July 19. Tall ships

We went to see the tall ships in the evening. There were about 40 of them. Some of them allowed visitors. We went up Georg Stage, Danish ship. It is the smallest of its class and yet it houses 60 people, most of the students. Some of the crew dressed up as pirats. The ship is made up mostly of wood. It was very beautiful. Crew was very friendly and shared some interesting tidbits about the life at sea.

For example, they have a 3 day shift to take a shower. They do not use motors other than to enter/exit the port. Living space on the ship is really tight. It is a 5 month course after which most of the students will work on ships with some returning back to school to study some more for the officer positions. 

Georg Stage

Then we went up the Russian MIR. It is also a three-master but is twice bigger. Most of the parts are made of metal and if not for the neatly folded sails on the masts it does not feel like a “real” sailing boat. Crew was dressed in the beautiful uniforms. Some of the crew had a store with souvenirs running as well as donations box. Others huddled on computers and smartphones.  

There were also other amusements happening all around – vendors, food kiosks, games for kids. We just had enough time remaining to run through the row of ships and grab a quick pizza on the way. At home the kids fell asleep immediately.

Tried “fresh cheese” that locals buy in droves today. It is somewhere between Greek yogurt and jelly in consistency and very mild flavored – practically no taste at all. If you cover it with proscuitto and pepper, it is not so bad. I am beginning to think that there must be a special proscuitto covered variety of sardines to ease foreigners gently into the  local food.  

Picked up our rental car today. Very glad the guy from DSCar did not let us down. We even parked it in our building using the car elevator – very cool and scary. Especially considering that I forgot which one is our parking spot.