My First Days In Africa

My first days in Africa I spent in Nairobi. I got there at about 10:30 but had to go through the visa line because naturally I don't actually live in Africa. After about half an hour in the visa line I got my three month visa. I need the three month visa because I was going to be there for a while and a traveler’s visa wouldn't have let me be there long enough. The drive back to the hotel was incredibly different than what I am used to. It seems to be more of a free-for-all when you drive - the only real rule being, try not to get killed and try not to kill anyone. After we got back to the hotel and put my bags up in the room we went down to the hotel restaurant because it was 11:30 on New Years Eve and here especially it is a big thing. We had a nice dinner and drink before we went up to bed. We were both really tired because we had both just gotten into Nairobi. My Aunt had been in Morocco and I had, of course, been flying from home. Then next day we slept in and then went out on a safari. The safari was a lot of fun even when we weren't seeing animals. The next day we spent shopping for Aki things. Akira is my new nephew....he's back in Arusha so I haven't met him yet. My Aunt has just adopted him from Tanzania about a month ago. The town she lives in in Tanzania is really small and there aren't baby stores there, so we had to do some shopping for him while we were in Nairobi. We got him a pack and play, a stroller, a seat that attaches to the table, and some clothes. This of course took all day to do because it is almost impossible to find baby things here as well. We also picked up some lawn chairs for ourselves. Although all that took all day it was a lot of fun while doing it. We went to some malls and some coffee shops. My Aunt kept telling me that Arusha was NOT going to be as nice as Nairobi so not to expect fancy coffee shops in Arusha....they just don't exist. When we got back to the hotel we chose to go for a swim in the pool, and man was it worth it. The pool was on the roof of the hotel and it was heated so even though it was a little chilly out it was very nice to swim. The next day we had to drive to Arusha. My Aunt got the stomach flu during the night so we had to drive with her really sick and pulling over every so often to be sick. It kinda sucked....but worse for her. Goodbye Nairobi and off to Arusha!