life of a cruise ship nurse: split, croatia

the ship is in split, croatia today, but i am on first call so i will not be getting off the ship.  so, on my break, i took a tour of the bridge.  i love going to the bridge. i can never get enough of it. it has the best views on the whole ship.

all this equipment. how do they keep it straight??

i am driving the ship. don't worry, i'm a doctor ;)

me laughing at the chief officer as he is taking my picture. he was telling me to be serious. not so easy to do when you are "driving the ship"

views of split, croatia from the bridge

the bow of the ship. 

the most ironic thing about the day, is that since i was on 1st call i was not going to get off the ship.  however, we had a patient that needed to be emergently disembarked right before we were going to leave the port.  so, they lowered a tender and i was able to go over to split with the patient.  so, i was able to go to split after all.  my only regret? i forgot my camera! but, when we came back to the ship, we were lifted up in the tender to the 3rd deck.  i was cracking up because there were passengers everywhere video taping and taking photos of the entire event. oh how people love a good intrigue.

this is part of the medical team heading to eat together at the tamarind. the tamarind is only my absolute favorite place to eat while on the ship. best chicken pho soup!

nino and his wife, Dora. kim the lead medical officer

jeff the crew doc and nino

kim, brad and i

brad and maureen. what a completely amazing cruise!  we had so much fun and saw so many amazing places.  i am so stinkin blessed. i just can't even believe it

life of a cruise ship nurse: santorini, greece (fira)

the last stop on our tour of the island of santorini was fira.  it is the port city.  it is almost as amazing as oia

there is the nieuw amsterdam in the caldera. such a nice view from up here

i may be obsessed with greek churches. they are amazing

views of fira

the donkey's being led up the steps.  there are like 600 steps and they are dangerous!  i walked down them and they are slick and steep. 

donkey holding cell.  i honestly feel bad for these donkey's. it is so stinkin hot here and they have to be thirsty.  i could not ever bring myself to ride one because i think they must not be happy.

the fun has to stop sometime. i am headed to work in the infirmary

we got to watch the santorini sail-away. it is stunning.  you can see the zig-zag of the walk-way up to fira that the donkeys have to take

view of santorini

i dressed in my uniform to head up and see the views

fira

on the way to oia

kim squared getting wind-blown in the sail-away

oia also has zig-zag stairway.

dr sirr in his vintage uniform. what a great day! now a formal night on the ship

life of a cruise ship nurse: santorini, greece (oia)

i am back in santorini! it is quite possibly one of my most favorite places on earth!  it is spectacularly beautiful and the people are so kind. i remember when i was a teenager i had one of those greece calendars that had all these amazing pictures of santorini. it was my absolute dream to come on vacation here. well, this is my second time here.  my dream has completely come true! times two.

today the lead nurse gave me the gift of a tour excursion.  it was a panoramic tour of santorini.  i am so stinkin lucky!  the tour took us to the highest point on santorini and then to oia and fira. this first post will cover oia.  there were way to many pictures to do the whole of santorini in one blog posting.  i just couldn't choose between them. santorini is fabulous.

clouds rolling in

church in oia

the people paint their houses white to keep them cool.  it is incredibly hot and humid here even though it looks like a desert

i love the blue and white with the bright flowers

oia

me in oia

clock tower

my absolute favorite picture of a church here in oia

the side of the mountain here in oia

door to nowhere

this looks like someones home. they have their boat anchored and if you look really closely, there are two people swimming in the water.  what a cool life!

i could not love oia more.  it is so much fun