Saturday, September 11, 2010

Paradise Island.

I read through all of your comments on my my most recent post this morning and it almost made me well up in tears all over again. I'm glad so many of you understand what I am going through while watching Buffy, and that so many of you reacted the same way as I did to the episodes I outlined in Season 5. Thank you for the wonderfully deep and insightful comments and for making me feel like I am just a human being experiencing a beautiful piece of art, rather than a dork-extreme. Sometimes I feel like a dork-extreme.

On that depressing note, here is the first blog about my trip!
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Bahamas: Monday!

It is so strange to be on a trip where literally all I have to worry about is whether I'd rather go to the beach or to the water park during the day, the nightclubs or the comedy club at night, or the marina village or a poolside snack hut when I'm hungry.

I'll admit, sometimes I feel like the most spoiled person on earth, but I'm not sitting in the Bahamas right now because my parents are rich or someone else paid for me to be here. Liz, Eia and I got free round trip tickets on AirTran last year when our flights home from LeakyCon got messed up, and when we realized those free tickets were about to expire, we booked 5 days in the most exotic/outrageous place the airline could take us. Which is how we ended up in Nassau, Bahamas on Paradise Island. Then Eia did some very excellent hotel sleuthing and managed to find us an amazing deal for the Atlantis, so here we are at one of the world's most famous hotels, sleeping in until 11 when we'd planned on being up at 8 because we're all exhausted from yesterday's traveling. So I guess I am a little spoiled, but I'd like to think of it as lucky.

We left Seattle at 11 pm on Sunday, endured a four hour flight (with some of the worst airplane sleeping I've ever attempted) to Atlanta, and then had a 6 hour layover. 6 hours! This time consisted of eating Cinnabon and hashbrowns at the equivalent of our 4 in the morning, finding a nice patch of floor to lay on and making camp there while we all attempted to sleep for awhile. It was pretty crappy, but I managed to squeeze about 2 hours of sleep out of the arrangement.

We all started getting a little goofy (including Eia, doing somersaults across the airport floor and Liz, finding a video game machine amidst the payphones that someone had left with credits still on it for playing) but luckily our flight left at 12:45, so we left Atlanta far behind us as we boarded the next plane.

This flight was super empty so the three of us were each able to get our own row of seats, which was awesome. My favorite type of flying is the kind where you can snag your own row of 3 seats. I think I attempted to read a chapter or so of Scott Westerfeld's Peeps, but I was so tired that I stretched out across my three seats and slept for the entire flight. Aside from when the flight attendant woke me with a, "Sorry, hun," and tossed me an immigration card to fill out. I think I filled in the bubbles in my sleep, stuck the card in my book, and fell right back asleep.

The Nassau airport was cute. It was small and everyone was friendly, and there was a little band set up in the immigration area to keep you entertained while you went through customs. Seriously! It was the weirdest and quaintest thing I have ever seen while traveling, especially after both of my stressful trips to London where the border patrol seemed to really not like me.

A very nice taxi driver took us to the Atlantis, and along the half hour drive I asked him about everything from the best liquor stores on Paradise Island to what his grandkids are like. He seemed to think the three of us were going to be trouble makers while we are here. I have no idea why he would think that. /innocent


Our room is a pretty standard hotel room, but the resort itself is amazing. We're right near the predators rope bridge and the manta ray and shark tanks, we can see the beach from our balcony, and the casino and nightclubs are just a quick walk away.

We spent the afternoon looking around for a place to eat and finally decided on an outdoor hut called "Shark Bites". After eating, we changed into our swimsuits and found that we had a Lazy River right outside our room, so we grabbed tubes and floated around that a few times. Seriously the most relaxing way to end your day. If I am ever totally rich and famous, I am installing a Lazy River around my house.

Then we headed back up to our room, changed into cuter outfits, and headed over to the casino. Neither of us were very keen on spending more than about $20, so we weren't there for long, but I managed to turn my $20 into $40 on one machine. So that was pretty exciting.

After gambling we went to the bar and grill right off the casino and had a drink and dinner, and I got into an argument with our waiter (because he didn't know the difference between honey mustard and a vinaigrette). It was still moderately early at this point, so we spent the remainder of the evening exploring the hotel and areas surrounding, finding a cute marina village full of shops, an arcade, a bunch of models of the whole resort, and a place called Atlantis Pals (which is just like Build-a-Bear) that we are definitely, definitely going back to.

