Tallships

Dar Mlodziezy
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The next day was the last day with this particular crew so we went in search of alcohol. On the way to the liquor store, we stopped by the mile-long stretch of tallships docked along the main port of Antwerp. Holy crap, it was unreal! I'd never seen anything like it. The sight brings tears to my eyes, seriously. It was mast after mast of perfectly furled sails pretty much as far as the eye could see. Amazing.

We walked around there for a while and took a tour of one of the nicer Polish boats there--Dar Mlodziezy (literally translated as "Gift of the Youth")--and looked around some of the larger Russian ones. It would be so awesome to spend some time sailing on one of those things!

Don't worry, hon, I'll have you back by 6.

Row of tallships
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Ok, moving on. We invested in some beverages at the local supermarket and headed back to the boat. I still had some stuff to do on-deck so the others headed out to a bar across the street, where I would meet them later in the afternoon. After a couple hours of working on some rigging, one of the guys came back to tell me that I should hurry up and come see them cuz they've talked up this Belgian dude who was buying them drinks. What more incentive do I have?

I dropped my tools, said "See ya!" to the bosman and followed my buddy to free alcohol. And this is where I went wrong. The guys were talking to him and I chatted up my fellow female companion before my beer ran out. Then I started making conversation with the old Belgian dude. He bought me a beer and while we were talking, he asked me if I'd ever tried this other kind. "Of course not," I lied. So there was another beer on him.

The night went on and I think I may've had every beer on tap at this particular watering hole. It became time to leave and grab dinner back on the boat and continue celebrating, but the old dude wouldn't let me go. He apparently lived in the apartments above the bar and invited me up for the night. That was right after he had told me that he'd been watching me change from his window (not possible, since my porthole faced the wall of the dock). So obviously I didn't want to go home with this creepy asshole. My excuse of having to get up early in the morning was parlayed by his "Don't worry, hon, I'll have you back by 6." I eventually weazelled out of his proposition by saying the captain demanded that we sleep on the boat.

I became free of creepy man and continued the party into the wee hours of the morn.