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| SANTORINI, GREECE |
ENGLISH TRANSLATION:
CLEITON BOTELHO
E ai galera td bem? Espero q sim...
What’s up? Hope you’re all fine...
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| SANTORINI, GREECE |
A rotina de trabalho do Equinox foi sempre bem puxada, afinal auxiliar o gerente no comando de “grandes números” requeria muita dedicação. O telefone celular que eu tinha a bordo tocava sempre em diferentes horários e quase sempre com pedidos que me levassem ao trabalho. A minha minúscula cabine alem de quente ainda me proporcionava dividir um muito pequeno banheiro; Jack que morava em outra minuscula cabine era o meu colega de banheiro e graças a Deus sempre nos entendemos bem. A recompensa por tanto trabalho era o entrosamento da galera e toda a diversão que tínhamos quanto estávamos juntos
The Equinox work routine was always quite hard, as helping the manager in charge of "considerable numbers" required a lot of dedication. The cell phone I had onboard used to play at different times and often with requests that would take me to work. My tiny cabin in addition to heat forced me to share a very small bathroom as well, Jack who was living in another tiny cabin was my bathroom mate and thanks to God we always got along well. The reward for work that much was the team bond and all the fun we used to have when we were together.
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CELEBRITY SOLSTICE AND CELEBRITY EQUINOX IN KUSADASI, TURKEY |
Com o passar do tempo às afinidades definiram os grupinhos, mas o time da loja manteve uma boa parcela de assíduos freqüentadores do crew bar e crew parties. Era bem legal ver um grande time da loja, com mais de 10 diferentes nacionalidades tendo um bom entrosamento. E claro que havia divergências e nem tudo era alegria, mas era um bom time e conseguimos fazer coisas bem legais juntos, como o dia no parque aquático de Kusadasi, na Turquia. O grande numero de tripulantes e o tamanho do navio não ajudava muito na questão de conhecer pessoas de outros departamentos, mas mesmo assim consegui conhecer muita gente legal.
Over time the affinities defined the groups, but the shop team kept a good portion of faithful patrons of the crew bar and crew parties. It was nice to see a large team, with over 10 different nationalities having a good relationship. Of course there were disagreements and it was not all joy, but it was a good team and we managed to do cool stuff together, like the day at Water Park in Kusadasi, Turkey. The large number of crew and vessel size did not help much meeting people from other departments, but I still managed to meet many nice people.
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WITH EHAB AND BARBARA IN ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT |
Devido ao trabalho de porto eu não pude descer em Oslo e confesso que fiquei bem chateado quando vi o navio deixando o porto, pois o lugar parece lindo. A gente fazia embarque de passageiros em Civitavecchia, na Itália, mas esse era um dia que nenhum de nos da loja conseguíamos sair por mais de 2 horas. O maximo que dava tempo era pra ir ate a cidade comer algo e voltar. Ainda bem que esse foi um porto que aproveitei bem nos meus contratos anteriores. O lado bom era que só tínhamos IPM (in port maning) nos portos de over night e a minha posição me dava o privilegio de ser excluído.
Due to work I could not get off in Oslo and I confess that I was quite upset when I saw the ship leaving the port, because the place looks gorgeous. The boarding was in Civitavecchia, Italy, and it was a day none of us could leave the store for more than two hours. The maximum we could do was to go downtown to eat something and come back. I am thankful this was a port of call in which I got to know well on my previous contracts. The good thing was we only had IPM (In Port Maning) whenever there was an overnight and my position gave me the privilege of being skipped of it.
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WITH EHAB IN ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT |
O cruzeiro inaugural do Equinox foi pela costa da Noruega e a temporada no Mediterrâneo era basicamente entre Itália, Grécia, Turquia e dois paises que não havia visitado antes: Egito e Israel. Confesso que gostei bastante desse itinerário, mas morria de saudades do itinerário da Island Cruises que a gente estava sempre na Espanha e na Franca. O único refresco foi uma parada em Barcelona e Cartagena no inicio e fim da temporada. Ainda tivemos uma parada em Lisboa e novamente o Leandro foi mega amigo e me ajudou a fazer varias coisas necessárias como comprar novas lentes de contato e comer comida brasileira.
