Me

The last day of our cruise has arrived. We arrived at Palma, a city on the island of Mallorca, just off the Spanish coast for our last port visit. I have been here ten times from my time with the US Navy, and my wife and I have been here before, back in 2017. This time, we decided not to go ashore, and weather was poor- temperatures in the 40’s (Fahrenheit), winds of 40 miles per hour, and rain were making conditions outside miserable. Combined with the fact that out pier was a long walk to anything we would want to visit, we made the decision to stay on the ship.

It was a good choice. The ship has a glass enclosed pool deck called the solarium, and we spend the majority of the day lounging next to an indoor pool and hot tub. Once the ship got underway, we went to dinner before heading to the sports bar to watch some sports and have a few cocktails. We also enjoyed some jazz musicians before heading back to our cabin to pack our things for an early morning departure.

The next morning, our plan was to begin the land based portion of the vacation, and I knew I would not want to risk connecting to this blog through the Internet, as I am well aware of the European idea of free speech- or lack thereof. More on that tomorrow.

As a side note, I don’t usually post a lot of self-information like this, but to be quite honest, all of the disaster porn of the fall of the US, although my most popular posts, is getting difficult to write. It’s a challenge finding fresh content, and it’s a bit depressing as well. So these posts are a way of escaping the ever expanding list of bad news, reminds me that there are still plenty of upbeat topics out there, and disproves the leftist trope of those on the right being uneducated and untraveled morons.

The last of our room charge was wiped out by this little guy.

We arrived in Cartagena the next morning. That city is the main Mediterranean navy base for Spain. Just down the street from our dock was the main gate for the base.

This was the port where fatigue finally set in. We didn’t take a tour in this town. We decided to just walk around the area for a bit before returning to the ship. The architecture was the same as the other ports, the weather was nice, but we were just a bit tired of all of the walking. We had been walking ten miles or so a day, and this day we just walked out, got some lunch, and returned to the ship. To be honest, we have been eating so much gourmet food and good wine that I was ready for just a regular hamburger and a coke at this point.

I’m not faulting the lunch we had. I love the little restaurants and shops, but sometimes you miss the food from home, and at this point we have been on the move for over two weeks. I did see a cigarette machine in a store. I haven’t seen one of those in years.

There were some Roman ruins that I briefly looked at:

We went back to the ship and took a nap. We were tired and needed it. Dinner was amazing as always. We hit the casino and won big. When you play in the casino, you earn slot machine comps. I decided to use up all of them, as this was the second to last night. I picked a random machine, and the damned thing hit for $1200. My wife then hit on her machine for another $1400. So we walked out of the casino that night with more than $2600. Combined with our winnings from previous nights, we decided to pay our onboard expense account. That way, when we left the ship at the end of the cruise, we wouldn’t be traveling around with so much cash. After 2 weeks on the cruise our tab came to over $4000, so we paid it and still had some cash left over.

The morning after we were in Gibraltar, we stopped in Malaga, Spain. This city has been in existence for over 2800 years. It always amazes me just how old European cities are. I really think that’s one of the reasons why Americans are not so aware of history- to us, it exists only as words in a book, but to Europeans, they are surrounded by it. You can walk around towns like this and see old Roman columns and Moorish castles scatter about neighborhoods. In the US, we don’t really get that. To Europeans, buildings that are hundreds of years old are commonplace.

For example, this cathedral in the town has in it’s basement a relic that is simply unbelievable- a piece of the true cross. Catholics claim this is a piece of the cross whereupon Jesus was crucified. Even if that isn’t something you believe in, the fact that this relic has been within this church for over 1400 years old is simply incredible.

I absolutely love to see the extreme amount of craftsmanship and work that went into these old cathedrals. The art in here is preciously valuable. There are objects in this cathedral that weigh hundreds of pounds, are made of solid gold and silver. The melt value is in the millions, and they are priceless works of art.

Moving on, there is also a large bullfighting ring in the city.

The streets here are simply beautiful. They paved these older cities with marble tile.

Then it was back to the ship for a lovely dinner. First was the butter poached lobster salad.

