Last day in paradise

Posted on Saturday, January 3rd 2015, 23:50 by Alexandra

This post used to contain pictures, but due to new storage limitations from WordPress, I had to fix the problem and decided to create a new blog that works as an archive for all the posts from my two years in California. This full post can be found here.

The weather today was the best it has been since I got to Jamaica. The sky clear blue, a few lonely clouds here and there, but it never got in the way of the sun. It was hot, very very hot! Don’t know how many degrees, but the sun was burning like I’ve never felt before. I even got a tiny bit of sun rash on my thighs if I stayed out of the water for too long during the midday hours. I was in the water a lot!

I was at the beach with the guy I talked to yesterday. It was nice with some company on my last day. I still read a lot. I finished Graceling yesterday and read a fourth of the second book, Fire. This one is so far better than the first and what’s awesome is that they aren’t connected. It is the same land, but two different stories. Maybe they will intertwine eventually, I don’t know.

I enjoyed every last second of the sun and watched the sunset and then went back to my new hotel. This morning I walked the 400m to my new hotel with my suitcase and checked in and actually got my room right away. Not the best room ever, and the AC is not working, nor is the toilet. But whatever. It is only for the night. But I should probably complain about the toilet, maybe I will get a little bit back?

For dinner I went to a place called Marguerites. It was a very nice seafood restaurant and the food was amazing! We saw a huge shooting star (I am not completely convinced it was a shooting star, but it is the most reasonable explanation). There will be a big meteor shower tonight according to I Fucking Love Science on Facebook. If I wasn’t this tired I would sit on the balcony (with an almost amazing view as Polkerris) and lookout for them. But I should probably go to bed not too late. I have a long day ahead of me tomorrow. My flight leaves at noon, and I will land at 9:45pm in SLO (the time difference makes it 13 hours). I can’t wait to be back home! I hope it will go as fast as the trip here did. Two layovers, first in Charlotte, NC, then Phoenix, AZ.

It’s been the best trip ever! I’ve seen so much and I’ve had so much fun (even if I most of the times were all by myself, but I enjoy my own company sometimes and I needed to be alone for a while). Now I am ready to go home and start my second quarter at Cal Poly.

This is the link to the video Michael did of his four days here. Everything we did (including my cliff jump) is on there with some good music: http://vimeo.com/115875177

The sky looked like this all day! Coconut water Baptizing on a beach in Jamaica, why not?! Yep, I’ve proven it, a Swedish girl can get tan after 23 days in sunny Caribbean! 😉

Getting tan and bored

Posted on Friday, January 2nd 2015, 19:49 by Alexandra

My second to last day here in paradise and I have to admit that I am getting bored. It is beautiful and amazing and I can never get rid of the feeling of sand between my toes and this warm and crystal clear water. But I am getting ants in my pants. I wasn’t tired today so I was in the water a lot and I also read a lot, finished half the book and now I am almost done with it. I will hopefully finish it tonight.

The day was perfect again, not many clouds and warm and awesome. I think I have gotten a lot tanner the past two days. My face is covered in freckles and the underside of my feet look very white, and so does my butt and boobs. I love being tan, it’s a “fräsh” feeling.

And that was today, and I think tomorrow will be exactly the same, except that I will sleep at another hotel. Oh, and for the record, if anyone goes to Montego Bay, stay at Polkerris Bed and Breakfast. The couple owning this place are the sweetest, the breakfast is amazing, the view of every room is gorgeous, and it is just a nice place to stay!

I love sunsets! ❤I didn’t see this tiny cruise ship arrive this morning, but I did see it leave. This is the view from my new room, not too bad!

First day of 2015

Posted on Thursday, January 1st 2015, 20:14 by Alexandra

Who pushed the forward button on today’s remote? The day was gone in an instant! I might have fallen asleep once or twice or more times, and I probably slept for longer than I expected. Eh, that happens. It was a great day nonetheless. I got up at 8:30, had breakfast while watching the new cruise ship coming in to the bay. Then I packed my stuff to change room when I got back from the beach and walked there. Since I got there early I was pretty much alone. And I am so glad I got there early, otherwise I would have missed the big and very visible rainbow. It was cloudy, but they went away and the day turned perfect. I read a lot in my new book, Graceling. I will try to finish it before I leave. Five books in three weeks is not too bad.

