February 17 - March 4

Route Traveled

Ghana
    Kokrobite

Togo
    Agrodrafo (Togoville)

Benin
    Ouidah - Porto Novo

Nigeria
    Lagos

Egypt
    Cairo


    On the morning of wednesday, i woke up with the goal of attaining my visa for nigeria. I didnt have to be there until 230pm so i was able to take my time getting out and about. Jumped on a tro tro at about 12pm and headed into Accra. Found a taxi to take me once again to the nigerian embassy and as before he of course didnt know how to find it. but after asking a bunch of people we found it. i went into the embassy and found pj the representative for visas. he sorted through the other applications and visas and fished mine out. my visa was all ready to go, and apparently all my false reservations and itineraries i had produced for him had worked. so i said thank you to pj and he told me not to visit his sister in nigeria. i agreed and laughed my way out of the embassy. so with my goal accomplished i was no able to travel to nigeria. most people ive talked to told me not to go there because the people are not so good, but i wanted to see for myself. at the embassy i met yoni and miles, who the latter had to also pick up his visa for nigeria. yoni and miles were all ready to go off on their bikes together and attempt the trip to south africa. so we said our goodbyes and they thanked me for connecting them so they could ride together. they are heading down the west coast of africa towards south africa and i am heading down the east, maybe we will meet at the bottom. so after all was settled i headed back to my home at the beach to relax for the night. the next morning it was time to hit the road, and head east to Togo. I wished everyone at the hotel a fairwell, and the owner of the hotel after finding out i was heading down the east coast recommended to me that i check out somaliland, djibouti and eritrea, all places off the tourist trail and rather undiscovered to many foreigners. i thanked him and i slipped out of big millys and hopped on a tro tro. when i reached kaneshi station in accra, i found a taxi to take me to the station to catch a bus to Togo. The station was hectic and everyone was fighting for my business. i found a mini bus that was heading for the border about 3 hours away. eventually we arrived at the ghana togo border, where the bus dropped me off. i got stamped outta ghana, and walked across the border, and just like that my language switch was turned off. i was back in a french speaking country and once again i couldnt understand anyone. all it took was a two minute walk over the border. unfortunately a guy followed me throughout the entire border process and i couldnt shake him, i kept telling him that i wasnt gonna give him money but he just kept with me. At the Togo immigration they gave me a one week visa for about $30, and i was in. the guy that was following me insisted on finding me a cab, so without a choice i let him, my plan was to head past the capital city of lome which was right at the border and to go to a small town called agrodrafo, right on lake Togo. i got a cab to take me there, and i found a quiet guesthouse where i think i was the only guest. while in the tax they guy that was following me had jumped in, he and his friend kept telling me that if i had any foreign money that i needed to rap it in cfa and hide it. i kept telling them that i didnt and i knew that they were running a scam somehow and they said if i got caught i could get arrested. i kept saying no, and then finally i took out my money and showed them that i had no foreign money, they quickly rapped a ghana cedi around it and allowed me to keep it. i didnt see any money taken, but after was said and done i think i lost about $20 dollars but i have no idea how it happened, because i handed them back there one ghana cedi and my money looked intact, so with my typical baffled mind i wasnt sure if i got scammed or not, but i couldnt figure out how it worked if i did get scammed, anyway i know this doesnt make much sense but its just an example of how africans will try to dupe you and get one over on you. the borders with so much going on and money being exchanged it can get confusing, maybe i just lost out on the exchange rate, who knows. so once i was settled in i realized i didnt have enough money left, so i needed to head back in the same direction i came to the city of lome. i was able to hail done a motorbike and he agreed to take me, but first we had to stop and pick something up from his father. after a nice ride along the coastal road, we made it to the capital and it toook me about two hours to find an atm that worked. reloaded i got a taxi back to my guesthouse in the very small town, ventured out and found some food and called it a night. in the morning i woke up with my mission to see some voodoo, because in the city called togoville it is one of the birthplaces of voodoo. i walked across the street and found the boat dock. they wanted to charge me the white man price to go across the lake, but i was able to get it down to a reasonable price. the boats are a large canoe, with the only way