7 – It’s been a while

It’s been quite a while since I last wrote, so while I wait for my pictures to upload on this VERY slow Mexican internet I thought I’d start to type. I don’t have much news to write about. Things are becoming routine and I know what to expect from most cruises.

There are however still things that keep surprising me. Some are:
1. How crystal clear and blue the sea is in Mexico. As I’m sitting here I can see at least 5 shades of blue in the ocean in front of me. When snorkelling here, I can see so far underwater and the fish are so clear and tame. They swim right around me, no problems. To get lots of little fishes to come closer, just throw some bread or something into the water and they come a swimming.
2. How many more freckles I have, unfortunately no tan yet.
3. A little girl peed on my backdrop while I was photographing her a few cruises ago – very unexpected! She just wouldn’t smile so I got her mother to stand behind me so she’d at least look in my direction. Eventually she said “potty” and then it was too late. Housekeeping!
4. I got locked out of my room the other day. I had my key with me and it just wouldn’t work. One of the engineers was passing by and tried to help. He asked “this is your room?” – yes – “you are not drunk?” – no – it still wouldn’t open. So I called my roommate. Her key wouldn’t work either. We called housekeeping. They brought the master key. It didn’t work either. They called the joiner/locksmith guy. He gave the lock a bit of a knock and some oil and it worked! So much for the early night I was hoping for.
5. Again about the sea – I have seen it in so many different moods. There is one area we sail though on the way back from Cozumel where it is so calm. I have never seen the sea so beautiful in my life before. The one day it was completely flat, hardly a ripple in sight. The sky was blue and filled with big puffy white clouds. The sea reflected everything like a mirror. It was so beautiful, I wish I had a camera with me although it would probably not have looked nearly as good.
6. How different most of the guests actually are. I met a South African couple (guests) this cruise and could tell they weren’t American from less than a minute of watching them before I even said hello. They were so much friendlier, more relaxed and loving than most of the other guests. The accent gave it away 100% when I said hello : )
7. Last time we were in Cozumel, there were also two Royal Caribbean ships docked here. They were diverted due to storms. The Freedom of the Seas (used to be the biggest ship in the world) and the Oasis of the Seas (now the biggest ship in the world). The Oasis was HUGE! And here I thought my ship was quite big, we’ve got nothing on them. The ship has a central park, ice rink, climbing wall, and diving show pool. Crazy! Google it!
8. I have a twin on board – Angie, an American dancer. We’ve even got some of the crew confused. Without fail I get asked every cruise if I’m the dancer too. I’ve given up saying no. So I get lots of “wow, you really do everything!” comments. It’s nice to have people think I’m super woman.

So I never finished uploading all the pictures, the internet’s just too slow/busy and now I’ve been cut off but it’s time to be off and back to work anyway.
Until next time. xx

6: 1 Month

I have wanted to write for so long, but just haven’t had time. I have a list of things to write about and it keeps getting longer and longer. I have now been on board the Ecstasy for just over 1 month – it feels like much longer but at the same time not long at all. Time seems to just fly, three cruises = 2 weeks and the last 5 day cruise just vanished somewhere.

For my one month celebration of being on board I thought it would be nice to go to the disco or crew bar for a drink with some new friends, but in reality, I was signed off by the doctor, not to work and given lots of pills. An early night of lots of sleep (I guess it was memorable). The reason: bug bites or a rash that was starting to get infected. And how did this happen? Two days earlier there was a crew excursion in Cozumel. The tour was free but they asked that you give a donation. It was to raise money for the family of a crew member who died while on board (a few days before I started here) – quite hectic news to be greeted with when I first came on board a month ago! Anyway back to the shore excursion. It was so much fun! We got on a catamaran boat and sailed away from the cruise ship – with sun, friends, free drinks and good music. The first stop was snorkelling not too far from the ship and shore. My first time snorkelling and I loved it. We were given all the gear we needed and then just floated in the sea looking down on a world below. I saw so many little fishes and even a barracuda surrounded by a school of fish creating a doughnut ring around it – they didn’t want to get too close. I took an underwater camera with me, let’s hope some of the photos came out, they still need to be developed. Next stop was a beach where we could swim in the sea, go horseback riding, sea kayaking, lie in the sun, eat and slide down big blow up slides and jump on a trampoline (yes in the sea). I did everything except lie in the sun, and for the whole time I am very proud to say I did not get sun burnt.
We started with the horseback riding which was very unexpected – I was not expecting any horses, let alone riding them. I guess wearing a dress with my bikini was perhaps not the best idea and this is probably where I got the bites, but oh well. Next was some lunch then sea kayaking and swimming and sliding down big plastic blow up things which were particularly difficult to get up onto. Eventually all good things must come to an end and we all got back onto the catamaran and headed back to our ship.

