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Monday 4 November 2013

Freedom 2013 - St Thomas

We did not arrive in St Thomas until after lunch, so we enjoyed a leisurely morning around the ship. Our plan today was strictly to get off the ship, and wander around Charlotte Amalie. We are not shoppers, so really it was just to soak up some atmosphere.

Ships already in port


It is quite the hike from the ship at the end of the pier to the taxi stand, so we contemplated the SeƱor Frog's.  It was, however, quite noisy. Instead, we happened upon a lovely little place playing island music. I was charmed, and just on the off chance, asked the bar tender if he could make a lime daiquiri. He asked if I wanted it frozen, or on the rocks. Rocks, please! As a side note, I do not understand this obsession with frozen daiquiris to the exclusion of real ones. A finely crafted daiquiri, is infinitely superior to a rum slushee, and I wish they would find another name for those frozen things. My daiquiri was tart, and refreshing, and a colour found in nature. Thus endeth the sermon. The World's Greatest Husband enjoyed a Red Stripe.


After that, we took a taxi into town. It should be noted that taxis here are shared, with the prices per person, and scaled depending upon the number of passengers, and are usually vans instead of small cars. The route is established, and we were dropped off at a standard drop off point. From there, we wandered around. We looked in a pirate store, and then randomly wandered through various malls and walk ways. Eventually we came upon a sign advertising a Beer Garden with free Wi-Fi. Since we were both feeling a bit out of touch, this seemed ideal.


We went up a garden path (really), and found a lovely outdoor bar, which was quite homey, with reasonably priced beer, and the aforementioned contact with the outside world. We enjoyed cheap beverages, and caught up with our friends. Then we wandered again.

A gentleman noticed TWGH's necklace, which he got in Kenya, and dragged us to a store selling African style artefacts. It was awkward, because we buy African style artefacts in Africa, not the US Virgin Islands. We made our escape, and did some more exploring.



Finally, we decided we could do with another beverage, and found Greengo's. It was a lovely place with a Day of the Dead decor, and Dos Equis Amber. We also decided on a little snack, and shared some pork nachos. Very nice. 


After this, we returned to the ship in a purple taxi van. We were late leaving St. Thomas, so we got a beautiful view of it all lit up at night.


We spent a leisurely evening, and hung around the champagne bar, since it had terrific service, and properly measured pours, instead of the 5-1 ratio of alcohol to mix you normally get in cruise ship bars.