IN BETWEEN
Hijacking The Cruise Line System. 101
In Between is a photo book showcasing over 100 photographs taken in June 2017 during a transatlantic cruise on the Queen Mary 2.
Moving down the street is already challenging. Moving across an ocean is a pure logistical nightmare. And can pretty much break the bank. Between the packing, the shipping, the receiving, and the unboxing, count a few thousands dollars and a few months of headaches. And that’s after you’ve already gotten rid of all of your furnitures and are only left with books, clothes and random plates.
When looking into my options to bring back my belongings to Europe, I had considered shipping them, getting a container, flying with extra extra extra extra extra baggage, or hiring a flock of passenger pigeons. I thought I had exhausted all my options when some guy I met on the train from Los Angeles to San Francisco mentioned a cruise to Hawaii. A cruise. A cruise? A cruise!!! Ding, ding, ding. Maybe there was a way I could travel back on a cargo ship with all of my stuff for cheap. I started looking. Cargo ship to Europe Lots of Luggage – press Enter. Finding a cargo ship was not only far more complicated than I had anticipated but also definitely not as cheap as I had hoped. F**k.
I had always fantasied about traveling by boat from the United States to Europe (and it had nothing to do with finding Jack – we all know how it went down) to a. experience the distance between those two places that I cherished so much and b. be in the middle of the ocean for a couple of days. After five more minutes of obsessive googling, I found a deal to travel back to Europe that made it far cheaper for me to fly my mom to New York and have us cruise back to Europe with my eleven suitcases than to chose any of the other options that I had until then looked into.
Queen Mary 2 – so be it.
The best part about luxury cruises is that you are expected to show up with a dizzying number of suitcases. Hats, shoes, morning attires, lunch dresses, afternoon casual wears, cocktail dresses and gala gowns – how could one put a number on this?
