Saint Lucia

Saint Lucia is the only country in the world named after a woman. It was named by the French, who were the island's first European settlers. Great Britain and France then fought about the right to the country because of the sugar farms, and it changed ownership 14 times. The harbour of the capital Castries was protected by a system of 60 surrounding forts. Nowadays when Saint Lucia has gotten its independence it has not even got a regular military force since they have such good connections to all other countries, kind of ironic. 

My friend Christofer and I arrived with a cruise ship to the harbour of Castries and nowadays they didn't shoot at us at our arrival. Instead they were so kind that they took us out for a catamaran sailing down the west coast, and it looked amazing even though the weather was a bit unsteady. The volcanic island is more mountainous than most Caribbean islands and it was completely green of all the palm trees and other greenery. Colourful houses popped out in the middle of it every now and then. 

It was my first time on a catamaran and at first I was too afraid to lie in the net in the front, because I'm so paranoid so I thought it would probably break exactly at the point when I lie down. I could see the net had been fixed at the edges a couple of times which wasn't to any help. 

So at first I just had my feet on the net while we cuised into the idyllic Marigot Bay, it's renowned for its beauty and a film location for such movies as Dr. Doolittle for example. 

At the next stop along the west coast we would be able to swim, and since I was terrified of sharks at this time I had already decided I would jump in and jump right back up again. But the catamaran cruised into a bay and almost landed on the beach so I didn't have to swim in open sea so I was over the moon about this. We swam around and saw some fishes when we weren't disturbed by natives on cayaks trying to sell us seashells and weed and stuff like that. Actually they were more funny than disturbing, they even tried to trade a seashell for a tourists fashionable sunglasses on our catamaran, but no luck with that. 

Then we went on our way to the final destination, the majestic twin peaks called The Pitons, a world heritage site, and also the island's most famous landmark. They served us free rum punch on the catamaran and the DJ started to play Bob Marley, and when Bob sang "Don't worry about a thing, 'cause every little thing gonna be all right", then it became my mantra for the rest of the Caribbean trip. I lied down in the net with my first ever rum punch and enjoyed life and stopped being paranoid and uptight. It was such a relaxing ride where I enjoyed nature's beauty and the sea. 

Rising majestically to over 770 meters out of the sea the Pitons were an amazing sight. We circled the bay which gave each and every one and opportunity to capture this wonder of nature.

We had a lot more of the free rum punch on the cruise back to the Castries, and I lied in the net over the glistening waters listening to wonderful music while people started to dance. It was one of my best experiences and I couldn't ask for anything more in life than this. I was 100% at ease with everything.

Arriving back at the Castries we made a brief connection with a mother and daughter from London who had been at the catamaran.

 The daughter had to act as the photographer

They were gonna go back to the cruise ship while Christofer and I headed drunk into the city to see what it had to offer. Not much actually, except for friendly people. We went into The Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, the largest church in the Caribbean with an amazing interior that looks trashy in a good way.

There was a church service going on and the natives were dressed up, in comes the palest guy in shorts and T-shirt, drunk on rum punch wandering about in the aisles. I made a turn and went back again and saw a Bible lying on the floor that a small kid in a moms lap had dropped. I picked it up for him and he gave me a smile and his eyes started to shine, and off me and Christofer went again, high on life, or drunk on rum punch, or maybe both. But it felt like we were floating above the ground and that there existed no problems in the world. 

100% at ease with life

We went into a market place to find a bar we had spotted from the other side of the bay but it was a maze so it took us a while to get there. It seemed closed so we went back to the cruise harbour again to have a beer at a bar there instead. They didn't accept credit cards so we gave up and I think this was a good thing because then Christofer blacked out and woke up in the cabin!

* Best things about Saint Lucia – the catamaran cruise along the west coast with its lush vegetation was one of the best moments in my life, I enjoyed life to the fullest, with a couple of rum punch drinks inside of me while Bob Marley was the perfect soundtrack

* Most mediocre thing about Saint Lucia – the city centre had nothing to offer but friendly people

* Worst things about Saint Lucia – not that I noticed it while I was there but lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people living in Saint Lucia face legal challenges, they prohibit male-on-male sexual activity, punishing those found guilty with 10 years in jail. I think it's important to acknowledge this so people understand that we still got a long hard road in front of us until everyone is treated equally in this world.

Best countries in the world according to the nerd (will be updated with every post):
1. USA
2. Croatia
3. Montenegro
4. Andorra
5. Cyprus
6. Grenada
7. Turkey
8. Greece
9. Italy
10. Spain
11. Monaco
12. Malta
13. Netherlands
14. Saint Lucia
15. Iceland
16. Denmark
17. Sweden
18. Lithuania
19. Macedonia
20. Armenia
21. Portugal
22. Dominica
23. Hungary
24. Slovakia
25. Belarus
26. Slovenia
27. Austria
28. Russia
29. Barbados
30. New Zealand
31. Ireland
32. Germany
33. United Kingdom
34. Belgium
35. Poland
36. Saint Kitts & Nevis
37. Vatican City
38. Estonia
39. Czech Republic
40. Switzerland
41. San Marino
42. Kosovo
43. Romania
44. Finland
45. Latvia
46. Azerbaijan
47. Georgia
48. Antigua & Barbuda
49. Moldova
50. Norway
51. Ukraine
52. France
53. Bulgaria
54. Luxembourg
55. Liechtenstein
56. China
57. Serbia
58. Bosnia And Herzegovina
59. Albania