1 year with HAL

July 1, 2013: Venice
So marks my 1st year with HAL! And what a great way to spend it, on a ship, in Venice!

It was a sea morning, so we had hot chocolate up in the loft while we played Scattegories and Super Mario Bros. It was a nice, quiet-seeming morning. After that, I had lunch and stayed there for a really long time.

People kept coming and going and I stayed the whole time chatting with them since I didn’t know what I was going to do off-ship. Two of the HAL Cats, Tai and Jonny, were there at the end of the lunch rush and we talked for a while and ended up getting off together. We took the ‘people mover’ (aboveground metro with three stops) to the city, and wandered around the streets and over bridges trying to find St Mark’s Square. My camera battery died after two pictures, so Jonny let me use his. I now have lots of pictures of buildings and bridges and gondolas and water.

We looked in a few shops as we wandered, admiring the many different kinds of masks around. No photos allowed in the mask shops though sadly. It was fun hanging out, talking, getting to know one another, and just away for a while. For one of the first times (aside from yesterday in Croatia) it really felt like I was somewhere foreign that I’ve never been before, that I could get lost in while hanging out with friends and laugh about it because it’s all so new and awesome. It’s different from anywhere I’ve been before. I’ll admit though, it is somewhat different than I expected. I expected there to be more water I guess. I always kind of imagined Venice being completely water based, the buildings basically just islands, and the ONLY way to get around on small streets with bridges and boats. There are quite a few streets that aren’t even connected to water though, we walked around for about an hour or so trying to find the Square, and we couldn’t see water for at least half that time. It’s still amazing and beautiful, and there are tons of bridges and water!

Once we found the Square, we walked around for a bit, taking pictures, walking through the market with art and the typical souvenir stuff, and then walked in a circle back to where we started in the Square. The square is a rectangle more so than a square. Running along three sides of it is a huge kind of open mall. Tall buildings with big columns, and walkways, with shops further in. There are also a few restaurants mixed in with the stores, all seating is in the square outside, and there’s a few live bands playing while patrons sit with their coffees and watch all the tourists walk around. The fourth side of the square is taken up by a giant cathedral- I guess it’s St Marks’. There’s a long line of tourists waiting to go in to the cathedral, which has a section that is also a museum. One corner next to the cathedral is a tower of some sort, which tourists can pay to go up. I have no idea of the significance of this tower, and the line for it isn’t nearly as long as the cathedral museum. People at the top were waving down at someone they knew, but when I looked around, no one was waving back, so Jonny, Tai and I waved back at them. I think a few more strangers have pictures of me, waving at them.

Jonny wanted to go to the music store that we’d seen on the way, so we started to make our way back that direction, but ended up getting distracted and going a different way. At least we didn’t have to be back on the ship anytime soon! Tai left to go get some wifi to see if his family was in Venice yet since they’re getting on the ship tomorrow. Jonny and I walked around, taking pictures, talking and admiring Venice and all the gondolas going around. After a while, I saw some familiar shapes sitting at a restaurant and accidently shouted “Club HAL.” April and Leah looked up, so I went to go talk to them for a bit while Jonny talked to one of the cast members I hadn’t noticed who was sitting at one of the other tables. We joined tables and chatted until Leah and April left. Larissa, the dancer, ordered something to eat which made me and Jonny think about food, so we split a pizza before the three of us headed back in the direction of the ship. We found Tai again, as he was heading back to the ship as well and we all caught the ‘people mover’ towards the port. One of teens and his family were in our car, so I spent the ride talking to them.

It had been a nice afternoon, but I’d walked a lot, so was pretty tired by the time I got back to the ship so I took a nap until nearly time for work. Work tonight was good. Most of the teens came. We played card games, foosball, air hockey, they took some group pictures and then the group started to leave. It funnily enough ended up with a group of boys playing Halo, while a group of girls had a dance party on the other side of the room. They were all enjoying themselves though, and didn’t want to separate when I had to kick them out at midnight. I stayed late to put up names on the wall of all the teens next cruise and take down those from this cruise. That took a bit longer than expected, mainly because I had to cut up lots of tape!