MAY III

SOUND AS A POUND May 19-20, 2006
After these two days, I now know why my sister is in love with London. She is also a Boston girl, and all I could think when passing through London’s streets is how much it reminds me of Beantown. This stop has turned out to be one of my favorites, and I can totally see myself living in London someday in the future. During the first day I had to work, touring around with students to all the big London sights such as Leister Square and Buckingham palace. I’d have to say the best part of my work was the pub stop for a pint (or two!) of cider (again, Boston reminder.) I loved the fact there are pubs EVERYWHERE and they all have cider, most times on draft as well as bottles. Luv it! The start of my crazy London evening started out in Covent Square at a pub with balcony called Punch and Judy. About 30 some Peaceboat people (this and previous cruise teachers, staff and a couple passengers) met up for some beer, including some of my friends from the 39th cruise. We reminisced about the 39th and talked about what everyone is doing now etc… it totally made my trip to London a fabulous one. After the pub and some failed attempts at finding a hopping bar nearby, the crowd decided to head to a club called Fabrique, which actually had a major lineup (including the London DMC championships) for the evening. Too bad we showed up at 1am, when there were about 150 other fools in line in the rain (on and off rain all day – さすが London!) With little prospect at getting inside we then headed to a friend’s house to crash. The next morning I grabbed a pasty for breakfast and headed out of London back to the docks in Tilbury. There were a few guests from the 39th voyage touring around the boat (including my friends from the eve before) so I had the chance to chat it up with them on the boat for a couple of hours before departure. My friend Sally has promised to send me any info she receives about jobs in London, and if the opportunity arises I would have no second guesses about moving to London for work and finding a nice British boy with sexy accent to marry.

DATE WITH THE FU’S May 17, 2006 Today we had our date with the man who bought the girl teachers at the auction last month. The man and his wife are both English students, and both came on the date. Though I am not quite sure why, we call them Mr. and Mrs. Fu, and they are the loveliest couple I’ve met in a long time. Married for about 35 years and still crazy about one another - It's almost too good to be true! We went through a few too many pitchers of beer and sang a few two many silly songs, but it was good fun. The date lasted from 3:30 until 5:30, and after the teachers meeting at 6pm I went straight to bed. There is something about drinking on a boat when it is rocking – makes you soooooooooooooo tired!

VINO TINTO POR FAVOR! May 16, 2006
Bienvenidos to Bilbao in Spain! I’ve been to Spain for vacation in the past, but this was my first experience in Basque country – known for its separatist inclinations, wine, and Guggenheim museum. Although the museum did sound tempting, another teacher Beth and I decided to spend our only day on a Peaceboat tour for some vino. The tour took us two hours inland to the area of Riojas, a famous winery area in the Basque region. We left the port at 8:00 and drove to a winery museum in the town of La Guardia (after seeing countless signs with the town name I finally figured out a few hours later why the name La Guardia seemed so familiar to me…duh!) The museum bit was a tad dull, but afterwards we strolled around the town itself, which in my opinion was even more spectacular than Taormina in Sicily. The town looked like it was straight out of the early 1900s, with old architecture, tiny alleyways, and stone pathways. Plus, unlike Taormina there were very few tourists. On the tour we visited one of the wineries in town and conducted some taste testing in the wine cellar (at one time there was a total of 320 private wineries with cellars in the town.) After taste testing (on an empty stomach) we headed back to the museum to enjoy an extremely posh meal outside underneath a huge white tent, with traditional Basque food (fois gras pate, Basque sausage soup, lamb, and a huge piece of custard cake) and bottomless glasses of wine, one for blush and one for red. Except for the Japanese lady next to me who proceeded to get totally wasted and passed out, everything was fabulous. The breathtaking scenery of endless fields of grapes and mountainous terrain only added to the brilliant atmosphere. After the tour finished we had some time to head into the city center for some city walking, shopping, and internet, and picked up some sandwiches and beer at the pier before heading back on the ship. I also caved and had a hot fudge sundae from McDonalds, which went perfectly well with my Corona thank you for asking.