Cruising The Seven Seas: Spain

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lunes, 22 de agosto de 2011

Boiling Point

7^th August 2011

It didn’t take long for things to go from simmering to boiling point!

Today we’re in Barcelona and we always arrive at 10.00. Zoran and Hernan were scheduled as the Matadors (bull fighters). Both were supposed to be at the Savoy Theatre at 9.30 but there’s no point having two costumes in such a small area. We’ve tried it before and it simply didn’t work. It’s better to have only one costume in the theatre and another on the gangway. So that’s what Zoran and Hernan arranged. Zoran was going up to the Savoy while Hernan waited until 10 to go outside on the gangway.

I was outside in the corridor when Hernan came walking past with his costume. Camila had a face like thunder telling Hernan he was late and needed to hurry up. Hernan tried to explain the scenario to which she replied “but you don’t know”. Yes we did. We’d tried working two costumes in the same place and it didn’t work. It never does.

While Hernan was changing she was sitting outside his cabin door, constantly calling him, telling him he’s late. Walking into Hernan’s, Camila tried to follow me in. The arguing was getting a bit out of hand. Hernan was trying to walk away, and Camila was following. To avoid more arguing I very nearly had to close the door in Camila’s face.

Speaking to Hernan, I told him to ignore it and carry on getting ready. I understood where he was coming from. If she didn’t, well, she is a Photog 1 and still had a huge amount to learn. By that I’m not saying Hernan and I, being Photog 2’s know everything, as we also have a lot to learn. Once again Hernan told me she is totally crackers and I was starting to agree with him. If there was a bee in her bonnet, she wouldn’t let it lie. She’d carry on and on and on.

Later on I spoke to Hernan who told me that he’d just received a warning from Jomar. And guess why. As soon as Jomar made an appearance on the gangway Camila went running to him to grass on Hernan! She went into full details too “Hernan was 30 minutes late. He woke up at 9.30 and didn’t have his costume. He made me so late. I want to work and he doesn’t so he’s not doing anything” and so on and so on. Trying to explain, Jomar didn’t want to know. He just took Camila’s word and Hernan was getting a warning.

Camila grassing on Hernan to the manager went around the team like wild fire. Within no time, people lost all the remaining respect they’d had for her. We are supposed to be a team and then all of a sudden someone snitches to the boss and of course, it doesn’t just affect one person but everyone in the team. Now we are all under watch. Even our gangway entries and exits were being watched.

Usually, we are left to our own devices on gangway. We do what we think is best to get the gangway count in and most of the time, it works. Zoran and Hernan made arrangements for the gangway and both hit their targets! Now, that's was irrelevant!

If that wasn’t bad enough, Fabio was in the gallery drunk. Somehow he’s recently been promoted to Photog 3 despite his obvious love for vodka. Fabio was getting all high and mighty in the gallery telling the team what to do with an arrogance that made everyone want to knock him down a peg or two!

Fabio rang Hernan 15 minutes before he was due to start shooting on LSP telling him he was late before slamming the phone down. Hernan arrived five minutes late. Fabio rang Jomar and told him that Hernan had arrived 15 minutes late. Camila was in there to back Fabio up apparently. This was like spraying fuel onto a fire… it was getting out of hand.

Jomar gave Hernan his warning. Hernan had to balls to write a little comment on it. He wrote the truth though. It went along the lines of “Fabio is always late, especially on gangway and most of all is always drunk. Sometimes he is even too drunk to work and everyone ignores it.” This made Fabio see red and thought Hernan was being unfair. How he’d worked that one out, I’ll never know.

Later on in the evening I had a run in with Fabio. Coming over to me he slammed a pile of signs in front of me, then smacked his hand on the pile adding “go do the signs… now” before slamming his hand back on the pile. Picking up the pile from in front of me, I slammed them down in front of him. “If you want me to do something, fine, but get off your high horse and speak to me properly. You aren’t above me and you really need to be knocked down a peg or two”.

