Les Hannah, day 25, part final

By the time I had done all that museum hopping it was getting close to time to head to the harbor. It was at least a twenty minute walk from where I was, so I gathered my wits and strength and headed toward the sea. By the time I got there many the Oslo University students had already gathered; most were already drunk or drinking. I thought to myself how long they would last. Having around forty-five minutes to wait for the ship and then boarding I sat amongst them and listened to their pre-cruise revelry. I noticed several of the students wearing VIP badges. I would later find out that these were the best and brightest, or at least the ones who had done the best on exams that had recently happened. These badges permitted them free drinks all night, exclusive seating in the shipboard disco, free food and reserved seating in the diner. I guess good GPA pays dividends of a different sort here.

Shortly after 7pm boarding began. At 7:30pm the ship sailed for Frederickshavn, Denmark. It was a twelve hour cruise, a twelve-hour cruise, aboard the Saga, not Minnow – and we made it safely right about on time. At 7:50 the next morning we were docked in Denmark.

Now the cruise was certainly an interesting one; we had not even made it out of the harbor until the students were in the shipboard store purchasing all the beer they could carry, those student without the VIP badges that is. I tried to get something to eat but whoever designed this ship apparently did not consider that 1400 drunken university students crammed into the store would be a problem for those only interested in getting to the café at the back of the store. A walk that should have taken only a few seconds took near fifteen minutes as I swam through the Student Body Ocean toward the café. Once I made it I decided to eat my pizza there and sit for a good long while, at least until the store cleared out some and I could make it back through relatively unscathed. That ended up being nearly an hour.

Finally I made my way back to my cabin and settled in for the evening. I was hoping to get some sleep but it was not to be, at least for a long time. The cabin above me was apparently filled with VIP students who decided to do their version of a stomp dance on what was the roof of my cabin. I could hear them singing, and then they would stomp on the floor in rhythm to their drunken song. Now I thought the ship was made of metal, but I did not know it was beer can aluminum. Those walls were thin. My whole cabin shook every time they stomped. Their dance lasted for over an hour before they finally decided to go to the actual disco. I eventually did manage some sleep, but not what I needed. Oh well, I made it back to Denmark.