to move being a stick pushing off from the sea floor, since the lake appears to be very shallow that is the only way they need to get around. the ride takes about 45 minutes and it is really peaceful. when i get to togoville i am quickly approached by a guide who i turn down, i want to find some voodoo on my own. the first thing i see is a parade of people playing drums and dancing with some funny costumes of a fluffly snuffalupugus looking creature. i walk past them and head inland, i dont see very much just a dusty small town, and people doing normal things that dont visibly involve voodoo. so i just wander around for awhile heading down alleys and into the bush. without finding any voodoo i decided to go into a bar. i saw the men drinking small unlabled bottles and i asked what they were. turns out it was sadabe, the local moonshine, and it only costs about 50 cents for a bottle that holds about 7 shots. i figured this was a good way to get some people talking so i ordered a bottle and shared it with the guys around me. the stuff was very strong but not to bad, i got the guys talking about voodoo and the older guy said he would take me to see some. i bought another bottle of moonshine, and we headed off. with about a group of five guys we all came to a house in the back of the town where i guess the head voodoo woman lives. i had to take off my shirt and sandals and put on a cloth and we headed in. the head lady was topless with pancake breast down to her stomache, and there were other people in a circle doing who knows what, performing some kind of juju ceremony i suppose. in the room we did some clapping and then they turned to me to provide the money and the offereing of a bottle of gin to the head lady, i knew this was gonna happne but i was hoping it wouldnt, they see me and immediately think how they can get as much money out of me as possible of course. they first ask for about $20 and i say that is not possible, and it goes on like this for about 10 minutes with me saying im not gonna pay them a lot of money and them saying i have to, once i was at a price of $ 4 dollars the experience was tainted for me and i didnt want to see it anymore, the way i was being treated for them to put on a show for me i didnt appreciate, and i walked out, the guy told me that noone got this far into the house and then left without paying and giving an offering. i didnt care, but in the back of my mind was a little worried that they would put some kind of juju special curse on me. they were still nice enough to show me a voodoo tree and some other places of worship. after while i was drinking some water i met a guy who said his name was go to hell. he was really funny and he bought me some more moonshine, after drinking a couple bottles and bullshitting with the local drunks i headed back on the boat to my guest house. full of moonshine and juju i went home and rested. the next day i was off to Benin. with Togo being so small along the coast it was only about an hour drive to the border. i hailed a taxi that took me to the border town, where i found another taxi to take me across. i got a visa for benin that only lasted 48 hours, so i had to really shoot through this country. i asked the immigration guy what day i had to leave the country and he told me by monday would be ok, i had a feeling that if i stayed till monday there could be a problem cuz today was saturday, and i had a thought that they would count 48 hours being just saturday and sunday. after taking a long time to get through i found my taxi driver and we ran through the border area to the taxi. i wanted to go to a city called ouidah cuz i heard there was alot of voodoo there as well, so that where i got dropped off. i took a motorbike to a guesthouse that seemed worned down, and it was empty, but they had a room for me. dropped my things off and ventured into the small city, all ifound was a temple of pythons which looked cheesy so i didnt go in, i d idnt find to much voodoo, just a market that sold some juju potions and other sorts of things. i did however find the road to the point of no return in which the slaves took when being shipped off. . unsatisfied with my voodoo quest i left the next morning and took the short ride to the capital city of porto novo. Benin is also a very thin country so the rides across took no time at all and i was already very close to the nigeria border. in porto novo after a long walk and search for a hotel i finally found a nice one called casa dansa. lucky for me it was afro jazz night, so i jammed out to a really good live band for a few hours that night. and got to see how the benin people get down. the next day was monday and it was time to go to nigeria. with the language barrier it was very frustrating to find a taxi to take me to the border, but after awhile i managed and in the taxi i met a guy named daniel who was a 50 year old from benin. and was heading to lagos for work. he spoke good english and was very kind and helpful. he told me how it was gonna go down at the border and how they were gonna ask me for bribes to get across. when we got to the border, daniel