As I was about to walk away Fabio slapped his hand around, narrowly missing my wrist. Turning, I told him where to go. He hit out again, this time slapping my wrist. The pain was unbelieveable! As quickly as he’d smacked my right, my left fist came up and caught him in the side of the head. I didn’t hit him hard, but hard enough to know that if he thinks he can grab my sprained wrist or push me about, he can think again. I’ll give as good as I get! None of us are shit under his shoes and none of us should be treated like it!!!

Hernan The Matador

sábado, 20 de agosto de 2011

Shop Until Your Knees Buckle

1^st August 2011

Thanks to Luci, I wasn’t working in the morning. Somehow she’d managed to get us both the morning off as this was going to be her last chance to visit Barcelona! Getting up at 9.30, when we thought the ship was going to arrive, we got ready to go out into the city. The ship actually arrived at 10.

Crew aren’t allowed to use the free shuttle bus for the first 90 minutes. Hernan was coming with us to get off the ship for a while so we all jumped onto the city bus. Most of the guests were getting on the shuttle which costs 10€ return (crew go free). The city bus was only 3€ return. Once off the bus we were looking for a large shopping centre we’d been told about.

During the walk we stopped off for breakfast. I know I shouldn’t have done it but I couldn’t resist chocolate and churros. Continuing along Las Ramblas we popped into the shops, some were expensive while others reasonably priced. It was a real mix.

The summer sales were on which was a bonus. Popping into H&M I picked up a yellow and white dress for 7€ - perfect for the beach. I steered clear of blue as security keep pointing out that I’m always in blue… and they had a point. I’d never noticed it before. Now, whenever I go past security and I’m wearing the smallest blue item (even a blue hair band) they shout out “BLUE! BLUE LOU! MISS BLUE!!” Along with the dress I found a red and blue checked shirt. Smart casual for when I go up to the guest areas.

It’s no surprise that we couldn’t find the shopping centre, we were sent in all directions but had a good enough time looking through the shops we came across along the way. Along one street there were about five large camera shops. It was paradise! They sold everything: compact cameras, SLRs, accessories and endless amounts of film (black and white, polaroid, colour, colour positive etc). You always know you’re in a proper camera shop when they sell endless amounts of film!! I wanted to kick myself for leaving my analogue camera in England! I really miss shooting film! Digital black and white just doesn’t have the same quality as film.

Along the way we lost Luci. It wasn’t the first time it’s happened. If we’re in a shop and she doesn’t want to be there, she carries on walking rather than waiting for us. So, we had a look around for her but carried on, time was running out and if she decided to separate from Hernan and I, that was her problem. We'd no doubt bump into each other sooner or later.

We found a small backstreet dotted with different shops. They weren’t your mainstream style shops. There were about 4 guitar shops and Hernan was in his element!! The clothes shops didn’t sell the latest fashion. Some were more rock clothing. Going inside I felt so out of place as Hernan and I were the only ones who weren’t covered in tattoos and piercings. I found a small hippy store where the clothes were as cheap as chips and picked up a green-grey jump suit. Sandra will love this shop!

Heading back along Las Ramblas we bumped into Sary, the singer from Boleros. It's the first time I've seen her off the ship and not singing her heart out. She pointed us in the direction of even more great shops she'd come across. Result!

Carrying on, we soon heard “Hey Babaloos”. Looking around it was Luci, she was laughing and asking where we’d gone. She was off to another shopping centre but Hernan and I had to go back to the ship and work. Stopping off I grabbed a couple of Barcelona magnets, they were needed – I have too many photos and not enough magnets!

Barcelona like everywhere else in Spain is dotted with Sex Shops (we didn’t spot any brothels though - a surprise). Hernan wanted to go inside and I got dragged along for a giggle. I’ve been in Ann Summers before which for me is no problem but going into this sex shop made me feel a bit dirty and pervy. Everything is to the extreme. There’s a large cinema area with huge screens showing continuous porn.

