Grace's Travel Blog: Change of Plans

I called my friend Stef Friday to see if I could come up that night to her house in the Blue Mountains and take a hike in the woods. “You see,” I explained, “I was suppose to go hike the Blue Mountain peak with a group of strangers, but they were 3 and a half hours late picking me up and also… unbeknownst to me they were also a group of 16 year old dancehall boys who were pathetically attempting to hit on me. So… I canceled and now I have nothing to do.”
She told me, “Sure! Come on up, it will be great to have you! We can hang out and go walk around in the woods all weekend. But there is one problem. I sprained my ankle two days ago-- But it’s not a big deal, come on up anyway!”

So, this little angel invites me into her home on short notice AND proceeds to take me on a 9 mile hike the next day in the Blue Mountains with her gimpy leg and all. Seriously, she’s a peach. The whole trip was perfection, starting with dinner at Chilitoes Friday night and ending with hopping in the back of the last pickup leaving Papine and watching the stars, the full moon, and the city lights of Kingston as we drove the windy road up into the mountains. We woke up the next morning at 5 and hiked up to Flagsted, enjoyed the sunrise cascading over the misty top of Blue Mountain peak, and returned to her place to eat, sunbathe, read, and watch movies for the rest of the weekend. So. Nice.

Stef is one of those amazing women you meet in life who are crazy-brilliant, humble, kind, positive, funny, and laid back. I can talk to her about anything, from philosophy of mind to family to Family Guy to love to cooking to ANYTHING! It was nothing short of wonderful spending time with her and getting back into nature where I feel I belong.

Highlights of the week:
-Spontaneous road trips and the freedom to hop on any crowded taxi or bus and just so somewhere, anywhere.
-Rewatching Monty Python's Holy Grail for the first time in many years... oh man.
-Reading books and thoughtfully discussing them with Stef. How often do we get to do that after reading really good books? Not often enough!
-Visiting Sovereign Mall in Kingston (the "big mall") and finding that it's just a big plaza with nothing in it but 5 or 6 of the same gift shop, a jewlery store specializing in cubic zirconia, and a shabby clothing store called "Di Gap." Jamaican version of the popular chain? Hmmmmmmm. Maybe!
-Getting through sevral emotionally intense and draining days without imploding. Miracle.
-Reading Mom's Thanksgiving card:-) Thanks, Mommy dearest.
-Having a young man on the street tell me, "I see that you're wearing a bandana. I'm also wearing a bandana!... but I'm in a gang." "Oh, that's lovely," I said. And as I'm walking away his friend pulls the best/worst pick up line I've ever heard: "Keep shoppin we yuh been shoppin, gyal. Yuh clothes fit yuh jos rait. Yuh look SO GUD! YES MON!" Keep in mind that I was wearing baggy jeans and an old t-shirt. So according to him I need to keep shopping at Goodwill.
-Baking deformed gingerbread men for my friends and neighbors for Christmas!

Here’s some pictures:

Walking the trail

A sign written by a coffee farmer to the jerk who is stealing his crop."Woe be unto you," it says, "Ye stop me bread! A begga ye wan me fi turn?" Meaning, "You are making me poor! Do you want me to become a begger?" It goes on to say that if he finds out who is stealing the beans he's going to publicly humiliate them (" Mi lif up ye skirt"). Whoa.