drinking Archives - Good For Spooning

Drinking is a mainstay on all cruise ships. After all, when you are on vacation you feel freer to enjoy a cocktail at any hour. That has been true on our river cruise as well as ocean cruises we have been on. The difference is the quality, not the quantity of drinking. The bar was stocked with brand names you recognize and civilized beer, not only on tap, but in bottles (no Bud, Miller or Coors). And I have to admit, I was drinking more wine and champagne on this trip than I have all the rest of this year. I normally avoid both because of migraines and hangovers in the past, but I had no issues at all in Europe. Was it the wine, or that I was relaxed? I am crediting the wine – perfection!

Each evening we had regional wine pairings created by Sorin our head bartender who is working toward his Sommelier certificate (a little more challenging with his mobile work venue) and has 13 years of experience working in the beverage industry. I am not an expert on wine, by any stretch of the imagination, but I know what I like and can tell you that the wines were delicious. Each region we sailed through had us drinking a different type of wine. In Budapest we had Hungarian wines, Austrian wines in Austria and of course, crisp and clean Riesling and Pinot Blanc were what we were drinking through the German wine regions.

Drinking My Vodka and Soda in a Daiquiri Glass

Without exception, the entire bar staff on the ship was exceptional, starting with Sorin, Stoyan, and Bruno. What makes a great drinking experience for me is that the bartenders knew what I wanted after just a few visits to the bar. We pesky Americans LOVE our ice and I personally love a tall or large glass. These guys had it figured out in just a few days and started serving me my drinks in daiquiri glasses because they held the most ice and liquid by volume. I may have looked a little ridiculous drinking my vodka and soda in a daiquiri glass, but, “Frankly I don’t give a damn.” And Agnes (the only woman on the food & beverage service team) in the dining room had my number too. I asked for a “large glass of caffeine” in the form of a Diet Coke at lunch and she made that happen in a red wine glass, the largest they had in the dining room.

City-side Drinking Experiences

And of course there were the city-side drinking experiences. We hit 5 breweries in 5 hours in Bamberg, found a brewery and a fine American style cocktail and cigar lounge in Vienna, and a craft beer bar in Frankfurt where we were having such a good time drinking with the locals that we skipped dinner on the ship! There were so many opportunities to enjoy local adult beverages and we took advantage of them all!

Bamberg – Five Breweries in five hours! Wish we had more time in this city! Currywurst, pretzels and beer.

Vienna – Left – Beer at a little bar, Kruger American Bar cocktail lounge, 1516 Brewery with the best coaster of the entire trip. Right – all the goodies from Demel Cafe – Amaretto coffee, Sachertorte and the House Specialty torte.

Frankfurt – L – R Mispelchen, Calvados brandy and a special breed of apricot. You do it as a shot – chew the apricot and then drink the brandy, tagliatelle with in season chanterelles, local craft beer, all at Naiv bar; the hilarious trashcans in the touristy city center.

Remember how I mentioned that John upgraded our room to a suite? Well, yeah. The suite came with an honest to goodness butler who has been trained by the head butler to the royal family in England. It is part of the corporate structure of Uniworld and Red Carnation Hotels (sister companies) that the butlers are all trained in classic English tradition. Our butler, as mentioned before is named Panche and I’d love to take him home just for the little details (he folds laundry like it was meant to be folded). John has a sweet tooth and always has some sort of chewy candy on or in his nightstand at home. John had been grabbing a small glass and filling it with gummi bears from the lounge snack bar stash and leaving it on the nightstand. Panche saw this and replaced the offending glass with a proper canister for his chewy treats! We, of course, had a great chuckle over that one! I mentioned how much I have always wanted to learn how to “saber” a champagne bottle and he provided me with an instruction sheet and a lesson using a bottle of bubbles given to us by British Airways as a celebratory gift for our 30^th Anniversary. It’s the details kids…it’s the details.

After the sabering lesson, Chef Daniel treated us to caviar complete with accompaniments and fruit.

Before we get into the meat of this – THANK YOU! It has been nearly 4 years since I began this blog, a passion project really, and I appreciate each and every click, like and share. If you are subscribed to this blog thank you twice! My goal this year is to double my readership, so if you love this, share it! If you hate it, share it twice <snicker>. And of course, follow along on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter for more bites.

I have been crabby and restless lately and it makes me want to write about being crabby and restless. The thing is when I am crabby my pet peeves come to the forefront and as I thought about it, I realized I hadn’t shared with all of you in a while the things that make my head explode. So here’s this year’s list. If I have shared any of them before it’s because they STILL piss me off. Be warned this post will be riddled with foul language.

Gentlemen – remove your fucking hat at the damn table unless it is a yarmulke. Few things annoy me more than seeing grown ass men wearing baseball caps, cowboy hats or the hipster trilby and fedora at the table. And while we are on the subject of hats, baseball hats are meant to keep the sun out of your eyes, if you are going to wear one, put the fucking bill in the FRONT where it belongs.
Ladies – wear shoes that are your size. No one wants to see you slip slopping out of your too high heels and busting your ass. Additionally I don’t want to see your heels and or toes hanging over the edges of your shoes. I REALLY can’t stand it when a celebrity on the red carpet has toes hanging out of her shoes. Fire your damn stylist woman because she isn’t doing her job.
I have been reading a LOT of other work online lately and all I can say is WOW! I know many bloggers write because it is their passion. A few write to placate their own egos and others because they have info of value to share. TIP: Use the spellchecker for Christ’s sake! It’s free! I have seen so many grammatical, spelling and punctuation fuck ups this week that my eyes were bleeding. I read one piece that had so many mistakes I had to stop reading and it was on a NEWS SOURCE. That asshat was PAID to write and it was a disaster. (If you find mistakes in here, post in the comments so I can fix them! I try really hard to keep my shit in line.)
While we are on the subject, use real words. I once read a blog post and the writer wrote at the completion of a recipe, and I shit you not, “Wala! It’s done!” Wala? What the actual fuck is Wala? Did they mean voila? I write “sandWISH”. I hope the capitalization is a clue to everyone reading it that it is a chuckle worthy word and one of my own making, like Rachel Ray’s “sammies”. I usually will put an asterisk with a footnote for first time readers to clue them in.
If you don’t want the truth, don’t ask for it. I have been called brutally honest and I consider that a compliment. If you ask me for my opinion and I say, “Do you want the truth, or do you want me to tell you what you want to hear?” chances are you aren’t going to be happy with me when I am done speaking.
I despise bars where I can’t smoke (don’t judge me). If I can’t light up with my beer, I am going to be irritated. THIS peeve is my biggest problem with the states of California and Washington.
And while we are on the subject, if I am allowed to smoke, empty my goddamn ash tray. AND bring it back. I recently had a cocktail waitress at a casino bar who took my ashtray when I asked for it be emptied (Moment of Truth – I should never have to ask for my water glass to be filled or my ashtray to be emptied) and then she was gone for 15 minutes. Where the hell was I s’posed to put my butts? On the carpet?
On the topic of bars, it aggravates me when there are no purse hooks under the bar. It’s almost as if they don’t want women to sit there. NO, I don’t want to hang my purse on the back of my chair where it might fall, get knocked off or get stolen (yes that happens). It’s even more aggravating when I am sitting on a true bar STOOL and there is no back to my seat.
And finally, I have a real problem with people who talk shit about others behind their backs. Be courageous. Do the right thing. Don’t say anything behind someone’s back that you wouldn’t say to their face if asked. Trust me, you’ll feel better.