I liked Martinique immediately upon arriving because of the architecture of its biggest city, Fort-de-France. To me, roaming the streets of a new place can be incredibly exciting. Photos of architecture lurk at every corner. And I enjoyed my time in Fort-de-France a lot, taking pictures of the streets. They have lots of old and new buildings standing side by side next to each other, a wild mix of geometries. The city stretches up onto a bunch of small hills near the coast, and from up there, you can have a great view of the city and the ocean. It is beautiful.
I like the little details with plants and small stairways, the back alleys, the non-touristy places, connecting the streets on the different levels along the hill. At night, this place is a bit scary because there are no street lights, but during the day, it is absolutely adorable. There are also a bunch of beautiful old churches strewn around the city center near the harbor that I enjoyed visiting.
And then there is the Schoelcher Library. What a beautiful place: an old building with a very colorful, strikingly detailed, and whimsical facade. When I first saw it at night, I couldn't quite believe my eyes because this was such a beautiful, quaint, old, and yet somehow playful building. It looked a bit like the house of an old, slightly mad wizard or something straight out of Studio Ghibli or Lord of the Rings. This feeling only intensified when I saw it again the next day with all its colors.
Please ignore the European flag to get the Ghibli vibe, haha ^^
In the streets of Fort-de-France, there are more modern buildings, too, with more glass and concrete and sharp angles and corners. I like to go around cities and simply admire the local architecture, and I found Fort-de-France to be quite beautiful in this regard. The new reflects the old. It has something poetic about it, doesn't it?
I only stayed in Fort-de-France for one night, but before leaving early in the morning, I met Christina again, who I knew from Tikazalou hostel in Guadeloupe. It was tremendous fun to reconnect, even if only for a little while before she had to hop onto her ferry.
Upon leaving Fort-de-France a little while later, I took the bus out of the city and, from there, started to hitchhike for a small town further in the East of Martinique, that is also known as La Trinité.
Near Trinité is a popular surf spot called Le Plage du Tartané and another one called Plage des Surfeurs, and that was exactly where I was headed. The view from the hostel in La Trinité was amazing!
The only problem was that the main beach for surfing was quite far away and that the surf schools renting out the boards near the beach would all close at very early times already, and without a car, it would be nearly impossible to take the board back to the hostel, which meant that overall I didn't have a lot of time to go surfing at all. It was sort of a nuisance to get to the beach by hitchhiking and back and then not spend all that much time surfing. That made me somewhat sad, but it is what it is.
At least I got a few good long-exposure pictures of the waves washing on the shores, creating beautiful shapes.
The sunset mood from the Plage du Surfeurs was also extremely enjoyable. Shades of orange and dark blue rain clouds. I love this type of contrast because it intensifies the colors of the sun.
All in all, I ended up spending a couple of days near La Trinité because of the rain. I was relaxing and enjoying the thunderstorms from the safety of my little hostel bed, peeking outside from the warmth and comfort of my blanket–staying indoors all day. I didn't want to have to wait outside for cars to pass by to give me a lift in this weather with all my stuff.
But eventually, the skies cleared up, and I could move on to different adventures for my last few days in Martinique.
Sadly, I wouldn't have time to see everything the island has to offer, so I had to make some choices and limited myself mainly to the Northern parts of the island to minimize travel times.