2026 - Week 32 Wrap Up

Continuing my journey with Oceania Vista, we stopped in all new-to-me ports of call this week. Not necessarily new-to-me countries, other than Isle of Man, but I enjoyed exploring all them all!

Schedule

• Thursday, August 13: Douglas, Isle of Man

• Friday, August 14: Greencastle, Ireland

• Saturday, August 15: Ullapool, Scotland

• Sunday, August 16: Scrabster, Scotland

• Monday, August 17: Invegordon (Inverness), Scotland

• Tuesday, August 18: At Sea

• Wednesday, August 19: Kristiansand, Norway

  
  

Thursday, August 13: Douglas, Isle of Man

All by myself! With J. disembarked in Belfast, today was the first day in a while that I was on my own for the whole day. So I did what I normally did anyway and Leandered my way through the town of Douglas. (Leandered means that I head out with a plan, but am easily distracted by other shiny objects that create detours throughout the planned route).

As always, my first objective was to find coffee. I had a general idea of where the coffee shops were in relation to the port, so I headed in that direction. However, not far away, I saw a really cool city clock! And turned to get a closer look at it.

After a few photos and reading the plaques, I continued to where I thought coffee would be. Instead, I found the marina. And then the train station. And then the shoreline, where I decided it was time to finish the book The Return to the Irish Boarding House. Once the book ended, I realized that it was time to go meet for my excursion, and sadly, never got around to caffeinating.

Today’s excursion was to Castletown! We boarded the bus and thankfully, only had about 20 minutes to go until we reached our destination. The plan for the afternoon was to have a guided tour of the castle, followed by free time, before returning to Douglas via an old Victorian train.

Upon arrival, our guide explained that we could stay with him for the duration of the guided castle tour OR we could go on our own to the very top. I chose Option 2! Interesting tidbit of information is that the staircases in medieval times curved clockwise, giving advantage to right handed swordsmen, who could use their left hands to use the handrails. Google search suggests this is a myth, but I like the concept, so I’ll continue to spread this specific rumor!

I did not have a sword in my hand, but instead my trusty camera, and up the stairs I went. And then up the stairs I went. And then up the stairs I went. There were a LOT of stairs! While I didn’t count how many steps, my Health App reports that I climbed 13 flights of stairs today.

Eventually getting to the top of the castle, I was able to see views all around, but there were two views that I found most interesting. The first is the bell tower with the Irish Sea in the background. The other was the windows in the center of the tower I was standing on. Surprisingly, there were no handrails! I could have fallen to my death! All the way to the dungeons! Okay, maybe that’s a bit dramatic, but given it is a public attraction, I would have thought edge protection would be required. Then again, I’ve been wandering along the edge of cliffs for a few days now and still not spontaneously fallen over…

After climbing back down, I headed over to try some Manx beer as suggested by the tour guide. He explained that Manx beer is unique in that it sticks to the traditional ways of brewing with just hops, wheat, water, and yeast. They had two different types of cask beer that was made with Manx Barley, so I tried both of those.

To get back to the port, we road a Victorian style steam train through the countryside. I chatted with the other passengers the whole way back and didn’t get any photos along the way… However! When we got back to Douglas Station, I found a familiar face! Barney!

Back on board, I was convinced to actually participate in Trivia this time around as opposed to just listening. I didn’t do too bad! Figured out 11 out of 16… all by myself! This is not a usual occurrence and I’ll go back to just listening going forward.

The show for the evening was a brand new guest entertainer to me - Robert Bannon, a vocalist from Ireland. To show how crazy their lives are some times, he got a call the day before to come to the ship for a week to perform as someone else wasn’t going to be able to make it as planned. So he packed up and rushed over to Belfast to catch the ship.

The night ended with some great views of what appeared to be a floating lighthouse! (Yes, I am still obsessed with lighthouses and this area of the world has some pretty fantastic ones situated on rock formations way out at sea.)

Friday, August 14: Greencastle, Ireland

My original plan in Greencastle was to go on an independent excursion on a Sea Safari! Because of the winds along the coast, they canceled for the day, so instead, I did laundry and figured I’d go into town a bit later.

