Hello again boys and girls, or even bonjourno!!!!

I am currently in Italy on a tour bus on my way to Bracciano Castle... Exciting!!!

It is so lovely and warm here, ok maybe not warm but hot!!! Love it!!! What's the temperature in England today? 10 Celsius??? Haha!

So I'm midway through my second cruise of this contract and I've finally found my feet!
I think at first I was just a bit home sick and struggling to refind my place on the ship, but since then I've been to a few gatherings with old friends and its feeling like home again :-)

Norway was beautiful, absolutely stunning!!! And I did manage to get out and see a few places... I can't remember what I wrote in my last blog so I'm sorry if I repeat myself..
Anyway, I climbed a large hill/ mountain in flom... It was great, all because I wanted to see a waterfall... It was so worth it!! Beautiful views of the ship and landscape... I was tempted to go to the very top and beyond but I had visions of myself getting lost and I can't speak Norwegian so I would've been up the creek!! I did meet a very lovely horse, but I have my doubts on its nationality, because it sounded English!! Ha ha haaaa... I know I'm hilarious!
In Bergen I went on a date with Katie to a lovely restaurant.... It was our first date in a while and by rights she should've paid... The age of chivalry is dead!!! But anyway it was good, I love Bergen because its quite metropolitan but retains its quaint charm.

Now onto this cruise, and what a bloody long cruise it is!!! But it's ok, I'm a tiny bit tired but hey, I'm in Italy! I can't complain!!!
Well I can and I'm going to... For all those people who think I just go out to sea and don't do any bloody work... 5 days of 13 hour shifts!! 5 days!!! 5!!! And then do I get a day off? No!! Then we work some more hours the next day and the next... Infact ill work it out for you, in the last 9 days I've worked almost 100 hours! Try that! But anyway, rant over... :-p
Needless to say as soon as we got to our first port, which was Malaga, we hit the beach!! It was 27 degrees!! And I went in the sea!! And lost helena's sunglasses... Was worth it though! The sun revitalises me!!! I felt so good after and I'm starting to rebuild my tan!
Yesterday we had an amazing day and went to Pisa! It was out of this world!!! And yes, as you can see we did the tourist thing of pushing the tower up... Yeah, it's cheesy and sad but you have to do it! Somebody previously told me that the tower is anticlimactic.... I did not find that at all... It was beautiful! And then we had Italian food, of course, Spaghetti Bolignaise!! Nom nom nom!!
And I bought Helena a new pair of "authentic" rayban sunnies from a "trustworthy" man... He tried to con me out of 50 euro! Ich don't think so!! So 5 euros it was hahaha!!!

I'm so sorry if this blog sounds a bit wooden, I'm not well at the moment... I'm suspecting tonsillitis or throat infection... I'm knackered and can't swallow ( oh behave!!!!!) and just generally don't feel well.... I've been told its just a dry throat.... Like my cough was just a dry cough before (it was pocketed pneumonia) so I'm not convinced, I think I know my body better than anyone to know what's a cough/ sore throat to what's pneumonia/ throat infection... Hot water, honey and lemon it is!! Maybe some alcohol to kill the germs!

Anyway we have just arrived at the castle so I better go!!!

Ciao ciao!!!! Xxxx
Ps it looks like the Italian place from twilight new moon, hope I'm not lunch!!!

Pps. Just finished the tour now. It was quite good and picturesque and interesting. The castle was beautiful with amazing views and great exhibits... The towns themselves, well imagine old Sicily back in the mafia times ( like 1960s bertolli adverts) so all the old buildings painted orange, yellow and cream and the people sitting or standing at their balcony windows.... It was like that... I half expected a old fashioned cycle to come past me and an old lady with a scarf round her grey hair haha stereotype!!
The only problem is that there was nothing to do walking rounder towns. The shops were closed, the restaurants were closed... I really wanted a pizza! I know I'm not allowed but it has to be done!!
Oh we'll, I'm going to Pompeii tomorrow! Looking forward to that, hopefully it's better!!!!