I had sweet potato fries and a mango daiquiri for lunch and I stayed and watched the sunset. It was as beautiful as always and on my way back to the hotel I bought a cute tank top. I also got a lot of questions if I wanted to buy drugs. These people are crazy.

My new room isn’t as nice as the one I had, but it works. The shower isn’t nearly as nice as the other one. But this is just for two more nights. I only have two more full days here in the Caribbean and then I will be going back home to California. I look forward to it. This trip has been the best ever, but I feel ready to go back home. I really look forward to have Matt pick me up at the airport on Sunday evening.

And here comes the mandatory review of the past year for every blogger. I had a great year, there were definitely some parts I could have been without, but what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger, right?! I started 2014 with my last couple of weeks with my hostfamily in San Diego and then 3 weeks on Hawaii. And in paradise is where I ended the year too. In between I had the best summer job ever where I met a lot of fun people, and then I moved back to California. My first quarter was my best one in school so far. Living the American college life is so much fun and I kinda don’t want it to end. After the next two quarters my new real grownup life starts and I am not ready for that. This year will definitely be different from all my other so far, but I am sure it will be as great as the last two have been.

Happy New Year!

These cruise ships bring so many people. Doc’s Cave isn’t that big. The beach was packed today again. “The Hip Strip” in Montego Bay. At 9am you are almost alone.

New Years Eve

Posted on Thursday, January 1st 2015, 0:19 by Alexandra

Happy New Year, everyone!

This morning a big cruise ship came in to the bay. Stayed there for the whole day, and all of those on board were of course going to Doc’s Cave beach. The line in was gigantic. So we went to a small entrance to the beach next door, and walk in for free, haha. We stayed for less than two hours, then back to the hotel for Michael to check out. I went back to the beach after that and the rest of the day was just perfect. No clouds, and really warm.

On my way back to the hotel I bought my souvenirs, a bracelet and a magnet. The rest of the evening I watched Despicable Me 2, I read a little bit and napped, until the clock finally turned to 00:00 and I watched the fireworks far away on the other side of the bay, and now I am ready to go to bed!

Goodnight!

Last nights amazing moon over the bay. Today’s Jamaican breakfast with fried dumplings, boiled green banana, boiled yam, fried plantains and ackee and cod thing. Real good. Doc Cave beach was packed!! Hope it is fewer people tomorrow. Blue sky, blue water, beautiful! The cruise ship left at 6pm. I watched the sunset from my bed!This is what I saw of the fireworks. Too far away :(.

Another day at Doc’s Cave

Posted on Tuesday, December 30th 2014, 18:16 by Alexandra

Today was very chill, mostly because we were completely worn out after yesterday (and me after the last almost three weeks). I couldn’t sleep in, got up at 8:30 but Michael didn’t wake up until the lady called us and told us our breakfast was done much later. I just can’t sleep in when I am on vacation, it feels wrong! But we made it to the beach after I bought a Jamaican flag and rebooked my hotel for the third time. I actually walked in there and talked to them. Apparently my change a week ago hadn’t gone through and now it was all fully booked, so I am lucky that I could stay here at Polkerris the first three nights and at Caribic House the last night before I go back home to California.

We got to the beach, just hung out for a few hours, then went to Margaritaville at two for lunch and jumping on the big floaties right below. I couldn’t really do anything with a bikini so I just chilled for a bit. Nothing wrong with that either.

Then back to the beach for another hour and back to the hotel. We left before sunset because he wanted to go back. And since we only have one key I had to go with him. But it turned out to be the right decision, the sun set behind a thick wall of clouds today anyway. I am hoping for a pretty sunset tomorrow night instead.

And yes, it is New Year’s Eve tomorrow and I am planning on skipping the whole thing. I don’t wanna be alone out there (Michael leaves tomorrow morning). So I will stay in the room and pretend it is a night like any other. It’s just New Years. Not a big deal.

Now I will take a nice shower and then head down to a restaurant for dinner. I think we will end up at Margaritaville tonight for a couple of drinks. I hope I won’t be too tired.

