Reliving my First trip... March 2011

Reliving my very first trip, the trip that made me fall in love with negril!

You can check out the photos on my flickr
http://www.flickr.com/photos/breanaa...7629953592079/


Your first trip to anywhere is always exciting. You are going somewhere foreign, uncharted, and completely unknown to you. For me, my first trip to Negril was my first trip out of the country in many, many years. I had not traveled anywhere since i was about 8, and i was about to take a trip alone. How this trip came about? i'm not sure. My mother urged me to go visit my father and grandmother for years, my response was always something along the lines of " you seriously want to ship me off to strangers in a foreign country, no thank you." Oh how naive i was. During my spring semester, it just came to me, and from then on i was determined to go meet my family during spring break. I knew i didn't want to go for long, i decided on 5 days. Next problem, I had no passport... I flew down to Miami, for a trip that lasted less than 24 hours, to go to the passport agency, so i could get it the same day. At this point i had less than a week until i left. I had mixed emotions, i was excited to go to jamaica and have a real vacation. Nervous about meeting my family. Questions like Will they like me? and will they accept me popped into my head. Of course they had to accept me i was one of their own! Most of all i was just plain scared, i was about to go on vacation, to a country that was unknown to me, ALONE. Finally the day came.. March 3 2011, my suitcase was packed so full you would think i was going for a month! i had an early flight 7:02 AM, security was a breeze at 5AM. My mom must have called me 100 time while i was waiting to board, i am her baby after all. The flight was easy, then they said something about declaration forms, and they had no pens... WTF? no one told me about this, then again my mother hasn't been to jamaica in 15 years.. she probably didn't remember. Oh well! i fill the form out, well i fill out as much as i could. I had no idea where i was staying! thats right, i did not book a hotel. but i was able to call my uncle and find out an address to put.. no problem.

Went through customs... "I'm visiting family" "Im staying with Family" "My uncles name is____ _____" "His Phone number?" "thank you have a good day." and i was free to get my suitcase.

After i got my suitcase (which was overweight) i headed outside.. i had no idea who or what i was looking for.

Good thing he remembered me, because i did not remember him! but when i saw my uncle, i pieced it together, he was one of my uncles children. Cool! the took my suitcase, put it in the back and we were off to negril!

:cool:

On the Drive to negril i fell asleep, waking up at 3AM to be at the airport by 5 for my flight at 7 wore me out, i remember stopping at a resturant along the way.. my uncle and cousin ate, i refused food, and started to cry... i was experiencing culture shock.. its amazing how different Jamaica is when the only thing i have to compare it to is Connecticut and Florida.. there were goats on the sides of the roads.. kids walking for what i assume was their lunch break in uniforms.. good lord, i could never imagine wearing uniforms with skirts that long in the heat!

Once we left the restaurant we were back on track to Negril... I hadn't booked a hotel yet, so my uncle brought me up to his house in orange hill.. Side note: my uncle lives in florida, however he visits negril for several weeks every few months...

anyways, once we were there he left me. -__-
so i took a shower and a nap.. several hours passed and he was nowhere to be found.. soooo i cried and called my mom. Thankfully he showed up not too long after i made that call and took me down to G's house , shes a long time friend of my mothers, i stayed the night there.

The next morning when i woke up G had fixed me some breakfast, Pancakes, which were so good, but she had to go to work. So once again i was alone... so the adventurous person that lies deep within me decided to go for a walk... i walked down one way... ran into some goats snapped some pictures from a distance.. took some photos of flowers and then someone pointed me in the direction of my aunts house/shop... the shop was closed so i went to her house, she was running a fever (So glad i walk around with hand sanitizer and wet wipes) but i stayed a chatted for a while, but left so she could get some rest.

Ok, at this point i was ready to go find a hotel, and get my version of a vacation rolling...

i must have called my uncle 30 times without receiving an answer or call back... finally around 3 he popped up and took me... we stopped at my fathers shop along the way for and awkward reunion... i mean what do you say to someone who hasn't seen you in14 years, or called you in about 11 years, we just talked about how my mother is doing, i told him i was going to see if i could get a hotel room, he suggested seastar, but my uncle said it was far from the beach so i probably wouldn't like it..

instead he took me to Hidden Paradise, i checked in i think for the 4 nights it ran me a little over $200... not bad..the first room they put me in was toward the back room 107.. but my uncle asked them to move me closer to the front because his sisters room was toward the front... so they put me in 102... it was basic, but that's all i need, i figured i would be in the room too much anyway.. That night i went to the Italian Cafe for dinner and had a Danilo Pizza... which is now my favorite, i have one every trip! and i had my first drink of the vacation pinapple juice and vodka... i sat at the bar since the tables are so massive and i was alone, i met a man who comes down every winter from December until March. even though he was a stranger it was nice to talk to someone, i said goodbye to everyone and went in for the night.. it was only like 8...

Not you going in at 8pm! Thanks for sharing...