The Chronicles of Christina in Barbados: The Bachelor Pad

So I went down to Barbados to visit my friend Clarence. Most people have images of what a 'bachelor pad' looks like. I was no different. So be prepared. Here are photos of 'The Bachelor Pad':

Houses in Barbados have addresses as well as names. Trudan is the name of this house...


The Garage and a glimpse of the driveway...


The Front of the house...


The Foyer...


The Living Room...


The Kitchen (nice!)...


Clarence working hard...


Checking Email in the Lounge...


The Balcony overlooking the 13th Green of the Barbados Golf Club...


The Study...


The Back of the House...


Some shots of the pool...






So there wasn't much (ahem) evidence of it being a stereotypical bachelor pad. In fact it was a pretty fantastic place to visit.

The Chronicles of Christina in Barbados: Interesting Weather

When I left home, there were massive rainstorms, flooding and for the first time in my life there was a 'boil water advisory' for Vancouver. This was particularly surprising because British Columbia is known for having excellent water -- perhaps even some of the best (and most abundant) in the world.

So it struck me as quite ironic that as I was leaving Vancouver, a city in a developed country, for Barbados, a country that is still developing in many respects I was also travelling to a place with better -- drinkable -- water than at home. But anyhow, such as it was, I was happy to leave Vancouver, the city of rainstorms.

Now, keep in mind. I was warned. It rains in Barbados, daily. But at least it's not like Vancouver and it's rare that there's a constant grey drizzle. So I knew what I was getting myself into. But, I had no idea what was meant by the term 'rain'. Check this out:



This particular rainstorm dumped so much rain that the rain filled the sandtrap on the golf course. We could have gone swimming in it:



But to truely experience the rain, I captured some of the storm on video. Check this out:



And this...



After we arrived at the store, we ran from the car to the entrance. We went perhaps 10 meters (from the red truck you see in the background to where we were standing). This was enough to be soaked through. Check these photos out:





Stay tuned for photos about 'the Bachelor Pad'...

The Chronicles of Christina in Barbados: First Impressions...

Well, being 4 hours ahead and having travelled for 21 hours, I was expecting to be jetlagged like you wouldn't believe. I was surprised though. My first morning here I awoke at around 6:30am. Who would've thought? I was expecting (and was expected) to sleep until noon. But no, I was up bright and early. As I got out of bed, I looked out the window, and the first glimpse of Barbados was this bush with beautiful flowers. What a greeting:

After a relaxing early morning at home, Karen, Clarence and I went into Bridgetown where Karen and I wandered around the centre a little bit. One of my missions on the trip was to get a pair of shoes. Since my luggage had not yet been retrieved, I had absolutely nothing with me, except what I was wearing, and I did not want to be wearing Canadian Winter appropriate any longer than necessary. Barbados is bright, sunny, the colours of the buildings are brightly coloured, very open and airy. It's definitely easy to get used to this place. I'll post more city photos later on.

We returned home in the afternoon for a lovely siesta, and to await my luggage. My luggage arrived that afternoon at the airport. Thankfully, it was never 'lost' per se, it just was slower getting here than I was. Ironically it had a better intinerary than I did though -- I had another stop over in Miami, it got to fly direct from Toronto.

Tuesday was also Clarence's Birthday so we went out to a lovely Greek Restaurant for dinner called "Opa!". They had fabulous food, and we all had a great time:

Leaving the restaurant we headed home and stopped at a beach so that I could go and have my first 'Caribbean Ocean' experience. The beaches are white white white, and the sand is so incredibly soft. The ocean is swimming pool warm and absolutely lovely!

Much of the next few days was spent reading, relaxing, swimming, and dealing with interesting weather. Stay tuned for interesting weather stories...

The Chronicles of Christina in Barbados: The Saga of Getting there...

Well for those of you who knew me when I travelled around Europe, I did "The Chronicles of Christina..." then as well. So I've resurrected my 'chronicles' to tell you of my trip to Barbados.

The saga started the week before I left. I've been feeling quite healthy for ages, have had no hint of getting sick. But the Tuesday before I left I got a horrible sore throat, that had me worried I was getting Strep. Thankfully it was gone the next day, and was replaced with a terrible cold. The cold was mostly better (so I thought) by Thursday, but Friday I had the misfortune of comming down with Laryngitis. This lasted until Saturday night, and now thankfully my voice is back to normal, though I'm not going to be doing any Karaoke any time soon (or ever, for that matter...).

I left for my trip Saturday morning, travelling to Calgary. At the airport I was quite thorougly screened and searched, and in the process my watch fell down at security. Thankfully it wasn't lost, and it is now waiting for me at the YVR lost and found for me to retrieve when I get home. This was a minor inconvenience, but slightly annoying as it's my running watch. Oh well, at least I don't have to buy a new one...

I stayed the weekend with my friend Julie and I got to spend Saturday afternoon with my friend Sharon. It was great to catch up with friends I haven't seen in a little while, in spite of my croaky voice! I had a great time hanging out, shopping, and relaxing.

I began my odessy to Barbados Sunday Night. My flight from Calgary went to Edmonton, and was delayed so I came within 5 minutes of missing my flight to Toronto. Thankfully I made it, but my suitcase didn't. It got stuck overnight in Edmonton. Unfortunately, my suitcase got to Toronto 45 min after my flight left for Miami so Air Canada had to send it separately to Barbados. It came a day later. By this time I was so entertained by my saga that I couldn't help but laugh at everything that's happened. What more could happen???

Well, In Miami, things were fairly uneventful, except that as we were boarding the plane, a problem with all the doors in the area occurred and the airport employees couldn't get them open without alarms sounding. But we boarded and I made it to Barbados without anything else happening. Whew!

It was later in the evening when I arrived, so I couldn't see much upon my arrival, but my first impression after spending 21 hours in dry air conditioned, planes and airports was warm and humid. A LOVELY change...

Stay tuned for my next post with my first impressions of Barbados...

Luebeck Germany...

It has been ages since I've updated photos here. I have so many photos to add so stay tuned. These are a few scenery photos of Luebeck Germany. I spent 8 weeks in Luebeck when I first started working for my company. It's a great town and well worth a visit if you're ever travelling through Germany. It's about 1 hour outside of Hamburg.



This is an image of the Holstein Gate at the entrance to Luebeck.



This image is of a farm near the company.



Luebeck is surrounded by water, a river and canals.





Way back when, inside Luebeck, the rich merchants (traders??? I can't remember who -- anyhow those people rich enough to own homes in the city) would build cottages in their yards and rent them back to their workers. The archways leading into the yards had a minimum requirement: they had only to be big enough to carry out a full grown man's coffin. Some of the archways are so small even I have to crouch down to get through them.



The back gate in Luebeck.



I hope no one asks me to spell the name of this place. There is no way I could manage it. Suffice it to say, it's a nice restaurant now, where the sailors used to go when they were in port.



This is a statue of the mischievous little devil who caused this big stone to fall off the church as it was being built.