Starting the Paris checklist

First things first - I have clean clothes!!!!! My luggage arrived tonight. Yahoo!

Second, we had a very productive day seeing the sites of Paris. First stop - Notre Dame Cathedral. Looking at the building from the outside, it is so hard to believe that it could have been started in the 12th century. It is a magnificent piece of gothis architecture. And it feels like everywhere you look you find something new.

I always enjoy the gargoyles at any venue with gargoyles, but the Saints ranked high as well here. I don't really understand how you become a saint while stepping on the little guy, but hey. 

 

I do understand that getting your head chopped off is not an impediment to becoming a saint and may in fact be an asset. And even better you may be the patron saint to this humble city (St. Denis). Even better if you can find your head and hold onto it. 

Inside, as amazing as the outside...

Back outside and a different view from Pont L'Archvehe. It's one of those lock bridges...

Dieter and Johanne wanted in on the action.

We walked along the left bank and popped into the Shakespeare and company bookstore - where 90 or so years ago you could have run into Ernest Hemingway or James Joyce. The store is wonderful, everything a book store should be. Slightly organized chaos. A solid collection with many of my favourites and I'm sure many more favourites to be found. You are also entirely surrounded by other bibliophiles, which is generally a pleasant experience. 

From there, we headed back onto the Ile de la Cite to Saint Chapelle, another gothic church, surrounded by the Palais du Justice. The line for Saint Chapelle was long and there was a sign saying they stopped letting people in between 1:00 and 2:30. It was 12:40. So we got in line. It wasn't moving quickly, so we were hedging our bets a bit. Started chatting with the people behind us in line who were from Bolivia. She told us that her grandson was at uni in Canada. In Vancouver, well turns out, with more discussion and some questions, he's actually at university in Squamish. At Quest. Small world. Anyways, Saint Chapelle, was built for King Louis IX between 1242 and 1248. When we first got in, it was nice, but I was questioning why so many people had been standing in line. Should have known, we were in the commoners area. Up a little spiral staircase and ta-da! Wow! The stained glass in this place is like nothing I've ever seen and I have been in my fair number of churches for a non- church goer. It is definitely more glass than stone. So beautiful. 

From there we kept wandering, up to the end of the island and onto Pont Neuf - which as my dad pointed out is in a scene in one of the Bourne movies. As we crossed the bridge, we headed towards our next stop, the Louvre. I'm not a big art person really. Sculpture would be my favourite, and it's the classics of those - when someone can create the likeness of a human body from stone, it amazes me, but much of the art world is wasted on me. 

But, we're in Paris, so we did the highlight tour of the Louvre. Unlike what many say, I could not spend a whole day there, let alone many, but I did enjoy our couple of hours - the Venus de Milo, the Winged Victory of Samothrace, Michelangelo's Dying Slave and Rebellious Slave and of course the Mona Lisa. 

You hear often how the Mona Lisa is much smaller than expected. I actually thought it was bigger. Probably because I had heard so many times how small it is. It is a beautiful painting, but I like the sculptures better. 

After a packed day, we headed back to Montmartre for a lovely French dinner - dessert was really the best part though. Or maybe the wine. Oh and I got to change clothes! So that was a wonderful ending to the day. 

Mais Oui! Paris.

Arrived safe and sound in Paris after a long day, a mad dash through Newark and a missing bag. Apparently it is coming on the next flight. I'm not sure I believe them. But I would like to change clothes and have some different shoes to wear. 

We arrived early in the morning so dropped dad's bag at the hostel we are staying at (making dad do this in the way that I would travel had it been just me) and then because of my clothing and shoe situation, we decided to just wander around Montemartre where our place is. We just started wandering and our first actual stop was the Montemartre cemetery - probably not most people's first stop, but hey. So we took a look at who are the famous residents of the cemetery and I knew a few names. Degas definitely jumped out as he is a painter I grew up surrounded by at the dance studio. So he was on the list to see as well as a few others. Well, we wandered and weren't finding our people, but we did have a laugh at the famille de Gas - the family of gas. It was then that dad started to laugh; we're a bit slow....de Gas = Degas. Duh.

Anyways I actually quite enjoyed the cemetery. We then we wandered and found something to eat. Then on a little mini tour of Montemontre. Up to Basilique du Sacre Coeur which was built following the Franco-Prussian war. Basically sounds like a pick-me up project following a devastating war. To go from our little area of Montemartre up to this very touristy area makes you realize how popular Paris is as a tourist destination. And we're not even at one of the major sites. 

