Yesterday afternoon and night, we embraced our exhaustion from traveling and lazily stayed in our hotel rooms, enjoying the view and the air conditioning. When we finally realized that it was 7 pm (the equivalent to our 4 pm) and we hadn't eaten since 4 am, we quickly jumped up and made ourselves presentable for dinner. We didn't feel like going very far, so we just went to a restaurant in the hotel- the cheapest one we could find that really wasn't cheap at all. Kristie got gnocchi, an entrée that was $30 for a very small serving! I felt like I was on my way to becoming broke from all the money I spent on taxis and tips, so I stuck with a $10 appetizer- a Caesar salad that ended up being 3 large pieces of lettuce with 2 croutons, drizzled with the slightest amount of Caesar dressing. THANK goodness for the complimentary bread, which filled me up about 10 times as much as my real "meal!"
After dinner, we walked around and explored the hotel. It's gorgeous and huge, and we went to the pools, beach, and casino. When we passed by the liquor store, we noticed how cheap the rum was and asked why it was so inexpensive. Because it's processed close by and doesn't have to be imported, it's very inexpensive so most drinks in the Bahamas are made with rum. I guess that makes sense! After taking pictures exploring the hotel, we headed back to the room to shower and relax for the rest of the night. We hung out in the room and our third hotel roommate Kelsey got in at about midnight! Of course we had to stay up a little and talk, and finally got to sleep at about 2. Because it was so late, we let ourselves sleep in…well, we decided that in the morning. We set the alarm for 9:00, but had a very short conversation while the alarm was going off that we were going to close our eyes again really quick—it's never really quick.
We woke up at 10:30 and jumped up to get ready for the day. We threw on our bathing suits and sundresses and took the bus (the 10, to be exact!) to the City Market. That was our first real taste of the Bahamas! Since we felt that dinner was too expensive, we chose to go to the market and get some breakfast foods, snacks, and water. We asked the concierge how to get to the bus and ended up having to walk about half a block (in her words) which was really about a quarter to a half a mile. We met up with two other girls and starting on our way! We were sweating like crazy by the time we reached the bus stop, but thankfully the bus pulled right up. Now, something as simple as opening a door should seem simple, right? Not so much. The bus doors were very weird and there was an art to opening them, so the bus driver was very impatient with us. The second the last girl's foot got off the ground he started taking off! We got to the City Market, and were trying to pay (only $1.25 each!). Of course, nobody had quarters and he didn't have change he would give us, so we just gave him a little extra and got off- and he started driving just before the last girl stepped out! Those bus drivers are sure in a hurry!
We got to the market and walked inside to find that we were in what looked like a typical grocery store- just what we were hoping for! There were a bunch of aisles stocked with American brands and some brands we didn't recognize. All of the price tags were in cents- so rather than $5.89, something would be 589 cents. We thought that was interesting! Since all the American food was imported, it was extremely overpriced. I almost bought a tiny box of Crystal Light for $8.00 until I realized that it was definitely not worth it. On the other hand, non-American products were extremely cheap! A bag of chips that were probably made in the Bahamas or somewhere close was 33 cents! We all bought sandwiches, fruit, and some breakfast bars and made our way out to the bus stop again. This time, we kind of knew what we were doing so it went more smoothly.
*Time out!* I definitely forgot to mention this yesterday, but in the Bahamas they drive on the opposite sides of the road! In the taxi from the airport, I had a minor freak-out when I looked up and we were driving next to someone going in the same direction as on, on a 2-lane road, and there was a car coming straight for us. After a second, I realized that the taxi driver was just passing the car next to us and that we were driving on the left side of the road! I guess I just didn't expect it since he was driving a car from the left side. Okay, *untime!*
We got back to the room and were surprised to find it crowded! Our fourth roommate had just gotten in, and she met some girls whose room wouldn't be ready until 3. All 4 of them had 2 huge bags, just like the rest of us, so in the room there were 14 gigantic bags and 7 people! We plopped down on the beds, cranked up the air conditioning, and chowed down on our newly purchased food. My turkey sandwich was so good, and so were my grapes! It was definitely worth the trip, both for the food we got (for cheap!) and the experience. We were proud of ourselves for taking the bus and succeeding!
Once we finished eating, I put my sunscreen on (like a good super-white girl) and we headed down to the beach. At first, we found a group of lounge chairs in the sun, but soon realized that if we were going to survive we'd need to find some shade. We were really lucky to find a palm umbrella with a couple lounge chairs underneath it.