Then some filet mignon.

Finished by a delicious piece of strawberry cheesecake.

We went to a brief concert from the house band before winning a bit of money in the casino. Still down about $3000 at this point, but slowly winning some of it back.

After leaving Cadiz, our next stop was Gibraltar. It’s an outpost of Britain, the currency is the pound, the language English, and people born here of Gibraltar parents are considered to be British citizens. Note that, like every country except the USA, being born in Britain doesn’t automatically confer citizenship. There are 34,000 people living here, and another 100,000 or so come into the city from Spain to work in the city’s shipyards and shops. For this reason, most of the people here also speak Spanish. This isn’t uncommon in Europe, with many people speaking 2, 3, or as many as 5 different languages due to the close proximity of so many different peoples.

We paid a cab driver to drive us around and show us the sights. We went to St. Michael’s cave, and even interacted with the monkeys who live there.

There are a couple of legends about the cave: one being that the cave has no bottom, and the other that it is attached to a cave system that stretches across the straits to Africa and is how the monkeys got to the European side. Military officers attempted to see how far the caves went and were never seen again. The cave has since been extensively explored, and no remains or recent cave ins were found, so the men remain missing to this day.

During World War 2, the caves were used as a bomb shelter and hospital. Today, it’s used as a concert hall for musical performances and as a tourist attraction. There are some spots where you can look down and it appears as though the cave stretches down to the center of the planet. It DOES look quite deep.

As I was walking down a trail near the top of the mountain, one of them reached out and grabbed my shoulder. My wife was attempting to take a picture, and the little guy jumped on to my back and began grooming my hair. We continued to walk, and he stayed on my shoulders for a good bit. People walking by were taking my picture and also giving me advice on how to get rid of him. He wasn’t hurting me or anything, so I let him stay there until he decided we had walked far enough.

From the top of the Rock, I was above the clouds and got this picture of a mountain on the African side

After that, we went to a cliff overlooking the Straits of Gibraltar, where we could get a good look at Africa.

Back to the ship for dinner, and as the rock sailed out of sight, we also saw a US destroyer. It was the USS Roosevelt, heading westward to the Atlantic, and I presume to her homeport in Rota, Spain.

We went to a concert. The singer was Nicola Ward, a well known British woman, and she sang an absolutely beautiful rendition of Con te partirò.

After that, we spent some time in the casino, and I walked out of there up $1000 for the night, thanks to some great shooters at the craps table.

After Lisbon, we had our last sea day. My luck in the casino turned, and I won over $400. Well, I actually was up about $800, but one of the things I need to learn is quitting when I am ahead. By the time I realized the table had gone cold, I was lucky to leave the table up by $400.

The next day, we docked in Cadiz, Spain. We actually got on a bus and went to Seville. This city is absolutely stunning, and I learned on this tour the reason why streets in so many towns in that era are narrow and winding. I had always assumed that it was because they were designed for foot traffic and didn’t want to bother with wide, straight streets. That isn’t the case- they did it because it was more difficult for raiders on horseback to ride down the street. The absence of 90 degree intersections was because winding streets also facilitated the ocean breeze blowing through the town. Another factoid was poor people didn’t live near the beach because pirates and other ships would raid the waterfront. Add to that the fact that no one really swam in the ocean until after 1800, and no one with money wanted to be near the ocean.

Seville, like many towns on the Iberian peninsula, was heavily influenced by the Moors, who weren’t kicked out of the area until the time of Columbus. The Moors brought a lot of advanced mathematics, archeology, science, and education to Europe, which along with the Renaissance begun in Italy, helped in ending the “dark ages” of Medieval Europe. Check out some of the sights of Seville.

The following pictures are from the Palace:

One thing that annoyed me was when some of our fellow American tourists saw the brotherhoods for Holy Week, the first comment was “OOOh, the Klan.” By the end of this trip, I gained an understanding of why so many in Europe think that Americans are uneducated swine.

Seville was an absolutely beautiful city, and there were many examples of both Moorish and Renaissance art and architecture. I really enjoyed this tour, even though I didn’t see a single barber.

