Spring Breakers

What would a traditional American college experience be if it didn’t include Spring Break? Despite all the incredibly ‘American’ things I’ve experienced – homecoming, football games, tailgates and protests, Spring Break was always something I’ve wanted to check off the American Dream bucket list.  So, with limited funds ( a year abroad is much more experience than you can anticipate) and a desperate desire to see the sea again my friend Jess, Ellen and I booked plane tickets to Miami and didn’t look back. 

On Sunday afternoon we left cold, snowy New York behind and hopped on a plane to the sunshine state.  It turned out  the Florida bi-line ‘sunshine state’ was a bit of an exaggeration because when we touched in Miami three hours later it was raining. 

It was still a bit drizzly on Monday morning when we woke up, yet we didn’t want the weather to get in the way of our holiday. Instead of going to the beach we explored the Wynwood Art District and the Perez Art Museum a few minutes walk from downtown Miami.  

Taking a photo of someone taking a photo

 

By Tuesday the weather still wasn’t great – it was warm but still cloudy.  In spite of this we took the bus from downtown Miami to South Beach and visited the Holocaust Memorial which was very eye opening and moving.  

All of a sudden the clouds parted and we headed towards the beach.  We only lay on the beach for about an hour and a half but it was enough time for all of us to go bright red without sunscreen or hats. 

The rest of the week, from Wednesday to Friday was spent at the beach – reading, eating and swimming in the clear Atlantic waters.  Although we didn’t really get involved in the Spring Break activities happening on the beach – what you see in the movies happens in real life ! A whole section of South Beach had become the unofficial spring break section and it was throbbing with people drinking, dancing and partying.  People headed to the beach at midday – got drunk, got sunburnt and then headed home at about 5 o’clock to start drinking again and head to the clubs. 

The police were everywhere – constantly blaring up and down the beach. 

South beach at sunset

Because all of us are tight on money at the moment after traveling and living in America for six months we tried to be very frugal with our money – cooking our own meals, making sandwiches to bring to the beach and using public transport.  However, on our final night in Miami we decided to splurge and went out for dinner at South Beach at a Cuban restaurant called Yuca.  This restaurant, was really just named after it’s principle dish and the most important ingredient in Cuban cuisine – Yuca, a kind of starchy potato.  I had a delicious yucca croquette with spinach and mushrooms and even better, they even served us alcohol without all of us having ID’s !

The sun set on our (not so wild spring break) as we sipped mojito’s in the late afternoon sun and enjoyed our last meal in the sunshine for a while.