Waterfalls and cliff jumping

Posted on Tuesday, December 30th 2014, 0:09 by Alexandra

Today was an incredible day! Up before sunrise and back “home” way after sunset. We got breakfast at 6 am and were on the road at 6:30. We watched the sunrise from the car and it was really pretty. Michael’s GoPro was on the outside of the car.

We arrived in Ocho Rios at 8am, 30 min too early. Se we sat and waited in the car until the park opened. We were surprised to see that it was a park, and not just a place to see cool waterfalls. The place was called Dunn’s River Falls and if you are on Jamaica, you have to check it out. It is so freaking cool! We were there early, before everyone else so we managed to get a lot of nice photos without people in it. We climbed the whole thing to the top, took photos on the way and on the top we went down on the road and decided to climb it again. But this time filming the whole climb. I had a GoPro on my head and Michael used the pole. Most of the pictures were blurry, but I think the videos turned out better.

We left the place at 10:30 am and went into Ocho Rios for lunch. We found a nice place called Reggae Ally and I had coconut shrimp and fried plantain. Really good. Then we went up in the mountain to drive for a while. It was amazing up there! But an hour was plenty enough and we went down to the main road to drive all the way to Negril, on the west side of the island (Ocho Rios is east of Montego bay which is halfway in between the two places. I fell asleep in the car, I was so exhausted!

Michael was driving the whole time, I just refused to drive a car on the wrong side of the road. I am adventurous, not ready to die. But going through downtown Mobay was scary! People were honking all the time, driving like crazy persons and we lost 40 minutes trying to find our way back to the main road. We got to Rick’s Café at 4:30. Rick’s Café has been voted one of top ten best bars in the world and I totally get why. It is a place right on the cliffs, the sun is setting right out in the water, there are cliff you can jump from and they had live reggae music. It was just perfect. The sunset was amazing, the food was good (but took forever to get), the music was great, and the cliffs were pretty cool too. Michael jumped a few times before we had dinner, I had told myself I was gonna skip it. But then, during dinner (after one of the most incredible sunsets I’ve ever seen), I decided that I was gonna do it anyway. So I changed into my bikini and went to the 25 feet platform, hesitated for 2.5 minutes and then just jumped. It felt so amazing!! Michael filmed the whole thing and I was so happy when I came up. I got courage from an eleven year old girl who did it earlier. If she could, then I could too, and I did! And most importantly, I survived it. 25 feet is only 7.6m, but it is higher than I have jumped before. During the jump I lost my grip on my nose and got so much salt water up my nose! I still feel weird and probably have lots of water up there. It is gross. And it hurts a little bit.

We drove back home and I got so tired. We had plans on going out, but we have to do that tomorrow instead, I was just too tired. I should be asleep, but the Internet is so slow and I still have 6 more photos to upload to my blog. I guess I could fall asleep for an hour and then post this, haha!

Michael is working on the movie of this trip. We both got a lot of good footage so far.

Tomorrow is all about relaxing at the beach. I look forward to it!

The mountains!Jamaican countryside.“Jamaicin me crazy” drink.Better resolution will come, some day. The video of it too! Just be patient, when you least expect it.

Doctor’s Cave Bathing Club

Posted on Sunday, December 28th 2014, 23:03 by Alexandra

I love Jamaica! The ocean is the right color and temperature, it is warm and beautiful! The people are extremely laid-back, which I like, but I would prefer if they stayed out of my way. Today a guy popped his head out from a wall and asked me if I wanted to smoke. I think I will get that question at least once every day this week.

We got up at 9 this morning, had an amazing breakfast on the patio. Here we order what we want to have the night before and this morning we had fruit and omelette. So good. This place is really nice!