The shipboard lifestyle is not all that healthy, but I am doing my best. I would love to sleep more! And I never thought I’d say this, but I would really love some vegetables - there’s only so much broccoli and boiled carrots that one can eat. I try go to gym but it doesn’t happen that often. I did however finally find some museli to have for breakfast. I asked for it in a number of shops and no one knew what I was talking about! I had to explain that it’s like a granola bar but cereal. Took a while...

I was introduced to tagging and cleaning a few cruises ago. A duty two photographers have to do every cruise. I see the little xxxx’s getting closer to my name with each new cruise, I’m not looking forward to the next one! Cleaning is simple, just take all the garbage from the lab and gallery to the garbage room. Tagging and displaying is very time consuming. Almost every picture sold in the photo gallery has a little metal sensor/tag on the back of it (like in many shops back home) so that if people walk out without paying for the pictures, the sensors will beep and we don’t lose lots of money. But each tag has to be put on by hand. Put on to 7000 photos after formal night by hand. Luckily I was paired with a guy who has been working for carnival for many years and is now a master at it. I felt completely useless though. We started at 11:30pm and finished at 3:45am, then luckily get the next morning off. Not much fun.

There is such a variety of guests on board. Last cruise there was a 105 year old lady with her two daughters who looked over 70 as well. As its summer holidays there are kids everywhere! More than 800 children per cruise that I have been on so far. I’m looking forward to them leaving, just a few more weeks. One of the teens’ latest fashion is to wear the tiniest hot pants shorts with the button and fly open, not the most attractive.
When making a sale, the guest’s name comes up on our screen and we have to call them by name. Some are rather amusing such as a Mr Marvellous and a lady called Laundress. I guess there are similarly entertaining names at home but I have not heard them in a while. Every now and again there is a Martin, Richard, Alice, Vicki and Jessica which always makes me smile. As I’ve mentioned before there are a number of rather LARGE guests. I was so pleased with myself I managed to make an extremely large one (she needed a wheelchair to get around but could walk the few metres to the portrait station) look thinner! The majority of her bulk was hidden by her husband and she looked much better. Then to make things better they bought almost all the pictures the next day : )

When photographing the gangway (as guests get off the boat) in Cozumel there are people in costumes (Indians and dancers) to photograph the guests with. The one Indian always makes me laugh. To get the guests to come closer and actually take a picture with him, he says “Ooo Beyonce” to the ladies (generally the large black ones – very unlike the real Beyonce singer) and he calls the men (also generally large) “Mr Muscle”. It always puts a smile on the guests face, which is I guess what counts. Another of his phrases is “Mexican sandwich” when he has a guest on either side of him. There is also a dressed up Mariachi when in Progresso, he is a Pilipino working on board the ship. One of the guests asked him where he was from (he doesn’t look very Mexican, how come he’s dressed up as the Mariachi) and his reply “an illegal (immigrant)”.

I’m slowly discovering more and more each time I go ashore in our different ports. Galveston has little treasures waiting to be found: amazing old buildings, lots of art galleries, nice boutique shops, a divine chocolate shop and more. It reminds me of Clarens back home. I found a sports shoe store and bought myself some decent shoes for work, what a difference, I don’t feel nearly as tired as I used to by the end of the day! The shoes fit so well, I had my feet measured and had to get wide ones ordered for me. I also got socks from that shop. Guess where the socks are made. South Africa! I left home with so many pairs of socks and have bought more since I got here. Washing and laundry is done in one’s spare time (which doesn’t happen often). I only need to do washing about once every 2 weeks which is lucky as there aren’t too many machines – about 8 washing machines and the same number of driers for the whole crew (900+) – got to plan visits there carefully to avoid queuing.
On my most recent Cozumel visit I took a taxi downtown and took a look at the places suggested to the guests for shopping. It’s all the same stuff, tourist souvenirs. I tried on some boots made from buffalo hide. I was given a “Mexican sock” to try them on with ie. a plastic bag, made me laugh. Unfortunately the boots looked terrible on – they had a pointy toe that curled upwards. I’ll have to keep looking for some nice boots. Who knows how I’ll get them home. Oh dear.

