Barbados, Caribbean (11/4/07 - 18/4/07)

Jumping off the plane, I was on a natural high... the weather was warm with the beautiful beaches waiting, I could understand people again, I was meeting some great friends and Australia was halfway through defending their back-to-back world cup victories. The only problem was that Kev was arriving in a few days and I didn't know where Lewi was staying. Lewi had arranged some accommodation for us in Oz and apparently emailed my UniSA account which I no longer had access. Therefore, I was forced to find my own accomm for the night and email Lewi to find where they were lodging for the week.

I went for a walk/run to the Bridgetown, the main area of Barbados. Feeling hungry I grabbed some Chinese at a restuarant and met another Aussie who couldn't get into his room and couldn't find his friends either. He told me about the St. Lawrence Gap where most people go to party in Barbados. So, we set off to have a few drinks and see if we could run into our mates. After a few beers, old mate found his buddies but I wouldn't be so lucky.

The next day, I'd finally received another email from Lewi so I packed my stuff and headed to meet an old face. Lewi had a big night and was feeling a bit rough, so we just managed a catch-up and swim on one of the clearest beaches I've ever seen. Turns out Lewi was only next door at a bar the night before. I walked past the bar he was drinking at but didn't bother going into every single bar. Oh well, there was plenty of time to hang now.

My first night was spent on a fold-out army bed. The place was very basic and people were crammed into every room, yet it still cost us US$40/night. I wasn't very impressed, especially when he made me pay for the first night when I had a sh!tty fold-out.

On the morning of my first World Cup match, Kev rocked up. I hadn't seen Kev since London which I left 2 and a half years ago. It was great see a good mate from my London days again. With all our Aussie gear, we made our way for the ground in a maxi-taxi. They have shared mini-van taxi's which are great cause it's loads cheaper. But the problem is that they cram heaps of people in to make as much money as possible. Half the time you're almost sitting on another persons lap.

In the party stand, you get a meal and 8 drink vouchers. After I'd already received my tokens and was waiting for Kev, the lady asked me if she had given me the tokens. I told a little white lie and said 'no'. She gave me another lot of tickets! Since I wanted my mates on the same level, I promised to share them with Kev and Lewi - we were set for a big day. But the Aussies didn't help the situation as they destroyed the Irish by 1pm. The party stand continued to play music for another hour, so we had slightly more time to finish the drinks. Stumbling out of the ground, we were on the hunt to continue celebrations. The boatyard seemed to be the best place as it was a bar on the beach with an inflatable iceberg and a trampoline in the water. I gave my stuff to Lewi, while Kev and I went out to climb the iceberg and dive off the trampoline. I'm not sure how but I managed to lose my sunnies. At 7pm, they tried to kick everyone out of the bar so they could have a $40 all-you-can-drink night. Already being drunk, we thought we wouldn't get our money worth but still wanted to stay. Disputing the deal as I pulled out the cash for Lewi and I, I called it a 'rip-off'. One of the wanker bouncers heard and wouldn't let me pay and go back inside. I waited for Lewi to get Kev, so we could go to another bar. We tried to keep going at St. Lawrence Gap but the day proved to be too big for us.

The next 3 days was spent just recovering, swimming, playing beach cricket with local West Indians, playing cards and hanging out.

On the 15th, we scored free tickets to the Ireland v Bangladesh match which turned out to be the closest game I watched. It was free as the game didn't matter in the context of the tournament. If the favourites had won, it would have been India v Pakistan but they exited the tournament early and so did most of the fans that had pre-purchased tickets.

The 17th was the much anticipated South Africa v England match - the winner would basically secure a semi final so it was branded a final in itself. Again, the game was a bit disappointing with South Africa winning convincingly. Again, we visited the boatyard after the game but the inflatable platforms were closed and it wasn't as happenning like after the Oz game.

On the last day, I managed to lose my 2nd pair of sunnies - lucky they were cheaps this time. Don't ask me how it happened though...

Return rating: 8 (beautiful beaches on most of the islands)