Weekend in Dar es Salaam

I just realized it has been almost a month since I last blogged! So here is long one of what I did last weekend. (I will try to do a catch up blog this weekend).

I had a great weekend in Dar!! And man did I need that! It felt so good to get out and do a little shopping (I browsed more than I bought) and to have lots of laughs, good food and go dancing with friends! :)

We spent the 1^st night at the Southern Sun. Nice hotel and it was nice to be in more classy joint for one night. Then spent the last 2 nights at Onnela’s which is very basic and clean but much cheaper.

We left Iringa bright and early Friday morning (5:30am!). Amazingly none of us really slept on the way. All of us girls dozed off for a few minutes once or twice, but that was it. There was myself, Kerrie (Brit/Tz), Janneke (Dutch), Maria (Finnish) and George (Greek/Dance teacher). We stopped at Mikumi to have breakfast in the park overlooking a water hole. There were elephants and water buffalo nearby. Amazing that we can pop in somewhere for a bit to eat and be able to watch animals and look at the beautiful Tanzanian scenery.

We arrived in Dar around 2pm and went along with George to do his cheese deliveries. He was going to drop us at the hotel first but we told him not to because than he would get stuck in traffic and it would take him forever to do his deliveries and get back to the hotel. It was fun because we were than able to go  for lunch together and checked out a couple shops along the way. We got to the hotel after 4pm and the first thing Kerrie and I did was went for a swim!

I forgot how much I enjoy swimming until I got in that pool. It was a little weird though because the hotel lounge bar overlooked the pool and there were small groups of Tanzanians there. They were definitely watching us, but whatever! Kerrie and I had a great talk. We have already planned that she will come to Canada to visit some day and we are going to check out Montreal together (and whats funny is that the English chick speaks French and the Canadian chick can't! lol).

After swimming we got ready and went down for drink and then we went to BBQ Village (somewhere off the New Bagamoyo Road) for the best seafood dinner I have ever had. After dinner we went to the Yacht Club was some of George's friends and cousins were. Around 1am we headed to Runway, a local club. We only stayed for an hour or so, but it was fun to go to an ‘upscale’ club here, dance a little and laugh at Kerrie getting hit on by Jerry, George’s really drunk friend. I wish I had a picture of her face, it was priceless.

We had a great breakfast at the hotel (which was included). I had my 1^st omelet since I can’t remember when! We than headed out and did some wandering around the shops and eventually made it to Onnela’s. We went for a swim and then Kerrie and I had a nap before getting ready to go out for dinner. We went to BBQ Village again. It was so good the first time we wanted more! And besides, there is no point going somewhere else and being disappointed. Also, it was really cheap. Only 20,000 Tzs per person (~ $15). After another yummy dinner of seafood we headed to the Sweet Easy (in Oyster Bay area) where the salsa night was being held. Unfortunately the DJ kinda sucked and kept switching from Latin music to old house music. And some of the Latin music he played really sucked. But we still had a lot of fun and did lots of dancing!

We did not stay out late and when we got back to the hotel Kerrie and I were both sick, especially Kerrie. We still don’t know if it was food poisoning or if we ate too much before going dancing. But we did sleep well and felt better in the morning. It was nice to sleep in again! We went for lunch at Epidor's which has to have the best baking I have ever had! Kerrie said it was just like being back in France again, so it must have been REALLY good! After lunch I went back to the hotel to hang around the pool by myself and the group went to a different hotel to hang out at the pool there. It was nice to have a few hours to myself, even if I slept for most of it! Hehehe

The crew picked me up for dinner around 6:30 and we went to a Japanese restaurant for sushi and udon noodles. It was also really good. It was the most expensive meal at 30,000 Tzs (~$20) which really is not that bad for fresh seafood.

For the first time this weekend we got to bed at a decent time. I think I was  sleeping by 11pm. We slept in as well and then headed over to the shops to get Kerrie’s new computer (a Mac laptop) and then had a few stops to make on the way out of town. We had a good trip back to Iringa and arrived at Rivervalley around 8:30pm (we would have been earlier but we got stuck in road construction). We had dinner and caught up with Will and Amanda before we all headed off to bed. Tuesday morning it was back to classes for me!

Here is a pic of the crew Friday night before going for dinner and dancing.

Janneke, Me, Kerrie, Maria and George