After leaving the Azores, we had a day at sea. We rode some bumper cars then played some games in the sports bar over a few cocktails.

The day after that, we spent the day in Lisbon, Portugal. No, the people who live here aren’t called Lisbians, but they probably should be. We had a good day touring the city, the people who lived here were friendly and gracious. The city was beautiful:

The cathedrals in Europe are filled with superior art and craftsmanship. The amount of skilled labor it took to build them simply amazes me. This one is over 300 years old:

Before returning to the ship, we stopped at a large shopping mall, and while we were in there, we got some lunch. That’s where a bit of trouble kicked in. Google translate allows you to point your camera at something that’s printed in a different language, and the software alters the image so it appears in English.

While translating the menu, there was an item called lagartas, which Google dutifully translated to lizards. We weren’t feeling all that adventurous, so we ordered the pork and pineapples.

It turns out that Google is a bit literal. Lagartas is a dish made from thinly sliced Iberain ham, and has nothing to do with reptiles. The hazards of dealing with other languages.

On the way out of the mall, we stopped at a small bakery and got a traditional Portuguese egg custard tarts, Pastel de Nata. These things are incredible. I’m glad we only got a few of these, because I could easily gain some weight with these things.

With our stomachs full, it was time to leave Lisbon, but I would not mind returning at all. As we left port, I snapped this picture:

More ports, more travelling- tune in tomorrow as we enter Spain.

The Seventh Day of the crossing, and we arrived in the Azores at Ponta Delgada. We spent the day on a bus tour of the island. The Azores, being volcanic islands, are rocky islands. Still, there was a fairly large amount of farmland.

On our tour, we wound up at the top of the caldera of a large volcano. From there, you can see the city at the bottom, Sete Cidades. It’s breathtaking. The city is next to the lake that is located at the bottom of a large caldera, 3 miles across at its widest, and 1300 feet from the rim to the bottom. The views from the rim are amazing. This picture doesn’t do the view justice. Those homes you see in this picture are more than 1000 feet below, and a mile away. The wind blowing up from the bottom of the caldera is fairly strong, I would estimate around 30 miles per hour or so.

After spending the day here, the ship left port, headed to our next stop. More on that later.

This is installment two of my three week vacation. The first day is found here. If you aren’t interested in my travels, you are free to skip this one, I won’t be offended. Once I am done with this post, I need to finish my taxes up, so the next post might be later in the afternoon or evening.

Having spent the night at a Marriott hotel in Jersey City, we got up early the next morning and went to breakfast at a Krispy Kreme that was a block over. Went back to the hotel, showered, and headed out to the port in an Uber.

The ship was the Odyssey of the Seas. After checking in to our Junior Suite, 200 square feet of living space. The room has a queen bed, plenty of cabinet space, one and a half baths, a desk, and a small 80 square foot balcony. The best benefits are access to the suite restaurant and the double points you get. A 15 night cruise gets you 30 points. Since we have over 400 points, we get 5 free drinks anywhere on the ship, and as frequent gamblers, we also drink free in the casino.

I am going to just compress the first six days of the cruise into one post. We didn’t stop anywhere since we were crossing the Atlantic, so all of the days were pretty much alike. Being that we were sailing on the North Atlantic in the spring, the weather was a bit rough. Since this was the North Atlantic in the Spring, we were in some rough seas for the crossing. I’m talking 40-50 knot winds and 15-20 foot seas. That means the outside decks were closed. I wouldn’t want to be in the pool anyhow, because temperatures were in the mid-50s. Here is a video I shot from a lounge that was on the 4th deck, meaning we were about 40 feet above the ocean. Due to a lack of scale, those waves look smaller than they were, but you get the idea.

The meals were great. I ate things like duck confit, filet mignon, veal pasta, sea bass, onion soup (my favorite soup), and other gourmet dishes for dinner. The best soup of the cruise was seafood volute, and it was a very silky soup with a distinct lobster flavor, almost like lobster bisque. We rarely had lunch, but on those days we did, we had sushi, a nice surf and turf, and hibachi. Breakfast was usually just something small like a donut or something. Here is a picture of the second course of day three’s lunch.

