Vacation in Ghana
Howdy folks! I hope summer is starting off well for everybody! As you can probably guess from the title, I've recently taken a vacation in Ghana! I have a friend from college who is currently living and working there, and I took my first vacation to go and see him. Two other friends from college flew in as well from the states. It didn’t start off that great, but it turned out to be a blast!
I was scheduled to fly out of Dakar around 2:30, so I got to the airport around noon, only to find that the flight was delayed. I had a layover in Cote D’Ivoire, and I knew I’d miss the connection if it was delayed too long. I stood around (along with everybody else on the flight) wondering what exactly was going on, but the airline wasn’t really telling us anything, so we continued to wait. Eventually, after at least 2 hours of waiting around and when it was obvious that those of us who had connections were going to miss them, the airline tells us we’d have to come back the next day and they’d put us on a flight with a different airline. I was not a happy camper. I was only planning on being in Ghana for 6 days, now I was stuck in Dakar for another day and my time in Ghana was down to just 5 days.
So the next day I went back to the airport, and the first flight was actually on time. I boarded the plane, got all settled in my seat, then noticed two flight attendants hovering next to my seat. They asked me my name, then if I knew Captain Halasz. When I said no they looked confused and walked away. A minute later one came back and I couldn’t really understand what she said, but I thought she asked my nationality. I said American. Then she said something about Hungarian, so I said my last name was Hungarian. She didn’t really understand, so she just said “come here, come here.” I was totally confused and had no idea what was going on. I followed the flight attendant up toward the cockpit, then she pointed at the pilot. The pilot asked I if I was Sandy Halasz. I said yes. He asked if I was Hungarian. I said yes. Then he asked if I knew Captain Halasz. I said no. Then he told me that he was Hungarian too, and that there were 5 or so Hungarian pilots for the airline I was on. I said cool.
I didn’t really understand that it was a big deal to be Hungarian, but to this guy it was. The next thing he asked was if I wanted to come sit in the cock pit for take off!! Of course I did!! I don’t know much about planes, but I do know if they’re big or small…and this was a pretty big plane! I got all buckled in and wound up staying in the cock pit the entire flight! It was awesome to see the take off and then watch the two pilots mess with all the buttons (there’s a ton of 'em!). The coolest part was probably the landing though. We were flying into Cote D’Ivoire, which is really lush and green, and the airport is right by the water. It looked like paradise!It was late afternoon so the sun was low and the light was beautiful...you could see individual rays poking through clouds, and there's a river that parallels the coast and it was so green and lush and so beautiful! I wish I’d had my camera! It was quite a contrast to all the sand I'm used to looking at everyday. The pilot said that it wasn’t very often that they had views like that, so I was very lucky! I guess that wouldn’t have happened if my first flight hadn’t gotten messed up!
So I'm running out of time at the internet cafe, but basically I had a blast in Ghana! We went to the beach, national park, and hung out in the capital city, Accra. I'll put up pictures eventually!
Random Africa Moment:
It really sucked that I got stuck in Dakar an extra day when my flights got messed up, but fortunately I had 3 other friends who happened to be in Dakar at the same time. I left the airport and met up with them and got some ice cream. We’d heard about a little seafood joint way out on the edge of Dakar that was right on the water. We decided to go there for dinner, and I’m glad we did!
The restaurant itself was pretty much a shack with some shade structures and tables underneath. But, it was right on the water, and I’m pretty sure it’s the most western part of Africa. So that's pretty cool. Anyway, after trying to translate the seafood menu into English, we decided to order a bunch of plates and share them. One of the things we ordered was sea urchin…yeah, the round, black spiky things! (not my idea…I’m not exactly the most adventurous eater!). When we ordered the sea urchin, the waiter told us that they were raw. Hmmmm I don’t know about that guys. My friends decided to go for it anyway. A few minutes later we saw the waiter go around the side of the restaurant and walk around on the rocks and hand pick the sea urchins right then and there! A few minutes later a tray of sea urchins came out, and it looked like all they had done to prepare them was cut them in half. Eeeeeee. Gross. Maybe they kinda gutted them, too, I don’t know. Somebody tried it and said it was good, but I wasn’t ready to eat raw sea urchin. I was focused on eating something else, when one of my friends shrieks and jumps. I was kind of annoyed by the sudden high pitch shriek, because I couldn’t imagine what possibly could have happened. Then I looked over at the plate….the damn sea urchin was still moving!! I almost shrieked too! Not only were my friends eating raw sea urchin…they were eating raw, still moving sea urchin! Double eeeeeeeee. I was eventually talked into trying it, and there was enough lime squeezed on it that it tasted mostly like lime, but now I can say I’ve eaten live raw sea urchin. I guess I wouldn’t be able to say that if my stupid flight to Ghana hadn’t been cancelled!
