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Total Eclipse : A pictorial review of the Tradewinds Transatlantic crossing 2015

scubacruiserx2

By scubacruiserx2,
in Celebrity Cruises

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scubacruiserx2

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And it's not the artwork ...

 

 

In an entirely different vein from the POSH Victoria and Albert's was our dinner at Suliko . We had tried Georgian food before , but it was nice to go to dinner with our friends who knew and understood Georgian cuisine .

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Georgian_cuisine

 

The dinner was a long event with many drinks , toasts and different foods which I was able to capture several photos of early on before the toasts had taken their toll . We had tried Khachapuri before but it was the Megrelian version which is a cheese bread like a white pizza , with no sauce . This time we tried the Adjara version , a cheese bread boat with egg .

 

 

DSC03411_zpsmqglwyhd.jpg

 

 

Tasty and rich . Something new for us was the Khinkali , a dumpling filled with broth that you bite and suck ( slurp ) loudly !

 

 

DSC03384-001_zpskco1lp52.jpg

 

 

And of course there was Shashlik ( Kabobs ) , and a type of stir fry .

 

DSC03385_zpsex5qttzt.jpg

 

 

Between courses , Nellie presented Pat with a vodka bottle , which she had decorated and Yuri had fired in his kiln .

 

 

DSC03383_zps8xts6yjm.jpg

 

 

Yuri is the resident artist in the house , but this was the first art that she had ever made - as a gift to Pat .

 

Fore

 

DSC04372_zpscvvecds9.jpg

 

 

And Aft

 

DSC04367_zpsrrefeqz9.jpg

 

 

We keep this beautiful gift , in a place of honor in our house , as a tribute to our friendship with Yuri and Nellie .

Edited by scubacruiserx2
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scubacruiserx2

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Great souvenirs!

 

We keep the vodka bottle filled in case any Russians show up on our doorstep ! A couple of our other souvenirs , a plate with a story from the Russian poet Pushkin - Ruslan & Ludmila .

 

 

DSC04321_zpsnkwgrors.jpg

 

And a lacquer box with a fairy tale , I don't know which .

 

DSC04326_zpslbxx8zcm.jpg

 

Some of these boxes can cost thousands of dollars .

 

 

Last night we had dinner with some friends that we met on Cruiscritic who are town from Toronto . We shared some shore excursions with them on our Baltic tour in 2006 including a private tour with the 4 of us in St. Petersburg . As we were headed to the port to leave on the ship , our guide asked if we had any further requests . I had a strange one but asked her anyway . I had seen a filled vodka bottle on the internet made by inventor of the AK-47 , Kakashnikov . I thought that I might by one as a souvenir , or turn a profit reselling .

 

a746195c-0a56-4dd5-9aad-22ef27273c1a_zpsftwvpa94.jpg

 

Two phone calls later , and a stop at a liquor store , and we stood face to face with the gun in a box . At about a meter long , and filled with vodka , I was gobsmacked with a momentary lapse of reason . How was I going to transport this thing through security and back to the US ? And so we left Russia , and the vodka bottle , never dreaming that we would ever return . But who knew ?

 

I located the gun online just now , but it's only exported to Australia !

 

 

http://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2013/06/25-cool-liquor-bottles-worth-buying-for-bottle-alone/kalashnikov-vodka

 

Mic ?

 

 

:) :D

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scubacruiserx2

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On our last full day before leaving St. Pete , we had a nice cool front with clear and sunny weather . Pat had never seen St. Nicholas Cathedral , and it was a nice walk along the canal in the opposite direction from Spilled Blood . It's also called the Sailor's Cathedral , and was one of the few churches left open in the Soviet times . The church building is older than our country and it is off the grid from many tours and tourists .

 

 

http://www.saint-petersburg.com/cathedrals/st-nicholas-cathedral/

 

 

IMG_0279_zpshzwe9f76.jpg

 

 

It is at the confluence of 2 canals , the Kryukov on the right , and the Griboyedov on the left . which leads to our apartment and eventually to Spilled Blood . There are some boat tours but most are for Russians .

 

IMG_0276_zpsdglqafqr.jpg

 

 

And it's a favorite photo spot .

 

 

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We choose to cross the bridge and explore it closer .

 

 

IMG_0285_zpsxc4ioylj.jpg

 

 

But first , a little story of how St. Nicholas became the sailor's patron saint , and yes - that St. Nicholas .

 

 

The Man Behind the Story of Father Christmas/Santa Claus

St. Nicholas was a Bishop who lived in the fourth century AD in a place called Myra in Asia Minor (now called Turkey). He was a very rich man because his parents died when he was young and left him a lot of money. He was also a very kind man and had a reputation for helping the poor and giving secret gifts to people who needed it. There are several legends about St. Nicholas, although we don't know if any of them are true!

