Adam (Sue’s friend) picked us up from our apartment on New
Years Eve and we spent the next two nights at his family’s beach house, which was gorgeous and they're all so nice! For New Years Eve, we went to Kendwa for a beach party. It’s
a really touristy area and there were an insane amount of people. There were
bars and dance floors everywhere playing different music and at midnight there
were fireworks. It was an awesome New Years, definitely something way different
than anything I would have done at home! Hopefully the kick start to a great
year.
Adam's beach houses pretty view
New Year's Beach Party with Adam's friend and Adam
With Chels and Adam's Sister
The next day we went to another beach for the day, it was really interesting cause there were resorts along the beach, but in between resorts there would be local homes and on the beach tourists were surrounded by locals, children, goats and fishermen. After that we went back to the beach house and jumped off the jetti into the sea. Salt water = burning eyes, but it was fun! And then we went into his pool and took a bunch of underwater pictures.
I'm a bully. He's too nice.
So asian.
Food wise the first couple days were pretty straight forward since we were eating at Adam’s place. We did eat Zanzibar bread, which was super tiny, like the size of a 9 inch sub. Since being back in Stonetown, we’ve walked around quite a bit trying to learn all the crazy inner roads and mazes. When I said I was bad at directions at home, that was an understatement… I still can’t figure out how to get home here. The town itself isn’t very big but there are so many inner streets that twist and curve everywhere, and cars and motorcycles and people on bikes are constantly speeding through! We went to the market both yesterday and today to buy basic things we would need around the house and some snacks. The market is soo busy, always packed with people everywhere. It reminded me of the markets in Hong Kong, but outside on the street. We tried jackfruit (fennesi) yesterday for the first time, it was sweet but very very sticky and stringy and it smells awful. For lunch yesterday we had delicious local food (birani, curry and naan), I think I could live off birani my whole trip here. It started pouring around 8pm and we weren’t sure if we would be able to go out for dinner, the streets were flooded! Good thing I had Pringles and chocolate biscuits I had brought from home to eat in the meantime, always have food on me…even in Zanzibar! But the rain stopped and the streets drained at about 9:30pm and we went to the Forodhani market, which is a night market and very well known in Stonetown. We had the Zanzibar pizza, which consists of a pastry outside, egg, meat, cheese, mayo and onions and then we had a dessert Zanzibar pizza. The dessert one was really good, it was sort of like a crepe but thicker and they put nutella, bananas, chunks of chocolate inside and then when it’s done they drizzle chocolate sauce on top, mmm I want one now thinking about it. We also had some beef skewers, delicious dinner overall. We hadn't brought our cameras out so I'll definitely take pictures next time.
We actually went to bed at a decent time (1am) for the first
time being here. We met up with Adam again today and went to buy more stuff at
the market and in town that we still hadn’t had a chance to pick up. On our way
there we stopped and had some madafu (juice from a not yet ripe coconut), it
was less sweet than I thought but refreshing! For lunch we went to eat a
Mercury’s Restaurant named after Freddie Mercury. The restaurant
is right next to the Ferry Port and looks out at the water. The food was good,
but the place was fairly expensive! It was definitely very touristy, I don’t
think there were any locals in there. We finally have some down time at home
and our internet is up and running smoothly! We’re on our own for the first
time tonight, so Chelsie and I will have to venture out into town and find a
place to eat. So far, we haven’t encountered anything to make us sick yet which
is a big relief. We’ve been approached a lot cause we look like tourists, but
no one has been extremely persistent. I definitely have been called “hong kong”
more than a few times, and even “japan”, haha no biggie though.
Madafus!
It is SO HOT here. I mean think hottest summer days in Canada (the Civic day long weekend this past summer) = everyday here in Zanzibar. It was 43 degrees out yesterday with the sun shining perhaps a little too much. I don’t think I have ever sweat so much in my life, not even when I do Insanity. I don’t think I will ever get used to the heat here. We’re drinking lots of water to keep hydrated but it actually feels like you’re melting when outside. Thank God we have AC in our apartment! Walking to and from the hospital everyday when we start work will be dreadful.
We finally met our landlord yesterday since we had been away
for a couple days. He is super friendly and helpful, answered all our questions
and seems to be around a lot which will be good in case we need anything. There
are roosters somewhere near our apartment and they are the most frustrating
things in the morning!
That’s pretty much a quick summary of everything that’s
happened our first couple days here!
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