The inaugural cruise of the Equinox was through the coast of Norway and the Mediterranean season was basically between the Italy, Greece, Turkey, and two countries that had not visited before: Egypt and Israel. I confess that I really like that route, but missed quite a lot Island Cruises itinerary, where we were always in Spain and France. The only refreshment was stop in Cartagena and Barcelona at the beginning and end of the season. We also had a stop in Lisbon and Leandro was again a mega friend and helped me make several things such as buying new contact lenses and eating Brazilian food.
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| CAIRO, EGYPT |
O navio so fez uma escala em Mykonos e a lenda diz que o capitão grego decidiu que o novo navio dele atracaria no porto ao invés de fazermos operacao de tender, pois havia outros grandes navios que também tinham escala por la nesse dia. Saímos de Kusadasi no final do dia e a exatamente a meia-noite estávamos ancorando na famosa ilha grega. Nem preciso dizer que foi festa entre a tripulação.
In Greece there was a day that the ship left Santorini when it was night and I could see the fantastic sunset from the mountain. In one of the following scales it was nice to meet Ailton, catch up with him and go down the mountain mounted on a donkey. The ship only made one stopover in Mykonos and the legend says that the Greek captain decided that his new ship would berth at the port instead of having tender operation because there were other large vessels there as well. We left Kusadasi at the end of the day and exactly at midnight we were anchoring in the famous Greek island. Needless to say that it sounded like party to the entire crew.
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ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT VISITING THE VISION OF THE SEAS |
Era começo de outubro, já estava frio em Mykonos e a ilha não estava cheia como costuma estar na alta temporada, mas foi um dos overnights mais divertidos da minha vida a bordo. Somente voltei pro navio às 8 horas da manha, dormi e ainda pude sair pela tarde afinal o navio só navegou a noite. Na turquia o único porto era Kusadasi, mas era ótimo para comer, fazer compras, ir no Mama Mia (bar de um ex- tripulante turco), usar internet e ate mesmo ir na praia. Em duas dessas paradas foi bem legal encontrar o Celebrity Solsitice e poder ver as semelhanças entre os navios. Teve um grupo de shoppies que se divertiu bastante, pois já haviam trabalhado na abertura do Solstice.
It was early October, it was already cold in Mykonos and the island was not as full as it usually is during the high season, but it was one of the funniest overnights of my life on board. Just got back to the ship at 8 o'clock in the morning, then I slept and I could still get off the ship in the afternoon because she set sail only at night. In Turkey, Kusadasi was the only port, but it was great to eat, shop, go to Mama Mia (a former Turkish crewmember Bar), use internet and even go to the beach. In two of those stops it was nice to have Celebrity Solstice with us and see the similarities between the vessels. There was a group of shoppies that had lots of fun, because they had already worked on the opening of the Solstice.
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ALEXANDRIA, EGYPT VISITING THE VISION OF THE SEAS |
No Egito o legal era o overnight que proporciona praticamente 2 dias de descanso na escala. Ir ver as pirâmides no Cairo foi algo que so fiz uma vez já que a viagem de Alexandria durava quase 3 horas de ida e mais 3 horas de volta no ônibus. Entre a tripulação foi quando começamos a ter as famosas crew parties no deck 16, o deck aberto no alto do navio, então praticamente ninguém saia à noite nesse porto. Mas foi em Alexandria que tive o maior numero de encontros com tripulantes da Island Cruises. Essa a cidade que o Ehab vive, ele foi mega legal e por duas vezes me levou pra conhecer vários lugares da cidade. Com direito a uma bela degustação de comidas típicas árabes.
In Egypt, the overnight was nice because it provided basically two days of rest. Seeing the pyramids in Cairo was something that I’ve done only once since the trip to Alexandria lasted almost three hours to go and another 3 hours to return by bus. This was also the time when we started having the famous crew parties on the deck 16, the open deck on the top of the ship, then basically nobody used to leave the ship in the evening. But it was in Alexandria where I had the greatest number of meetings with the crewmembers from Island Cruises. That is the city where Ehab lives. He was mega cool and went sightseeing with me throughout the city twice. Of course there was tasting of typical Arab food.
