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What’s it like to be on a cruise ship? I’ll tell you, one could get used to it. Although there are a lot of hard choices to be made. Which one of the five Restaurants shall it be tonight? Should we go play a game of Billard or to the cinema? Oh, there’s a magicians show at the theater tonight. Will we have finished eating by then? Should we listen to the band playing in the Colony Club or go up to the disco? Unfortunately I have noone to dance with so the last two aren’t really an option. But the list continues on and on. It’s amazing what fits in a cruise ship. Did I tell you about the basketball court? Or the climbing wall on top of the ship? I especially like the Billard tables — they got an automated levelling system, that keeps the surface perfectly still, although the ship is rocking through the sea. Amazing. Well, let me tell you a bit about our destinations. First we went to a private beach called “Labadee Island” which belongs to Haiti. Haiti obviously is not the best place for tourists to be, so this Caribbean paradise was fenced in and guarded heavily. Otherwise it was really a pleasant place to be, you’ll note that in the pictures. Well, there wasn’t a lot to see besides beautiful beaches and palm trees. But I didn’t mind at all. We went snorkeling, and below the water there were indeed a lot of things to see, incredible what sorts of fish live in the Caribbean.
Next day we spent at sea and on the fifth day of our journey we anchored at the island of Aruba. Maybe some of you know the name from the Beach Boy’s song “Kokomo”. Aruba is really small, nevertheless we decided to go for a tour in one of the numerous mini-vans waiting for the landing tourists. Our tour guide was named Edward and he had a very special talent to explain things with an uncanny logical ease. “On the Island of Aruba we don’t get Hurricane. This is because Aruba is not in a Hurricane zone. That’s why we don’t get Hurricane on Aruba.” Yes. Another one? “The black stones are black because of the volcano. They stayed so long in the fire until they turned black. That is why they’re black. Today there is no volcano on the Island of Aruba.” Don’t understand me wrong, he was really nice. But sometimes I had to smile at his explanations. Well, the tour taught us, that the biggest attraction inside the island was a monkey shaped boulder and a collapsed natural bridge, so spent the rest of the day happily at the white sanded beach of dreams.
Next day we got to Curaçao. First impression: it’s capital Willemsted is a lot nicer than the capital of Aruba Oranjested. Yes, all of these belong to the dutch antilles, that’s why dutch is the official language. Nevertheless the average person speaks also English, Spanish and a curious dialect called Papiamento. This is a mix of Spanish, English and Dutch words unique to the dutch antilles. Back to Curaçao. We took another bus tour of the Island, this time our driver was named Kenny and also a nice guy. He showed us the liquor manufacture, some view points and the most expensive houses on the Island. And he showed us a really good beach to stay at, so that’s where we spent the next few hours tanning ourselves. Here we did some excellent snorkeling, it was really breathtaking to see so many fish and sea animals in their habitat. The water was crystal clear and you could see the stony wall where all the fish were hanging out dropping down to a white bottom of Carribean sand. What a shame I don’t have an underwater camera. The afternoon we went to see Willemstad up close. It’s a very colorful city. Every house is painted in an original color and none like the other. Kenny told us, they mix the colors up every time they paint a house. Ready for dinner we arrived at the ship
Tomorrow, on the eighth day of our cruise we will stop by at Panama to see the Canal and a bit of this interesting land. I’m already courious what it will bring.