and i got out and he kept the touts away from us. we found an exchange guy on the road to change money and daniel was very helpful in getting me the right price. i gave daniel 700 naira to use for the bribes which is about $4.5 when i got to the benin immigration, not to my surprise they said i had overstayed my visa by one day i kept trying to tell them that it had been only 48 hours but it wasnt working, he said i was gonna have to go back to the capital and extend it, we could see that he was fishing for a bribe, so daniel gave him some money and just like that it was ok, so i got stamped outta benin and was ready for nigeria. when we got there they asked for my yellow fever card, and then they checked my passport, and daniel gave them some more money. it all went really smoothly and they welcomed me into their country. the bribes made it really easy, as well and it wasnt very much money. daniel found us a taxi to go to lagos and we were off. when we arrived in lagos we jumped on another bus to head into the lagos island part of town which is the heart of the city. daniel and i parted ways and exchanged emails, and i thanked him for all is help. when i got to teh ymca i found that it was closed due to renovations, i had heard that lagos was really expensive for hotels so i wanted to go there first, the people told me there to try the sisters center, i walked over there but that wasnt happening so he told me to find another hotel which i went searchiong for, while there were cars and tuk tuks swirling around me i was getting rather tired and then i heard a lady come up to me and say hello. she said she was a journalist for the guardian newspaper and was just getting her hair done and saw me and thought what is this guy doing walking around here with sucha big backpack. and she wondered if she could aks me some questions about what i was doing and maybe she would write a story about me in the mewspaper. i agreed but first i needed to find a hotel. so she came along with me on my search, i found a really shitty hotel and it was really expensive but it had no lights and the generator was broken, so i moved on, and went to the moonshine hotel, where the rooms were to expensive, but they had a couch so i decided to rest and do the interview with the journalist. she asked me questions about my trip where id been where i was going and how long and why i was doing it, what my life was back home and what i was getting out of the trip, the interview went well and i still wonder if she wrote an article about me in the weekend version of the guardian, but ill have to email her to find out, cuz i never found a copy of the paper. after she payed for my water, she helped me find a motorbike to take me to the moonshines other hotel across town that was cheaper. in a death defying motorbike ride with all my luggage it was really scary zooming around town, another motorbike stopped in the middle of the road, and we had to swerve and stop but we didnt make it and we kinda fell over in slow motion, but my feet never fell from me and i as able to stand up, it was scary enough and i told the kid to slow down to no prevail, its nuts riding around this town on a motorbike, i feel like were gonna crash every second. i finally make it to the moonshine hotel on lagos island they are out of the cheap rooms so i am forced to get a nicer one , and they say i can switch tomorrow, i agree since there is no way i can continue searching for another hotel at this point i needed to rest. my room was nice with a/c. when i head out from the hotel the onslaught of lagos begins. i get so much attention from everybody on the streets, constantly getting called at with hissing noises and kissy puckering noises, white man calls, where you go? what you want? come here! every few steps i hear these things, it reminds me of india, and so does the surroundings, of cars zooming around and the beeping is absolutely annoying, i feel that they beep just to beep and be noticed because they beep non stop at every thing and there are no street laws anyhow so i guess its the only way to get around without hitting everything. the problem while walking is there arent really any sidewalks so your forced to dodge everything in all directions and constantly getting beeped at to get out of the way, to sum it up its not a joyful stroll down the road. i go to see what kind of food i can find and i run into a girl that helps me find some food, and she stares at me the whole time i eat and asks me questions. oh yeh i forgot that once i crossed into nigeria it turned back into english language so i can communicate once again. since i left ghana back on the 18th, ive been to four countries in five days. ghana-togo-benin-nigeria. worn out i retreat to my hotel room , where i find out they only keep the ac on from 10pm to about 3am which makes no sense and i try to ask the reception for an explanation but i just get some generator explanation, but at least the fan works so its not so bad, but its really hot outside. the next day i am off on a journey to explore lagos and to walk and walk. my final destination was to