Three Days at Sea!

Day 1A

Our Room.  Not bad!

This is a bit of a different cruise for us.  It is a free cruise, but there is some marketing aspects to it.  So, we will “have to” attend some things.  That’s the bad part.  But, the good part is, they are plying us with good food and beverages all the while.  So, this evening they had a presentation on some art they intend to sell, and introduced one of their artists, Guy Harvey.  He is pretty big in ecology, art, conservation and education issues.  We have seen some of his work in various places, and it (often) focuses on marine biology. 

For dinner, we went to one of the restaurants, which was sort of a Brazilian style steakhouse (churrascaria).  It was SOOOO good!!  There is just something about having some one walk around and slice off beef, pork, lamb, etc off a skewer and onto your plate until you have had enough!  But, we are so full!  J

We went for a walk around the ship after dinner, and found a bocci ball game.  Having never played, we saw the rules were posted, so we gave it a try.  There are nine balls, one smaller white ball, and eight larger balls, four red, four green.  Theresa assured me they were different, so I trusted her.  Anyway, one person tossed the white ball down a lane, and then we take turns tossing our red or green ones, trying to be closest to the white ball.  Our first round was a mitigated mess, as were the next 5 or so, but then there was a bit of a turn in tide, and I had some luck.  I questioned if Theresa was telling the truth on the color of the balls, but she pointed out if she was not, I would not be winning.  Fair enough.  Anyway, I won 14 to 5.  I suggested she should be quite amazed and impressed and all that.  She took it under advisement, but I’m not sure she is as impressed as I hoped she might be.  Well, we’ll try tomorrow.  J

Day 2 and 3—Too much food!!

Sunday and Monday were similar.  There was an art exhibition, followed by an auction.  Then, in the evening, another reception with plenty of drinks.  During the reception, they introduced another artist, Csaba Markus.  He was an interesting character.  Whereas Guy Harvey is an intellectual (formerly a college professor, turned artist, and leader in oceanic wildlife studies, who dresses mostly casual, but still looks professor-ish), Csaba (pronounce a bit like Chaba) is pure artist, through and through!!  He arrived in a black leather vest, black shirt and pants, a black stove pipe hat with long hair, and a waxed and curled mustache.  His story was incredible, having escaped Hungary during the Soviet years, and being homeless in Southern California living in his car.  But his artwork is pretty amazing, and he doesn’t sleep in his car anymore (we think).

For dinner on Sunday, we ate at the Italian restaurant.  They passed out the menus, and ran out when they got to me (last), so ran back to grab another one.  I opened it, and quickly realized it was in French.  My French, from high school, is not polished enough to decide on menu items, so I found the waiter, and said, “Merci, mais, je voudrais un menu avec Anglais!” (Thanks, but I’d like a menu with English).  The blank stare told me he neither understood nor got the irony.)  After he tried to tell me this menu IS English, he relented and gave me an English one!  The rest of the dinner was excellent.  We sat in a group of 8, and one of the two ladies across from us had turned 60, so it was a bit of a birthday celebration.  We all had fun, and lots of laughter.

Ce n'est pas Anglais!!

Monday, after the evening reception, we were on our own for dinner.  We had made reservations to go back to the Churrascaria.  Theresa had actually made those reservations before we left home, not knowing what the schedule would be.  Anyway, it was to be a nice quiet tame evening.  She brought a glass of red wine from the reception (where it was free).  In the restaurant, our waiter asked if I was having any wine.  I politely said no (being the cheapskate that I am), and he made some almost comical fuss about me breaking his heart, and don’t break his heart…to which I replied, “You’ll get over it!!”  He asked if I drank wine, and I said I did; then what kind, and I said, “When I have wine, I prefer red” in my best “most interesting man” impersonation.  To our surprise, he came back to the table and poured the “best” wine he had into my glass, then filled up Theresa’s.  We were a bit shocked, but fairly sure he could not charge us, and we said thank you, and enjoyed the wine.  Later in the meal, he came back unexpectedly, and topped up the glasses again!!  As we neared the end of dinner, he came by and dropped off two drinks we could not identify, and said it was “from me”.  I think both were red, but one had several limes and the other had crushed strawberries.  They were both very good, but quite unexpected!!  We ordered dessert with some trepidation.  We debated getting one or two, as we knew they were so good, but we were almost too full.  He brought us THREE!!!!—the two we ordered, and one for good measure!  We did not finish any of them.  We felt bad about leaving food behind (wasting), but there was no way we could finish them!  We walked away stuffed, with two drinks in our hands (more than we went in with), amazed at the experience!!

Theresa with one too many drinks!

We had scheduled to see a comedy show, but it didn’t start until 11PM, so we tried to stay awake until then.  It was actually pretty good, but more of an adult show (being at 11), so we can’t tell you much about it.