So now we’re out on the high sea! The route will take us along the coast of Florida to Haiti. Tomorrow we’ll be entirely on sea, and I think there is some kind of special event planned here. More of that tomorrow. Yes, I will be able to update my homepage from here, and I will post photos. Bad news is, I won’t be able to comment on them individually, as that would take way to much online time (which has about the price of gold here on the ship). So I’ll comment on the pictures in general in a post which should give you at least a general idea of what they’re about.
First of all I got some pictures showing me leaving Berlin and visiting my brother. We played some games that evening with friends of my brother and had a fun time. Then check in at Munich – International Airport. Some pics from the flight, some of the hotel. Miami is a huge city, which lies like a banana at the ocean. And like all American cities it’s built for cars, not humans. Nevertheless some fearless adventurers went out on the streets to explore the city on foot. We headed east for the beach. Guess what we found: Stores for car parts, stores for used cars, stores for new cars, stores for used trucks, stores for new trucks, stores for used ambulances (come with oxygen, siren and patients tray) and some car repair services. After some kilometers down the road which ran perfectly straight to the horizon without really getting somewhere, we took the bus. That took us to Miami Beach, which was a lot nicer than the part of the city around the airport. A brief look at the beach and we had to get back to the hotel to check out. Having a really bad idea, we decided to use a Taxi. Couldn’t be that expensive, the bus only took a quarter of an hour. Alright, the first problem was we didn’t know exactly the address of the hotel. Second problem was the taxi driver’s English was poor. After 20min and the Tax-o-meter showing 25 bucks we asked him why he was going south, when the airport is to the west. It turned out he hadn’t correctly understood our directions and was going to the wrong hotel. With a little luck we found the street that would lead us directely to the hotel. But close before we got to the airport the driver turned and wanted to go in the other direction. It needed some convincing to have him turn around and continue. Well, when we finally arrived, Tax-o-Meter was showing 50$… Luckily he only demanded 30, which is still a lot, but at least we had a funny adventure…
After that it was almost directly boarding, which went smooth without any greater occurrences (we kind of got used to the endless security checks…). What a moment to set foot on this ship the first time. If you (like me) never have been before on a cruise ship this is a remarkable experience. It’s not just a ship it’s a complete world of it’s own. Bars, restaurants, lobbies, discos, a cinema, clubs, a casino… talk about endless possibilities! I don’t know how many live bands are playing right now, but it’s at least three in three different locations. I’ll have some photos of everything online as we move along! I’m going to need some time to know my way around here. Seems like the first day I havn’t got the rhythm right. I missed out on the dinner at 20.30 and at 22.00 when I noticed that clammy feeling in the tummy announcing approaching hunger I was told kitchen had already closed. But the ship’s big and there is always an alternative, so I’m dining right now in “Seaview Café” which serves Pizza & Pasta up till midnight. The tortellini taste good, but they could be more The rest of the evening we will check out on the Karaoke-Bar, let’s see how we like it. That is, if we get my brother and my sister to wake up. Feeling suddenly tired those two went to take a little 6 o’clock nap in their respective state-rooms. I’ll keep you updated

Your favorite blogger is now on his way to the Carribean sea. What’s he going to find there? Pirates? Voodoo-Priests? Dear Maidens waiting to be rescued? Treasure chests full of cursed Gold? Fat tourists trying to become red spots on beaches of pearly white sand? Be sure to check this site frequently to find out. I won’t promise but I’ll try to get some reports online from the ship.
Ship? He’s going on a ship? Let me tell you what’s planned: Right now I’m sitting in a plane headed for Munich where I’m going to meet with my brother. Tomorrow we’ll be meeting with our parents, my sister and her husband and all of us are going to check in for a flight going to Philadelphia, PA. After hopefully having passed US-Immigration without major problems we’ll be off to Miami, FL. Monday we board the boat. The boat that is the cruise-ship Brilliance of the Seas of the Royal Carribean fleet. Yes! A real oversized gigantic cruise-ship full with things you don’t really need but make life pleasant. I still can’t believe I’m going to be on board of a ship within less than 2 days from now! Be asured I’ll be doing *lots* of fotos to remind me later that it really was true! So, this is all for now, I hope I’ll be able to update this site soon!

Weather Update Sunday 11.02.2007:
Munich: 2-7°C possibly rain
Philadelphia, PA: -7 – 2°C, sunny
Miami, FL: 18-25°C slightly cloudy.

