Swimming with Stingrays

Last week, my friend Vicky (another crew member on the Valor) organized for us both to go swimming with Stingrays on Grand Cayman Island. This is one of the popular shore excursions on the island, though it has been less popular in the last few months because of the death of a certain high profile Australian! It was my first time off the ship at Grand Cayman island, so it was a really nice way to get out and explore a little. Probably the most amazing thing about the island is how clear the water is. This is really a part of the world worth visiting. Even though the island is fairly built up, the beaches and water are so clean and beautiful.

The shopping centre across from the Pier had a few interesting extra attractions, too – a cage of iguanas and some parrots flying around the centre.

We took a short boat ride out to the stingray sandbar and were briefed on how to pat the stingrays. I was expecting them to be quite small – there were some at the Long Beach Aquarium that you could pat and I thought these would be similar. I must admit I was a bit surprised when I saw how big they are.

We did get in and swim with them and pat them – they are pretty tame and there are always handlers around to look after them. I held one and even kissed it – apparently it’s 7 years of good luck! This is Vicky in the water with one of the stingrays...

All in all, it was a pretty amazing experience!

We also visited Roatan Island, Honduras last week. Apparently there are monkeys here and I am looking forward to doing one of the tours through the jungle!

Book – Man Walks Into A Room
Nicole Krauss

The first novel by Nicole Krauss (author of The History of Love which I read last month) is about a College Professor who loses much of his memory and how he readjusts to life with no recollections after the age of 12. He does not remember his wife or his mother’s death and struggles to find meaning in being a blank page to write new memories on.

The novel is very philosophical in style and is beautifully written. The sort of book that you could rush through but prefer to take slowly to enjoy the prose. I am writing this only a few hours after finishing it and am still feeling a little unsure about whether I enjoyed it or not. It is quite different in style from The History of Love, though the characters are very fully formed as in her more recent book, this one is not as plot-driven. It certainly presents some very interesting ideas and challenged me to think around the central ideas of the novel. I suspect it will continue to stay in my thoughts in the next few weeks and grow from there.

Book – Slaughterhouse Five
Kurt Vonnegut

My friend Rita gave me this book to read when she visited me in Dresden because it refers to the bombing of the city and seemed appropriate to read while we were both there. I had not read anything by Vonnegut before and I really enjoyed his quirky take on the structure of the novel.

The story is written with a very loose sense of chronology and centres on Billy Pilgrim and his life experiences which include time as a Prisoner of War in World War 2 Germany, an alien abductee, a plane crash survivor and a middle class optometrist with a wife and children.

It is an anti-war novel in many ways, but not in an aggressively political way. Many people die during the course of the novel and the narrator marks each one by saying “So it goes”. This serves as a reminder of how valueless life seems in war situations, but also gives each death greater importance.

It is difficult to say that I enjoyed this novel, but I am glad that I have read it. One of the critic quotes on the cover says “A funny book at which you are not permitted to laugh, a sad book without tears”. This is exactly how I felt about this book – not the most enjoyable read, but definitely an interesting one that has made an impression on me and will stay with me.

Book – A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian
Marina Lewycka

This was the third of the set of books I bought in Dresden and to be honest, I only really finished it just so I could say that I’d actually finished all three books. It tells the story of an old man who plans to marry a much younger Ukrainian women to help her stay in England, and the ensuing battle with his daughters to stop him. It is written as a humourous book, but I actually found it fairly dull and uninteresting. This was a book that passed time and I was quite happy to leave it on the bookshelf in the apartment in Dresden. Probably enough said.

Recent Photos

Here are some photos from the last week or so on the Caribbean and of the Carnival Valor where I am now working.

The Valor docked in St Thomas, Virgin Islands

The harbour at St Thomas

The Lindy Hop Piano Bar on board the Carnival Valor (the theme of this bar is Charles Lindbergh!)

A beautiful day on the beach at St Maarten (or St Martin if you’re on the French side of the island…)

I am feeling very settled now on the ship and 2 weeks have already gone by really quickly. I will be back in Australia before I know it! I’m spending as much time exploring the ports as possible since I am only here for such a short time and they really are beautiful ports with lots to see and do. My free time on the ship is mostly spent watching DVDs, reading and sleeping. I’m working through the final season of The West Wing at the moment and will have to get to Series 4 of 24 at some point on this contract. I’ve set up a Netflix account too so that I can rent DVDs by mail rather than buying them and being faced with getting them home at the end of the contract!

Home on the Valor

I knew it would be a good contract when the security guys (who I'd never met before) greeted me with "Welcome Home". Though this is only a short contract, it felt really good to be coming back onto a ship again. My second contract with Carnival is far less scary than my first and it feels really comfortable and familiar to be straight back into ship life.

