St Maarten

Gym was quiet in the morning; I was counting down the hours until I could have my half day off. Amy and I left the ship at noon, couldn’t wait to get reception on my phone, found it very frustrating when I couldn’t phone home! Eventually found phone cards to use a tickey box.
Took a Water taxi across the bay, we just wanted to find somewhere for lunch. Passed a little pub called “Black Pearl” means a lot to me because it is the name of one of the ships in my favorite movie! At at a place that I can’t remember the name of, I had my first pizza since South Africa, wasn’t as good as Panarottis. The cocktails on the islands re the best! Went shopping until about 6pm when the shops close. Didn’t buy anything, a bit stingy cos I haven’t been paid yet.
The island is known as the Electronics and Jeweler Island, those are the only shops you can find, except for a few designer stores that charge about $400 for a handbag and $280 for a skirt. All the shops are down one long street and there are 2 casinos on the side of the road, very weird.
There is a Dutch side and a French side, I loved the Dutch side, all the restaurants are Dutch, I even found a delft shop.
Amy and I went to have dinner at the most gorgeous restaurant called The Greenhouse. The give discount to crew members, fantastic (I’m still converting $ to Rand)
Got back to the ship at 10pm, we sailed at 1am.