World Cruise Day 56/152 - Sea day - To flush or not to flush, that is the question...

Cruise day: 56/152

Ports days: 18
Sea days: 38
Countries: 6
Continents: 2
Ports: 11

We got up late this morning. Last night, we changed time again, moving to UTC -2, or three hours earlier than the east coast of the United States.  We were up late last night, especially when you consider the lost hour, so morning rolled around a little too quickly. We got breakfast and then made a quick stop in the room to brush our teeth and make a morning "pit stop".  Unfortunately for us, the toilet stopped flushing, for the third day in a row and for the <I lost count> time this cruise.  This isn't an issue for our cabin.  This affects a bunch of rooms.  Anyway, we had to leave for bridge lessons and had to leave a "present" for our poor cabin stewards.  I have to say, that's a little embarrassing.  Again, I recognize that things happen, but this has been going on for days now and needs to be fixed once and for all.  We shall see.  Suffice it to say it is a crappy situation for all involved.

We did our usual bridge lesson and then play with our partners.  Next up was trivia.  We went 10/15 today and that was enough for a tie for second.  We aced the tiebreaker and scored some points.

Our misses:

• What animal's name means "Earth pig"? 
• Aardvark (Late 18th century from South African Dutch, from aarde ‘earth’ + vark ‘pig’)
• What country's flag features an AK-47 (Russian Avtomat Kalashnikov assault rifle)
• Mozambique
  

  
  
• What country hosted both the summer and winter Olympics in the same year?
• France  - 1924
• What does a deltiologist collect?
• Postcards
• The tiebreaker: In what year did Germany first use Zeppelins to drop bombs during wartime?
• 1915 (we answered 1916 and were closest)

We did some reading this afternoon and then Arlona went walking (three miles) while I attended a magic workshop by the magician, Greg Moreland.  

Today featured self-working, basic tricks that I had seen before.  The rest of the participants seemed to genuinely enjoy it, plus Greg made it entertaining.  He will be doing more and I'm hoping they get a little more in-depth.

This afternoon, we spotted the first ship in a couple of days.  Nice to know we have company out there.

Tonight's dinner was flavors of the Mediterranean.

It started out with drinks.  They had a combo of Greek yogurt & Blue Curacao and Ouzo and Blue Curacao.

Then had a nice selection of bread.

The appetizer featured bruschetta, a cold cucumber/tomato soup, and an octopus salad.

The main course was nuts!  

• Skewers of shrimp, chicken, lamb, and beef! 
• Cucumber, onion, peppers, and feta salad
• Hummus
• Taziki
• Grilled tomato & garlic
• Pita

I missed taking a photo of the triple dessert of limoncello ice cream, a yogurt-based creme with slivered almonds, and a caramel custard with fig. We enjoyed the dinner with our bridge friends, Steve & Kathy, out on the pool deck and all walked away well fed! Another win for the Viking culinary team!

We caught tonight's show - a hybrid magical that played high-tech synthesizers.  It looked oddly familiar.  Then, we realized we saw this exact show on the Viking Sky in Iceland this summer.

That wraps up today, other than the nagging feeling that is still rattling around in the back of our heads.

Six more sea days until we reach Sao Vicente.  I'm thinking of starting a flush/no-flush betting pool to help offset the cost of this trip.  I'll let you know how that goes.