Free trip to Freeport
I’m back from what is without a doubt the shortest trip abroad I’ve ever taken. I’m not even sure if “abroad” is the best word to use, considering I’ve traveled farther for an afternoon of shopping, but The Bahamas is still a separate country, even if they didn’t stamp my passport when I passed through the empty customs hall.
I had to wake up painfully early yesterday morning to get to Port Everglades by 6:30. It wouldn’t have been quite so bad, except I’d been woken up by a kitten jumping on my face and hadn’t managed to get back to sleep. When I got to the port it took a while to get through check-in and I was seriously regretting not having stopped off at Starbucks on the way over. By the time I made it through the first enormous line I had a headache, by the time I made it through the second I had a migraine, and by the time I actually made it onboard and to the breakfast buffet I was prepared to physically assault a waiter if I didn’t get my coffee cup filled within two seconds.
It was really funny to be on the ship, especially when I went outside onto one of the lower decks and looked out over the rails. It reminded me of the many ferries I’d traveled on last summer…so much so that at times I felt like I had to watch over my shoulder to make sure the crew didn’t see me trying to sneak into a lounge that was above my class. But it was no open air, deck-top beach mat for a bed for me—our group had VIP treatment! That mostly meant that we got to get on and off the boat before everyone else and we had this little old man named Wally who gave us coupons for free drinks at the bar, but every little bit counts.
The ship itself wasn’t anything all that special. It was blinged out in awful mirrors everywhere I looked and had the most hideous carpet to ever assault my eyes running throughout the interior corridors. It was only a day cruise ship, so not nearly as big as the liner I’d been on when I went to the Bahamas three years ago, so the rocking of the ship was much more pronounced, particularly inside the boat in the dining rooms. I felt like I was in one of those swirling barrels in a Fun House every time I had to walk down this one particular narrow corridor to the conference room…I had to hold onto the walls because I felt like I was going to topple over at any minute (I think the carpet pattern was partially to blame).
In the morning we had a team meeting in the ship’s conference room where we had a team-building game of “three truths and a lie”—a classic; there’s nothing like learning unremarkable facts about people you don’t even know that screams fun. Although I should point out that I discovered that among the people I work with was a man who’d met the Dalai Lama, a man who’d once been ranked 11th in the nation among youth chess players and a woman who didn’t like seafood. Afterwards we watched a short movie that one of the guys in my department made for the Director, who’s leaving to move to Australia in the next week or so and who was part of the reason for the cruise (and, as it turned out, a good excuse for certain individuals to drink Bahama Mamas at 9 in the morning instead of grande lattes). The E! True Hollywood Story-ish video was really awesome, and that’s not just because I was an extra in one of the scenes, although my “woman sleeping in meeting” was quite convincing.
After spending the remainder of the morning on the top deck getting some much needed sun, and after a less than spectacular lunch buffet, we finally arrived at Port Lucaya on Grand Bahama Island where we all crammed onto a bus and were driven to Freeport. I’d forgotten that in the Bahamas they drive on the left side of the road. As we drove through the streets I was looking at some of the cars and it looked like half of them had steering wheels on the left side of the car and half on the right side. It’s funny to think that the island is only 40 miles off the coast of Florida and yet they apparently import cars from Europe. I didn’t think to look for any Vauxhalls or Peugeots while we were driving, but I wish now that I had. I’d be interested to see where their cars actually come from. It was surprisingly dead on the island and nowhere near as busy as Nassau had been when I went. It turned out that it was Independence Day in the Bahamas and so everyone was off work for the day and all the businesses and offices were shut…apart from the touristy area around the casino, of course. Two Independence Days in a week…not bad!
One thing I noticed as we headed towards the beach is that the island’s vegetation didn’t really seem all that different from Fort Lauderdale to me. I couldn’t tell if the other islands I’d been to were just further south and so more tropical, or if I was just getting used to South Florida and how tropical it is. I imagine that if I’d just come from Gainesville it would have seemed much more like a foreign country and less like another Miami suburb with people driving on the wrong side of the road. The pastel pink and green plantation-style buildings were fun to see, though.
We didn’t really have all that much time at all on the island itself. When we got off the bus we had about two hours until we had to be back again. So we Citrites descended upon the straw market like a swarm of locusts until everyone realized it was all cheap Taiwanese junk and dispersed as quickly as we’d come. Several people went to the casino, others went to restaurants to sample the conch, and I suspect far more found beachside bars to pass the time in. The group of people I was with opted for the beach. The water was really nice and cool, but it wasn’t nearly as turquoise and bright as other tropical waters I’ve seen. It was still pretty, but, again, it didn’t feel all that different than Fort Lauderdale apart from the finer sand and the Bahamian flags flying around the city. It was, however, a day at the beach when I otherwise would have been at work, so I was loving absolutely every second of it!
It was a hot, sticky bus ride back to the boat. Several of us got back on the boat and went straight to sleep in the lounge chairs on the top deck. It was so nice and relaxing, but I was so ready to be back home and we still had several hours left. Dinner took up over two hours with the combination of a seven course meal and a waiter that seemingly forgot about our table, but I was sitting with fun people so it was cool. The food wasn’t that great at all, though. I expected at least one of the seven courses to be good, but everything was just okay. I picked at all my courses, thinking I’d save room for the good course. When that never came I ended up leaving the table still semi-hungry and wishing I’d ordered a peanut butter and jelly sandwich instead of the filet mignon.
Around 10:00 we arrived back at the port. I was so dead and anxious to get off the boat as soon as possible. I felt guilty about leaving the cats at home all day long with nobody there and was a little worried about what I might find when I got back. It took a while before we were cleared by customs and could disembark, but at long last I made it off and drove home. To my surprise, the kittens hadn’t destroyed anything, in fact, they hadn’t even really made a mess! They were snuggled up on my bed when I walked in and then came running over to me. Awww! It’s so nice having cats in the house again!
Speaking of cats…picking them up on Sunday afternoon was a trip! I knew it wasn’t going to be fun bringing them home in little cardboard carriers, but they were howling the entire time! There is nothing more heartbreaking than the sound of a little half-drugged kitten mewing and thrashing around sporadically in a box. They were pretty funny when I got them home and let them out in the bathroom. Acton was really curious and friendly but Bora was still so drugged up from her surgery that she couldn’t even walk without staggering around. It was so sad! And yet so very pathetically cute. It was impossible not to laugh when she lifted her hind leg to lick it and couldn’t coordinate her mouth and foot and wound up licking the air before falling over on her side. It was very obvious when the drugs had worn off…she shrugged off her mild-mannered exterior and turned into this crazy, tiny little terror! I was worried at first Acton would pick on her because she was smaller, but I’m sure now she’ll be able to hold her own, no problem.
Tags: Bahamas, beach, cats, Florida, Fort Lauderdale, kittens, Travel
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I have to admit, even as a person who doesn’t like cats, that Bora and Acton sound adorable!