One of the perks of Oceania is they often bring on local tour guides onto the ship to provide maps and information about the area. Since I was starting over with planning my day, I stopped by the desk to hear more about my options. Unfortunately, there really isn’t much to do in Greencastle itself and the recommendation was to take the local bus to Derry. After looking at the timetables, we figured out that because of the tendering operations and all-aboard time, I would really only end up with an hour or so in Derry. To me, that wasn’t worth it, so instead, it became ship day!

Apparently, this also meant lazy day because I have no notes or photographs from the rest of the day, so no clue how I filled my time.

Saturday, August 15: Ullapool, Scotland

I had two missions for today - eat a traditional Scottish breakfast and climb a hill.

First stop, The Bothy. The online menu listed Lorne, Link, Black Pudding, Haggis, Fried Egg, Tattie Scone, and Bacon. I tried it all! While I’m not 100% sure which was which, I’m pretty certain that my favorite was the Lorne. The Black Pudding and Haggis, while served like a sausage patty, kind of fell apart when I cut into it, making it difficult to scoop up. It tasted a bit like sweet sausage. I will not tell you what the ingredients are as may of you will likely make a face when you find out the base components, but to me, trying different foods is part of the fun for traveling the world.

With a full stomach, it was time to climb the hill. Now, I’ve heard about the tradition of hill walking in some of the books I’ve been reading recently, but what I didn’t quite understand was their hills are similar to Michigan mountains. The total elevation change was near 1,000 feet, although, I ended up taking a different path down and therefore, didn’t get all the way to the peak.

To start, I climbed up the Red Path, which ended up being a very narrow path, consisting of smaller rocks to climb up and surrounded by thistle bushes. Intermittently, I could see stunning views over the valley below, but otherwise, the path lead through dense trees or over prairie grassland.

As I neared the summit, the decision was either to keep climbing up a steep, rocky incline along the Red Path, turn around to go back down the Red Path, or turn right to follow the Yellow Path. The thing with the Yellow Path was that I didn’t really know how long it would take to complete that section as the map noted about a 40 minute walk back to town once I reached the main road. It did not tell me how far it was from the point I was standing at to the main road. However, I chose Option 3, the Yellow path.

This track ended up being very muddy and flatter. It also seemingly lead me in the complete opposite direction from town for quite a while. Given there were no other offshoots, I knew I was still following the right path, but was questioning how long it would take to get to the bottom as it seemed like I was just walking along the ridge and not descending at all. At one point, I actually saw other people! They were locals and were able to confirm that I still had a ways to go, but should get back to town within the next hour.

In the end, the hike took just over 2 hours to complete, and ended with a pint at a local establishment looking over the harbor area, where I chatted with some of the locals about life on the cruise ship.

The evening back on board was “shipical” - dinner at Red Ginger followed by Headliners with the Production Cast.

Sunday, August 16: Scrabster, Scotland

In looking for things to do in Scrabster, it seemed like there was a lighthouse and a hill walk. I may have gotten my fill of hill walks the day prior and the lighthouse was right next to the dock, so I opted to take the shuttle over to Thurso, which was only 2 miles down the road.

Once off the bus, I was on my normal coffee mission, but was regularly distracted by photography opportunities, such as a reflecting bridge and the church flowers.

I did find coffee! Then stumbled upon a yard full of abandoned ships and the ruins of an old church. With so much opportunity for photos, I practiced with different camera settings instead of defaulting to the Automatic option. Unfortunately, it seems that my specific camera doesn’t have much of a range for Aperture, which is what allows you to blur the background and focus more on closer objects. Instead I played around with shutter speed, but since none of the objects moved, the only thing that really changed was how bright or dark the photo was. Oh well, it was still fun to try something different for a bit.

With the ship only 2 miles away, instead of taking the shuttle back, I walked along the coast, continuing to look for opportunities to play with my camera. What surprises me in Ireland and now Scotland, but probably shouldn’t, was how many hay barrels I’ve seen right along the cliffs. I guess because in the States, farmland is normally way inland where it’s very flat.

Eventually, I got back to Scrabster and went into one of the local restaurants, where I ordered their special of the day. It was Sea Trout, delicious! But interestingly, they served it with slices of Chorizo. They went well together, but I would never had thought to pair the two.

Back outside, I headed towards the lighthouse, but was distracted by the noises coming from above - Baaa! There was a herd of sheep climbing along the side of the cliffs! It looked like they were one step away from tumbling all the way down.

