Tuesday, July 03, 2007

Week 5: Part One

Greetings, true-believers! Ian here, with another quick installment of the Ian-Boat-Blog. This one is mostly gonna be pictures, but being worth a thousand words, it should be more than enough.

So this week, we went back on the 8-day cruise, which takes us down through the Caribbean (also known as “the better cruise”). Don’t get me wrong, both are nice, I just prefer the 8-day. Our first stop was beautiful Bermuda, where I decided to switch things up a little and actually set foot off the boat this time.


Adventure! The whole group of us took a ferry across the bay to Hamilton (about a 15 minute ride). We rode in a boat called “the Tempest”, though I noticed the ferry-boat traveling the opposite direction was called “Serenity” (only my nerd friends will get the reference, and understand why I was jealous). We walked around beautiful downtown Hamilton for a few hours, and checked out a nice little park right downtown.




After we poked around for a bit, we discovered a faun who took us to a magical underground labyrinth... (another nerd reference. Sorry Mom)


We looked around at some more of the town, which is very beautiful and still looks very Colonial-British. They have some very beautiful churches, though we didn’t really get the chance to go in.


This is the historic Hamilton City Hall & arts Centre.


Out front you can see a priceless cast iron statue of local children being taught to read by “the OC’s” Micha Barton:


The night before we arrived in Hamilton, I got an e-mail from my friend Andrew back home in Toronto. His brother lives down here in Bermuda, so Andrew has been to visit several times. He was quite adamant that we check out a local diner known as “The Spot”, known for their pancakes (or “griddle cakes” as Andrew called them. This term drew bewildered looks from the counter-staff however). We found the restaurant easily, but had missed the breakfast cutoff. Luckily, the guy agreed to make me delicious pancakes anyway!


Mission Accomplished!

Here is a picture of the diner. At first we thought the meal was a bit pricey. But then we discovered that Bermuda itself is a bit pricey.


Our next stop in Bermuda was a beach we had heard a great deal about, Horseshoe Beach. We hopped on a local bus and drove for about 15 minutes. During the ride an sweet little old lady leaned in behind Katy and I and struck up a conversation. I shall provide an excerpt.

IAN: So have you lived in Bermuda all your life?

SWEET OLD LADY: No, I moved here when I was 14 years old. I’ve lived here for 60 years.

KATY: Wow, you must really love Bermuda.

SWEET OLD LADY: Well, it was sure better before all the poor people moved here!

IAN: Uhh... yeah, I hear that can be a problem.

VAGUELY RACIST OLD LADY: I heard that three of “them” stabbed someone outside my apartment last night. This island is falling apart. The police don’t do anything to stop them!

She then went on to loudly decry immigration, other passenger’s tattoos, and spoke at great length to the man behind us about the Book of Revelations and the End of Days.

Anyways, We pressed on, and soon arrived at Horseshoe Bay. Definitely the nicest beach I’ve seen this entire trip (and therefore, in my entire life)


We spent the entire afternoon there, getting some sun (I didn’t burn for once!), swimming, snorkeling, and (of course) climbing on big rocks and exploring.







After a few hours we hopped back on the bus and drove the rest of the way around the island. It was about a 30-minute trip, through the nice rural towns of Bermuda. I have to say, Bermuda reminds me weirdly of Cape Breton – very coastal, with the same kind of homes and small town feeling. Except more palm trees.

That night back on the boat we all went down to the dance club in the front of the boat, “Maharinis”. The club has a Persian/ desert vibe to it (the adjoining casino is called “Maharajah’s”, naturally). That night the dancers had told us to come check out the show – since we were sailing through the Bermuda Triangle they were doing a live version of Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”. And you know what that means... ZOMBIES!


From left to right that’s Chuck, Jolene, and Stephanie (Dean and Vicki are in the back). The show was great (the dancers on this ship are really talented). The best part though was Derek’s reaction to the show. He had been very excited to see it. But as soon as the announcer began his spiel about “There’s an old story among the cruise ships that a group of dancers disappeared in the middle of the Bermuda Triangle”, Derek went “Oh shit, they’re gonna do it”. Turns out Derek has a legitimate fear of zombies. Not like he believes in them, they just seriously give him the wiggins. But Derek endured, though he got loudly spooked from behind by Zombie-Jolene.

Later that night was a giant deck party for the crew. These parties generally mean free beer, and painfully loud music.


I actually spent most of the night hanging out with a girl named Elizabeth, who later turned out to be the Captain’s daughter visiting from Norway. Luckily, I did not make out with her. (we’re not even allowed in passenger’s cabins – think how fired I would have been for that...). Here is a picture of Elizabeth, next to a large man in a see-through one-piece eating chicken wings on a bed.


Well, that’s all for this entry. I’ll have more stuff up soon, but in the meantime I will leave you with a picture of a very-uncomfortable Derek, surrounded by the living dead. Ahoy!

1 Comments:

At 10:48 AM, Blogger acurrie said...

No, no... not PANcakes, GRIDDLEcakes! They're completely different ;-)

 

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