Saint Barth. Day 6. Bon Voyage.
We woke up early, again. Was this even a vacation?
We went down for our last breakfast, which was sad. We decided to have all the things today. Tzvi had eggs Florentine, which he said was delicious but basically looked like a pot of cheese with some runny eggs. They also brought us a Nutella Crepe that spelled out Bon Voyage. Way to rub it in. We also packed up some pastries to go.
We said our goodbyes and were on the road by 9:10am. 20 minutes later we were on line to check in at Winair. Before saying goodbye, our driver from the hotel gave each of us a little pouch with an inflatable neck pillow, ear plugs and a sleep mask. They really did a great job with the little extra touches.
Surprise surprise, the airport check-in was another indoor-outdoor situation. Even on your way out you can’t just enter a building with air conditioning. It’s basically one long corridor with a few check in counters. After a few minutes we were done checking in, so we went to check out the “shopping” which was really two stores manned by the same woman who was walking back and forth. There was a waiting area next to the shopping so we walked over there. It was a little smelly and that’s when I noticed a man sitting and reading picking at his toenails. It was so disgusting. At that point Tzvi called and told us to come to immigration, meaning come downstairs to the little booth manned by a Russian man, to get our passports stamped. We opened the door and were greeted by the wonderful whoosh of cold air. Air conditioning! Huzzah!
We waited at the gate watching planes take off until it was our time to board. The one nice thing was that we were actually able to watch as they wheeled out the bags and put both of our bags put onto the plane. We were leaving out of gate 3, which was just a door that was 5 feet away from gate 2, which, you guessed it, was right next to gate 1. They opened the door, lined us up, and led us to our plane.
This plane looked a bit newer that the plane we flew in on, but don’t worry, there was still no air conditioning. This time we got the front row so I basically flew the plane with the pilots. The flight was uneventful.
After landing in St. Maarten we had to go through passport control and then make that same shlep outdoors to walk to departures and check in for our JetBlue flight. That was easy. Though, when we got our passports back, I noticed the three of them got a stamp on their boarding pass that said “cleared” and mine just said SSSS. We didn’t know what SSSS meant. Some of us thought it meant super sexy special security. Whatever it meant, it wasn’t going to be good.
We made it through security and then killed time until our flight. Just as our flight was about to board, I heard my name called on the loudspeaker. I will say kudos to the TSA man because he pronounced Feit correctly! Anyway, apparently I was in fact selected for super special security screening, but it wasn’t very sexy. So while everyone else got to board, I had to wait for a woman to pat me down and go through my carry on. Spoiler alert, I was allowed on the plane.
Tzvi was panicking because God forbid I get on late and there isn’t overhead space for my bag. He almost got into an altercation with a Russian man who was trying to take my space with his briefcase. Don’t worry, we won.
The flight was overall ok, but there was a period with some bad turbulence. That was not so fun. Ironically our 10 minute flight on the Lego plane was less turbulent. We were in row 1, so once we landed Tzvi was the first off the plane, which for some reason gives him a thrill.
And now we’re back. I know that it may not have always sounded like it from these writings, but it was a great trip. Saint Barth really is a magical little island, and despite the heat, we had an amazing time.
Until next time…