Oh yeah, Johanne came along (and Dieter too - will put up a photo later)

From there it was down to one of Montemartre's most famous sites - the Moulon Rouge. 

After a little rest and some dinner (and still no luggage despite the statement that it would be delivered to my hotel this afternoon) we went back up to Sacre Couer for the nighttime view - including the Eiffel Tower. 

Back at the hostel and definitely ready for a sleep. Oh and a change of clothes (not bitter at all). Will have to do some shopping tomorrow. And although I know I can't complain about being forced to shop in Paris, I feel like forced shopping is not nearly as fun. Ah well. So the travel life goes I guess. 

There was only one things missing from the trip...

Yesterday was a day at sea. And for me, the morning was spent in bed. So many days with so much stuff going on and so little sleep caught up with me and I was not feeling well when I woke up. So I spent the morning catching up on some sleep as we started to make our way across the Drake Passage again. We were back on the open seas and you could definitely feel the rolling seas. 

By the afternoon I started to feel a bit better and made it up to the discovery lounge for a lecture on the 1914 Shackleton expedition. It was a really well done presentation and after spending even a bit of time in Antarctica, even when the weather was ridiculously nice, you just go, wow. That is crazy that they could survive. 

After the lecture, we had our trip trivia contest. I love trivia games. Our team - Brent, Clare, Michelle, Tom, Brooke, Marianna and me - we came in second. We ended up with the better prize too, so that was awesome. 

Post dinner, they were showing the film Endurance. I could hardly keep my eyes open, so called in an early night. However, just as I was getting into our cabin, Sam came over the PA system announcing that the weather reports were suggesting that we would be checking off the final item on our Antarctica to-do list - a Drake Passage storm. We were told that they expected to hit the storm sometime early in the morning and therefore we should be sure to secure our cabins before going to bed. Ok. So Susanne and I looked around our very messy room and started putting a few things away and putting things lower to the ground. Cameras off the desk. Put Susanne's computer away. You know. The important things. Then to bed. 

Well, sometime around 5 am this morning, my book and glasses went flying off the bedside table. We heard the thunk thunk of things falling. And then the ominous sound of something with liquid inside hitting the ground. We flicked the light switch on. Susanne hopped out of bed and very quickly dropped to her hands and knees. We had definitely hit the storm. My mattress was sliding back and forth in the bed frame and I was sliding along the top of that. We both started to laugh - I actually was laughing so hard I was crying, watching Susanne try to get around the room.  The liquid-sounding culprit was located - a bottle of red wine (unbroken). Susanne started actually securing things at this point. We took turns getting out of bed as we heard more things tumbling - from the chair almost tipping over to things falling from the little shelf in the shower to the hangers in the closet coming of the rod. The boat was rolling back and forth, way more than we had previously felt. And every once in awhile there would be that big weird air feeling, like on a roller coaster. 

Shockingly, I was actually able to fall back asleep for a bit. Susanne said it was pretty funny seeing me slide back and forth in my bed while the boat rocked. Just before 7, Susan came over the PA system to tell us that we had in fact hit a very large storm. It was expected to last at least another 5 hours. We were told to stay in our cabins, preferably in our beds, as it was safest there. The Expedition Staff would be around to check on each cabin to make sure everyone was okay and that nobody needed the doctor etc. 

A little while later, Kirsten knocked on our door and popped her head in. I was sitting on my bed, writing in my journal. Susanne was videoing the view out our window - sky....water....sky....water. We were fine. Although I told Kirsten I was getting hungry, she said she'd bring us some breakfast. 

Anyways, we were stuck in our rooms until about 10, when we were told that we would be able to leave and head up to the Discovery Lounge. They also let us know that our storm was in fact a solid storm. At its peak, we were experiencing 70 knot winds (130km/hr) and 10-12 metre swells. This put the storm between 11 and 12 on the Beaufort Scale (Violent Storm to Hurricane). So yeah. A little intense. We had now checked off the one thing missing from the trip - an eventful trip across the Drake Passage. 

