Robin Rants

Hello and welcome back to a new article about my Barbados Adventure!
As some of you may have noticed, at this moment there's a big hurricane going in the Caribbean, and while I'm VERY thankful for all your thoughts and concerned messages *cough*
I'm more than ok, the weather didn't fully hit Barbados. We had some strong winds and distant thunder but that's about all we had over here.
I did of course prepare well, bought plenty of food and drinks to last for days and made sure I knew where to go in case it became really bad. (But it didn't) There was a mysteriously orange sky right before it hit though! (Picture below). But in the end, I'm glad we made it out ok! (Not that Hurricane season is over....)

#NoFilter

But back to more fun topics! Like... FOOD!
Last Friday night I was taken out to Oistins by my (Super kind) internship guide and her husband. She had heard that I do enjoy trying local dishes and culture so she told me this was something I HAD to try! 
And I'm GLAD I did! After giving me a small tour throughout the places I hadn't been yet, I was taken to Oistins.
And what might Oistins be? You may ask. Well... when it was first talked about, I expected it to be a fish restaurant.
I was WRONG. Oistins is a district in Barbados that has a fish market during the weekends with some restaurants/stands/snackbars(?) where they specialize in fish.
However, Friday night is when it all goes wild. There's a ton of people there, ordering fish, potatoes and other grilled and/or fried things! Music is playing, people are dancing and despite there being a clear police presence, there's a generally relaxed atmosphere going.
When we arrived at the place that sold some of the best fish (According to my friendly guides) I immediately saw 2 huge grills with flames blazing up every so often. 2 people were grilling potatoes and different kinds of fish as a lady at the counter took the orders.
This was something I had to get used to: You would first go to the counter > Place your order > The lady would take your money and write the order on a box that would keep your food warm > Put the things she had behind the counter for your order in there and send you on your way to the grills > over there you would wait in line for your potatoes or fish (if you had both you would have to wait twice as they were in different lines.
All in all, I had to wait in line 3 times!
Was it worth it?
D e f i n i t e l y 
Barbados Pro-tip: Go to Oistins on a Friday if you're a fan of fresh fish and good atmosphere!
(Pics below)

2 big pieces of Marlin, Grilled potatoes and Plantain (baked banana)                 a blurry impression of the crowds and atmosphere

The party as seen from a distance (From a nearby pier)

As you can see living in Barbados has its ups (great culture, great food, great people) and its downs (Stooooooorms) but I can only look forward to what other new things I might experience! :)
I will see you all in the next update!

Ps. I found your rum.

And here I am, back again with another update.
The first week was... slow. The person who's responsible for guiding me at the internship will return tomorrow (Monday) because then her vacation is over.
Her not being there was cause for me to get to know the company a bit better alongside with doing some small projects, but all-in-all it wasn't a very busy week.
The first day I was feeling brave, work isn't that far away from me (less than 2KM) so I decided to walk with Google Maps as my trusty backup!
(Barbados pro-tip: DO NOT USE GOOGLE MAPS IN BARBADOS) That's a mistake I won't make again! a walk that should take about 20 minutes turned into an hour walk of me strolling through backstreets and sweating profusely as I wore uncomfortable formal shoes and a laptop bag, finally after what seemed like half a day I found the gate to the building! 
The... wrong gate, after finding out that this specific gate wasn't in use anymore. I decided to give up and just call them to ask for help.
Luckily the lady at the reception was friendly and understanding and she send a security guard my way to let me in through the gate, after a couple of tries and keys, the guard let me in and I could finally start my day!
Needless to say, I won't do that again.
So now I'm taking a taxi to and from work every day! It costs a pretty penny, but it safes me a lot of stress (and even more blisters, RIP: Feet)
The Taxi driver is a chill guy who I made a deal with to come pick me up every workday at 8AM and I'll send him a message when he can pick me up. All for the same rate (Which I will not disclose, unless you want to donate money to me to pay for my taxi-fares :P)
During the week, outside of work I haven't been doing much, I have mainly just relaxed after work to get into a rhythm a bit more.
Other than that I've been trying to keep up cooking every day rather than going out or ordering food somewhere. In a strange way, the process of preparing food calms me down a bit and lets me have some creative fun with basic ingredients to add some flavor to meals. (See pictures underneath)
But other than cooking, gaming, reading and sleeping I haven't been doing too much, so that's about the end of this update! 
I will see you next time!

Picture 1: Cauliflower with Baked Potatoes and a hummus dip.                                       Picture 2: Tagliatelle with chicken and Parmesan cheese :)

Picture 3: Boiled potatoes, White Cabbage (witte kool) and bit of Pork strips cooked with salt and pepper.

