The New Year and Laura's Visit

I had a pretty great start to the New Year (now a month late, sorry!). I went to Jim's Restaurant - where Jim was hosting a buffet with drink specials and a DJ. We had a table of about 20 or 25, and somehow gained special seating out on the patio. The night was lovely - a little bit of rain, but it was about 70 degrees. I had a bad hair day, and 99.9% of the photos I was in turned out horrible. I blame the use of a new hairspray and the humidity caused by the rain. I'm never opposed to embarrassing photos - so here's the worst one of the night. Silly string. Silly Jen.

A few short days later my friend Laura came out to visit!! I planned the week down to the minute - unfortunately we both came down with the bit of food poisoning that kept us laid up for a full day, but it also allowed us to bond over British home and style television.

We traveled around the island, from north to south. Here are some of the sights we saw:

The tree of life. Impossible to find (exit Isa Airbase and head north for about a mile, it'll be on the left about 1/2 mi off the road in the dirt) and incredibly disappointing. Preservation; apparently it doesn't happen here. The tree's supposed to be about 400 years old or so, fed from an underground spring. Look at the lovely artwork people have left..

Quite sad.



Then there was the Bahrain Cultural Museum (located near the Marina Club, against the bay on the northeastern side of the island). I recommend going if you're ever out ($1.5, about 0.5BD). It's broken into sections that define Bahrain's history and culture. Some of the artifacts are recovered from digs, a lot of it is recreated, but it's a chance to look at a culture you don't normally read about in history text books.



Then there was the Bahrain (aka Portuguese) Fort (located near the Seef Mall, up against the water). It's been rebuilt, and there's a lovely white-walled museum that now displays the history and artifacts. It only cost about $3 (1BD) to get in, and you could spend all day walking the grounds and enjoying the ocean breeze (assuming the weather isn't too hot). The museum sells coffee and there's a nice outdoor sitting area. You can sit here and watch the sunset and the fort light up.

We also drove out to the Saudi Causeway. It's two small identical islands linking Saudi Arabia to Bahrain. Identical, as in there were Mc Donald's on either side. They have towers you can take up to the top and, on clear days, see the Saudi mainland. ... not the day we went. But it was still neat. We're not allowed to travel into Saudi unless it's on official business. I doubt that'll ever happen for me, so this is as close as I'll ever get (which I think my dad will be happy with).

There were other events - dinners, drinks, brunch, malls, and lots of chit-chatting. I miss my little Laura, but hopefully we'll be seeing each other again very very soon!