Barbados

Map

February 15, 2008

A former British colony.

This little island in the Caribbean.

Formerly a promising sugar cane plantation. Like in Antigua, you can still find remnants of old sugar mills. Very little sugar is produced here today.

Everything outside the capital is just one big village.

Sometimes it’s hard to believe you’re actually in Barbados.

Some British things still remain, such as the striped posts with globe lamps at pedestrian crossings.

And the post boxes with the Queen’s royal cypher.

The traffic lights are already American.

The country’s own things include its directional road signs.

Its trash cans.

And the typically Barbadian bus stop signs for buses that go outside the city. On the way out of the city:

And on the way into the city:

Windows can have three panels.

Or many panels.

Building corners are often fortified with decommissioned cannon barrels.

The utility pole serves as an intersection for power lines going in two different directions.

School uniforms are mandatory for all schoolchildren. Different schools might have different uniform styles, but the important part is their sameness.

A curious fact: the colors of the Barbadian flag are yellow and blue, and its emblem is the trident—just like Ukraine’s.

* * *

Turns out, a Concorde airliner used to fly here. Since you can’t fly them anymore, one of the jets was given an honorary final resting place inside a specially built hangar right at the airport. You can watch a multimedia show projected onto its fuselage (the show is quite impressive, especially given that the plane is stationary).

You can also go inside the cabin, sit in the seats and marvel at the cramped, uncomfortable and joyless experience of a supersonic flight. Turns out, passengers were only allowed to bring 12 kilos of luggage, and only as carry-on. In other words, your suitcase had to fly separately. And all this for the chance to be seated next to Pavarotti and nibble on a caviar canapé. A ticket cost about $15,000 in today’s dollars, while the bathroom is just as tiny as on a Tu-134.