was the drunk from the No-Name pub! Had we acquired a stalker?
Fortunately she did not recognize us, being preoccupied with mopping up
spilled water with her jacket and rubbing lemon slices on her arm. The staff
were at first mortified that our meal was being spoilt, and then burst into
(discreet) laughter on hearing that we had encountered her before. They also
gave us a free pudding for our troubles, or for giving them a giggle, I am not
sure which. It was a shame that Gerald was not there to hypnotise the drunk
into sobriety!
This incident did not cause us to swear off the bottle for life, despite showing
us up close the hideous effects of alcohol. Key West has a serious club/bar
culture especially on Duvall Street, and the party atmosphere is in fact so
strong, so insidious, that we – (usually) non-drunken-party people - even
caught the vibe. We spent an ill-advised night drinking in town with a complete
stranger, and needed the next three evenings off to recover.
The day, our first full one in Key West, began in a civilised fashion. We
decided to get the bus into town rather than drive because parking the night
before had been a nightmare. The last bus back was quite late, so we thought
we would be able to fit in all the sightseeing that we wanted to do. It turned
out that Key West did not have that many sights to see and the day was
certainly spent at a slower pace than in places like New York or San
Francisco. We took the trolley tour - another hop on and off car disguised a
train - and covered the whole route by the end of the day.
The only other tourist attraction that we wanted to do was the glass
bottomed boat ride out to the coral reef. The trip is advertised as being fairly