So, last cruise…well actually, I don’t want to talk about last cruise – except to say this: “it’s over” and “yay”.
Moving on.
This cruise has started out much better. The guests are – so far at least – fairly laid back, with a good sense of humor, and although we had two sea days at the beginning, we are now in port days until the next turn around on the 25th. That makes life a lot less challenging for me. I still run classes on port days, but not nearly as many and they’re usually not as heavily attended. So a lot of port days means there’s time for me to chill and continue recovering from the hullabaloo that was the holidays (yup, trust me, it’s necessary :P)
We’re in St Maartin today, which is one of those ports that doesn’t have a lot to say about itself, except for one thing – it’s airport.
What’s so special about an airport you say?
Well, I’m glad you asked.
The St Maartin airport has a beach at the end of the runway. A public beach. Logically it’s called “airport beach” and every day, hundreds of people go there to watch the planes come in. Because it looks like they’re going ot land on your head. Nope, not kidding. Not even a little bit. They come in so low that it looks as if you could reach up and brush your fingertips across the bottom of an incoming airbus.
SO COOL!!!
Also very loud, although my ears didn’t pop like Amras’ did.
It was a bit of a whirlwind trip to get out there in time to actually see a plane come in (I mean after all, they’re not coming in an entertainment-based schedule) , but when we got back we were left with enough time to wander around town for a bit; where I managed to snag myself another Hard Rock Café martini glass (they are getting exceptionally hard to find), and a tiny pair of souvenir dutch shoes that I was somewhat pressured into buying by a very persuasive saleslady.
And most unexpectedly we stumbled on a movie museum! A really cool little place put together and maintained by one of the original puppet builders of the very first yoda. Tiny little place, but packed to the rafters with relaly cool stuff, including face casts of a large number of actors. I don’t think I could ever sit through having a face cast done – I remember having a half one done to create a mask in art class once, and it a very uncanny and unnerving experience. They also had dozens of original framed script pages for sale which I would gladly have bought – if only I had a major Star Wars fan in my life.
Sometimes, the quieter days are the good ones.