Howdy folks! I hope summer is starting off well for everybody! As you can probably guess from the title, I've recently taken a vacation in Ghana! I have a friend from college who is currently living and working there, and I took my first vacation to go and see him. Two other friends from college flew in as well from the states. It didn’t start off that great, but it turned out to be a blast!
I was scheduled to fly out of Dakar around 2:30, so I got to the airport around noon, only to find that the flight was delayed. I had a layover in Cote D’Ivoire, and I knew I’d miss the connection if it was delayed too long. I stood around (along with everybody else on the flight) wondering what exactly was going on, but the airline wasn’t really telling us anything, so we continued to wait. Eventually, after at least 2 hours of waiting around and when it was obvious that those of us who had connections were going to miss them, the airline tells us we’d have to come back the next day and they’d put us on a flight with a different airline. I was not a happy camper. I was only planning on being in Ghana for 6 days, now I was stuck in Dakar for another day and my time in Ghana was down to just 5 days.
So the next day I went back to the airport, and the first flight was actually on time. I boarded the plane, got all settled in my seat, then noticed two flight attendants hovering next to my seat. They asked me my name, then if I knew Captain Halasz. When I said no they looked confused and walked away. A minute later one came back and I couldn’t really understand what she said, but I thought she asked my nationality. I said American. Then she said something about Hungarian, so I said my last name was Hungarian. She didn’t really understand, so she just said “come here, come here.” I was totally confused and had no idea what was going on. I followed the flight attendant up toward the cockpit, then she pointed at the pilot. The pilot asked I if I was Sandy Halasz. I said yes. He asked if I was Hungarian. I said yes. Then he asked if I knew Captain Halasz. I said no. Then he told me that he was Hungarian too, and that there were 5 or so Hungarian pilots for the airline I was on. I said cool.
I didn’t really understand that it was a big deal to be Hungarian, but to this guy it was. The next thing he asked was if I wanted to come sit in the cock pit for take off!! Of course I did!! I don’t know much about planes, but I do know if they’re big or small…and this was a pretty big plane! I got all buckled in and wound up staying in the cock pit the entire flight! It was awesome to see the take off and then watch the two pilots mess with all the buttons (there’s a ton of 'em!). The coolest part was probably the landing though. We were flying into Cote D’Ivoire, which is really lush and green, and the airport is right by the water. It looked like paradise!It was late afternoon so the sun was low and the light was beautiful...you could see individual rays poking through clouds, and there's a river that parallels the coast and it was so green and lush and so beautiful! I wish I’d had my camera! It was quite a contrast to all the sand I'm used to looking at everyday. The pilot said that it wasn’t very often that they had views like that, so I was very lucky! I guess that wouldn’t have happened if my first flight hadn’t gotten messed up!
So I'm running out of time at the internet cafe, but basically I had a blast in Ghana! We went to the beach, national park, and hung out in the capital city, Accra. I'll put up pictures eventually!
Random Africa Moment:
It really sucked that I got stuck in Dakar an extra day when my flights got messed up, but fortunately I had 3 other friends who happened to be in Dakar at the same time. I left the airport and met up with them and got some ice cream. We’d heard about a little seafood joint way out on the edge of Dakar that was right on the water. We decided to go there for dinner, and I’m glad we did!
The restaurant itself was pretty much a shack with some shade structures and tables underneath. But, it was right on the water, and I’m pretty sure it’s the most western part of Africa. So that's pretty cool. Anyway, after trying to translate the seafood menu into English, we decided to order a bunch of plates and share them. One of the things we ordered was sea urchin…yeah, the round, black spiky things! (not my idea…I’m not exactly the most adventurous eater!). When we ordered the sea urchin, the waiter told us that they were raw. Hmmmm I don’t know about that guys. My friends decided to go for it anyway. A few minutes later we saw the waiter go around the side of the restaurant and walk around on the rocks and hand pick the sea urchins right then and there! A few minutes later a tray of sea urchins came out, and it looked like all they had done to prepare them was cut them in half. Eeeeeee. Gross. Maybe they kinda gutted them, too, I don’t know. Somebody tried it and said it was good, but I wasn’t ready to eat raw sea urchin. I was focused on eating something else, when one of my friends shrieks and jumps. I was kind of annoyed by the sudden high pitch shriek, because I couldn’t imagine what possibly could have happened. Then I looked over at the plate….the damn sea urchin was still moving!! I almost shrieked too! Not only were my friends eating raw sea urchin…they were eating raw, still moving sea urchin! Double eeeeeeeee. I was eventually talked into trying it, and there was enough lime squeezed on it that it tasted mostly like lime, but now I can say I’ve eaten live raw sea urchin. I guess I wouldn’t be able to say that if my stupid flight to Ghana hadn’t been cancelled!
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4:54 AM
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