When we got upstairs, everybody was telling stories about their morning. Apparently the people who were a floor below ours, their portholes were actually going under the water - yikes! Tom had rug burn along the side of his body after a trip across his cabin. Nick from Tennessee tipped right over in a chair upstairs, ripping the bolts out of the floor. Cat's bedside table ripped right out of the wall. The painting in Ben's cabin went flying across the room. Gene's suitcase lifted off a chair (where she had been packing) and landed on top of her on the bed. Apparently Susanne and I had a fairly mild experience (the bonus of being somewhere near the middle of the ship). A few things were in a state of disarray upstairs, but generally bolting things to the floor means that things stay where they should (unless Nick is sitting in it). What was amazing is that nobody was actually injured beyond minor things. Apparently the Captain had hand steered us through the storm for over 7 hours. Keeping us all safe. It was quite the experience. I apologize for the lack of photos. Somehow I missed doing that. Sorry. 

After all of that, we were back to the regularly scheduled programming. Dmitri did a talk on cold weather adaptations for sea birds. At first I thought - blah - but it turned out to be all about penguins. So that was great. My favourite part being when Dmitri would show us pictures and state whether something was cute or not. Then he made the conclusionary statement "so, if you are not cute, nobody will take care of you." Note to self. 

And then they announced that off the bow, you could see Cape Horn - the southern most tip of South America. We were getting close to land again. And would soon be out of the stormy waters. 

In the afternoon we were making our way down the Beagle Channel towards Ushuaia. The staff held a recap along with a slide show. It's hard to believe how much we've done and how much we've seen over the past week. Thank you's were given to the amazing expedition staff. Absolutely amazing!

Back - Dmitri, Susan, Randall, Scott, Frank, John, Kayak guy (never did figure out his name), Osi, Kirsten, Doug,
Front - Dr. Hansen, Sam, Katherine, Dr. Hanson, Alex

And then, a thank you and a performance by the hospitality staff. Who were also amazing. Especially Josephine, (she's not in this photo). Who kept our rooms tidy and turned down our beds every night and knew all of our names within half a day.

We docked in Ushuaia in the late afternoon. We had our last dinner on the ship tonight, looking out at the town. Some people left the ship and went into town. Our group stayed on board. Holding on to our last little bit of time together.

Clare, Me, Todd, Lise, Ben and Kyle

And where else would we spend our last night on the ship? The polar bear pub with Katherine and acoustic karaoke of course (even the bar tenders put on a show).

I am dreading tomorrow morning. I hate goodbyes.

Last landing. Sad.

Hard to believe, but yesterday was our last day in Antarctica. We had our morning polar plunge and the orca sighting. And then we were on our way to Half Moon Island. It was one more time to hang out with the penguins; to take in the icebergs; and generally just to enjoy Antarctica. Half Moon Island is a pretty little place inhabited by a whole lot of chinstrap penguins.

There is also one character who looks a little different than the rest. I could call him Tacky (shout out to my favourite penguin book of all time!) or, I could go with his real name - Mac. Mac is a macaroni penguin. There is a whole story of why they are called macaroni penguins. I think it's a pretty weak story, so I won't repeat it. I am trying to come up with a better one. Anyways, pick Mac out in this next photo. And he's not the little one. So Mac's story is interesting. He seems to have been a bit of a rebel. Or you could say, of questionable moral character, depending on your take on inter-species breeding. So Mac had a girlfriend. She was a chinstrap penguin. He was very dedicated to her, so he moved to the land of the chinstraps. He's the only macaroni on the island, but nobody seems to really care. Apparently he and his girlfriend tried for a long time, but were never successful in procreating (insert discussion about whether this was even biologically possible). His girlfriend isn't around anymore. They don't know what happened to her. But Mac stuck around and can generally be found just hanging out.

As I said, Half Moon Island is home to a lot of chinstrap penguins.

We saw a lot of different behaviours that we had discussed with the expedition staff over our time in Antarctica. It was like a highlight show. This was the most epic fight I had seen the entire time. It was actually two males both trying to steal stones from the poor lady in the bottom right. And then they ended up fighting.

And the chicks were out in force, always looking for food. So cute.

I will let you identify this next behaviour. And here is a random fact for you. Do you know how to tell the difference between the male and female penguins during breeding season? The females are the ones with footprints on their backs. No joke. 

As we toured around the island, the fog started to roll in. At one point the expedition staff started to express concern that we may be called back to the ship because of the fog. You also noted a marked temperature decrease when the fog rolled in. We didn't get called back.

This next photo - one of my absolute favourites. Can I just say again how much I love penguins?

