Nynashamn

Here I am, with my sixth of twelve cruises just underway, sixty-seven days before starting the long journey back to Texas, and I’m already starting to regret what I’ve missed.

I haven’t been to Stockholm, but the odds mitigate against that because the passengers have to take a train to get there and they are tendered to the shore in the early morning hours, when no self-respecting musician would be awake. Even if I were awake then (as I was today due to a combination of the anchor chain roaring next to my head, Rob coming in from a night in the crew bar, and an irrational hunger for breakfast) I’d have to wait for a tender that could take me, which could take hours if the security guys were grumpy. I haven’t spent much time in St. Petersburg, just twice off the ship in ten days in port, but there have been some problems there, and the cost of taking the bus—the only way we can get off without a seamans’ book—is ten bucks, not huge, but enough to make me want to justify a trip. (Ten bucks is enough to feed a family of four for how many days, I wonder?) On the other hand I get a lot of writing done when everyone just leaves the ship.

Tallinn is a nice place for a walk around, Gdynia is a place where the prices are right and the sights are easily seen.

Copenhagen is moderated by the value of their currency, as is Oslo, recently named the most expensive city on earth, eclipsing even Tokyo. There’s still a public park with an extensive sculpture garden in Oslo that I want to see. It’s just a tram ride from the ship, but our time is short there, and I have no Norwegian currency.

A unique feature of this cruise is that each port has its own currency. In Denmark it’s Danish Kroner, in Sweden it’s Swedish Kroner (no relation), Helsinki actually uses the Euro, Russia uses the once-mighty Ruble, Estonia has its Crowns, Poland the Zloty, Norway the Norwegian Kroner (not interoperable with any of the other Kroners), and on the occasions when we visit Warnemunde, we again use the Euro. The dollar is not accepted, as a rule, in any of the ports.

It’s the Tower of Babel of Currencies here. I don’t change from dollars unless absolutely necessary. I still have what appears to be about $12 in Zlotys, but I’ll have no trouble circulating that into the local economy.

Today is the big internet day. I discovered a television store in Nynashamn where the young guy in charge has set up an internet cafe in the basement. Last time through he promised to have wireless set up and running and tables and umbrellas set up on the sidewalk. All well and good, but I need a power hookup so I may still be in the basement. The connection is 30 megabits, MUCH better than the ship’s satellite. Cheaper too. It costs 20 Swedish Korner or about 3 and a half bucks for an hour. (Plus another 50 cents or so in tax to keep the Swedish system rolling along.)

I’d sooner not see the sights in St. Petersburg, the gilded domes and the collection of priceless art, than miss out on an internet connection fast enough to Skype, collect a few podcasts, and get my email.

The bad news for last: We are still on Red Alert (the dreaded Norwalk Virus, which causes mostly passengers to hurl and poop at the same time alerts the doctors, who have some formula), since St. Petersburg last week. Staff mess is our only option and we’re down in the dumps for it. We get punished as the vectors of this problem, when we the infection starts gloom descends. Same thing with PAT testing, which security has made into the big Nazi room shakedown thing. Yesterday they came ‘round and confiscated several transformers, wall warts, and power strips. They make us feel like criminals and, not wanting to feel like one, I went down with Rob and got all my stuff approved, by these guys who barely even looked at my stuff. It seems that they had some problems with crew bringing on board cooking equipment of all sorts, and in their wisdom they decided they had to launch a jihad against people with laptops and iPods, like me. How you go from deep fat fryers and crock pots to iPods is beyond me, but I need some help with the Red Alert thing as well.

Ever onward.