EPISODE ... errr... 3? 4? 5?

WELCOME TO THE CARIBBEAN! HERE WE GO!

Week 15

Day 1

It's only going to be a 6 day week this time around as we head down to San Juan. Gotta say I'm going to miss the weather.

Last time in Bayonne for now! I guess I'll be back in my second contract when we go back to Bermuda but as of now, home port is going to be San Juan Puerto Rico. Can't wait to get there. From what I've heard it's a magical fantastical place.

Went out to Manhattan today. Got to Time Square. Gotta say, experiencing time square on a Sunday afternoon isn't the best experience that the place can give. I'd very much like to return on a busy night and just see what the whole fuss is about. Walking around the area though, you get bombarded by a ridiculous amount of information. Just billboards upon billboards, scrolling marquees, videos, live camera feeds, news, entertainment, advertising.. it can drive you insane. I want to sit and stare at a white wall after all that eyeball saturation. 

At least now I get to say I've been to Time Square (is it time square? Times Square? Timesquare?) and I've eaten some quintessential New York pizza too. Which was delicious by the way. The one thing that I can say about New Yorkers is that they've done wonders to the pizza and made it amazing. Put it in perspective here - I've been getting a lot of pizza on the ship because it's one of the only things they serve after shows up at the buffet. That and pasta. So I've been having plenty of pizza already but I still enjoyed the New York one immensely.

I will return to Bermuda again for a single day before shifting to the other caribbean islands, so see you there. Cheers.

Day 2

Started out today getting my hair cut up in the spa. It's not free unfortunately but there's a reasonable discount. Unfortunately it's a sea day today and usually sea days mean more spa customers because guests have no where to go. And that ultimately meant that I had to get up at 8am to get my hair cut. At least I won't have to have it cut again for the rest of my contract. 1 hair cut in a single 6 month contract. I am silently, or maybe not so silently since I'm writing it out here, proud of myself. 

Gotta say looking at what the spa girl did to my hair, this is probably the roundest hair cut I've ever had. It's like she fashioned my head into a perfect sphere of hair. It's slightly disturbing how perfectly round and even it is. I will attempt to take a picture.

Guess where I'll be tomorrow?

Day 3

We returned to Bermuda today. Yes Bermuda. I thought I was done with the Island, but apparently not. We are repositioning to San Juan Puerto Rico so we stopped by Bermuda on this special 6 day repositioning cruise.

After seeing Bermuda so many times, coming back here is like visiting an old friend. I know where everything is. I know what there is to do and what there isn't. So all I did was go grab a pint. Go figure.

Day 4

Gonna be sea days in a row. Not much happening.

Day 5

Nope. Still not much happening.

Day 6

Arrived in St Thomas. I could've gotten off the ship a lot earlier than when I did. But still I got to see my first view of the caribbean. It's pretty. It's hot. It's got a lot of palm trees.

There you go, first observation. I am in no hurry to see the caribbean islands though because I'm going to be visiting these places over the next two months, and in fact when I return for my second contract, another two months. I did, however, do some research about some local food around the area. The one thing I am dying to try is conch. Those pretty conch shells that sell as tourist items? Well I wanna eat the creature living in those. It's supposed to be a local delight here.

I also want to eat some shark, and all sorts of other local food. I've found places to do that. We shall see in the weeks to come if I can score some local delights.

Day 7

Arrived in San Juan Puerto Rico. This is going to be home base for a while now. Better get used to it. Old San Juan is a fair bit of a walk from where we dock, which is annoying. This means I'll have to get a cab every time I want to get to internet connectivity. Perhaps I will make some other place my internet spot. 

All roads lead to Starbucks.

This will also mark the start of the true caribbean cruise as we coast from island to island, St Lucia, St Martin and other places. I'll tell you all about it in the weeks to come.

Thoughts from the week?

My roomie is a strange personality. He has an relentless infatuation with documentaries, regardless of the relevance of the documentary itself. Factoids must have some stimulating effect on his brain. Unfortunately this means that no matter how uninteresting the documentary may be, the TV will be on because there is an entire channel dedicated to documentaries. While I appreciate that some people do require the need for entertainment (as I have proven several times), I often keep that entertainment within the confines of a screen only I can see (read: my computer) and speakers only I can hear (read: earphones). Sometimes moments of silence are much appreciated. 

I've realised this about myself several times already - I am a champion of the beauty of silence. It's nice to just sit in silence sometimes and read or write or something. Silence is nice. 

He's a nice dude though. Strange. But nice.

Also, I'm already missing the cold weather up north. Weather in the caribbean feels much like home. Hot and damp. Ugh. I don't like it.