Wanderung 26

It was Cinco de Mayo, and all the ship's bars were decorated accordingly. However, for our morning entertainment, we attended a Viennese Waltz class at 9:30 a.m. There I learned how to rotate clockwise while dancing the quick moves of the fast-paced Viennese waltzes, but I found it a singularly awkward step to execute. Still, it was nice to have at least some exposure to that type of waltz as it felt quite different from the ordinary "slow" waltz.

After a brief rest back in our cabin, we warmed up and practiced our recital songs ("Paper Moon", "If I Only Had a Brain", and "Master Of the House") before heading off for the Pop Choir rehearsal at 11:30 a.m.

After lunch, I rested in the cabin while Monika went to the casino and played the penny slots. However, as she often does, she ended up winning. In fact, at the end of the cruise she was up by a net total of about $20!

At dinner we often chatted about what we done at the last port or were going to do at the next port of call, but some evenings the talk turned to the antics of some of our fellow passengers. Judith talked about an eastern-European (supposedly Polish) guy who was rude, overbearing, and approached women by giving them uninvited hugs, kisses, etc. in what Judith described as a creepy way. Judith and Ian had the misfortune to take a tour with him, and his antics decreased the enjoyment of the other passengers.

Alex also recounted stories of "helicopter man", a 60-something guy who wore a multi-colored beanie cap with a small plastic propeller mounted on top. I had seen that guy around the ship, after all, someone wearing that kind of head gear is hard to miss, but never actually had any encounters with him. Alex talked about his antics standing in front of Rose Winters while she was singing in the Crooner's Bar area and kind of bobbing and weaving to the music, which was distracting to say the least. He later asked Rose about it, though, and she just shrugged it off as a harmless idiosyncrasy of one of her listeners. As a professional musician and singer, apparently his antics did not disturb her, but for me as an amateur performer, having somebody acting like that in front of me could make singing quite difficult.

And that all reminded me of the curious guy who was ostentatiously wearing women's dresses and skirts during one of our cruises to Alaska (Wanderung 13). I thought he actually had pretty good taste in women's frocks and accessories like his purses and such, which were color-coordinated in a way that I know I could not manage. But that said, he really just didn't have the right shape or legs for the clothing he was wearing, and it made for an odd spectacle.

Later that night we spent a couple hours listening to Rose Winters sing in Crooner's Bar, but "helicopter man" did not appear while we were there, which was probably all to the good!