Ahh...the Indian Ocean...
So, this past weekend I went to Dar es Salaam with Mary. She had initially planned the trip because it was her neice's 4th birthday and was gracious enough to invite me to come along. I was really excited to check out a new place and the change of scenery from Arusha was nice. Dar is pretty typical of most large cities - lots of high rise buildings with cars and people everywhere. It was really strange to be back in the depths of "civilization" after being in the quiet, lazy atmosphere of Arusha for the past 2 weeks.
Susan, another of my co-workers took me for sushi at the Oriental Restaurant in the Kempinski Hotel. It was amazing how great the food was (even sushi in the U.S. is hit-or-miss sometimes) and even something so simple as using chopsticks was the most comforting thing. After a great dinner we went to Level 8, the bar (wait for it...) on the 8th floor of the hotel. It was your typical hotel bar/club filled with people dressed to the nines. We had a couple drinks then Susan drove me back to my hotel (since she had to catch the last ferry back to her place).
Saturday Mary picked me up and took me to her sister Jenny's house for her neice's birthday party. It was the typical birthday party for a 4-year-old little girl...balloons, sweets, princess cake, the whole bit. I got the chance to meet a lot of Mary's family & friends and we really had a blast (considering it was a birthday party for a 4-year-old little girl). After the party, we all decided to get ready and make plans to head out for the night.
We started the evening a place called the Irish Pub. The only thing that made it a "pub" was the dark-paneled walls and the serving of beer. Other than that it was just your typical bar. =) After hanging out there for a couple hours we decided to head out dancing so we went to the local hot spot, Garden Bistro. It reminded me of something you would find on a tropical island - it was an "outdoor" location with giant tiki-style buildings comprising the main club. The music was awesome (a great of American & Tanzanian dance music) and the alcohol was definitely flowing. We partied until about 4:30am before heading back to the hotel.
Sunday I (gladly) slept in and was cursing the Gods that there wasn't a Taco Cabana in sight before finally struggling to get out of bed. We had a 4:00pm flight but I really wanted to go to the beach for a little while so we headed to Coco Beach for a couple hours. The beach itself was a little dirty (seaweed, trash, etc.) but the water was perfect and it was fun to splash around with the kiddos for a little while. Overall it was a great weekend. I had the best time & made a ton of new friends. Check out pics from the weekend!
Well, the final countdown for my time left in Africa has begun. I have a little less than 72 hours before I board my flight back to the States!!
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