1038 miles into our journey...

I think this picture captures what will hopefully be an incredible next 112 days at sea! 

Our window-less room has meant that we've been taking full advantage of the glorious top deck of the ship. It's the perfect place to sit and contemplate how vast and beautiful the ocean is, and how lucky we feel to be here. Added bonus: the sun loungers are always plentiful! You never have to fight for them, unlike when you are staying at a hotel full of early-rising Europeans, who mark their territory round the pool with fluorescent towels before the birds have even started chirping. Ah, the stress! The conflict! Do I beat them or do I join them? Well, I can hardly beat them if I'm stuck sitting all day on hot concrete which is soaking up the sun like a flaming sponge and burning a crater into my arse, while they frolic, perfectly thermoregulated, between pool and prime positioned sun lounger. But do I really want to stoop to waking up before the breakfast buffet is even open to mark my territory in the morning? Ah, Sheraton holidays.  

OK, completely irrelevant. We had our first class today, mine was Sustainable Communities. We were met with a surprise from our professor; he has shunned tests, papers and finals. Instead, we will be writing and publishing a book on sustainable urbanism! We will be evaluating the development of our destinations in groups of two and writing up our findings, and eventually publish a real book with a real ISBN number which means we will be real 'co-authors'! And I can cross 'write a book' off my to-do list before I'm 25, which is a relief as it's looking a bit daunting right now. However, I did write it at age 13, so it might be time for a re-evalutation. I might replace 'Stuff a 300lb man into a yellow Fiat 500' and 'do a poo on someone's doorstep and set it on fire with something more do-able/career relevant. Or maybe not. 

We also had a ship gym session, and were sweating up a storm on the elliptical while looking out at Danish islands and hundreds of windmills which seemed to be floating on the horizon. We passed through Øresund channel, with Denmark on our right and Sweden on our left, and a bridge connecting the two. I might have a biased, romanticized view of the Scandinavian countries, but the air seemed to smell cleaner and the windmills seemed like dancing moomins. If all else in my life fails, I am going to move to Denmark, live in a communal housing project and milk lots of goats.