Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Azura January 10th - July 13th 2014

So Azura has been very different to Aurora. It took me a long time to adjust to the size of Azura and the size of the team I worked in.
Although being flown out to Barbados, Bridgetown wasn't so bad after all. It was an amazing three months to spend in the Caribbean. They are the friendliest, most chilled out people you will ever meet. They will refer to you as their friends and chat to you as if you've known them forever. And when it rains, they don't complain. They simply refer to rain as 'liquid sunshine'.

The islands although very similar, are all beautiful in their own ways. Barbados is a beautiful place to go on holiday as the island is beautiful and there is also shopping and night life. The night life is absolutely amazing in Barbados. Harbour lights being a night club on the beach, is probably the best place to go out drinking in the world!
Another one of my favourite islands was St Maarten. There is sooo much shopping to be done there. Also the beaches and places to eat are amazing. Honkey Tonks being my favourite place to eat and Airport Beach the best beach to go to. (Its called Airport beach because aeroplanes fly right over the beach!).


I only went to Grand Turk once but it was definitely a place to remember! You get off the ship and your on the beach straight away. Then go round the corner and there is Margaritaville! Was a brilliant day with the photography team.

Once we got back from the Caribbean, we did many Mediterranean cruises which I always love as I can go out jogging or just chill in the port. The best cruises I found were to Norway. Norway is such a beautiful, tranquil place. It makes a change to go somewhere in the world that is so peaceful and clean! I usually went jogging or climbing up the mountains in Norway as it was such a beautiful place to do so.
On Aurora I never had the chance to get off in Flam but on Azura I got the chance to. And it was one of the most beautiful, peaceful places I have ever visited. I got off the ship with Rose and Tom and we had the most amazing day walking through the mountains and up the mountain to the waterfall. I had a moment of feeling very fearless and free...



My last cruise of my second contract was to Russia, and I'd been looking forward to this cruise because it was my last and also because I had never been to Sweden and Russia before. The cruise was amazing and it was great to spend over night in St Petersburg just chilling at a small bar with Rose and Clancey. I visited the Peterhof Palace on the second day which was beautiful.



Like I did on my last contract, I took a polaroid in each port I was in. Here are all my polaroids from Azura...







This contract has been a very tough one as I had never spent 6 and a half months away from home before and I'm not gonna lie I did struggle. I wanted to quit at times, wanted to strangle people at times and wanted to jump off at times but looking back on it I did have an amazing time.
It is bloody hard work but its worth it to see so many places and to gain experience in what I love doing.