In the middle of the shop floor was a circle “Peep Show”. Quite a few of the curtains were drawn to but only covered half a person’s body. Walking around the shop I couldn’t help but notice a couple of men watching the peep shop had one hand firmly in their trouser pockets as if no one else could see. I wanted to get the hell out of there!! Pure sleaze came to mind. Some of the men on the ship were walking around looking sheepish when they spotted someone else from the ship.

I grabbed a Jamon Serrano roll and carried on walking towards the shuttle bus back to the ship. We didn’t have long left.

Once we got through customs and two security checks we were back on board.

Hernan had to dash to the lab to get his Matador costume. We had two and a half hours of return gangway which is normally pointless… and it was. Within those 2.5 hours we got 150 images.

Ritesh wasn’t too impressed by the schedule. Jomar had told him to set up a studio inside the terminal, on the ground floor. Trying to get the equipment down the elevator was going to be impossible so they set up just inside the entrance (first floor).

My knees were starting to throb so sitting down for dinner was bliss. Going downstairs I had to get changed into another uniform for the gallery. Standing behind the desk my knees were in agony. The left was particularly bad. Speaking to Luci she gave me a job to do in the back office where I could sit down. She had a look at my knees, the left was swollen like a balloon.

Again the nagging started about not going to the medical facility. The medical facilities answer to everything is to load you up with pain killers which only solves the problem for a short period of time.

The girls from Spa think I have too much fluid in my knees which is caused from standing around for long periods of time. The treatment they’ve all recommended to way too expensive, even with the staff discount. Maybe, if I get a chance during embarkation they can use me as their model so it’s free. Until then, I’ll just have to keep necking paracetamol!

Hernan the Matador

Matador During Return Gangway, Barcelona, Spain

Traditional Vs. Modern - Searching for the Guests

sábado, 6 de agosto de 2011

Olé... Flamenco!

Olé… Flamenco

27^th July 2011

Today we’re in Palma de Mallorca, the last port of call of our current cruise.

Palma de Mallorca port has got to be the worse we’ve ever seen! It’s literally a tiny concrete area that looks more like a car park. Everyone knows Civitavecchia is ugly and full of shipping containers but this place is something else. Straight in front of the port is a concrete wall with a dual carriageway passing over.

Sandra and Camila are both in costume on gangway as our Spanish Flamenco dancers. Sandra certainly looks the part. Zoran and I were shooting. I was paired up with Sandra while Camila and Zoran were teamed up. The schedule for the gangway was all wrong.

Normally only one costume goes to the Savoy Theatre. Today, all of us were trying to shoot in the entrance of the theatre. It might have worked if the costumes were different rather than identical.

A few problems popped up too. Originally, Zoran was working on side and we were on the other. Zoran decided it wasn’t good enough for him and started coming over to our side. At one point, I smudged a family to have their photo taken with Sandra. Zoran came storming over, barged past me as I was taking a picture, telling the guests “Get a picture with this pretty lady (Camila)”. Both of them kept coming over to our side saying “you know what? It doesn’t matter as long as we get the counts.” Sandra and I were losing patience so we had a walk around the ship before heading outside where we started clocking up our counts.

Not long after Camila and Zoran came out and pretty much pushed us out the way to get the closest to the gangway exit. Things were starting to get nasty and finally Zoran and Camila started working the crowds that had gathered while waiting for the shuttle bus. It gave us a chance to get our counts up.

Gangway was finally over. Meeting Luci in the cabin, we got our stuff together and headed out. Camila and Sandra came along too. We were looking for somewhere to eat as well as finding our way around. Popping into a chemist I managed to get some more pills for my knee which is still swelling up like a balloon. Still, I’m avoiding the medical facility.

As we were walking around we came to a large square with a castle in the middle, surrounded by a moat. Spread out across the square were people dressed up as characters: Charlie Chaplain. Golden Cowboy (don’t ask!), Sponge Bob Square Pants and our favourites, Shrek and Donkey!! As soon as Luci saw it she burst out laughing while shouting “Lou, I need to get your picture with Shrek. It’s Stu”. Sandra and I cracked up. Camila didn’t know what we were on about.

