Well, as our last hurrah in Barbados Tom and I decided to participate in the infamous Oistens’ Friday Night Fish Fry. Oistens is small fishing port town on the Southeastern side of Barbados that has become famous on the island for their Friday night fish fries. It is a weekly event and locals and tourists alike make their way to the five block long strip of small food kiosks to party!!!  They serve everything from snapper to lobster and from chicken to ribs.

Tom and I had walked to Oistens several days before. We really hadn’t planned to go that far (9K roundtrip) but kind of got in the groove. Anyway, once we got there we were pretty hot and tired and needed to use the restroom. We stopped at a gas station call Tigerville and used the facilities then sat at a small table to cool down. The owner, Carlton, came to ask us if we wanted anything and we told him that we hadn’t brought any money with us but just wanted to cool down a bit if it was okay. He was very gracious and told us it was fine to sit and then brought us cold water. The three of us sat and talked for 45 min. – 1 hour and had a lovely conversation. During the discussion he let us know where the fish fry festivities take place, the best time to get there, and the best place to eat – Debbie’s. We thanked him profusely and bid him ado to start on our journey home.

On Friday evening at the assigned time, we caught a Zed R and made our way to Oistens listening to Christmas Carols on the radio (with temperatures in the 80s – 90s it’s hard to believe that it’s almost Christmas).

We arrived just before the crowd and found Debbie’s grill.

The red snapper was recommended and Banks (the local beer) was on sale 3 for $10 so that’s what we did. The meal was huge and came with breadfruit chips and macaroni salad – delicious!

A DJ was playing Christmas music that was played on speakers up and down the strip. We sat at long tables with others who had come to experience the tradition and ended up chatting about this and that. Then after a while we left to wander the area and absorb the atmosphere of Fish Fry Friday.

We finally made our way home by Yellow bus this time and fell exhausted into bed – the end to another fun day.

Charli