All aboard!

Cute, aren't they? Even in my size. It's me and the transvestites fighting for the same shoes, you know. Got these by courier from London last week. They were on sale, lucky me.

Anyway. Embarkation day. I have done this quite a few times now, so I know the drill. This is one of the most exciting/entertaining days of a cruise. At least if you go on one of the smaller ships, like we do. There are no fixed seatings at dinner on these ships, so - embarkation time is when you need to position yourself to establish any possible new relations for the next week. It is a bit like the first day of school. Terrifying. There will be close to a hundred passengers eyeing each other up and down to decide who they would like to be friends with - and most importantly - who they should try to avoid. Matches are very often made based on appearance, or the sound level of your voice. But - NEVER judge a book by its cover (or sound?). Some of the people I have secretly been rolling my eyes at on the first day, have actually turned out to be among the nicest people I have met. In spite of a face lift or two gone bad. So. I will try to be open-minded.

As you get closer to the pier, you will start to see an increasing number of gentlemen with their brand new tennis shoes, and shirts tucked into their trousers - trousers that they have yanked up under their arms (I wonder if this is why they are referred to as "yankees"...?). Now you know that you are in the right place. There are always mostly Americans on these ships. This means that there WILL be a lot of talking. No akward silence in the elevator on this ship, oh nooo! Even though the sound level may sometimes be a bit on the high side - it is always great fun. Americans are mostly very polite and conciderate, so they do make great travel companions. And the ones that do not, will end up among my travel stories - so they are not really a waste of space either.

Another distinct group are the Italians. The Italian women seem to FLOAT around the ship (I do not really know how to describe it, they just do not walk like other women). You will never see them eat a thing. At meals they just move a few green leaves around their plates, while continuing their 24/7 chain-smoking. They also take the art of looking unhappy to a whole new level.

The rest of the passengers (maybe around 10 or so) will be a very mixed group of people from a few select countries around the world. England, Australia, South Africa, Brazil, India, Germany, the Netherlands. And - finally - Norway. That's us! We have met other Norwegians at sea just ONCE (except for the captain, and that's a whole different story). This really is quite ok. Because this way you do not have to get into the whole "Oh, yeah - we come from this small country and we are accidentally on holiday in the same spot, let's spend the rest of our valuable vacation time together" business. My vacation is far too short for that.

Gotta go now, our driver is picking us up.