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| JERUSALEN, ISRAEL |
Numa desses passeios com o Ehab encontramos a Bárbara no meio do shopping center. Na visita seguinte fui ate a gangway do Vision of the Seas ver se encontrava a Vivi e já na chegada dou de cara com o Sherek e a Paula. Resultado fiquei por um bom tempo no navio e reencontrei uma grande galera da Island Cruises.
In one of these tours with Ehab we met Barbara in the middle of the shopping mall. On the next visit I went until the Vision of the Seas gangway to see if I would find Vivi and was already on the arrival I walked into the Sherek and Paula. As a Result I stayed on the ship for a long time met lots of people from Island Cruises.
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| DEAD SEA, ISRAEL |
Israel foi mega interessante e fascinante, visitei varias lugares e fui ate sozinho de trem a Tel Aviv. O único incomodo era o rigoroso sistema de segurança no porto e nos demais lugares fechados, tudo e revistado. Como por la o serviço militar e obrigatório para homens e mulheres e super comum ver jovens de uniformes e armados pelas cidades. No trem de volta de Tel Aviv tinha um rapaz de cerca de 20 anos cochilando no banco de frente pro meu com uma metralhadora no colo, só rezei pra ele não acordar assustado de algum pesadelo.
Israel was mega interesting and fascinating, I visited several places and even went to Tel Aviv by train by myself. The only discomfort was the strict security at the port and at the other closed places, everything was searched. As the military service is compulsory for both men and women, it is very common to see young people in uniform and armed around the cities. On the train back to Tel Aviv there was a boy about 20 years of dozing on the bench right in front mine with a machine gun on his lap, I just prayed for him not to wake up scared from any nightmare.
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| MASADA, ISRAEL |
Na Itália o navio ainda fazia escala em Nápoles e era ótimo poder passar mais tempo nesse porto que eu já conhecia e adoro; mesmo com todo o “caos” da cidade. Foi nessa cidade que passei um dos dias mais legais a bordo do Island Escape que também estava no porto nesse dia. Infelizmente era pouco tempo pra passar com tanta gente amiga que morria de saudade; mas lógico que fiquei um bom tempo com a Paty.
In Italy the ship was still calling at Naples and it was great to spend more time in that port that I already knew and love, even with all the "chaos" from that city. It was here in this city that I spent one of the coolest days aboard the Island Escape which was also in the port at that day. Unfortunately, the time was too short to spend with such friendly people I was missing badly, but obviously that I spent a good time with Paty.
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| TELAVIV, ISRAEL |
Antes do fim da temporada do Equinox no Mediterrâneo e de irmos pro Caribe houve varias mudanças na tripulação e lógico que o clima mudou um pouco, mas vou deixar essas historias para um próximo post.
Before the end of the Med season at Equinox, and also before going to the Caribbean there were several crew changes and of course that the environment changed a bit, but I'll leave those stories for a future post.
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ISRAEL: HAIFA, CAPHARNAUN, JORDAN RIVER AND GALILEA SEA |
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| WITH PEDRO IN ATHENS, GREECE |
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| RHODES, GREECE |
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| MYKONOS, GREECE |
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| WITH ALMIR IN SANTORINI, GREECE |
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| KUSADASI, TURKEY |
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| AQUA PARK IN KUSADASI, TURKEY |
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| IN NAPLES WITH EDU MEETING LISA |
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| IN NAPLES, VISITING THE ISLAND ESCAPE |
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| IN NAPLES, VISITING THE ISLAND ESCAPE |
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| IN NAPLES, VISITING THE ISLAND ESCAPE |
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| BARCELONA, SPAIN |
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| CARTAGENA, SPAIN |
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CREW COSTUME PARTY AT OPEN DECK: WITH SHOPPIES AND THE CAPTAIN |
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| CREW PARTY AT OPEN DECK |
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| CREW BAR |
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| CREW BAR |
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| 90'S CREW PARTY |
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| BRAZILIAN PARTY |
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| BRAZILIAN PARTY |
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| BRAZILIAN PARTY |
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IN PORTUGAL BEFORE GETTING ONBOARD THE EQUINOX, WITH LEANDRO: PORTO, LISBON AND FATIMA |