The Valor is a huge ship - one of the biggest in Carnival's fleet and also the second newest. It is a beautiful ship and it does a really good run. This week we have already been in Belize, Honduras and Grand Cayman. Tomorrow we are in Cozumel, Mexico before docking in Miami on Sunday. And that's just one of the 3 different 7 day itineraries this ship does!

My cabin on here is great - I have a porthole, a fridge and everything! It will take a while to get to know the other crew members, but everyone has been really friendly and helpful so far.

It's so nice to be doing this sort of high energy gig again too - really good responsive crowds and it all feels really good - the bar on here is much better than on the Paradise (my last ship), and the revolve works which is always fun. Its also a really good schedule - 10pm - 2am most nights so its real party stuff which I love!

I am pretty sure this time will fly and then on the 19th March I start the epic journey back to Australia for a few months.

I'll post some pics of the ship and my bar in the next few days!

Book – Firestorm – The Bombing of Dresden 1945
Edited by Paul Addison and Jeremy A. Crang

Living in Dresden for the last month has made me fascinated with this city’s role in World War II, specifically the bombing that destroyed the city on February 13, 1945. As I walk among the beautiful restored buildings, I am amazed and saddened by how many beautiful things were destroyed and how many lives were lost here. There are reminders everywhere – from buildings still in ruins, to memorials to lives lost and buildings that have been rebuilt, but with clear signs of their ruins. Even one of the art exhibitions I visited had constant reminders of World War II as the paintings were all once owned by private Dresden collectors but were scattered around the world because of the war.

This fascination, particularly with how the buildings have been restored so magnificently, led me to this book – my first non-fiction book in a very long time – and a book that is primarily about the history of war – definitely not my usual choice of subject matter!

The book is a collection of essays and papers presented at a summit of experts about the Dresden bombing. It presents a variety of viewpoints from a range of authors from all over the world. It explores the lead up and planning of the bombing, the execution of the attack, the destruction of the city, the impact on the people and the restoration of the buildings before and after the collapse of the GDR. One particularly interesting chapter is the story of Victor Klemperer, a Jew living in Dresden during the bombings whose life was effectively saved – he was due to be transported to a labour camp in the next few days. Another chapter discusses the question “Was Dresden a War Crime?”.

The range of opinions and analysis of historical viewpoints is particularly interesting. The death toll of the bombing in Dresden is reported in various accounts of the bombing anywhere between 25 000 and 300 000 people. There are difficulties finding an actual figure as there were so many refugees in the city at that time and many bodies were totally incinerated. Most modern historians agree that the figure is most likely around 35 000. The exaggerated figure came about from Nazi propaganda and forged documents that are now discredited. At the time these figures were published, however, the Dresden bombing seemed responsible for more deaths than Hiroshima and the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Little wonder that the bombing of Dresden is such a significant event in World War II history and an event of deep regret for most of the Allied forces. Winston Churchill, who was significant in ordering the attacks on Dresden, even expressed remorse over the bombing shortly afterwards.

There is much discussion in the book about whether the Russian army requested the attack and also whether it aided the war on the Eastern front to a significant degree. There is also a great deal said about the strategy of bombing, particularly with regard to the destruction of civilian targets. This seems so topical still.

I am still surprised that I found this book so interesting and engaging as it is so far out of my usual range of reading. It certainly deepened my appreciation of the beautiful city I was living in this month and confirmed my sadness over the destruction and death caused by war.

Book – The History of Love
By Nicole Krauss

This was the second novel in the pack of 3 that I bought recently. The linking theme seems to be the effects of World War II on Eastern Europeans and the follow-on effects in contemporary society.

The History of Love is based around 2 vividly drawn characters. A Polish writer in his 80s now living in New York and a 14 year old girl who is named after the female character in a book called The History of Love. The writer is lonely and does all he can to make sure he is noticed before he dies and the young girl is desperately trying to find a way (preferably a man) to make her mother happy. The story unfolds from a number of perspectives, constantly shifting location and period but the characters hold it together. In many ways, the structure (and themes) of the novel are very similar to Jonathon Safran Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated and it was a surprise to find that Nicole Krauss is Safran Foer’s wife. It is interesting how similar their works seem, but in interviews, Krauss suggests that it is because of their similar ways of thinking and interests, rather than collaboration.

This is a beautiful novel and once again, I feel I read it too quickly. The way the stories interweave is enchanting and often suspenseful – one story picks up just as something important is to be revealed in another. The characters are very real and the language and style is very readable – the sort of literary fiction that you can read without a thesaurus on hand. It is also a beautiful statement about the power of literature and the art of writing.

I would definitely recommend this novel and I am looking forward to reading Krauss’ first novel and Safran Foer’s 2nd (which apparently discusses the bombing of Dresden, which I am particularly fascinated by at the moment).