Miriam and I started working on cruise ships almost at the same time, but we met much later and only at the end of our adventures at sea we decided to walk on a common path. But long before that, there were other stories about discovering the world that we happened to part of.

The life on board

I visited only few countries in Europe before coming on board, so I had little knowledge of the vast diversity of cultures and traditions, other than the one offered by reading travel magazines and the information available on internet. My first escape as a tourist outside Romania took place in the north-east part of Greece (in Paralia Katerini), right after my graduation from University and, except a few palm trees that I saw around, nothing else was really telling me that I left my country. But even so it felt amazing to be there, I felt like the ice has been broken and soon after I would start traveling more and more, while every new destination increased the desire of exploring more of what the world had to offer.

Miriam, instead, was much more familiar with the feeling of wandering on the streets of different European countries and, while I was only dreaming about traveling, she already started her first big adventure, going from Germany to Australia and around, when she was only 19 years old.

How things changed in 2012

2012 was for both of us the year when we chose to explore wider horizons and decided to start working on board.

Miriam embarked as a German Hostess. Seen from outside, her job meant “dealing with the many complains coming from German passengers”, as they are well known for not being the friendliest of the passengers that you can find on cruise ships… at least not on Italian ships.

Actually, she was a professional “Hospitality Service Senior Specialist” (that would be the official name of her position), spending her time behind the computer, creating Power Point presentations; on the stage of the ship’s theater, making sure that passengers got all the available information needed for enjoying the cruise; at the Bridge, translating announcements given by the Captain; in the Hospital, explaining to the doctor that too much pasta served on board is not part of the regular diet of the unhappy old German lady, who`s stomach is protesting against “Italian Finest” products served at the buffet; in the lounges, at the front desk, at the excursion desk or anywhere else on the ship where she could offer her help to German passengers in need for assistance.

I, instead, decided to choose a much lazier style of life, so I embarked as a photographer. I’m not saying that photographers on board are lazy, but far from the concerns of a life as a hostess. Later, from photographer I would promote to printer, which was a better change in terms of free time and enjoyable work.

As a photographer you need to take picture of every person coming on board, from the embarkation day till the end of the cruise, in the terminal, in the restaurant during dinner and sometimes while exiting the restaurant, in the theater, at the entrance in the theater, on the dance floor during the animation shows, at the pool, at private parties and cocktails, in excursion and in front of the backgrounds that are set up every evening in the lounges across the ship. If that sounds like a lot, it does because it is a lot. And at the end of the day all these photos need to be printed. So, even if some people get to work less than others, life on board is still a busy one for everyone working there.

The advantage of doing all the hard work is that you get to travel while being paid. Most of the times you don’t get the chance to feel like a real traveler, but you still get to live an incredible experience. Cruising in the fjords of Norway or around Svalbard, in the cold waters that separate the last piece of inhabited land from the North Pole or through the icebergs that are sliding down into the sea on the coast of Chile, in South America, are all unique experiences that are possible only when you are travelling by ship. We believe that the last five years thought us a lot of things, while increasing our appetite for traveling. That is why we want to experience travelling from a different perspective and backpacking around the world should give us the chance to experience everything that we never really had the chance to experience before.

A life of travel is not something that some people might fit into, as it takes you away from the comfort of the regular life and many times it can be full of bitter experiences. But for us, in this moment, it just feels like the right thing to do. Our adventures at sea took us around different continents and now we want to go across them. We started our World Tour in Germany with a flight to Moscow, from where we boarded the Trans-Siberian towards the heart of the Asian Continent and further to what might become the greatest adventure of our life.