I was heading out on an unplanned impromptu trip to Bermuda. My friend had this long planned and kept asking me to come. I kept saying no as I don't like hot places and didnt think there was much to do. However, after lots of persuasion I agreed. Timing was not great as I just returned from my Croatia trip in May and had just booked my flights to Kazakhstan for Sept.
We were having fierce debates which side of the plane was best to sit. For southbound departure from Toronto its best to sit on the left to see the Toronto skyline and possibly Niagara. However, in Bermuda with the east-west orientation runway we didnt know if it would arrive from the European or American side. Finding a video on youtube it showed descent from the American side so we switched our seats to the right side.
Unlike my trip to Mexico which went due south to Florida, the flight to Bermuda cut across Lake Ontario at 90 degrees. This meant we saw Niagara on the right side while those on the left would have seen Toronto.
Continuing to move diagonal across New York state we then flew over New York City. We had perfect views of Manhattan from the right side.
We flew over JFK airport before leaving the mainland.
The descent over Bermuda was perfect from the right side. First we could see the corals as we approached.
We saw the Naval Dockyard at the tail of the island before quickly descending. The island is shaped like a shrimp or a scorpion with the tail curved by the naval dockyard and is small enough we were thinking of biking the island.
It was a small airport due to land scarcity and probably few flights. The immigration officer welcomed me and their was a large portrait of Queen Elizabeth.
Leaving there was supposed to be an information counter to buy bus tickets but we saw nothing. My friend had one of his panic moments and wanted to take a taxi for probably $80 but then a city bus arrived. The driver wanted $10 USD which I thought was outrageous but I later found out it was $5 USD each and the fare was for both of us not each. Imagine the cost of the taxi.
People were waving as the bus went by. We thought they wanted to get on but they were just friends saying hi to the driver. The island reminded me of Jeju in Korea with its climate and topography.
All buses goto Hamilton where they end and you change buses to continue across the island. There was some confusion about our bus as some people were saying it will come at 6.45pm while others said it stopped for the day. It had stopped and we had to take another bus that ran on the northern edge of the island. We had to walk a km back to the southern road when we reached our stop.
Our guest house was conspicuous on the main road with its blue paint. Across was a gas station which was like a big local store and sold everything except produce. We also found out tomorrow was a public holiday.
When we tried to sleep all the windows were bolted so we couldnt get any breezes. The sounds of the crickets chirping was overpowering but eventually I fell asleep.
2025-02-11