Postcard from the Bahamas – No luggage yet, but lots of help

NASSAU, Bahamas – When all else fails, ask a local.

A taxi driver named Brenda who listened as I explained my situation on Thursday morning – my luggage was somewhere between Buffalo and Nassau (maybe at Buffalo Niagara International Airport? Maybe at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport?) – and a local women’s clothing retailer in Nearby recommended beaten path in Nassau.

I don’t normally go off the beaten path in a foreign country, but when I offered to pay for the taxi fare when we arrived, she told me, “Go in and I’ll wait for you, and I win.” We’ll only charge you then Something when we get back to your hotel.”

When I walked in, the women in the store immediately looked me over and grabbed the essentials… and almost everything fit! When I got back in the taxi, I asked Brenda where I could get sandals.

“Right across the street. If you do business here, you need sturdy shoes. I will wait for you. No extra charge.”

Ten minutes later I walked out with a new pair of work boots and Brenda took me back through town – an adventure at all, driving as a passenger through the narrow streets of the Bahamas, on the left side of the road!

I found it exciting to take a taxi around Rome. Nassau is just the place for the thrill.

Delta Airlines is still going strong.

As for driving in Nassau…

If you want to know how to drive in the Bahamas, here’s a tip: don’t do it.

Take a taxi wherever you go – you may be safer with someone else behind the wheel. Otherwise, you’re part of a free-for-all that makes I-90 look even more like a parking lot at rush hour.

Motorists in the Bahamas drive on the left, similar to the United Kingdom. The Bahamas was a British crown colony until 1973. It is a young country. But as you stroll the streets of Nassau and New Providence, Nassau’s home island, you’ll catch glimpses of remnants of British rule, such as a cricket complex down the street from Junkanoo Beach; The complex is part of the Bahamas Cricket Club.

The Bahamas also celebrate their African and Caribbean roots. Bay Street, the main street through downtown Nassau, is still being demolished in the days after Junkanoo – the period between December 26 and New Year’s Eve when Bahamians celebrate their Afro-Caribbean roots and freedom; Slavery occurred in the Bahamas and other British colonies (including the United States).

There are parades, floats and lots of parties. There’s also plenty of leftover confetti, metal stands being dismantled, and empty beer bottles covering the sidewalks the day after Junkanoo ends. The roar of leaf blowers and garbage trucks was almost as frightening as the sound of cruise ship horns and car horns along Bay Street. After all, the streets are free for everyone!

The Bahamas Bowl will be televised on ESPN2 on Saturday.

There aren’t many reasons to watch TV here – who wants to be indoors when it’s 22 degrees and sunny? But a quick look at the channels in a foreign country made me curious – and reminded me of Rusty Griswold’s complaint in National Lampoon’s “European Vacation” (available on streaming, it’s an American cinema classic) about British television in the London hotel , where the Griswolds lived: “We only have four channels and no MTV!”

There’s no MTV here – but there are plenty of channels, including BBC, France’s TV5, Italy’s RAI, California’s KTLA and, yes, ESPN and ESPN2.

But first, a dance-off between Liberty and UB on Thursday afternoon at Atlantis. It won’t be on TV.