I was surprised when we landed. Most flights, your on it for 5 hours and you want to kill someone when you get off. Not this one. My back usually will only give me 3 hours until I start noticing the pain, and then it just explodes, and theres nothing i can do about it. It's stress. I know its there, and I deal with it. No big. Both flights were no more than 3 hours, and it was great.
Today, things moved relatively fast. We were in Nassau around 1pm. I was amazed to see, for the first time, a customs routine that in a few words, hardly existed. I could have been carrying a sack of drugs, and they wouldnt have noticed. Okay, not a sack of it, but you know what I mean. The Bahamas is very laid back, from what I can tell right now, and I'm loving it.
After checking into the hotel, which by the way I think was the only building in all of Nassau that had air conditioning, my parents and I found the Executive club on the 6th floor, following the discovery of the cocktail bar. I felt awkward at first walking up to it with my parents there. It was weird, but when you get the drink, nothing really fuckin matters anyways.
So I downed the rum and coke and relaxed while my brother and step dad threw rhetoric comments back and forth trying to identify the plans of the evening. Which, by the way, didn't really conclude on any certainty. So, like always with my family, we just do... whatever.
Our room, separate then my parents, was taking a while to prepare, so we headed out the door to a well known place in the area, "The Poop Deck". Yeah, its funny to say, and probably the reason why we chose it in the first place. "Lets go to the Poop Deck" my mom would say... we all roll our eyes.
When we get there, we're greeted with friendly smiles and a couple people from back home. They noticed my Chicago Cubs t-shirt, and made a comment. I showed my support for the team, but really just covered up the fact that its just a shirt, and my true support goes to the Sox. But it's all good, and it's all about being friendly and having a good time while you're out of your home country.
I wasn't exactly sure what to choose from the Poop Deck menu, so I asked the experienced perspective, and decided on the grilled grouper. Sounds good right? Damn right it was! That was probably the best cooked fish I've ever had, but then, not to deflate the rating, I don't usually eat fish. I know salmon, mahi mahi, but this kills everything. Maybe it was the seasoning, or the timing. Either way it was great. My plug goes out to you, Poop Deck, your magic in the great Bahama grouper has won my heart.... Okay back to reality. Everyone else's food was great, and even the comments that were thrown around as the parents and I slowly got more inebriated. It was fun.
We called a taxi, and a stocky gray van drove up, and a man came out to negotiate a price. At first he called it at $15, but we caught him when we said the taxi that brought us charged $10. He reversed, and brought it down to 6. Business exists everywhere. It's great.
Off we went down the left handed roads, dodging mopeds, and honking at unattentive passer-bys. My mom decided to pick up a conversation about driving on the opposite side of the roads, and at first my brother and I wanted to hold her back, but with my mom it's a lost cause and she continued. We learned a few things about Nassau after the driver replied to a couple simple questions. For example, my premonitions of the town being a tourist trap got shot to shit when we learned there was a spot somewhere near the hotel we were staying that had some twenty or more locally owned restaurants that many people, especially tourists, aren't aware of. So hopefully, at some point in this trip of ours, we'll be able to hit that area up, and see where all the local fun is at.
We arrived at the hotel with a surprise of seeing the local highschools having a streak of proms, each one appearing at the hotel, and there were mobs of students, including band members with instruments and all, to prove it. To me this was a different thing considering American high schools don't seem to get into school events as much as they could. Here, however, it's a different story. Crowds of students flooded the streets, and at one point we didn't think we could gain access to the hotel. It was insane, and unfortunately, I didn't have a working camera to take a shot. But really, the imagination can sum it up quite nicely: Streets, rivers of people all dressed for success in the eyes of their friends. Not to mention the style and class of one couple that drove up in what looked like an old 1920 British Bentley Classic. That's smooth.
We get in the hotel, where our separate room is ready to be occupied, and we grab our stuff and move in. Almost minutes later, we're out the door, really, at first, just to take pictures of the prom. But then randomosity kicked in and we were out on the street looking for people to show us the nightlife. And sure enough, opportunity came knocking. But really, just the illusion of it.
A local connection artist (sorry, its the only word I could come up with) came over and asked us what was up. What we didn't realize was this guy was a fake. He offered to hook us up with club deals, and of course, seeking a good time, we thought it to be a good deal. So we gave him 30-35 bucks, and we got a couple pieces of paper with their name on the back. They were definately pulling crowds into new parties around town. It was all good, they appeared to be straight up good fellas, but what we didn't realize was our next mistake. We were really seeking some chronic, and they offered a connection. So we thought this was great, the first people we found in town offered us deals to clubs and a hook up for some dank. So the prices came down, and we finished at 60 for a 1/4. We were feeling good, because the prices in Chicago were definately higher than here. It didn't matter if a better price existed, this was good for us. We settled and handed half the cash as down. We would not see the product of this money.
The dealers had told us to come by around 11:30 with the rest of the money and they would have the goods. But after showing up, only one was there, but no weed. He assured us the goods would be there and we believed him. And after a couple minutes, we realized we didn't have any papers to roll, and asked the guy if he could grab some for us as he knew where to go. No problem he told us, and we gave him some cash, and off he went. We wouldnt see him or his boy at all.
Feeling a big loss after waiting close to an hour, we thought things were getting boring. And just our good luck, our soon-to-be connection in the Bahamas walked straight down our street. "Yo, you smoke?" he said. "Of course" we replied. And the rest went with no problem. We told him about the previous dealer, and he shook his head. "Bro, you got taken." And we knew it. So it was a bummer, no doubt. But to keep things going great that night, we would try this next guy out, and he would prove to be reliable. He led us down to his part of the neighborhood, and after being a little hesitant about it all, it turned out to be nothing at all. He introduced us to his boys, where we would stay while he went out to grab a quarter.
Fifteen minutes passed, and we started to feel the same thing was happening as before. His boy went out to check where he was, and came back with something we didn't want to hear. "He's gone," he said. "Noo way," Dave said. At first I wanted to be cool about it, but I could tell Dave was not liking it at all. But, to our surprise, and not seconds later, he showed up with what we thought to be the best looking and best smelling chronic we've ever seen. Dave was impressed, and after looking at it closer, I understood what he meant. We took the bag and began walking out. "No no, you need that somewhere else," the dealer told us. I didn't understand, but then it made sense. The police was so bad in the area, you couldn't trust your own pockets. "Put them in your camera," they told me, and I agreed. I stashed it in my camera's battery compartment, and the rest is history. We headed back to the hotel... where I am at this moment, moving into the clouds.
As I'm looking back at today, I begin to realize the world outside the States is much different than what I'm used to. And I'm not surprised. For one, people in the Bahamas have been great people, even though we've had a bad instance with a couple. I'm thinking right now, that this week is definately going to be interesting, no doubt and I will be keeping everyone in the know.
And on that note, its time to close it up... and... done.
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