Twelve Black Code Monkeys

I forgot about this trip to The Bahamas, which was really my first to another country, possibly because I always thought of these islands as a colony or protectorate or something. As it turns out they were actually given their independence from the UK back in 1973, only about 6 years before I visited Nassau.

When I was 10 or 11, my mom was working as a copywriter for an advertising agency – I think it was Leber Katz. They had just gotten a new account with Holland American Cruise Lines and everyone in the agency had a chance to get a highly discounted fare on one of their cruises. My mom jumped at the chance. It was my first time on a cruise and so far the only one.

We went in April and it was pretty cold and overcast almost the whole way down from New York City to the Bahamas. The second or third day we were there I came down with a bad cold and had to miss out on the big luwow on the beach. I subsequently spent most of the rest of the cruise in our cabin, and also missed out on the big finale dinner on the ship, although I remember my mom bringing back some baked Alaska and lobster.

Of Nassau I don’t remember much. I think we took a small excursion one day in a glass-bottom boat to a smaller island off of Nassau called “Fantasy Island” although we didn’t meet Tattoo or Mr. Roark. We did have a meal at a place along the beach and hung out on one of the beaches. I also remember lots of people selling trinkets and that we bought a few of these, including some necklaces and straw hats.

I don’t think Nassau had a big impression on me at the time. Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t really remember being all that impressed. After all, we did not really go into the town, try to meet or talk to natives, etc. We just hung out at the tourist spots, and to boot I was only there on that one day I think.

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When I was 22 or 23, I helped my friend Pete move from Detroit back home to Road Island. Really I was just along for the ride since at the time hadn’t yet learned to drive. Possibly I loaded some things in van or car, but really I can’t recall much aside from the fact that we drove through Canada to get to Detroit by way of Buffalo.

The only real time we spent in Canada was in Windsor the night we arrived and the only place we went to in Windsor was a strip club. Despite growing up in New York City and passing the seedy (at that time) Times Square area every day on the bus to and from school, I had never actually been to a strip club per se. It was quite an odd experience and in the perhaps three times I’ve been to one since (mainly bachelor parties), they still seem very odd places. The last time I went it was more interesting just listening to some of the off-duty strippers talk to a manager who was eating dinner at a table next to ours then it was watching the mechanical movements and plastic perfection and vacant 100-yard stares of the women on stage.

But I digress. I am sure Canada has much to offer and when I was in Seattle last year with my fiancee we almost got to Victoria, but then found out that one must actually make reservations quite a ways in advance. Next time we will definitely be more careful about that! Considering my love of traveling to foreing places, I wonder why I haven’t gone to Canada more than this once, since Toronto is only a little over an 8 hour drive and I suppose even less by train, and Montreal just a bit further…

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This was the first country outside of the U.S. I traveled to. I was 14 and went there with my mom and sister. We went to Puerta Vallarta. Initially we went to a tiny motel that was very rank. My mom decided it was unacceptable and we headed off to a Hilton or something similar – a big nice hotel where we spent the rest of the week. I don’t remember a whole lot other than having lots of meals out and looking in shops and buying a few things made out of stone. Probably one of the most memorable parts of the trip was when we took a bus trip into the country to a restaurant that was right next to a place that sold odd-shaped drinking glasses and probably other artwork. We ate on a terrace overlooking a creak and dined in the company of tiny lizards on the nearby fauna. We ate fresh crayfish – I’ve never had better crayfish since. I wish I could remember where this place was and what it was called, but this was about 20 years ago!

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I’ve always loved the idea of traveling to new places, but this unfortunately hasn’t translated into reality as much as I’d like. I really like travel narrative and if I had the money and the time I would do a lot more traveling myself. I have, though, gotten to at least some nice places, so I thought I’d just go ahead and write down as many as I could think of as an exercise of travel narrative. I would of course love to actually get paid to go all over the world and write travel books, but somehow I don’t think that’s very likely. Actually, I got this idea from another blogger, Blogging Burt, who’s just linked some of the places they’ve been, but I thought it would be cool to elaborate a little. I will start shortly with the countries I’ve visited outside my home in the United States.

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It was way back in the Spring of 1992. I was working for CIEE (Counsel for International Educational Exchange) at the time, as the Program Assistant or East European and Russian Programs. CIEE was kind enough to send me to visit their programs in Budapest and Prague as I was going to visit my sister who was studying in Scotland at the time anyway. I took the train from Budapest to Prague and decided to buy some snack in case I got hungry during the trip. I didn’t know Hungarian and I guess I just picked something in a can that looked like it might be meat or fish. At some point I got really hungry and opened the can. I think it was fairly dark, but I just remember what I at was white-ish and tasted kind of like fishy pate. I had no clue what it was, but it tasted really good to me.

Since then I remembered this once in a great while and wondered what the hell I ate. I hoped it wasn’t something really horrible! I would always peruse the isles of international food stores or gourmet food stores looking for something canned and unrecognizable that I could try. This went on for over ten years.

Today, my search ended! I happened across this international food store/restaurant/bakery in Alexandria very close to where I work. I would never have known this place existed if not for the post office right next to it being the closest to my office. I went in and was overcome by the amazing selections of products. The store is simply called “Mediterranean Bakery” but they have a website that’s called EastWestMart.com. I have not really looked at this site, but they take online orders. The prices in the store, in any case, were very reasonable, especially for international stuff, which is often priced in the stratosphere!

I came across this container among the scores of different ones they had there labeled simply Roland Smoked Cod Liver. This looked very promising! I mean, there was no picture, but this sounded like it was the closest to whatever I thought I had eaten back then. When I got home, I popped it open. It was indeed kind of white-ish non-descript blobs of stuff. Well, of liver, I guess! I crossed my fingers, got ready to spit it out if it was too vile, and took a piece. Yes! I had found it!

For those who haven’t tried this and aren’t squeamish about trying new things, or have a dislike for fish or things with unusual textures, I do highly recommend you give this stuff a shot. It kind of has the smokey taste of a sardine, but it is actually less “fishy” then that. It is more mild somehow. The consistency is very smooth, kind of like pate, but even more so. Like it is almost in a state between solid and liquid.

There’s been a lot of new attention put on cod liver oil in the last 5-10 years due to it’s Omega-3 content and the health benefits linked to that. So I am assuming a similar benefit from eating the liver itself! Unfortunately the can doesn’t have any nutritional information, only ingredients (cold liver, salt). I am assuming it is mostly fat (lots of Omega-3), some carbs since it’s an organ “meat” and some protein. But I have no clue how much of each. All I know is that it was a great treat that took me back down memory lane in a direction I thought I might never have found again!

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