday I thought it might be fun to dabble in a little bit of travel blogging and document my little journey on this blog. It probably won't be as exciting as your average travel diary but I hope that it's enjoyable nevertheless.

I'll start by giving you a bit of background on the holiday and describing my first day. We went on a cruise round the Norwegian fjords, on a ship called Britannia (one of P&O's ships). Again, this probably sets it apart from other travel blogs as I don't think there are many people out that blog about cruises.

After loading up the car with all our luggage we drove down to Southampton on a hot, sunny Saturday afternoon, where out ship would be waiting in the port, all ready for us to board. Seeing as we arrived a little later than we were supposed to we didn't have to wait at all. We collected out cruise cards, breezed through security and boarded the ship. That's the great thing about cruises, your holiday starts almost immediately. We briefly visited our cabins to check them out, then dashed up to the buffet as we were starving and in desperate need of a meal. I can't remember specifically what I ate but I know that it involved a lot of chips (I love chips), and an amazing tasting trifle. I had vowed to try everything, and worrying about gaining weight was banished. It's not everyday that you have access to lots of delicious food whenever you want it, plus it is only a week. Eating is also a huge part of what makes going on a cruise so much fun.



After that we returned to the cabin, where I panicked as my luggage hadn't turned up, even though everyone else's had (they bring your luggage straight to your room). I have to admit, this made me pretty anxious, and I was on edge for the whole safety demonstration. Luckily, when I returned to my cabin afterwards it had arrived. We then went up to the top deck to watch the sail away. The atmosphere was buzzing, as everyone was getting into the holiday mood. We relaxed on some sofas, and I had (and thoroughly enjoyed) a strawberry and lime cider.



Dinner time crept up on us, so soon after the sail away had finished we went to the cabin to get ready, as there 's a dress code in the restaurant. Once ready, we went to the restaurant only to find there was a bit of a wait (which actually happened every night, a bit of a problem with freedom dining). We were given a pager that would alert us when a table was available, so we went off and sat by a window with a view of the sea. The wait wasn't too bad as we'd massively over indulged at lunch, so it provided us with the opportunity to overindulge yet again. Eventually, our pager started buzzing and we made our way to the restaurant. The service was quick and we ate our dinner quickly (I had a goat's cheese soup for starter, skate, potatoes and veg for main and a mango and kiwi pavlova for dessert). After eating we returned to our cabins, where we promptly passed out after, high on the excitement of being on holiday and full to bursting after stuffing our faces, in what are probably some of the comfiest beds in the world.