I have been lucky enough in my life to have worked as a singer, bingo-caller, purser and social hostess aboard cruise ships. I have to tell you - I LOVED IT! The living accommodations were a tad small for a pack rat like me. My parents got to keep all of my treasures in boxes on the porch, in the garage, in the basement,... But I loved being part of the strange community that forms on ships. Most ships have a truly global crew. The first ship I worked on - the T.S.S. Mardi Gras for Carnival Cruise line - had as many as 42 different nationalities represented in the crew. The Mardi Gras was a small ship by today's standards and still there were people from 42 different countries!! It was a little floating U.N. These people were my family while I was at sea. We ate together, drank (a lot!) together and lived together in this very small community, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 6-10 months at a time.
The biggest perk about working on a cruise ship is, of course, the travel. Thanks to working on cruise ships, I have been to all 50 states and 43 countries on 4 continents. I can tell you that my list of "favorites" is very long. Here is an altered journal which I keep some of those memories in. This is where I got the idea for "Thursday Treks". "Thursday Treks" are about escape. Escaping for a moment to some of my favorite places - many will be places I have actually visited but some will be dream destinations - places I would love to see someday (if I ever get my passport renewed! oh... and win the lottery)
Today's destination: Ulvik, Norway - here is one of the spreads devoted to Ulvik from my journal.
And here I am in the hills overlooking the town and in the harbor you can see the Norwegian Sky.
Ulvik is my favorite place on this planet! I spent one perfect day there over 10 years ago. Funny, how one perfect day can cement a place on your mind. I was working as a purser onboard the Norwegian Sky. I had the lucky privilege of being a part of the crew who lived on the ship while it was still being built and then had the honor of taking it out on it's inaugural cruise season. Anyway... I'm getting off-topic :P One of the ports we visited was Ulvik, a tiny little jewel of a town set at the very end of the Hardanger Fjord in Norway.
A few of us set out that day to hike through the hills above the town. We wanted to see the harbor and the fjord from great heights and we certainly did! I can't believe how much we saw that day. We got a map from the tourist info desk at the lone hotel in Ulvik and set off on foot. We visited a beautiful little church which had the most fantastic painted decoration on the inside. The church really was very small and, from the outside, didn't look like much. Now, here's the thing about me, I am not religious in any sense of the word but I love to visit churches - not the new ones with their polyester carpeting and shiny woodwork. I love to visit OLD churches and Europe is the ideal place for old churches. They are full of history and art - you really can sense the timelessness of some of these places - some would call it divine but I'm not that faithful. There is just an energy left by the people, sometimes multitudes, who have passed through the doors and by the times the place has seen. It's a bit like counting the rings in a tree and figuring out where each ring falls in our human history. A church had stood on this spot since the year 1200. THE YEAR 1200!!! And the original stood until 1710. An alter piece which dates from around 1630 depicting the Last Supper is still used in the present building, which was built in 1857. Inside are the most beautiful painted decorations!! Here is a picture of a picture but I hope you can get the idea.
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