The Bahamas

"That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind".

I pretended it was as important to be the first ever tourist to visit the brand new Ocean Cay island in the Bahamas, as it was when the first man took a step on the moon.

The opening of MSC Cruises' private island had been postponed and postponed, because of their hard work of turning a before industrial sand excavation site into a thriving marine reserve. It was supposed to be opening in March 2018, and then in November 2019. Just weeks before I would go there they postponed the opening to the date I was going, it would now open on December 5th. I was sure it would be postponed again, but to my surprise I stepped outside in the morning on the balcony of my friend Andreas and mine cabin on the MSC cruise ship, and saw the island that I had only seen drawed images of before. 

The characteristic lighthouse looked amazing from a distance and the island looked so small compared to our huge ship. When we came closer I could see all the colorful houses and hear the reggae band that invited us to the island.

We walked through the market stands and shops to get to the south, north and Bimini beaches that make up one half of the island. You could tell the island was brand new and the buried speakers playing chill house music and reggae all along the pathways made a huge impact on me. I wanted to get rich to be able to buy the island from MSC (the cruise company), even though I had my doubts before coming about the fact that companies are buying/leasing islands. Disney's got one too for example and they often lease the island for 100 years from the countries.

We saw lots of women on the beaches being more obsessed by getting the perfect image for Instagram, than caring about living in the moment or taking care of their children and spending time with their husbands. As a joke I ripped of my T-shirt and started to pose like them while Andreas told me to strike some poses for him as a photographer. I hope some of them saw me and got a reality check from it.

When one of them finally stopped the posing she went away and just sat on the beach, and I thought finally she will start enjoying life instead. I was wrong, her husband and kid instead got the drone ready for some pics of her on the beach from the air too, and as soon as the drone hit the air she began posing again.

I had to cool down from being so hot in my pictures so we jumped inside the Ocean Bay Lagoon, which is a perfect spot for people like me who's afraid of sharks in the real oceans.

This was a lagoon inbetween islands and with shark nets so only the small fishes could get in to nibble on Andreas feet, while I was sunbathing on a raft in the middle of the lagoon. I was still nervous while swimming because Bahamas is more infested with sharks than any other island in the Caribbean, but I thought I was such a silly boy since the nets would keep them out for sure. But let me get back to that!

We walked up the other side of the island and got to the pavilion where people will get married to their loved ones, with their friends and the sharks as their witnesses. I thought to myself "I should get married here one day", then two women passed us by and I asked one of them to marry me as a joke. She said "no, no!" and laughed so Andreas said "maybe your friend can marry him?". She asked her friend in their native language and she agreed without even questioning it. We walked down the aisle and then it was time for a wedding picture and I felt awkward because I didn't want to be to pushy to get a fun pic, she leaned in and put hur head and hand on my body and smiled for the camera. She was such a great sport and we all laughed at the pictures taken by both of our friends.

We went down to the Sunset Beach and saw the Lighthouse again and I couldn't stop thinking of how much I loved the environment, this was all I ever wanted in life in one island, minus the sharks. 

We came back out on the island in the evening and hit some of the bars, like the wonderful Lighthouse Bar just down by the ocean. 

Oddly enough almost no passengers were out on the island, they would rather hide in the ship than have the magnificient sunset view from the lighthouse, even though all drinks are for free on the island too, just like on the ship (if you have paid for the drink package that is, which I would guess 99% has).

We saw the light show of the Lighthouse and after one of my best times ever, cruising the Caribbean for almost two weeks with my best friend, this was the perfect ending.

"That's two small steps for man, two giant leaps for mankind".

Just about a week later I was back at the island with my friend Amanda, as the first man to ever visit the island twice in such a short amount of time. It felt good that I had already discovered the island once so now I could just kick back and enjoy the whole day, not feeling stressed about seeing it all. We did the same tour of the island and once again I swam to the raft in the lagoon, this time the birds had discovered it too so it was full of bird poop but I found one little spot they had missed. I saw that one small beach nearby was totally empty and it had a raft in the middle too. I told Amanda I wanted to go there but she preferred the busy beaches so we decided I should go on my own, later when she would go onto the ship again. This time we realized the great food was also for free on the island, so I decided I wouldn't go on to the ship until it was time for the last musical show late in the evening. 

It was much more windy this time around and the waves came crashing in so we couldn't swim in the ocean. 

So I went back to the empty beach by myself to swim out to the raft that no one would use for some reason. "Ha! Stupid people" I thought and started enjoying being the only one in the water, except I wasn't the only one. A shark had gotten passed the net so that's why no one else was swimming there, and a lifeguard started whistling at me to get out of the water.