After we had spent our alloted time on the island, Doug picked us up in the zodiac. It was our regular group (with a couple additions). I also think we became the zodiac drivers' favourite group. Scott said it is always the best with the groups that also entertain themselves. We had no problem doing that.

The fog was rolling in and out and up the mountains. 

But as I said, it was starting to get cold. It was the first time that I was really cold on the trip. Michelle and I bundled up as best we could, but we had been tricked by the sun when we were getting ready on the boat and probably hadn't brought enough to wear. Oops.

Still love the porpoising.

It was another amazing landing but sad to say goodbye to Antarctica. It was absolutely everything I wanted it to be and, in many ways, beyond what I could have imagined.  But I'll write more about that some other time.

Last night, we had a black and white celebration. Some people took this very literally. Cody's costume was pretty impressive. Good effort. New species of penguin - the Tennessee Penguin.

We also had a night of acoustic karaoke (which at moments was a really bad idea, and I clearly did not have enough to drink). However, these Aussies obviously had enough to drink and put in a solid effort with Land Down Under (although many of them seemed to not know the words or the tune). It was a great night and we definitely celebrated. Thanks Antarctica!

Swimming in Antarctica

Deception Island - we were going inside a volcano through Neptune's Bellows (great name eh?). The island is actually the caldera of an active volcano, so you only see the very top of the volcano. It is also, interestingly, one of the safest harbours in all of Antarctica (hard to believe when it is an active volcano). Anyways, the history of Deception Island has kinda three stages - whaling, science and tourism. The whaling history is clearly evident where we were landing - Whaler's Bay. I think one of the things that I noticed most was that the landscape had changed colour. It was no longer white, but more grey and black. 

As it is an active volcano, there are places where geothermally heated water is oozing out of the black sand, creating steam. I really had to laugh at the chinstrap penguins that were wandering along the beach. Our ornithologist told us that these would be the "teenage penguins", they are too young to need to be at the nesting grounds, so they hang out in interesting places.

As we walked down the black sand beach, a Weddell seal took only brief notice of us before going back to lazing in the sand.

From the beach we took a path up to Neptune's Window where you could look out from the caldera to towards the continent. Deiter and Johanne took in the views.

The path was rather interesting and a little tough to make our way up, made even more difficult because of our rubber boots. I definitely ended up with a fair bit of sand/dirt/ash, whatever it was, in my boots.

Ben, Kyle and Brent

From Neptune's Window, we headed back to the beach where the steam had increased.

Brent and Ben, in there somewhere

And then it was time. Time for the plunge. The polar plunge. We had planned on going all together, but Brent was impatient and went before some of us were even off the ship. So Ben, Cat and I went together. 2 of us wore swim suits, 1 didn't. Now, as I was explaining earlier, there is warm water oozing out of the land. So when you first hit the water, it's warm. It was about another step after this next picture that the cold water hit. And man did it hit hard. On top of that the land kinda falls away about 2 steps from this spot and if you aren't ready for it (which I wasn't), you make a very ungraceful entry into the very cold water (some were more graceful and kinda dove in, I just face planted). Definitely ended up with a mouthful of salty, cold Antarctic water. Blech. And by the way, between the cold and the mouthful of salt water, it is a little hard to breath.

Ben, Me and Cat

When your head makes it back out of the water, you kinda just go into survival mode and try to get back to shore as quickly as possible. And then at some point your body realizes it is fine and you get the big smile, and laughs, and screams.

Once on shore, Kirsten was there to greet you with a towel. But I quickly realised that there was warm water back where we had just come from. So instead of taking a towel, Cat and I returned to laze in the warm water (don't have any pictures). Eventually we got out and headed to Kirsten and her towels and stood watching a total of 97 of the 130 passengers complete the polar plunge. The ship's doctor made sure to take readings of the temperature of the water, and we were informed that it was 1 degree celsius,  2 degrees above freezing for salt water. Not bad. Polar plunge complete.

I just had to put this next photo in. When Michelle swam back, I have to say, she was the only one who didn't looked panicked, she still looked like a swimmer. And makes it look like it's no big deal.

After getting back to the ship, we were off again, leaving the caldera and heading through Neptune's Bellows again. This is what the one side of the bellows looks like.

As we headed towards our final landing, we had an awesome sighting of orcas. Different than the orcas I am used to, but awesome.

We have all been focusing on taking as much in as possible and its super sad to think that it's almost over.