Finally I get to tell a bit about the incredible week we spent in Italy. We that’s my friends and me, all in all we were a group of 9 and we had a really great time. But let’s start at the beginning and that was Monday, October 9th, 3:30 a.m. I awoke with my stereo blasting “Wherever I May Roam” in my ear — to get up at times like these you have to take drastic measures. This way, instantly I was wide awake and in a phenomenal mood. At exactly 4:20 Kirsten, Peter and Feli picked me up in a taxi cab. The flight from Tegel Airport to Bergamo, Italy passed in a wink of an eye and within moments we were jammed in our a little to little rented car on our way to Lake Garda. Ours was a Fiat Punto, Gabi, Mark, Matthias and Thomas got a bit larger Opel. About 2h later we arrived at our Appartments.
The rooms were simple but comfortable and we spent the rest of the first Day doing nothing especially, mainly eating, playing Uno (a fun italian card game), Skat (a big brain German card game) or just chatting.
Second day we slept in, played mini-golf and picked my brother up at Verona-Airport. And of course eating, Uno, Skat and chitchat. Well, real vacations need a bit of hanging around, don’t they?
Third day it was climbing after all. Our tour-guide for the week, “Skyclimber” Thomas gave us an introduction into the basics of rock climbing and everything that goes with it. We learned using the ropes, carabiners and security-garments. Some nice knots by the way. Weather was incredible — perfectly blue skies and comfortable 25°C. Once we got the knack of it, it was really easy and fun especially because Thomas made us do things like climbing with only one hand (or none!) or completely blindfolded. The wall wasn’t 90 degrees but maybe 50 or so and completely even, so this was possible. The view from up the wall was just incredible, the wild and untamed nature surrounding one on all sides.
Fourth day we went without our tour guide on a hiking trip along the mountain-ridge of the other side of the lake. Plan was to take the cablecar up to the first peak and continue from there along the ridge to some other peaks. With the ferry to Malcesine we had little incidence as the first ferry man we encountered tried to lie to us, intenting to make us believe he was the only one going to our destination. At first he succeeded, but not before long we had some doubts about it. It turned out that there was another ferry company which had better conditions for us (a later return) and with a little “insistence” we got our money back. The rest of the day we had a fun time imitating to each other the defensive speech of the owner in his Italo-German and were generally proud we hadn’t let him fool us. Once again with perfect weather we set out on the mountain crest. Although we were hiking along the ridge it was mostly uphill as the cablecar left us in the lowest peak. After two hours we had a little break, refueling ourselves and noted that the paths lost a bit of quality after that point. Very narrow, lots of loose rocks and pebbles soon made half of the group return to our first resting point. We agreed on a time and struggled on. From this point on it was definately harder, but also more exciting and rewarding (see the gallery for proof). On the penultimate peak we had to leave two tired wanderers more and finally were only a hard core of three reaching the Cima Valdritta in 2216m. But what a struggle it had been. We were totally and utterly exhausted but also exhiliarated for having made it up there. Good thing we had some cans of an energy drink with us (I don’t usually drink that stuff, but in this situation it really helped). Going down wasn’t easy at all, in fact more than once one of us almost fell. Good thing we got down safe and began picking up the ones we left behind. That evening we didn’t do very much, we were all pretty done for .
Fifth day, we went for a special tour: it was a bit of hiking and a bit of climbing. All in all rather short, but very fun and in a very beautiful setting: We entered the small canyon of a little creek and hangled along the perpendicular walls to the valley beyond. This was pretty much untouched (or at least it seemed like it), and had the romantic charm of a long forgotten place. Really special. Included were a wire bridge, using the rope to get down a rock and a little break with champaign and protein bars. That afternoon, strolling through a small town nearby in search of a good pizzeria, Kirsten showed up with a big smile on her face. At first she didn’t want to tell, but with a little insistance she let us see the reason for her excessive delight: three water pistols! This meant of course some water-guerilla action the following afternoons and evenings. The unaware might easily be victim of a merciless watery ambush behind the next corner of one of the low hedges that surrounded our appartments. Which of course cried for wet revenge soon after… Those 3 Euros really bought a lot of fun, Kirsten
Sixth day (dry again) we did once more a bit of hiking and climbing, this time though more hiking than the latter. Thomas “Skyclimber” showed us a little known path along the steep coast of Lake Garda. Smugglers used this path even before the world wars to trade goods from Austria to Italy and vice versa. Sometimes it gave you a funny feeling in the stomach, the path getting narrower and smaller and the cliff higher and higher, but that’s part of the fun, no? At one point there was a wire-ladder to climb to an upper part of the path. It was harder than it seemed to get up there. That kind of stuff wakes a profound feeling of respect for those daring men who went this way with backpacks of more than 30kg… I think I wouldn’t have survived long in this business Good thing I’ve not become a smuggler.
That evening we played a game I will write more about shortly. It’s called Mafia and is mostly about talking and psychology. Most of us had never played it before but we all agreed it was really great!
Sunday, sad but true, we had to return. Driving down the mountain the way from our hotel we ran into a uphill mountain bike race that happened to take place this very sunday. We had to wait for about half an hour looking at passing bikes and sweating men until we could continue. This got us kind of nervous as our schedule was rather tight. Well, little later and ignoring all speed limits of Italy we found out the little Fiat made a 180km/h if you really put it to it and so made it just in time for our flight
All in all it were really unforgettable vacations. We were having a very good time together (as you can see from the pictures). Only sad thing is it was — as these kind of things always are — too short…
Have a look at the “Photos” section, there is a whole album with many more pictures. Feel free to ask for the password if you happen to miss one.

I’ve finally been to one of the most beautiful cities here in Spain: Granada. The last time I wanted to go I didn’t get tickets for the Alhambra. But now at last everything worked out fine. And what’s best, I didn’t go alone but with two great friends here from Spain. I’ve already created a new album with photos from the trip. If you are interested in seeing them I’ll be delighted to give you the password. A short email should be sufficient (if you don’t know my address try a fantasy name terminating in @grundlos.org, that should work).
I’ve found a beautiful artwork of the Alhambra that really captures the spirit of this extraordinary complex.
In case you run Google Earth try entering the coordinates: 37°10’39.40″N 3°35’22.91″W