I decided I would stay ashore the rest of my life and I went down to the Lighthouse Beach to relax on some nice sofas that almost made me fall asleep to the sound of the waves. But I got woken up by Amanda who was back and wanted to go to the Lighthouse Bar, so we did.

We had some Ocean Cay Ice Teas and beers, and to this we enjoyed the salty ocean that came crashing in over us from time to time. We had a great time there enjoying the sunset in the company of some friends from the cruise ship we had met during our week at sea. 

One of them had been snorkeling and a shark had been coming right round his legs and I just felt even more sure I would never go inside the water again. On the left hand from where we were sitting a couple asked me if I could take a photo of them, after I had been acting as cameraman for a lot of couples there. I sat with a blank expression and said "NO...". They were surprised of how rude I was, but I quickly told them I was just joking and I happily took a picture of them. It wasn't my intention but it worked as a perfect icebreaker to get to know John & Terri as they were called. The couple from Atlanta in Georgia in USA were so nice that I couldn't stop talking to them. Amanda left to go to the ship but I kept on having some drinks and talking to them until it was pitch dark outside. When me, John & Terri finally would go back to the ship together I realized I hadn't eaten dinner yet, so  I stayed behind for some food.

After finishing my meal I would finally get back to the ship, but I would just get one drink from the beach bar so I would have something to sip on until I came aboard again. But on the opposite side of the bar there was this man that I had been seeing from a distance on the ship all week. He had such a cool look, I always saw him alone with his earphones on, and he looked so hip and cool even though he was an older guy. I couldn't keep my mouth shut so 1 minute later we were best friends and talking and joking in the bar. He had so much interesting to tell me about music and his life in New York, and I loved how he had the true Long Island accent too.

NOW it was time for me to finally get on board but then a woman from the crew on the ship asked me if I would go down to the beach party, and of course I would. We started talking and it's so interesting to hear about people's lives from completely different parts of the world than your own. She was from Paraguay and I was so amazed by her story and about what she had accomplished already, so I would tell her encouraging words and that she should already be proud of herself. She started crying and hugging me and my newfound friend from New York a lot of times and we blamed the full moon for being so emotional. I promised her I would just go onboard to find Amanda and then I would come down on the beach party again, she didn't believe me, but it was actually my true intention. 

Of course I never made it to the beach party again because when your drunk nothing goes as planned, but at least I made it on the ship before it left! And guess who I met at the ship later that night, my new found American friends from New York and Atlanta at the exact same time, life is beautiful sometimes!

* Best things about The Bahamas – the beautiful beaches and the turquoise ocean topped of by the characteristic lighthouse, I love how well-planned the small island is so it never feels small even if you go by the electric trams that gets the lazy tourists around, the buried music speakers in the ground that is the soundtrack to your life on the island, I could go on and on and on, but as I thought when I sat alone on the raft in the lagoon "when can I move here?", if MSC ever reads this I hope they can get passed the fact that im not a Bahamanian and they can hire me anyway, because I want to live here forever

* Most mediocre thing about The Bahamas – it's not an authentic island in that way that it's just made up for tourists of MSC Cruises, but at the same time there are a lot of benefits from that too

* Worst things about The Bahamas – sharks

Best countries in the world according to the nerd (will be updated with every post):

1. USA

2. The Bahamas

3. Croatia

4. Montenegro

5. Andorra

6. Cyprus

7. Grenada

8. Turkey

9. Greece

10. Italy

11. Spain

12. Monaco

13. Malta

14. Netherlands

15. Saint Lucia

16. Iceland

17. Denmark

18. Sweden

19. Lithuania

20. Macedonia

21. Armenia

22. Portugal

23. Dominica

24. Hungary

25. Slovakia

26. Belarus

27. Slovenia

28. Austria

29. Russia

30. Barbados 

31. New Zealand

32. Ireland

33. Germany

34. United Kingdom

35. Belgium

36. Poland

37. Saint Kitts & Nevis

38. Vatican City

39. Estonia

40. Czech Republic

41. Switzerland

42. San Marino

43. Kosovo

44. Romania

45. Finland

46. Latvia

47. Azerbaijan

48. Georgia

49. Saint Vincent And The Grenadines 

50. Antigua & Barbuda

51. Moldova

52. Norway

53. Ukraine

54. France

55. Bulgaria

56. Luxembourg

57. Liechtenstein

58. Trinidad And Tobago

59. China

60. Serbia 

61. Bosnia And Herzegovina

62. Albania