The night ended with Robert Bannon’s second show and a late night in Horizons…

Monday, August 17: Invegordon (Inverness), Scotland

On the World Cruise, we had an opportunity to meet so many people from all over, creating opportunities to meet up with new friends as I continue my travels. Today’s location reunited me with Speaker James who was with us from San Diego to Sydney.

It was raining… Not a great start as I planned to walk to the train station to catch one headed to Inverness. Luckily, it was a light drizzle and for this trip, I actually packed a rain coat! Why I didn’t pack one for the World Cruise is still a mystery to even me…

The train station in Invegordon is so small, they don’t even have a ticket dispenser. There’s a giant sign on the wall that says “Please buy your ticket from on-train staff.” However, there’s a sign right next to it that says, “Buy Before You Board,” indicating a fee if you don’t have a ticket when asked by the attendant. Needless to say, I was confused, but since there was no where to purchase a ticket, I decided to just take a photo of the sign and plead my case if needed.

The other added uncertainty was the train was about 10 minutes early pulling into the station. Coming from Toronto, trains were never that early and there could be a train using the same platform headed in a completely different direction. However, all signs indicated that this was the correct train, so I hopped aboard. When the attendant came though, I decided to act like I knew what I was doing, asking for a ticket to Inverness, including a return trip. It was fine. He didn’t tell me I was on the wrong train or that I was going to be charged extra, so crisis averted!

I was surprised pulling into Inverness because James had described it as a cute little city, but it was pretty massive and had a castle in the the middle of it! Although, I’m realizing that’s a common feature in many of these coastal cities.

With a few hours to wander before meeting for lunch, I decided my first stop should be…. COFFEE! The first few places I walked by were pretty full with no tables, but eventually I found one called Coffee Affair and (bonus!) it also had some nice looking pastries. After ordering and collecting my goods, I found a quiet table, pulling out my laptop to try to catch up with journaling. After a while, one of the waitresses had come by a few times to clean tables around me and also took my pastry plate. A bit later, I was noticing it was getting busier and was deciding it was time to finish up when another waitress came over and pointedly told me that Laptops were not allowed in this coffee shop. There was a sign on the door stating as such, didn’t I see it? Obviously, I had not, and thanked her for informing me. As I started packing up, the family next to me mentioned that I was not the only one with a laptop and they also had not seen the sign. Again, I was already thinking about leaving, so not a big deal.

My next stop was the castle, which opened at 10am and I arrived at 9:55am. Thinking I could get ahead of the line, I pulled up their website to pre-purchase a ticket. Turns out, they have timed entry… You’d think I’d learn after the Titanic Museum, but no. Anyways, the earliest time available online was 11am, so I decided to wait in line and see if they’d let me in anyways. No. But the next entry for walk-ins was 10:20am, meaning I took my trusty camera back outside to wait.

At exactly 10:20am, I was granted entry. They explained that it wasn’t a typical castle tour in that they refurbished the building to suit as a modern, more interactive museum about the Highliands, instead of telling stories about those who had lived there in the past or restoring the areas to be from that time period. Along with the audio guide, they also had two cool video rooms where they projected 360° animations with the narrated story.

One exhibit that I found most interesting was there were Scottish witch trials, spanning 200 years from the 16th to 18th centuries, during which over 2000 women were executed. Crazy to imagine because even the Salem Witch trails only had 25 deaths (I learned that on a tour in Salem a few years back and was surprised at how few deaths, given the magnitude of the stories.) Anyway, I am still convinced that I would never have survived in some of these time periods where strong, independent women were considered magical or insane.

From the castle, I wandered along River Ness, obviously looking for monsters! Well, specifically just one that is a massive, snake-like creature. No luck, but it reminded me of a book that I finished recently called “At the Water’s Edge” by Sara Gruen. In that book, socialites from New York, who were recently cut off from their father’s allowance, fled to Scotland to avoid being drafted into WWII, claiming they were going to find the evasive monster. Without giving away too much, the story followed the wife’s transition from spoiled brat into a strong, loving woman. (Yes, there is a theme to many of the drama books I read…)

Time for lunch! I met with James near the trains station at a restaurant called Ash. Surprisingly, it was pretty empty, but we decided to stay, ending up just chatting and catching up for a few hours. We both had to catch trains, headed in opposite directions, so after saying goodbye, I found my way to my platform and was on my way back to Invergordon.