Well that’s all for now. Lots more to tell, but it’ll have to wait.
I’m off to get my washing from the driers. Ciao

A quick pic in Mexico

 

 Me and my (small) drink - Cozumel Mexico

5 - Ecstasy

Where should I begin? I have a 4 hour break until I start again so I thought I’d catch up on some internet time and put fingers to keyboard with the latest happenings. The soccer world cup final is on in the background – this will be the first full game I will have seen. I thought there would be more world cup spirit on board, but no. The games are on at strange times here so most people don’t get to watching them.

I am on the Ecstasy. It is like South Africa boat – there are so many of us here!! I really like my photo team. There are only 3 girls in the team of about 14 and we have a really good manager. I am sharing a room with one of the other girls – Angelica from Peru. Our room is bigger than the last one on the Sensation which is a relief! Although, the one thing that does get to me is that I cannot sit up straight in bed without hitting the ceiling, but it’s the same for both bunks (I’ve got the top bunk). I am slowly getting used to the routine of boat life. My training is coming to an end – I had a four hour session with other new crew members on crowd control for emergency situations, followed by a test on it, and had to write another test on boat safety and evacuation (both very easy). Our day shifts differ but we always work in the evening and end at about 11:30pm. My legs and feet are taking strain, not used to so much standing. Tonight is a formal night which means we work extra hard. Tonight I’ll be photographing portraits and dinner from about 4pm. The guests dress up in smart clothes for tonight, some really go over the top, but most don’t look that smart. The Americans don’t like to dress up too much. They’re often only in their formal attire for a few hours and have changed back into their shorts and tees before we even finish photographing.

I am on the Ecstasy, the second oldest ship in the fleet and one of the smaller ships. It sails from Galveston (near Houston), Texas, to Progreso and Cozumel in Mexico on 4 and 5 day cruises. Due to bad weather (a hurricane in the Gulf) my first cruise on this boat was only a 3 day cruise and it sailed to nowhere starting one day late. Very nice for our sales as the only place the guests can spend money is on the ship. We ended the cruise with a nice bonus :) . (Luckily, hurricane and all, the boat did not rock too much). For my second cruise on this ship I was port manning - something I didn’t know existed. Basically they take away your crew ID for one cruise and you are supposed to stay aboard while in ports to help if there are emergencies or something. A bit of a disappointment as I had quite a bit of time off, but it’s done now so hopefully it’ll be quite a while before my next one.

I’m slowly getting to know the ship and all it has to offer. I have discovered the midnight meal (served from midnight onwards) which I can often catch as we finish so late. I think the midnight meal food is slightly nicer than what’s served during regular hours. Perhaps it’s leftovers from the guest’s dinner and they feel they must spoil the staff who all work so hard. My midnight favourites are the magic chocolate pots (warm chocolate cake goo in a little bowl) and the smoked salmon (?) or some sort of fish which I put on brown bread with butter and lemon. Mmmmm. The guy who puts it out knows I like it, and tells me if it’s ready early :). Hopefully it won’t all go to the hips! ...I have also discovered the gym which I must visit more often!

As I am staff, I have a few privileges. One being I can use certain guest areas if dressed appropriately (much smarter than the guests ever look). I have been to the disco a few times already – great fun. Then there’s a 24hour pizza restaurant on deck 10 which gets a visit after the disco (at around 3:45am... more reason to visit the gym often). A late night, this makes waking up the next morning quite difficult!

I helped with embarkation photos for the first time yesterday. Four of us go ashore into the terminal and photograph everyone before they get onto the ship. 5 hours worth – it’s a long time with lots of people (more than 2000). My job was to hand out ‘easy photo finder cards’ (a card which states photo gallery hours and the batch number the guest’s photo was taken in, to help guests find their photos easier). A simple concept (well maybe to me anyway). One woman asked “are these for free drinks on the ship?” The most consistent statement about the cards was “but this is not my picture, this is not me!” (the cards also have a sample photo on them showing what the picture will look like). SO many people thought I was handing them their photo that they had just had taken, less than 5 seconds ago. Yes, that I was a magic printer that could receive and print a photo from a camera a few metres away with no machinery needed, just some magic photo paper...??? Sometimes I don’t know what goes through their minds, all one can do is laugh.

