Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Bermuda 2016 Day 1: Welcome Dinner

5/21/2016-5/22/2016
Bermuda 2016 Day 1: Welcome Dinner

And off we went to Bermuda! This was a similar trip to the Scotland trip last year, an amazing bonus trip from Michal's work. She invited lucky me again this year, and it was so exciting to go to Bermuda for the first time.

First stop was Toronto though, and we stayed over with Michal's parents -- I was HUGELY surprised with a magnificent Rainbow Sherbet Baskin Robbins Ice Cream Cake, and also an amazing Toronto Blue Jays shirt!! So, so fun.


We stayed overnight in Toronto and the next day headed out. Thanks to my Star Alliance Gold (still got it for this year, yay!) we got to go into the Air Canada Lounge for a nice breakfast before heading off on the flight to Bermuda.



Bermudians are very proud of their pink-coloured sand, so pink is a colour you see reasonably often there, among many other brightly-coloured clothes, homes, etc! To start, we had a bright pink van pick us up :) After some welcome snacks, we checked into our room to find some awesome welcome amenities and soaps with our names on them, like we had at our wedding! The room was gorgeous and the sheets and decor matching the vibrant island colours.








After settling in a bit, we headed out on a short boat cruise across the bay and to the other end of the island, where we were greeted by none other than the official town (country?) crier of Bermuda, and a train to drive us up to the National Museum of Bermuda for dinner.







By this time, our hosts were so epic that I had already tried BOTH of the classic Bermuda drinks: the Rum Swizzle and the Dark & Stormy -- the first being a very tasty fruit-punch-based rum cocktail and the other being rum mixed with ginger beer. The rum here tends to always be the Island's pride-and-joy, Gosling's Black Seal Rum, which has a fun seal (the animal) on the front. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Rum Swizzle was an instant favourite for me and I became a fan for the rest of the trip. Also, it has a great name. Swizzle!

A national band amazingly welcomed us to Bermuda and we headed upstairs for an amazing sit-down dinner featuring some of the island favourites. I ordered this "Bermuda Fish" dish -- the fish was very substantial! Not like a normal fish you would get that is flaky and thin, this was a very hefty fish and was more like a steak. Fun to try something new, of course!








We ended the evening with a talk about the history of Bermuda and checking out the artistry painted inside the walls of the building we had dinner in, and then got to meet the artist that painted this mural, and pick out a print of his work to take home! Amazing. What a welcome! Also: chocolate fountain. Win.



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