We finally came across somewhere to eat that also had wifi. It was the most reasonably priced place and located in a tiny backstreet off the main road. The food was absolutely gorgeous!! Especially when compared to the food on the ship.

With a couple of hours left until we all had to start work, we headed back towards the shuttle bus. Stopping on the way we found a small Eroski supermarket. I was desperate to find somewhere I could buy PG Tips… I’ve been craving a cup of English tea in the mornings, especially with the early starts. Coca-cola just doesn’t have the same effects. Unfortunately, all they had was cheap tea which tastes foul and an unlimited selection of coffee.

There was a massive queue for the shuttle bus which wasn’t expected. All on board was at 22.30 so we didn’t expect many people to be coming back to the Mariner so early. It was a mix of guests and crew.

When getting on the bus we had to flash our crew ID. One lady sneered “oh, these are all crew”. She started complaining to the woman she was with that the guests should be allowed on the bus first and there wasn’t enough space for all crew and guests on the same bus. Stuff it! We might be crew but we are still people! Sometimes we are treated as if we are animals and it’s something I have troubles getting used to and keeping my temper over.

Once on the ship, I had just over an hour to sleep before formal night began. For once I was on a centrum and my favourite was too. I was actually looking forward to shooting the Royal Promenade Centrum.

After Ressi, I was heading back to my studio to find Simon from Production dismantling my studio. What the hell? He passed me and Fede the entire light still mounted on the auto pole. When I asked what the hell was going on, he seemed annoyed telling me there was a parade and they didn’t want our studio in the way. Fede and I quickly dismantled the lot before the place become too crowded. Plus the studio equipment was just dumped in the middle of the walk way. Anyone trips over that and no doubt there’ll be a law suit.

By the time I’d taken all the equipment to the lift the parade had ended. A whole five minutes of parade meant I’d lost 1.5 hours of shooting. My target was a long way off. The place was too crowded therefore too dangerous to put the studio back up.

Packing everything away, I joined Luci in the gallery for the rest of the night. By the time we were finished it was 2am and we were all completely knackered.

Looking at the schedule for the next day, I had my first lay in during this cruise and wasn’t working until 13.00. A lay in was not only well deserved but seriously needed too… and it was welcomed with open arms!

Sandra in her Flamenco costume

¡Olé! Sandra on the Savoy Theatre Stairs

Sandra and Edi (Laundry)

Sandra and Clint (Crew Culinary)

Flamenco Dancer (Sandra), Hernan and Fede

Fede and Sandra

The Home Land!!

The Home Land

26^th July 2011

That’s right! I’m finally back in my Home Land.

The Mariner of the Seas has docked in Barcelona. We are finally in Spain. Even though I'm from Malaga, in the south of Spain, I was still over the moon about being back in my home land! I was ecstatic and couldn’t wait to get out and about.

This morning I was on tour with Fabio and we had absolutely no idea where we were going.

Fede went outside to check if the gangway was ready. It wasn’t, in fact we weren’t due to arrive in Barcelona for another hour so the gangway wouldn’t be ready for at least 1 hour and 30 minutes. Nice one Jomar!

Hernan came out of his cabin with a massive smile on his face. He was desperate to wear the Matador (bull fighter) costume on gangway and he was perfect for the job. A little later David came into the corridor laughing that he must be the one and only black bull fighter ever! David needed help pinning his pants together, they were absolutely enormous on him!! They’d fit Jomar better than anyone else! One thing’s for sure the “Tour Escort” badges really do come in handy!

Fabio and I headed up to the Savoy theatre. Hernan was already up there with Fede. I quickly had my photo taken with Hernan. Sometimes, getting your photo taken with the character or on the rail, helps the photographers by encouraging guests to follow suit. It starts the ball rolling and before you know it, you have people queuing to have their picture taken.

Fabio and I were going on the same tour and each had a bus of 44 people. Neither of us were put on a Spanish speaking tour bus which would have been better as we’d have come back with more photos.

