Caribbean Spirit on Paradise Island/Bahamas...

...As announced earlier, I realized one of my long dreams last week. Together with David, a friend from Austria who also does an exchange term here in New York, we went for six (6) nights to the Bahamas.
We started our trip, last Thursday early in the morning and we took our jetBlue flight from JFK to Nassau. It's pretty nice, because the flight takes only 3 hours what is not too long. We arrived therefore in Nassau at around 10 in the morning and took directly a cab to our very nice Hotel on Paradise Island - RIU Paradise Island Resort. For some reasons, we got an unbelievable all-inclusive deal for this hotel. Normally I'm not a big all-inclusive fan, but this one was very nice - delicious food, good drinks, wonderful beach access and the club was also full of funny people...
Whenever you plan to go to the Nassau area for vacation, book a hotel on Paradise Island. It's a really beautiful island and the sea is nicer in comparison to Nassau. Another advantage is that you are closer to the Atlantis Paradise Island - the Vegas style hotel with a Casino in it. I have seen already many different and also amazing hotels like the crazy ones in Dubai (Burj Al Arab, Jumeirah Beach Hotel, etc.), but I've never seen something like the Atlantis before. Maybe the new Atlantis on the Palm in Dubai can compete against this one :-)

For all James Bond fans:
- James Bond film Thunderball was partially filmed on Paradise Island.
- Casino Royale was filmed at the Ocean Club on Paradise Island.

Our nice room, with Ocean view:
Mr. Atlantis:
Main towers of the Atlantis:
Atlantis from the bridge to Paradise Island:
Shark pool at the Atlantis:
The palm and me - beach of the Ocean club:
One of the wonderful sunsets - we had it every evening - really amazing:
During the days, we've spent most of the time at the pool or at the beach. In the evenings we always had a very nice dinner
and then we were hanging out at the hotel bar with our friends and afterwards we went to go out in downtown Nassau (Senior Frogs) or we went to the Atlantis like the Aura club or Dragons.

Downtown impressions:
On Monday we made a boat cruise where we did:
- Boat cruise: We were cruising through the harbor in Nassau and also next to Paradise Island were we could see all the "small" houses of the rich like a Saudi Sheikh, Tiger Woods, Steven Seagal, etc...
- Snorkeling: It was one of the best things I did so far in my life. I really felt like I'm part of a movie, because we were swimming through swarms of fish. The water was clear and blue, and the fish were reflecting amazing colors...just great!!!
- Jet Ski: Sure we did also jet ski rides. We got pretty good ones and it was fun racing over the nice sea ;)
- Para Sailing: First time, I did it. Unfortunately I did not have my camera with me because the view over the Nassau and Paradise Island was really nice.

And some some going out impressions :-)

Senior Frogs/Nassau:
Senior Frogs/Nassau: Bahamas connection - David and me:
Aura/Atlantis:
At Dragons/Atlantis: Our two nice friends from the hotel (David, Daman, Karin and me):
At Aura/Atlantis: David and two other friends from Toronto (Ash and Krysta) - everybody was from New York or Toronto :-)
At Aura/Atlantis: Felix, David, don't know ;), Remy and me:
I have so many more nice pictures, but I could not upload all of them. Anyway once I'm back in Austria I will show you all of them
...
and last but not least
...
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everybody...

Christmas Time in the City...

...Christmas evening is coming closer and closer and therefore you can see it everywhere. Actually it really started the day after Thanksgiving as well as the famous Holiday Season with the Black Friday (the shopping day after Thanksgiving).

It's also very interesting, where the term Black Friday comes from:
"The term "Black Friday" originated in Philadelphia in reference to the heavy traffic on that day. More recently, merchants and the media have used it instead to refer to the beginning of the period in which retailers go from being in the red to being in the black. (i.e., turning a profit)."
(Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Friday_(shopping), December 13th, 2008)

Some impressions from the city:

After finalizing my classes and before it's getting too cold in the city I will have some days off and therefore time to fly to the Bahamas and get some sun.

Nassau and Paradise Island I'm coming - it will be awesome!

(Source: http://maps.google.com/maps?hl=en&pwst=1&resnum=0&q=the%20bahamas%2C%20nassau%2C&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wl, December 13th, 2008)