Here I am currently sitting in a restaurant called Chef's Pride in Sakina, this means I arrived here in Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania safe and sound.
My journey here can best be described as very long and very tiresome. I left my mamma's house on May 10th at 6:15AM. My flight from Winnipeg to Toronto left at 9AM. I landed in Toronto 2.5 hours later, from there I endured a painstakingly boring 5.5hour layover. The journey was then continued with a 7.5 hour flight to Amsterdam. My layover here was only 3.5 hours long-so I used it to explore. Amsterdam International "Schipol" is the best airport I've ever been in! It is very well designed and has so many things to do. IO soptted in internet cafe, walked through a mini museum, and took a peek in the library. We eventually went through securtiy where they had the coolest body scanner. It looked like a huge vertical plastic tube that you stepped in and put your arms above your head, then a big magnetic arm would swing all around you taking a 360 degree x-ray exxentially. Then I got good and fondled because of the underwire in my bra, oh the joys of airport security!
Anyways when we were waiting they told us there would be an hour delay because we needed a different plane, as something had happened to the one originally scheduled for us. The last and final flight of the day was approximately another 10.5 hours. All in all it was was about 20.5 hours flying time and 10 hours of layovers. Also I never got to sit in a window seat the whole time :( and maybe only 4 hours of sleep all together. If you're ever planning on flying to Africa I highly recommend either getting the shortest layovers possible or more ideally taking a day or two in each spot so you can explore those cities too, and get some real sleep.
I knew I was in Africa the minute I stepped off the place and a wall of humidity hit me literally at the same time as 1 of the hundreds of large grasshopper type things that were in the connection tunnel landed on my arm! Getting my visa was simple enough, and a huge sense of relief cam over me as soon as I saw my bag on the other side, because I'd been slightly paranoid that it was going to get lost the entire journey, because of the mixture of 3 flights through 2 different airlines, and 4 different airports as we technically made a stop in the Kilimanjaro airport, before getting off in Dar. Either was kudos to all of the people who handle all the airport baggage, I totally appreciate you! :) My volunteer coordinator had arranged for a taxi driver to be waiting for me at the airport, so he picked me up and took me to my hostel.
So 34 hours from the time I left my mamma's house I arrived at Econolodge in Dar Es Salaam! The room is a double but I only have to pay for a single. It is very no frills but it does the job. There is running water and even hot water though when you shower it kind of feels like what I can only imagine being peed on would feel like, as the water pressure is rather null. The area it is in looks rather sketchy, mostly because you have to go down a poorly lit alley to get to the front entrance - I have had no problems so far though! I am hoping to keep it that way! However they do warn you about not taking any valuables with you anywhere because muggings do occur commonly in that area. The rooms cost 20,000 shillings for a single with a fan (12-14 CND) and I will be here until Sunday, so for 4 nights! This concludes my write up for now, I will write about my first few days in Dar in another post!
Cheers for now! :)
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