Hey hey and welcome back to a new article!

Now the past week was a pretty active week for me during work (Hopefully I'll be able to share the results soon enough) But like I said, I won't talk about work too much.
Like the last update I didn't do much during the week in regards to exploring and/or having fun. However last Saturday I decided to go exploring in the morning!
I took a walk of about one hour to see what's around my apartment and where the good food places were. and I have to admit... there's not a lot of shops near me, but there's a TON of foodplaces within 20 minutes walking distance for me. Barbados pro-tip: Always try to have 3.50BBD or a multitude of that on you, in case you have figured out how the buses here work.  Below are some pictures I took while walking around, the first picture of a building they started making, but for some reason was never finished. 2 and 3 are just nice pictures of a beach and the 4th one was this creepy abandoned house I found, with rusted, broken down fence and all! spooooooky.

After I was done exploring I returned to my apartment and had some Chefette on my way back (hmmmmm tasty fast food) and did nothing for the rest of the saturday~ 

On Sunday I decided to (try to) make bean soup! and I have to admit, it went really well! Up to the point where I threw in what I thought was Vermicelli, but what turned out to be Chow Mein Noodles, thus accidentally creating a noodle-bean soup! No matter it was still tasty! You can see the picture below! 

So here I am, in my apartment AC on whenever I can to not melt away.
I have to be honest, this is taking a lot out of me to get used to.
The island is beautiful, the weather is incredibly warm and then there's me, the pasty white guy with milk-white legs inbetween all of the islanders.
How did I get here?
Well... that's a story on it's own, so let's start with that!

I booked tickets from Amsterdam to Bridgetown Barbados, I knew there would be a connection flight in London.
However what I didn't know was the fact that this flight would be at another airport, nor that it would be on the literal other side of London.
So... how do I get there?
Apparently it was "Easiest" to take public transport, and fair enough for a 15 pound ticket I could get from City Airport to Gatwick.
By taking 2 tubes and 1 regular train through London, dragging a 20KG suitcase, a sports-bag and a laptop bag with me, great fun.
After many involuntary hugs and asking directions, I found my way to Gatwick airport, where I finally could get rid of the 20KG suitcase and got the option to also put my sportsbag with it (so I did).
Finally in the airport, through security and the FIRST thing I have to go through is some kind of hallway that was filled with stores and pushy clerks trying to get you to try their new products and perfumes. Very devious, Gatwick Airport.... VERY devious.
After some hours of waiting I could finally board my flight, it would take about 9 hours to get to Barbados and I was looking forward to just relaxing in the seat, watching movies, drinking whatever I wanted and eating a bit.
In general that's exactly what I did, however the person next to me took about 2 seats all by himself: 1 where he was sitting and 2 halves of the seats around him.
I'm pretty sure I have a deformed spine now after sitting at an angle for those 9 hours.
Having arrived and having gone through the security measures again (Seriously, what do they expect me to do on a plane? Make a bomb?) I got on a Taxi and was finally on my way to my apartment. I arrived, got my keys and started unpacking a bit, at this point I had been awake for over 30 hours with a few moments of 10 - 15 minutes sleep at the plane.
I was exhausted and apparently hungry, but it was already dark outside, I had no idea where I could get food or where the nearest supermarket was.
Luckily I found out that there is a local club/restaurant near me and the friendly people there sold me some half-liters of Cola and a plate of french fries.
One thing was for sure: I wouldn't starve here. But I still needed groceries.
So that was my goal yesterday: Find the nearest Supermarket!
I quickly found out (yay google) that there was one at about 700 meter distance away from me, I did my shopping, bought necessary things and went to pay for it all.of course that didn't go well as my card is foreign and I didn't have any cash on me yet  (Barbados pro-tip: Carry cash on you at all times!) luckily there was a bank nearby and I could quickly pay and return to my room, to lock myself in for the day to get some more rest.
This morning I woke up with a fresh mindset: I would explore MORE of the island so I grabbed my bag, cap and sunglasses and went on an adventure, I got on a random bus and went to explore! (Barbados pro-tip: Busses are cheap! Only 3.50 BBD which is about €1.50)
I quickly noticed my mistake as a couple of hours later I had NO idea where I was or how to get back... (Barbados pro-tip: There's taxis everywhere, but they're far from cheap).
My lesson this day was to take the bus whenever you can, but to pay attention where it's going and inform how to get back.

That's all for this update! I will keep this blog updated as much as I can (AKA when I have time/energy to do so)