3 April 2009

Friday 3 April

Checked out of the hostel at 12:10. Ten minutes after the check out time and they´ve skanked my deposit. I´m a bit peeved at this, particularly given the amount I´ve spent in the bar here! Never mind, I suppose they´ve had to put up with my drunken antics over the last few days.

Arrived at Nassau airport around 5pm and was met by Sarah (my cousin Paul´s missus) and three children, two of whom I’m related to (Ben & Josh). We drove back to their place which is a beautiful ocean-side apartment and enjoyed one of the Bahamian beers. Check out the sunset and the pool! As I’m sure you can imagine its absolute hell!

Paul arrived around an hour or so later (he’s an accountant over here and Sarah makes wonderful quilts which are then marketed in the States). They seem a really nice family but I’m sure they are feeling as wary as I am right now.

We went for a dinner party with some of their friends (all ex-pats I think). Really interesting people and great food. I didn’t offer a huge amount to the conversation (still finding my feet a bit here) but managed to stay relatively sober and didn’t embarrass myself too much (I hope). Told a little tale about the flight over here - I thought it a little strange that, when giving the safety presentation, the airhostess was focussed on me alone. I wondered whether this was because I looked like a first time passenger but soon discovered the real reason. Everyone else, without exception, was asleep. It was really impressive given that we had only been on the plane ten minutes.

(I have one or two other things to say about my experiences of flights/airports/airport staff/airline crew/airline passengers etc and will share them in a “special edition” at the end of my trip - I’m sure there will be more in the coming weeks!)

Had a good chat with Paul when we got back and was introduced to Anejo. Wonderful stuff.

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