I had forgotten to take a picture until I had eaten some, but you can see that the food is fairly good. I can’t believe that neither of us gained any weight, eating like this.

During the day, we did things like ride bumper cars, play laser tag, or sit in the sports bar playing games like Jenga and connect four. There was also a British pub onboard, as well as plenty of activities like bar trivia and the like. The laser tag was great. I think we played 4 or 5 times, and it is great practice for clearing rooms and moving around corners.

In the evening, we spent time in the casino but these first few days was rough. I had one night where I was ahead by $400, and 4 or 5 nights when I lost my ass. All in all, the casino was rough. By the end of the six days, I was down about $2000. We also had time to see a number of shows. The entertainment was pretty good. A few nights we sat in the music hall and listened to the band- called the “High C’s Horns.” The band was pretty good. I thought I had video of them, but can’t find it. Instead, here is video of the entrance to the casino:

The crossing ended on day 7 with our first port visit, which I will cover tomorrow.

This past week, posting has been light. That’s because I have been orienting at the new job. I’ve been attending classes this past two weeks. There was the normal HR bs that you have to endure, some of it required by regulations, some of it the “rah-rah, this is the best company ever” garbage, IT policies, network security, social media policies, etc. That was two full work days.

Then there was compliance training for the new nurses at four different hospitals training on things like stroke protocols, HIPAA compliance, that sort of thing. It was all of the disciplines- medical/surgical, ICU, PACU, PCU, outpatient surgery, and more. Another three workdays. It was during this training that the nurses bound for the ED and the ICU argued with the nurses headed for other units, and with the nurse who was teaching the class. It was during the segment on testing blood sugar. The instructor said the unit can’t test blood sugar on a patient in cardiac arrest, but even if you could, it wouldn’t matter because you can’t give IV medications to someone without a pulse because no blood is moving. I was the first one to speak up. I pointed out that this is false, because we give all sorts of IV medication during a code- to include Calcium, Epinephrine, and even dextrose. The instructor told me I was wrong. The rest of the ED and ICU nurses chimed in their support, and the argument escalated from there. I pointed out that I am an ACLS instructor, board certified nurse- and I told her she was wrong. The instructor countered with “I am an instructor, too.” I bit off my first instinct to say “Not a very good one, then,” so instead I replied by reading directly from the American Heart Association’s page, proving her wrong. She still wouldn’t bend. That was when I noticed the woman who was standing in the corner, having walked in during our disagreement: My new boss, who was there to take me to lunch.

My new boss was cool with it and told me not to worry about the instructor and pointed out that there is a reason why she has never been in a critical care unit. The rest of the day went by quietly. The next day was spent in online training on ER specific policies.

We moved on to the second week- this one was in our actual workplace under instruction precepting and learning hospital protocols and procedures. What this meant in my case was my preceptor sat at the nurse’s station while I took care of our patients. Halfway through the day, I overheard the director telling my preceptor: “It’s his first day, you can’t just sit here without giving him any help our guidance.” To which the preceptor replied “He’s doing great.”

I worked four days in week two. My only weekday off (Thursday) was spent finishing up my network upgrades. I installed a supervised gateway and switch. Things went badly, and I wound up crashing the entire network. I spent over 8 hours getting everything back. A frustrating way to spend a day off. I was going to post about the left’s reaction to the submarine SINKEX, but Miguel beat me to it, so that post got tossed.

Monday starts my third and final week of training. There is a lot of information: Protocols, procedures, medication standing orders, those sorts of things. In the ER, there is too much going on, with much of it being time sensitive, so ED nurses enter their own orders for things. It’s one of the things I like about being an ED nurse- we have a lot of autonomy. It’s also why I carry a million bucks in malpractice insurance.

Since this is a PRN job, I already told them that, once my training is done, I am taking three weeks off. Three weeks of full time hours equals three weeks off. I am not about to work full time hours in what is supposed to be a part time position.

Blogging to resume on Sunday.