A cruising epiphany
I’ve had a bit of an epiphany over this last week. I’ve spent the whole week cruising. Not the cruising you’d expect either, what with this being a motorcycling blog, but sat on a ship. I enjoyed it !
I know, it came as a shock to me too.
I have long held out against the idea of spending time on a ship. It’s not that I don’t like ships or anything like that, I just had better things to do. I couldn’t be bothered with formal evening wear, I didn’t want to be organised by somebody I didn’t know and who didn’t know me and I certainly didn’t want to be forced into the company of 2,000 other people I had nothing in common with. I also didn’t want to do the tourist thing, you know, going and looking at places or people from behind a glass safety screen. I like to be emmersed in a place, be part of it, not be a spectator. I’m sure that will sound familiar to many of us. After all, we’re motorcyclists. We enjoy a good natter over coffee or a beer but then we leave, get back on our bikes and go where we please…..on our own and in our own time.
A lot of that still holds true. However, I did find a good few people who’s company I quite enjoyed. Much as bikers do, we sat and exchanged experiences. They’re different experiences but the conversations still followed a familiar pattern. I’ve interacted with crew members from all around the world and they were great and I’ve seen things, mainly Norwegian Fjords, that you couldn’t possibly experience any other way. For this alone it was worth going.
I still think it’s too touristy and that you see things as a spectator rather than being there up to your elbows in muck and bullets. I still don’t like the formal evening meals and I still don’t like being organised by somebody else to that degree. However, its not a bad thing to do, I thoroughly enjoyed the places I saw and I did meet some interesting characters with fascinating tales to be told.
Best of all, it has given me a yearning to return……on the bike. Norway seems, from my limited experience, to be a beautiful place and I can’t wait to explore it further.
Would I do it again? Probably. Not too often but yes, I’d go again. Maybe cruising has a place after all.