Then we went down to the main street, asked how much flyboarding was. $90 for half an hour. Not worth it, so we just went straight for the beach, Doctor’s Cave. $6 to get in, and $6 for a sunbed, which was worth it. They are so comfortable. And there we stayed for the whole day. Went into the water so many times. Far out were a pretty nice reef for being downtown Montego Bay (downtown is probably the wrong word since this is not a big place). Took some pictures with the GoPro and read some, and got darker some. It was the perfect day! At 3:30 we took our stuff and went to the beach next to it and went out to sail for an hour. Michael’s biggest interest is sailing, so we went out on a small boat. It was really nice. The water splashing us were so warm, the water was amazingly blue and it was just awesome. We had our GoPro’s and took a lot of photos and videos. Michael is gonna make a video of this trip and I am really excited to see how it turns out.

We had dinner on the beach shortly after and then back to the hotel to plan tomorrow. But first I took a shower in the amazing shower that exists here. I will let the picture explain for itself.

Amazing shower

While I was in the shower, Michael went and picked up a car, and I planned our roadtrip tomorrow. We will be leaving at 6am, first go to Dunn’s Waterfalls, then through the middle of the island to check that out and all the way out to the west side of the island and Negril. There is a beautiful beach but also Rick’s Café which is a famous restaurant. They have cliff jumping, and an amazing sunset. We are totally checking that place out. Then back to the airport to return the car and then probably some souvenir shopping for me and GoPro filming.

I am excited! That’s all I am right now, haha! But my life is great and I always have a lot of stuff to look forward to. I love it!

Hello Jamaica

Posted on Saturday, December 27th 2014, 23:25 by Alexandra

I have arrived in Jamaica, been here for about 6 hours and so much have already happened. First I had to spend 6 hours going here, up to Orlando, FL and then back down again. Very unnecessary, but that’s what happened. The immigration at the airport took forever and then I tried to find a cab. While I was looking for a guy I saw someone with a paper and my name on it. Weird, I didn’t order a driver from the airport. But he had all my flight information and the place where I was staying so I tagged along. Just ten minutes later (after realizing that they drive on the left side here!) I was at the hotel. It is a beautiful place up on the hillside. Our room has an amazing view over the ocean and the sunset. The pool is very cute, and the room… yes, it is very very nice!

I was greeted by Michael when I got here, and straight when I had my things in the room we went to dinner at Margaritaville which was right next to the hotel. We watched the sunset from the upperfloor patio. It was a beautiful sunset. Right below, out in the water there are a lot of big floatie things you can play on, like a big trampoline. There are also free flyboarding over there. Where you stand on something and water spurts out at the bottom and you fly. We will probably try that tomorrow, as well as check out the Doc Cave’s beach right here.

Then back to the room and then out to hit a bar. On our way we ran into a guy, he seemed a little sketchy but at first turned out to be okay. That changed later during the evening though. We sat at a bar close by for like an hour, I had a cubalibre and the guys a couple of beer each. The beers Elvis drank we bought for him. Then on our way back he took us through a dark park (where there were a lot of people) and then he asked us for tips for his kids. We just bought him beer!? But we didn’t wanna do anything stupid so we gave him 1000 Jamaican Dollars (I exchanged 300 USD and got 28,000 Jamaican dollars, the bunt of money is huuge!). Damn hustler.

Everywhere we walked today we smelled weed. We saw people right in the middle of the street smoking. A guy asked us straight up if we wanted some hash too. It is definitely different here than any other place I have ever been. But so far I like it. It was around 84F when I got here, during the night it was really nice and warm, nothing else needed than shorts and a tank top (the jeans I packed where kinda unnecessary).

I look forward to our first day tomorrow when we will hang out at the beach, maybe do some souvenir shopping (there are a ton of shops on the “hip strip” right below us. Then we are renting a car in the evening so we can drive east of here the day after tomorrow.

An eventful short day and after today I realized that I will only stay at the “safe” beach of Doc’s Cave. Unless Michael decides to stay more than four days. I don’t really feel safe here if I were to be alone. But the Doc Beach is a safe beach where security guards are, and it is close, so I can go there.

I am excited to start this third and last adventure tomorrow!

View from our hotel room.

View from the patio. Sunset in Jamaica. Gecko.

Bemm

Aspiring author

Tag Archives: Montego Bay

Last day in paradise

Getting tan and bored

First day of 2015

New Years Eve

Another day at Doc’s Cave

Waterfalls and cliff jumping

Doctor’s Cave Bathing Club

Hello Jamaica

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