| 09 July 2009
Today Samantha, Justin and I caught a shuttleboat to St Mark's Square for some shopping and sightseeing.
We did the usual - shop, eat, and got lost. We found ourselves at a cafe between 2 churches, discussing things that shouldn't be discussed while surrounded by Holy buildings. We grabbed a couple more beers for the road and headed back to the ship to pick up everyone else for a night out on the town.
When we got there, Sam and I noticed that our buzz was wearing off, so our manager Matt came with us to my room to dip into my secret stash of vodka. A couple drinks and impossibly loud techno music later we headed to the gangway to meet up with the rest of the night's motley crew which consisted of Vanessa, Justin, Sarah and Tim.
It was already 11pm, so the shuttleboat was no longer running, which meant we had to walk. Stopping for a quick kebab and beer, we eventually made our way to University Square, which is made up of a bunch of bars and clubs. We found a nice patio, took up residence and officially began the night.
A few rounds and hearty laughs were shared and then we took off to the nearest bar. It was unanimously decided that it was time to start doing shots, so we each took turns ordering the most ridiculous mixtures we could think of.
This of course is where everyone's memory starts to become a little foggy, but after comparing contents of cameras and tidbits of recollection we apparently started in on lots of drinks that were served on fire. And somewhere in the midst of sucking sambuca fumes through a straw and flaming absynthe shots I decided to demonstrate a simple scientific principle. Explaining that the hot air from a recently consumed shot glass creates a vacuum when you cover the glass with your palm, I proceeded to press my palm tightly to the lip of a shot glass, which, unbeknownst to me - was still on fire. Sure, the demonstration worked, but I was left with a painful yet impressive ring shaped burn/blister on my left hand.
After another hour or so of everyone coercing each other into having "Just One More", we stumbled out of the bar to start the trek back to the ship.
We stopped off again to get some more kebabs, which this time between (and during) mouthfuls were hailed as "The Best Fucking Kebabs We've Ever Tasted". Six more litres of beer appeared as we continued down an alley.
We passed by a boat (actually, it's Venice, so we passed a lot of boats) and I thought now would be the perfect time to fulfill my lifelong dream of climbing onto a stranger's boat. With beer in hand I jumped onboard, sang my rendition of "I'm on a boat", and promptly fell off. Thankfully the sidewalk was there to break my fall...Better that than falling into the canal!
As we made our way down the final stretch back to the port, Justin decided it was time to take off his shirt and start swinging his belt in the air. The buckle managed to find it's way straight into my face, splitting my lip. Instinctively I returned the gesture with a "Take a bow" straight to his balls. As he fell to his knees in pain, amidst the laughter of everyone else, I decided to keep it going and gave the rest of the guys potshots too. With three guys now laying in the road rolling around in agony, it was only then that I remembered to turn on my video camera.
Giggling like a girl, I was chased back to the ship and was saved by the necessity to pretend like we weren't all slobbering drunk as we passed through security.
On our way into the ship, it was overheard that there was a wine and cheese party taking place on the helipad deck, so we immediately took off to crash it. The lot of us blasted through the door, yelling and screaming and laughing. The bartender had already closed the bar, so after slipping a few bucks to him, we were off to mingle with a few bottles of champagne.
I was talking to some people when out of the corner of my eye I saw Matt gesturing towards the hot tub. A grin spread across my face and 10 seconds later, I found myself fully clothed splashing around in the hot tub with Matt, Samantha, Vanessa and Justin - bottles in hand. Everything became a blur after that, and I remember my champagne tasting a lot like hot tub water...