October 13, 2008

• arrival in Aruba

  J and I are on our honeymoon in Aruba.  We arrived Saturday afternoon.  I can't believe it was only four hours from NY, but it felt a lot longer than that due to all the kids on the plane.

  The person next to me was a grandmother who was trying to put her granddaughter to sleep, but she kept kicking me and wiping her wet fingers all over my clothes.  Not fun.

  Anyway, Saturday we ate at a nice beachside restaurant, called Hadicurai.  We took pictures of our dinner: fish soup, steak and chicken salad, mahi mahi, a lightly fried fish with creole sauce, and the dessert was a chocolate trio: chocolate ice cream, cake, and mousse, but we lost our camera (more on this later).

  So today, Sunday, we slept in and woke up at 11 am.  We spoke to the concierge and found that almost everything is closed on Sunday!  However, we heard that the Butterfly Farm was open, so we decided to take a walk over there.  It was very educational, and not boring at all!  We learned that you shouldn't spray any pesticides when you see damaged leaves on your plants, because it's just the caterpillars eating leaves, and that is the only way you, and future generations, will see butterflies.  

  After that, we were about to take a taxi downtown, but some stranger offered us a ride, and I don't know what I was thinking, but I accepted even though I had no idea what language he was speaking, or where he was taking us. His car barely started, and I kept thinking he would take us to some secret warehouse, tell us to get out, and take our money.  However, he ended up taking us downtown where all the shops were, and wouldn't accept any money.  I think we got lucky because I got back to my resort and somehow ended up on the Natalee Holloway story.

  So once we got downtown, we gambled a bit (there are lots of casionos).  First we went to Seaport Casino where we played the slots, then checked
  out the Crystal Casino, which reminded me of the Bellagio, but wasn't
  even half as pretty.  We won $3 playing $0.01 slots at Seaport Casino.   At the Crystal Casion, there were some table games but the way they play blackjack is WEIRD.  The dealer one gives himself ONE card, until all players have played their hands, THEN finally he starts dealing to himself????? WTF?

  We wanted to save money, so we finally found some restaurants that were open and we ate at Sbarro.  There are no free refills even though you fill up your own soda.  After that, we took some more pics, and ran to the bus. 

  After we got off the bus, I wanted to take a picture of the big fish statue in front of the hotel, but J said she couldn't find the camera.  We freaked out, searched all of our bags, but still couldn't find it.  We then had the concierge call the bus line to see if anyone reported a missing camera, but nope. 

  So we got back on the bus, and it was the same driver. He didn't find any camera, and we sat back in the same seat but it wasn't there either. So we went ALL the way back to where we last took pictures, asked the security guard at the bus stop, and he didn't hear about any camera either.  Some guy tried to be helpful but he said "if it's gone, it's gone" implying it's really stolen, then he had the nerve to hit us up for money for food!  I was in no mood to open my wallet and help out!

  So now we're back at the hotel...... hopefully the rest of the week is better.

  • 1:06 am
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