Now picture this- a super hot day, lounging under a palm tree umbrella, sipping on a cold drink, looking out to the most gorgeous light turquoise water against white sand. There was fun music coming from the bar, and I was in the company of my new friends. I was loving it! I felt like I was in paradise- it was so surreal! We all felt the same way and decided to stay until the late afternoon- we wanted to take advantage of it as much as we could! At one point, a few of us went down to the water (like we did periodically to cool off) and were sitting/floating in the shallow water finding little seashells! No longer will I be buying pretty seashells from the stores- I have my own, and I found them! They're tiny, but they're very cute. :) I'll be putting those with the bottle Janie gave me (thank you! I'm doing it!) to fill with a scoop of sand from every beach I go to. While we were in the water, we noticed a huge thunder storm a little ways over on the beach. Some other people in the water said it had been there since the morning, so it was okay and not coming toward us. A couple minutes later, we saw a pretty big (at least to me) twister over a ways on the sand! Sand was flying everywhere and knocking over umbrellas and chairs! And a couple minutes after THAT, we noticed dark smoke coming from a different part of the island and assumed there was a fire. It was such a bizarre few minutes!
After a beautiful, relaxing, perfect day on the beach, we stopped at the pools then went up to our room. We all showered and got ready to go downtown, and finally left to catch the bus. Well, we found out the buses stop running at seven and what time was it? Seven. Of course. We settled on taking a taxi, and ended up paying $5 each for about a 2 minute ride—RIP OFF! We were going to dinner at a place called the Fish Fry- or so we thought. Turns out, it's not a restaurant but a district with tons of local seafood restaurants. We quickly got sucked into one and were promised a balcony table, so we hesitantly paid the taxi driver and went up get seated. The balcony was great and had a beautiful view of the water and sunset. Our waitress was a sweetheart! We all ordered a Bahama Mama to celebrate being together in the Bahamas to start our voyage- it was really good! We quickly put in our order, and ended up waiting two whole hours for our food. When it finally came, we scarfed it down quickly.
I'm typically a picky eater, but I'm trying to be much more open on this trip! I want to live and learn different cultures, and in order to do that fully I know I need to be more willing to try new things! So tonight, my big step was getting Conch Fritters as an appetizer. They were little bread balls with pieces of conch mixed in. It was definitely interesting! Since that was my big step, I decided it would be okay to get chicken fettuccini for my entrée. It was delicious! I don't know what made it better- the fact that it was actually good, or that I had waited SO long to get it!
We had a bit of trouble leaving the restaurant, as some drunk guys decided they didn't want to pay for the food they ordered and tried to put in on us. As we were leaving, a waitress stopped us and told us we hadn't paid and that we needed to please come with her. For a second it got a little scary because so many people were talking to us at once so worked at the restaurant and wouldn't accept the fact that we had our receipt and had JUST paid! Thankfully, our waitress let them know our situation and we were able to scoot on out of there. In the meantime, the other half of the girls had found a taxi and were talking to the driver. This time, we decided we would NOT get ripped off and that we'd ask the price before we got in. Luckily, this guy was only going to charge us $3 each. He drove us to Senior Frogs, and that ride went smoothly.
The second we got out of the taxi van (a little sketchy, I know- but that's how they all are…plus, there were 6 of us) and were instantly greeted by a woman who started putting bracelets on us "for free." Well, it turns out you had to give a donation and $5 was hardly enough. One girl had wandered over to a group of students our age, so as the rest of us walked away the lady muttered about 15 times that "that girl, she didn't pay. She didn't pay. She didn't pay. But that's okay, but she didn't pay anything. Nothing at all." Well, when someone says she's giving you a free bracelet, it's not reasonable to expect a certain amount! We just walked away and thankfully she left us alone after that.
We walked up to Senior Frogs, and there was a decent sized line. In front of us were some students who just finished the previous Semester at Sea voyage- the month-long "Maymester" all around central America. We talked to them and got some advice as we waited in line. When we got to the front, they tried to charge us a cover of $10 each. A bunch of people said they were here last night and didn't have to pay to get in, and we were so sick of getting ripped off, so we said no, turned around, and walked away. Tomorrow, we'll be getting there before 9 so there is no question, and we refuse to pay. We still got a picture!
The second we turned around to leave, about 6 different taxi drivers came up to us trying to get us to go in their taxi. This time, we were firm. We wanted to pay $3. Well, "government regulation" is $5, so we settled on $4 after a long time. We got back to the hotel and checked the sign of taxi prices, and found out that that particular ride was the right price but the first one was extremely overpriced. We had gotten jipped, and were so sick of feeling like pieces of meat that everyone wanted to get money from and take advantage of the fact that we were tourists. In fact, we were exhausted from the experience and even a little grumpy! But we learned our lessons; we had to learn the hard way, but we weren't about to keep getting ripped off.
After we hung out in the room for a bit, we decided to go down to the pool to meet some more Semester at Sea people. We met a bunch of people, but we met one boy in particular who stood out. He wasn't a part of Semester at Sea- he lived on the island and was 15- his name was Isaac. Everyone has been telling us to just meet the locals to get a feel for their lives, and that they're very sweet. We took some time to get to know Isaac, but it's 3:41 am right now so I'll have to tell you about him later! We even got a picture with him. Stay tuned!
Just as a wrap-up, today I learned 2 things:
1) Don't get ripped off- we learned that the hard way.
2) Reapply sunscreen very often, or you will end up with splotches of sunburn. Not the most comfortable OR attractive thing!!
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