What's a photographer girl to do when her camera breaks the night before sightseeing one of the greatest, most scenic cities on the planet? A 12 day Scandinavian cruise that has been booked for 8 months prior, in which the crown jewel is certainly the 2 days in St. Petersburg, Russia? Well, said girl MIGHT have just jumped to her watery grave off deck 16 had it not been for Amy Lian. Thus, Amy Lian appreciation day!!
So, here's the back story. I met Amy through one of my first fabulous friends here in Belgium. Their group quickly adopted me (they lived in a nearby commune and attend another international school), and were so sweet to include me in birthday lunches, card nights, and wine tastings. Amy was supposed to go on a similar cruise this summer with 2 couples when their plans fell thru. She knew we were going on another cruise line, and we sweet talked her hubby into coming on ours and how forever thankful I am for that!!! Although our families had never met, they were fast friends and super fun traveling buddies. Well, it all super fun until the lovely town of Tallin, Estonia.
Mishaps #1. We were on a biking tour and I'd changed out my lens at the bottom of a big hill. Put the lens in the hubs' backpack and we all biked up the hill. Top of the hill, lens falls out of backpack and there is shattered glass on the ground. Heart failure. We just pick it up and move on, not even looking at the lens. It's too painful and I don't want to ruin the rest of the bikeride and the gorgeous day. Bike ride is over, have a lovely lunch and at the end, hubs decides to take a look at the lens. Guess what? It was just the filter!! Lens isn't broken and crisis is averted!! High fives all around, giddy smiles from moi. Whew. That could have been BAD!
The euphoria was short lived.
3 hours later, we're back on the boat and the adults are enjoying a "chef's dinner" while the kids are in kids' club. (which rocked by the way... dinner AND adult dinners most every night!). Break out the camera to take photos of these amazing creations and I get an error message. It's saying to change to the battery and turn on and off. I did and still have the error message. No time to worry.. put it away and hope the extra battery back at the room helps. Back to the room 3 hours later, changing batteries, doing ANYTHING possible and no luck. It's in error message 20 hell. 2nd heart failure of the day. I had forgotten my backup (yes, i have a backup that was sitting all cozy back in Brussels) and my plan B was my iphone. No bueno!?
The next morning we have a JAM packed private tour in St Petersburg. 9 hours strait, followed by about 45 minutes to change to go back out to the ballet for another 3-4 hours. NO time to buy a camera, stop by a repair shop, etc.. In come the angels singing the Hallelujah Chorus when my sweet friend, offers me her camera (she happens to have a Canon as well) to use as often as I wish for the remainder of her trip. She loves taking pictures too, and it was a major inconvenience for her to have to keep handing it over to me, but she was so precious to share with me and with a smile at all times.
So now you can see why it's Amy Lian Appreciation day!! Only becasue of her, will I be able to share photos from our adventures in St Peterburg, Stockholm, and Helsinki. 4 days of amazing new sights and experiences that would have been lost had it not been for her!! So I'm grateful and may just have to do this post every year for the next 50 as a reminder to
A. thank my sweet friend
B, always bring my backup!! :)
So, before I share my travel photos with you from our fabulous adventures in Scandinavia, I'm giving Amy and her cute family the first post.
our first day together in Aarhus, Denmark.
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