The ship departed to the sounds of a single bagpipe player, seemingly fitting as this was our last stop in Scotland.

The rest of the night was as normal - dinner at Polo with two other World Cruisers and finished with Music Triangle performed by the Production Cast.

Tuesday, August 18: At Sea

Holy Moly - I am tired! We haven’t had a sea day since, well, the World Cruise! That’s right, 15 straight port days! It’s no wonder I’m consistently behind in writing and photo editing.

Anyway, because what else should I do when I’m exhausted but wake up at 6:30am to do laundry?! On the ship, it’s very convenient that they have free laundry machines with detergent provided, but they only have 3 washers and 3 dryers per floor, meaning there's often lines. My strategy is to get there first thing in the morning and just be done with it before many of the other passengers are even waking up. To my surprise, there were already others in the launderette, moving clothing into the dryers! The posted hours are from 7am - 10pm and typically the doors are locked outside of those times. Today, they apparently didn’t and someone started laundry at 5:30am! Lucky for me, there was one washer available still and I was able to get mine done by 8:30am.

Have you ever lost a sock doing laundry? On the World Cruise, I was constantly losing a bright orange sock, which I’d eventually find in a pant leg or under the bed, but always somewhere in the cabin. Never any of the others. Only the orange one. On this trip, apparently it’s the blue one that is evasive. This time, I found it in the lost and found pile in the launderette. Since I only brought 5 pairs of socks on this trip, it’s pretty important that I don’t lose any, but it just seemed funny that the stereotype of lost socks continues to prove true.

After laundry, you may have hoped that I used the time to catch up on photo editing because I’ve been woefully quiet on posting any recap videos or pictures, outside of frequent Instagram Stories, but alas, I took a nap.

When I woke up, I went to play BINGO! After losing, it was lunch time followed by… another nap! Technically, I was listening to a book. This one called “The Girl from Greenwich Street” by Lauren Willig. It’s based on a true story about the first major murder trial in New York City following our independence from England, where both Hamilton and Burr are lawyers for the defense. I dozed on and off while it played, which doesn’t indicate it as a boring book, but just how tired I was.

But then it was time for dinner! I had the honor of being hosted at the Grand Dining Room by two of the Production Cast, Nathan and Esmee. It was fun to chat with them on a smaller group setting, giving me a chance to get to know them better.

Wednesday, August 19: Kristiansand, Norway

Not only did we not have to tender today, we also didn’t have to take a shuttle or a train to get to the main city! Just walked off the ship, shortly finding ourselves among restaurants and shops! These are the best kind of ports! However, at the ship, they also offered a City Train, that was one of those little tourist trains on wheels that took you to the center of the city, as opposed to a train that runs on tracks to actual stations.

I opted to walk, giving me the chance to venture off the main path whenever I saw something interesting. Naturally, these sand sculptures caught my eye! So I went to get a closer look. I’m not quite sure how or why they were there, but it’s crazy to think people can make these types of art and it stays!

A few fun things around the city were these little ugly troll statues. They were everywhere and all uniquely different. Also, they had manhole covers with key features of the city.

Continuing on with my wanderings, I found a small fort (Christiansholm Fortress). Unfortunately, we couldn’t get into the main building, but were allowed into the main walls where they still had some cannons set up. This time, they weren’t directly aiming at the cruise ship! (Whew!!)

Next stop - lunch! (I bet you thought I was going to say coffee… However, I missed that stop this morning and now my stomach was arguing, loudly, that it was time to eat.) Heading away from the main city center, I was hoping to find a smaller, local place. I landed on one called the Royal Corner. I ordered the Kylling Burger (Pannert kyllingbryst | burgerbrød og tilbehør). Yep, no clue what to expect as I cannot speak Norwegian and my Translate App wasn’t able to help there either. I’m pretty sure it was a breaded, lightly fried chicken in a crispy pita with lettuce, tomato, and a spicy cheese sauce. Either way, it was really good! It’s days like these that I’m glad that I’m not allergic or intolerant to anything because I can just point and hope for the best! (I’ve since googled to find that Kylling means Chicken in Norwegian.)

Finding my way back to the ship, it was time for dinner, followed by Anchor Inn, with the full Production Cast.

That’s it for this update. Knowing that I’m posting it a few days late again, we’ll continue to cross our fingers that with two sea days coming up soon, I won’t be so far behind next week.