Last google search: aura nightclub
Chipotle burritos: 20

19 comments:

Jess said...

Sounds like fun! Can't wait to hear more about it!

Qwertz said...

Wow, I wish I could be in some tropically warm place sometime around now... I'm freezing over here! Then again, it's a good excuse to pull out the ugly but comfy sweaters and the hot cocoa, so I ain't complainin'! :P Have fun on your trip and can't wait for another blog!

Anonymous said...

Oh, I really envy you.
Over here the weather has become really really bad and cold.
Sounds like you all have a pretty good time and after all you do you really deserve it!

Emma said...

Sounds so amazing! hope you continue to have a good time! Emma x

Ben Cracknell said...

God, it sounds like so much fun! And so beautiful, too! You're so lucky to get to travel to a lot of places. And as for the moody English border people, don't worry, we're all moody. I noticed that when I came back from holiday.

Have a great day!

Rosanna said...

It just hit me...is Paradise Island then name of that creepy theme park island in Pinocchio?? xx

Sarah said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Anonymous said...

Sounds like you had an awesome time, I look forward to hearing more about it :).

Also you are definitely not spoilt, and you totally deserve the luck that comes your way because you worked really hard to get to where you are.

DFTBA x

Unknown said...

Oh, take lots of pictures for me, I am going to be going there in May and am hoping for some good shots of the pretty places to decorate a folder with before I go. I love to do trip Diaries but maybe I should do it online instead of hand written only for me.

Anonymous said...

You are so lucky!! I've wanted to go to the Atlantis Hotel ever since I saw it in the Mary-Kate and Ashley movie "Holiday in the Sun" ( yes I'm a huge dork, but I watched this when I was a preteen, I'm now 25 lol). It looks so beautiful if you could find out where Eia those cheap rooms that would be awesome, I've only been able to find really expensive ones. Anyways I can't wait to hear more exciting blogs about your trip. Also I'm super excited you're coming to Toronto soon! Do you have any idea what the venue will be?

Molly said...

So I just finished watching Avatar: The Last Airbender last night and proved to myself that I HAVE NO LIFE. Because I watched all three seasons in a week.
I remembered you had been watching it previously, so I just thought I'd say that.
I AM VERY SAD THAT I FINISHED. I MISS SOKKA'S WITTY HUMOR.

Renee said...

Atlantis is absolutely amazing - when I read your tweet about going to the Bahamas I wondered if you were going there..I've been there twice because my family had some time share. The lazy river is the best :) Sounds like you had a blast!

seurat2 said...

Definitely lucky and not spoiled Kristina. The resort sounds amazing and I expect you and Eia and Liz to take advantage of every molecule of amazing it has available.

Maya said...

Sounds so awesome. You are incredibly lucky. XD
I felt the same way when watching Season 5 of Buffy. I watched The Body a few weeks after someone close to me died and it was just amazing; all of the emotions and just everything in that episode was perfect.
Just wait until the season Finale. :)

Sam said...

I'm so jealous of the fact that you're having exciting fun in warm places, and I'm... stuck in freezingness in oh-so-boring Australia.

Life swap?

Nevertheless, I want to hear more about all the awesome I'm missing out on, so blog again soon :)

Kylie said...

That sounds amazing!
Glad you had an awesome time, and I can't wait to hear more about it!

Sarah said...

Sounds like an amazing trip! I can wait to hear more and hopefully see some youtube vlogs. If you get the change you should swim with the dolphins they have at the hotel.

p.s. hope the flight home isn't so dire

appletrain said...

i don't think london border patrol likes anyone really. i go through there to get to school in the UK and they never seem pleased to see me. OH WELL. your trip sounds amazing :) i'm off to santa monica pier now with my friend from the UK. the comparison is laughable XD

Anonymous said...

*gape*

You need to hook me up with this magic woman with the deals - I looked up a 4-night stay at the cheapest Atlantis hotel, and learned that just for the hotel it would cost me more than 3-months pay (okay, granted, I get paid shit).

It's exciting to be living the experience vicariously through you, though. ^^ GLAD YOU HAD FUN!!!