Yesterday I experienced another (seemingly pointless) formality. Full crew ID and I95 inspection. This happens every 3 months. Every single member of staff has to go ashore while in the ship’s home port and produce their crew ID and I95 form (a little piece of paper that allows us into the United States - as they take away our passports – and costs $320 if lost) to the US immigration officials. A very slow process!

I am enjoying my time aboard, but could really use a weekend off! In time I’ll get used to the routine and enjoy myself more. The other day I saw a whole lot of dolphins jumping next to the ship as we sailed along. I wish I had my camera with me and could have watched them for longer.

Love to all

xxx

P.S. In reference to the previous blog entry where I was asked “Whe(re) da formalidies at?” ... I discovered the Formalities is a shop where guests can rent suits and smarter clothing for the formal evening or other events (there are quite a lot of weddings and vow renewals on board). It all makes sense now.

4: Sensational

Right now I am on American Airlines flight AA 685 headed for Houston, Texas. I found out I was leaving my training boat (2 days early) just over 24 hours ago! So much can happen in a day, let alone a week. It feels like I’ve been working for months already; and it’s only been 8 days.

Ship life is SO different to anything at home. We work long hours and I don’t think I’ve been to bed before 1am since I got on the ship. There’s been so much to learn and so much I’ve wanted to write down to tell everyone back home but there’s just no time. If I get time off that’s more than 2 hours I tend to spend it sleeping or try go ashore and see the islands. Also, internet access is expensive - $20 for 200 minutes – it all adds up very quickly. Hopefully now I’m going to my proper ship things will calm down a little as there will be no more training.

The photo training has been fun and I’ve learned a lot. There were four trainees in my group, myself and three other South Africans – Landé, Liaan and Lititia. Somehow Liaan and Lititia got on to the boat the day Landé and I were supposed to start, and they were staying at the same hotel as us. Anyway, more about the training. We’ve had classes about the boat and its environmental impact or something (can’t remember), safety briefings, selling our products, been through many rules and regulations, had tests on photo stuff as well as general boat safety, evacuations and much more. Most of this happened before I was even given a camera to start taking photos. The photos we take are very basic, many snap shots and some portraits in the evenings. It’s so different to VEGA where the aim was to create beautiful pictures and we could take our time. Here quantity comes before quality. Photographers are given a target of how many photos have to be taken during a certain time period or of a certain scene: about 100-150 photos for an hour to an hour and a half. Hard work when you have to approach all the guests and tell them they want to have their photo taken. On formal nights there are about 10 portrait stations set up (that’s a lot if you ask me) and its hard work setting them all up, lots of carrying heavy stuff. I’ll have well toned muscles from all the weight lifting by the time I get home.

Part of our job is selling the photos we take. This includes helping the guests find their photos (every single photo is printed and put up in the photo gallery on the wall), answering any questions about prices, other products we sell, and being a general security guard to make sure the photos aren’t stolen. 8 x 10 photos cost $22 which seems quite steep, although I worked it out that if I were to do a family photo shoot in a studio and produce 5 to 10 images for someone I would be charging them a lot more per image. They’re getting a good bargain – take as many photos as you like, no obligation to buy anything and if they do want to buy they choose their favourites from all that were taken (which is often quite a stack). We are using D300 cameras with an 18-50mm lens. The lens can get quite a wide angle in – often necessary for many of the VERY large guests. Large and not particularly bright either. The other night I was asked “Whe(re) da formalidies at?” so I politely replied “well tonight is a formal night sir, is that what you’re asking about” with that he mumbled “never mind” with his back to me while he walked away. I’m still puzzled. I’ve had other guests come up to ask me questions and not understood a single word coming out their mouth; they were speaking a different English language.

While in college we’ve had a midnight curfew. Tough when you’re working until 11:30pm most nights. Doesn’t leave much fun time, but we’ve done our best. The curfew was relaxed a few times and we could enjoy ourselves at the crew bar. Drinks are very cheap: $1,50 for a gin and tonic which is more like equal quantities of gin and tonic. They can’t serve doubles on board and shots come in small wine glass – they’re not supposed to serve shots either. We had a little farewell party last night (no curfew) and I think I got less than four hours sleep before I was up again this morning to finish packing then leave the ship in Nassau (Bahamas) and fly to Miami before flying to Houston.

