4 currencies, my first kiss in months and a banana split

That can only mean one thing, a long weekend to the big city Nairobi, Kenya. We had an unexpected long weekend last week due to some Tanzanian holiday that anyone I have spoken to, has no idea what it is. That is a mega bonus of working in an international school, you get all the different national holidays off, like Thanks giving, Eid, Diwali etc. (wonder if that means we will get pancake day off, I might push it) So yes we decided to make the most of this mysterious Tanzanian holiday and go visit Kenya.

Prior to even starting out travels, the currencies proved head boggling. 4 currencies! Yes 4 different currencies I had to work with here (and if you know me you’ll know I’m not the smartest tool in box) Let me explain, I needed US dollars to pay the visa to get into the country, so that’s 1. Second currency I obviously needed Kenyan shillings, which links in with the third currency, Tanzanian shillings in which I had to convert from and work out how much I was spending. Lastly this all came back to the good old GBP in which I always have to convert everything back to. I think you need a blooming degree to sort all that out. But I got there in the end. I probably could open my own bureau exchange now.

Dola Dola. A bus experience like no other. Small mini bus type transportation that somehow has the idea that the more people you cram in, the better. This was one of 3 options for travelling to Nairobi, the first was a plane which (game show buzzer noise for wrong answer) too expensive on a missionary budget. Secondly, a coach in which they don’t cram you in so much, but again (game show buzzer) too expensive. So the winner tonight Matthew (Stars in your eyes quotes) was the dola dola. A 6-½ hour journey, half of which was with no opened windows (until we realized how to open them) lets just say we were dripping and it was not water. One thing that did raise my anxiety levels right to the roof was the tiny little problem of no toilet; thankfully the wonderful driver stopped in the middle of nowhere and let me go to a random hole in the ground covered by a few planks of wood. Thankfully I am an expert at weeing in a hole and came out with a smug on my face when there was nothing wet of my feet! (Score)

We were staying in a lovely hostel and luckily it was opposite a Java house coffee shop. It was a glimpse of England what with western meals, ice creams and Wi-Fi. If it wasn’t for the cost of things I think we could have spent our whole trip just sat there eating banana splits.

We had such fun we were lucky enough to go to an elephant orphanage, where we got to see the baby elephants being fed, got to play football with them and also get sprayed with a load of mud (ruined my skirt for the rest of the day but hey, this is Africa)

Cute baby elephant had trouble getting out of the mud

Milk time and not gonna lie i was pretty jealous of it, beats powdered cream any day.

The next Beckham

This was followed by an incredible trip to the giraffe center (which I might add we got for 70% cheaper as we are now Tanzanian citizens, boom) We got to feed the giraffes, pet them and I even got a cheeky (and slightly gross) French kiss. :p

Being in a big city compared to our quiet little Tanzanian town proved somewhat overwhelming at times. We went into a 24 hour supermarket, and I’ve got to tell you it was just all too much (I know I can be dramatic but seriously) So I went in alone at first and couldn’t handle the pressure. I didn’t even get half way down the cereal isle before I had to run back and find my friend. The choices of milk, cheese, toiletries and toilet rolls were so overwhelming I eventually had to just leave. (Okay I lie; I bought a cheeky snickers bar on the way out)

On the dola dola, you travel through some rural villages, The local people target the travellers by selling  snacks and drinks through the windows. Now it can be a little risky to buy them but when your starving hungry you can't resist. This is my snack that cost the equivalent of 5p. Yummy...

Yummy banana split at Java House.Well all that’s left to say is I think I have adapted to a simple life living in Tanzania, who knows how scary going back to England’s gonna be with all the many supermarkets all over the place.