Our tour was “Barcelona and Guadi”. Taking the guests outside to the tour bus, our tour guide Eva was shocked but delighted to have someone who spoke Spanish as the escort. As soon as you left the port you are surrounded by things to see, from monuments to enormous historical buildings.

Barcelona was alive with people and in a way reminded me of a sunny London. Everywhere you turned there was something to see. The guests were going potty and taking photos in every direction. They were even leaning over people to get a photo out the window.

Our first stop was Parc Güell which consisted of numerous different architectural sites by three main architects, the main one being Antonio Guadi. All had a fairy tale look to them. One of the buildings that is now used as a gift shop resembled a ginger bread house. Through the park were cave like constructions, colourful mosaic features such as the lizard “climbing” down the wall. As much as I tried to get pictures for myself the place was jam packed and almost impossible. Getting photos of the guests was hard enough as I kept losing sight of them.

To be fair, I did spend half my time in the queue waiting to use the little girl’s room! I honestly thought my bladder was about to burst! Not to self: don’t drink a litre of water and can of coke before going on tour!

Hopping back on the bus and we were off to the next stop, the main attraction: La Sagrada Familia. La Sagrada Familia translates to The Sacred/Holy Family which is Antonio Guadi’s most iconic piece of work and due to finish around 2023. That though is a real guestimate according to our tour guide.

Arriving at La Sagarada Familia and the place is enormous! Standing outside you can see the huge amount of effort and detail that has gone into designing and constructing the building. Antonio Guadi is even buried in a part of the church. Each wall has a different story to tell and it’s something no one would have noticed unless the tour guide had shown us where to look and which way to read the stone cravings. It's designed to tell religious stories to those you are illiterate.

Just before the 30 minutes free time I bumped into Fabio. We were both starving. Opposite La Sagrada Famila was a tiny sandwich shop where we stopped off for a typical "bocadillo". One thing is for sure, I really do miss the Spanish food: Jamón Serrano, paella… everything! By the time we’d rammed our food down our throats and necked our beers (San Miguel, of course!) it was time to go back to the bus. I was astonished at how quickly Fabio could down a litre of beer. 15 minutes! By the time I’d finished my can, he’d knocked back a litre jug!

Once back on the ship I dropped my memory cards off to the lab, got changed and headed back out. I wanted to see more of Barcelona.

On the bus I bumped into Whitney, Ashleigh and Sophie from Spa. Sophie had literally just joined the ship. The girls were looking for a shopping centre. I was on the hunt for something to eat and internet. I hadn’t heard from Becks in a long time and really wanted a proper chat with her.

Finally I managed to find a post office!! The building was massive… but if I didn’t know Spanish I would never have noticed it was a post office! The only thing that gave it away was “Correos” engraved in the stone building. It was more of a monumental building you’d find in London.

Finally my parents' parcel is in the post and on its way to Uruguay. I later found out that they were leaving for Florida the next day and would be spending 7 weeks there! Great! I just hope they receive the parcel!

Stopping off at a bar, Ashleigh and Whitney went off to the shopping centre. Sophie was starving too so she stayed with me. The paella that we ordered was a real treat. It makes a welcoming change from the crap we’ve been eating in the Staff Mess. This was proper food and I intended to make the most of it.

Hearing from Becks again was great. She didn’t take long to find another job which is a real bonus. It's sometimes quite hard talking to Becks knowing that we both applied for the same job, met at the job interview, speaking constantly online, being almost joined at the hip in Miami etc. and now I’m still working on the ship while she’s at home. It didn’t seem fair or right. She should still be working on the ships, talking to me from one of the numerous ports we visit, not sat at home in England.

After eating, I headed back to the ship for a well-deserved nap. Nowadays we are getting up at ridiculous times like 06.00-06.30 until 11.00-12.00, getting almost the entire day off and then working again from 19.00-20.00 until 01.00-02.00. The days are great, don’t get me wrong but we are all feeling completely drained by only getting 3-4 hours sleep a night.

We are sailing away from Barcelona now and heading towards Palma de Mallorca. To end the cruise on a bang… it’ll be the night us photographers love to hate… formal night!