It’s taken a while to get used to the movement of the boat, now I think I finally have but things have reversed, it feels like the land is rocking when I go ashore. That could just be that I’m tired too. Otherwise adjusting to boat life hasn’t been too hard as everyone is so friendly. It was sad to leave all my new friends this morning, hard to believe I’ve only been there a week. The boats all have a share a smile policy – Say Hello And Respond Enthusiastically (SHARE) a smile. Everyone is in the same boat (figuratively and literally) and it just helps everyone get by. There is always food available – healthy and not. It is OK. I thought it was fabulous to begin with, but the menu doesn’t seem to change much so it gets a bit repetitive. Soft serve ice cream is also always available – very nice in the heat! My uniform is HUGE, ugly and uncomfortable. One shirt is an extra small and still slightly too big, they didn’t have my size for the other shirt so I got a large – am swimming in it! I shared a room with Ana from Croatia – we got on well which was nice. We also had one of the smallest rooms on the ship, a bit of a challenge. If the room’s tiny, the bathroom’s minuscule – I don’t know how anyone bigger than me manages.

We are beginning our decent, so that’s all from me for now, Ecstasy awaits!

xxx

Letter 3 – I could write a book about waiting

I got back this afternoon, wondering if I’d have another roommate, I did. The best so far! A South African girl from Cape Town AND she speaks English (bonus!). She is my third roommate I’ve had since I got here! I know the point of travelling is meeting interesting people from different places, but after being here a few days it’s so nice to be able to chat to someone from a similar background.

I say this as last night the phone rang. I was dead asleep and didn’t know what was going on. Then the voice on the end of the line says “You have a grroommaate” – what – “a grrooommate” OH a roommate. “She’s on the way up”. Huh?! It was 12:45am! My stuff was strewn all across the room, case open on the spare bed with piles of things around it. Oh dear. Very quickly, out of bed, bag off bed, stuff into bag etc. All while I’m half asleep and wondering if this is real or not. A few minutes later, in came my new roommate. A Russian girl who couldn’t speak much English. She’d just flown in from Russia and was exhausted. I can’t even remember her name and wouldn’t recognise her if I saw her again. She left before I got up this morning. I’ve been struggling to find the stuff I hastily put away all day.

So, more about my time in Miami. I landed on Tuesday afternoon. Getting to the airport was a bit of a mission at the London end, but luckily I have a fabulous cousin called Louise who helped me on to the tube. The flight was pleasant, I had a window and isle seat to myself, so could put my feet up and partially lie flat (head on seat, legs up side of plane by window). Once I landed I thought great, I can be in the hotel in an hour and maybe take a walk around the area, get some fresh air. Not so. It took an hour to get through passport control. Then at passport control the official said “you haven’t done this before have you?” – “Yes, I’ve been to America before” – “No I mean work on a cruise ship thing. You’re going to be here for a long time still. Go wait over there for someone to collect your passport then follow them.” At least I’d had some warning. I followed official man number 2 into a room filled with about 30-40 people, all waiting for their name to be called. I waited in that room for 1h30mins then my name was called and I could go. They were checking my contract was authentic.

When I finally got to my hotel – The Comfort Inn – I was told I there was someone already in my room. My first roommate. Her name was Gay, a Filipino girl who worked as a sales assistant or something. I was pleased to note that she had MORE luggage than me. It made me feel a lot better. When I asked her about it she said “I’m such a girl, I can’t pack light”. Same for me! All roommates are Carnival employees. I suppose I can’t expect to have an en suite room with two double beds all to myself for 5 nights. Although, roommates 2 and 3 did come as a surprise as roommate 1 left her room key in the room. I thought this meant she never checked out and the hotel thought she was still here. I guess not.

