Tales of the Great Holt-Ysses - Part 1 "Getting There"
As with any long voyage, their is a certain amount of preparation that takes place in order to begin your voyage. For your sanity and mine I'll skip the week before the cruise that Satan hosted and dished out for us. Let's just say that he did his darned-ist!
I'll start with the plane ride to old and historic San Juan, Puerto Rico. We got on our US Airways flight with a smile and within minutes we were on our way to San Juan via a plane switch in Philadelphia....Yea that confused me too but you know how goofy the airlines are.
We made it to San Juan about 9:30pm San Juan time and then proceeded to the taxi counter located outside. Before you get to the counter you have to go through the barrage of "luggage guys" who are there to take your luggage and put them onto a taxi for you. They do this for tips but you would think they were doing it for steak. They are like hungry dogs attacking everyone who gets near. We ask for a taxi among the chaos and they make you pay for it right there. They make up the prices based on how American you look and how many bags you brought. The taxi guy pulls up, the bag man loads it up and off you go. Our taxi driver got lost to our hotel but we got to see most of San Juan in the process. Very third world mixed with modern day conveniences. What's funny is to see a MacDonalds with gang signs written all over the sign. That's not really that funny unless you see it. Anyway, we make it to the hotel which was downtown Old San Juan. This is the party district so by the time we made it (11:30pm) we were smack dab at the beginning of party time. That's right the beginning! The party starts at 11:30-12:00 and doesn't end till 4:00am or so. Crazy stuff. We are greeted at the hotel by Amy's dad and we promptly get to bed. Of course, I couldn't sleep but that's because of all the party noises. You know BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM - club music. I was also very excited to get on the boat.
Next thing you know we are waking up. We eat and get packed and with some time to spare we walk around Old San Juan. The place is pretty cool because it's so old. Shops everywhere mixed with apartments and other businesses. There is this fortress wall built around the entire city that is at least 50 - 100 ft tall and No kidding - 25ft thick. It was really cool. Old Forts are at each end of the island. This was cool too. We ended up walking around for 3-4 hours and then we headed for the boat.
We get through the customs without a hitch and on the boat we go. We had a great cabin with a balcony...ooh la la! Nice furnishings and a cool round shower. So far so good.
Check out the next blog for more on "cruising with Brian".
I'll start with the plane ride to old and historic San Juan, Puerto Rico. We got on our US Airways flight with a smile and within minutes we were on our way to San Juan via a plane switch in Philadelphia....Yea that confused me too but you know how goofy the airlines are.
We made it to San Juan about 9:30pm San Juan time and then proceeded to the taxi counter located outside. Before you get to the counter you have to go through the barrage of "luggage guys" who are there to take your luggage and put them onto a taxi for you. They do this for tips but you would think they were doing it for steak. They are like hungry dogs attacking everyone who gets near. We ask for a taxi among the chaos and they make you pay for it right there. They make up the prices based on how American you look and how many bags you brought. The taxi guy pulls up, the bag man loads it up and off you go. Our taxi driver got lost to our hotel but we got to see most of San Juan in the process. Very third world mixed with modern day conveniences. What's funny is to see a MacDonalds with gang signs written all over the sign. That's not really that funny unless you see it. Anyway, we make it to the hotel which was downtown Old San Juan. This is the party district so by the time we made it (11:30pm) we were smack dab at the beginning of party time. That's right the beginning! The party starts at 11:30-12:00 and doesn't end till 4:00am or so. Crazy stuff. We are greeted at the hotel by Amy's dad and we promptly get to bed. Of course, I couldn't sleep but that's because of all the party noises. You know BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM - club music. I was also very excited to get on the boat.
Next thing you know we are waking up. We eat and get packed and with some time to spare we walk around Old San Juan. The place is pretty cool because it's so old. Shops everywhere mixed with apartments and other businesses. There is this fortress wall built around the entire city that is at least 50 - 100 ft tall and No kidding - 25ft thick. It was really cool. Old Forts are at each end of the island. This was cool too. We ended up walking around for 3-4 hours and then we headed for the boat.
We get through the customs without a hitch and on the boat we go. We had a great cabin with a balcony...ooh la la! Nice furnishings and a cool round shower. So far so good.
Check out the next blog for more on "cruising with Brian".
posted by DallasHolts at
10:57 AM
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