 

St Nicholas

Image from the St. Nicholas Center

 

The most famous story about St. Nicholas tells how the custom of hanging up stockings to get presents in first started! It goes like this:

 

There was a poor man who had three daughters. He was so poor, he did not have enough money for a dowry, so his daughters couldn't get married. (A dowry is a sum of money paid to the bridegroom by the brides parents on the wedding day. This still happens in some countries, even today.) One night, Nicholas secretly dropped a bag of gold down the chimney and into the house (This meant that the oldest daughter was then able to be married.). The bag fell into a stocking that had been hung by the fire to dry! This was repeated later with the second daughter. Finally, determined to discover the person who had given him the money, the father secretly hid by the fire every evening until he caught Nicholas dropping in a bag of gold. Nicholas begged the man to not tell anyone what he had done, because he did not want to bring attention to himself. But soon the news got out and when anyone received a secret gift, it was thought that maybe it was from Nicholas.

 

st-nicholas_zpsjmvhyjh3.jpg

 

 

Because of his kindness Nicholas was made a Saint. St. Nicholas is not only the saint of children but also of sailors! One story tells of him helping some sailors that were caught in a dreadful storm off the coast of Turkey. The storm was raging around them and all the men were terrified that their ship would sink beneath the giant waves. They prayed to St. Nicholas to help them. Suddenly, he was standing on the deck before them. He ordered the sea to be calm, the storm died away, and they were able to sail their ship safely to port.

 

St. Nicholas was exiled from Myra and later put in prison during the persecution by the Emperor Diocletian. No one is really knows when he died, but it was on 6th December in either 345 or 352 AD. In 1087, his bones were stolen from Turkey by some Italian merchant sailors. The bones are now kept in the Church named after him in the Italian port of Bari. On St. Nicholas feast day (6th December), the sailors of Bari still carry his statue from the Cathedral out to sea, so that he can bless the waters and so give them safe voyages throughout the year.

 

 

Story from why Christmas .

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I have dutch heritage and we used to celebrate with the dutch community on the 6th December. when I was a kid (5-7).

 

There was more to the story :

 

 

How St. Nicholas Became Santa Claus

Santa in different colour outfits

In the 16th Century in Europe, the stories and traditions about St. Nicholas had become very unpopular.

 

But someone had to deliver presents to children at Christmas, so in the UK, particularly in England, he became 'Father Christmas', a character from old children's stories (in Scotland he's more commonly known as Santa). In France, he was then known as 'Père Nöel'; in Germany, the 'Christ Kind'. In the early USA his name was 'Kris Kringle'. Later, Dutch settlers in the USA took the old stories of St. Nicholas with them and Kris Kringle became 'Sinterklaas' or as we now say 'Santa Claus'!

 

Many countries, especially ones in Europe, celebrate St. Nicholas' Day on 6th December. In Holland and some other European Countries, children leave clogs or shoes out to be filled with presents. They also believe that if they leave some hay and carrots in their shoes for Sinterklaas's horse, they will be left some sweets.

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MicCanberra Holiday Sharing Rare

MicCanberra

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There was more to the story :

 

 

How St. Nicholas Became Santa Claus

Santa in different colour outfits

In the 16th Century in Europe, the stories and traditions about St. Nicholas had become very unpopular.

 

But someone had to deliver presents to children at Christmas, so in the UK, particularly in England, he became 'Father Christmas', a character from old children's stories (in Scotland he's more commonly known as Santa). In France, he was then known as 'Père Nöel'; in Germany, the 'Christ Kind'. In the early USA his name was 'Kris Kringle'. Later, Dutch settlers in the USA took the old stories of St. Nicholas with them and Kris Kringle became 'Sinterklaas' or as we now say 'Santa Claus'!

 

Many countries, especially ones in Europe, celebrate St. Nicholas' Day on 6th December. In Holland and some other European Countries, children leave clogs or shoes out to be filled with presents. They also believe that if they leave some hay and carrots in their shoes for Sinterklaas's horse, they will be left some sweets.

Yes, and the story of "Swarte' Pete" is still changing.:eek:

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upwarduk

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Who did you use ? You may have told us before , but it's slipped my mind :confused:

 

SPB de luxe 2 day tour.

The tourist shop was at the bottom corner of the building behind Pat's right shoulder.

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MicCanberra

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And it probably will continue to do so .

 

Swarte' piet (Black Peter) were the helpers and originally slaves from African or Moorish decent, but now they are supposed to be just children that are dirty (black) from going up and down the chimneys delivering the presents. Either way, it is a bit out of date.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwarte_Piet

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scubacruiserx2

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Swarte' piet (Black Peter) were the helpers and originally slaves from African or Moorish decent, but now they are supposed to be just children that are dirty (black) from going up and down the chimneys delivering the presents. Either way, it is a bit out of date.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwarte_Piet

 

We were on the Holland America Zaandam during that holiday period but we didn't hear anything about St. Nicholas' Eve or Zwarte Peit . I wonder why ? But they did have Christmas decorations and wished people a Happy Chanukah .

 

IMG_3354-002_zpsab21613d.jpg

 

 

IMG_2843-001_zpsdeb15ceb.jpg

 

IMG_2674-001_zps0ecc90e1.jpg

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