As my contract stated I had to be in Miami on 16 June, I thought this meant I would sign onto my ship on the 16th June. Before you sign on, your name has to appear on the Carnival notice board and mine did not appear for sign on on the 16th. When I asked the front desk about this they said if your name does not appear, just wait for the next list which would come at 7pm the following day. Fantastic, I had a whole day in Miami to myself and decided I should see some of the city. I did a city tour with Oscar (my tour guide). I was the only one on the tour. He drove me through the residential areas of Little Havana, Coral Gables (a separate city within the city of Miami) and Coconut Grove before stopping in South Beach/Miami Beach. I took a quick walk on the beach – so long, white, wide and flat – felt the water (VERY warm), then got back into the van and got taken to Bayside. At Bayside I did a boat tour and saw the port of Miami, the Miami skyline, Fisher Island (the most exclusive island to live on – it can only be accessed by helicopter or boat), Millionaire’s Row (you have to be a millionaire to live there) and Star Island (you have to be a celebrity to live there). There were amazingly huge and over the top houses on these islands!

After my tour I headed back to the hotel and packed up my bags as I was pretty sure I would be leaving the next day. When I went down to check the list, there was no list. By 10pm still no list. I kept asking the front desk about it and they said they’d tried calling Carnival but there was no answer and nothing more they could do. Again they said if my name was not on the list I would not be signing on to my ship. I even woke up early the next morning to see if the list was up, but no such luck. I phoned Carnival later that day and they said I was supposed to be signing on that day. But I had missed the bus so I would have to wait and sign on the next time the ship was in America. Sunday. More waiting! Luckily I met another girl, Landé, who was also supposed to board that day to start photo training but had also missed the boat and been told the same story by the hotel front desk.

Landé and I did some shopping together at the Dolphin Mall and then planned a night out on the town. This is when we met my roommate number 3. She joined us for our night out. It was great fun. We tried to find a club to go dancing, but never found what we were looking for. Well we did find one club that was very popular; we were even given VIP passes for this club – Mansion. Unfortunately the passes only let you skip the queue. Once inside the entrance was $25! Quite steep, so we just walked straight out again. The evening turned into more of a pub crawl and we finally got home at 3am.

There is so much more to tell about my time waiting in Miami. For instance the shower, I couldn’t work out how to make the water hot! There was only one tap to turn. After a rather cold start to my first shower I figured it out. Only once the volume of water coming out of the shower head was on full would the temperature kick in. The more you turned the tap on, the hotter it got. Cleaver.

Must be off now. More to follow at some stage. xxx

Letter 2 – The last of London

The rest of my time in London: After visiting Derek and Helen I took the train back to Waterloo, got an eat-on-the-go lunch, dumped my stuff in Louise’s flat then made my way to Green Park station where I was meeting Alice for HER Big Bus Tour. I was most impressed! A solid 2h30min tour, and so interesting. Alice had told me to bring my iPod, food and things to do as I would get board. This was not the case, and Alice was impressed by the amount of information I retained. The tour passed: Marble Arch, Madam Tussauds, Houses of Parliament, the Eye, Royal Courts of Justice, St Paul’s Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Buckingham Palace, and much more. I was particularly amused by the bricked in windows. Back in the day, taxes were paid based on the number of windows you had in your house. So to avert paying high taxes the wealthy, with many windows, would brick in the ones that weren’t needed. Hence the term ‘daylight robbery’. 

Another interesting fact: Portland Place, the street down which the Langham Hotel faces, is exceptionally wide for central London. This is because the only way to please the tenant (of the Langham building) was to make sure the views from his home were uninterrupted to the north (towards Regents Park). The street is about the width of the building.

After the tour Alice and I met Louise for some soccer celebrations. We had passed Trafalgar Square on the tour and it was packed with soccer supporters watching on a big screen so we decided that would be a good place to go. When we got there later on (about 10 minutes before the second game would begin) the square was empty. Security told us the celebrations were over and the square was closed. So much for that. In the end we found a little pub and enjoyed a drink together – with no soccer on in the background.

 Hamleys

The weekend was full of treats. On Saturday evening Louise and I met one of her friends Haley in the west end for a show. We saw Jersey Boys – The story of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. It was excellent! Great music! On Sunday afternoon Louise and I met another of her friends Heike for high tea at the Langham (the hotel I mentioned earlier). We had the G and Tea option which included a beautiful looking gin and tonic, followed by sandwiches, scones and other sweet treats. Delicious!

My last morning in London was spent looking at buildings. I took the bus with Louise to her work then walked a block further to look at the Lloyds Bank and Gherkin building, where I enjoyed a nice hot chocolate – it was a bit chilly outside.

All in all, a great time in London.
xxx