make it to the airport to try and find a flight to egypt, i had already found a good price on the internet but i wanted to see if i could find a better one, and it was just a mission i had to find the airport anyway. since i didnt change all my cfa for naira at the border i was now out of naira and only had the cfa in my pocket. so before i could eat that day i had to find a place to exchange the money. being a rather stupid move, before i got the money and found the bridge to walk to the mainland. turns out this bridge is maybe longer than the howard franklin in st pete, and it takes me over two hours to walk it. i had not eaten and i had no water, and it was getting really hot. i put on some music and took the long walk with only a small sholder to walk on, and cars zooming past. it wasnt a bad walk but i was getting hungry. while i was walking i found a nigeria police beret on the side of the road and scooped it up. a nice souvenir for the hat collection. eventually i made it to the other side and searched for a bank and after about another hour i found a black market exchange and got my naira worked out, immediately grabbed some street food and was recharged. i asked a guy how to get to the airport and he said i had to take a bus across the highway so i jumped in one, and got to the other part of town, where i walked the rest of the way to the airport. i found egypt air and that the price was cheaper online, and rested for awhile at the airport and headed out. my plan was to walk until the sun went down and jump on a bus to get back to lagos island. so i followed the direction i needed by looking at the sun, and walked for another three hours but i didnt seem to get as far as i did when i walked this morning. i was starting to get really tired, but it didnt seem like a normal kind of tired, it felt different like i shoulnd have felt that bad after a long days walk. after two really scary motorbike rides i made it to the bus station and finally got a bus back to lagos island, and then took another bus back to my hotel. that night my body was exhausted and i didnt feel so great, and i just zonked out trying to avoid the outside world. that night i couldnt find a line to get to sleep and i felt like i was just floating there not really sleeping most of the night, and if i did i was waking up very often. the next morning being wednesday, my goal was to purchase my ticket in the internet to cairo egypt. i felt really crappy when i got up, i couldnt sleep anymore cuz the power was cut off and it was to hot in the room, first thing i did was switch to the cheaper room, the one guy at the hotel was friendly but i wasnt liking the rest of the staff. i just didnt feel welcome there and i got bad vibes there which is hard to explain, i just didnt get a good feeling. so i got my new room which was at the end of the hotel, and right outside my window is where they do the laundry. not feeling so hot i had to head out and get some food, the calls from the people had calmed down a bit after they had seen me for a day now, i was feeling really sluggish and weak and figured it was because the long walk the day before so i thought nothing really of it. when i got to the internet cafe i was able to purchase my ticket, but i got really dizzy and broke out in a crazy sweat, which was more than usual. i didnt feel right at all, so i had to get back to the hotel, there was no salvation there either with the power being out and the negative vibes i was getting. my plan in lagos and mainly the only reason i came here was to see Femi Kuti play at the New Afrika shrine, and i found out he plays on sundays, so i bought my ticket for egypt to leave on the monday. so i would have 5 more nights in this city. i dont really remember what i did the rest of the day but i knew i wasnt feeling well at all and everytime i went to walk somewhere i would get really tired. that night i couldnt get much sleep, and the people beside me were constantly doing laundry and the water was running non stop, it felt like water torture, it was driving me nuts, i managed to get through the night, but the next day i felt even worse and i asked if i could get another room, but they just said i would have to pay for another more expensive room. i decided to find another hotel, in which i did called the ritz hotel, it was a very pink hotel but very run down and filthy, but the nice guy said the a/c ran 24 hours a day, so i agreed. turns out of course that the power is shut off from 12pm until 6pm and its miserable to stay in the room without the power and also there isnt a fan , just the ac. i really cant remember what i did most of the day, but i know i was dizzy and very weak, that night feeling very feverish, i remembered what i heard about malaria and that if you feel a fever with these symptoms that its best to get it checked to make sure. i first went to the pharmacy and bought some paracetemol to see if it would bring my fever down. later that night i decided i had to go to the clinic, i was going crazy in my room sweating like crazy, and then i would get cold, so i knew i had a fever, so i walked out of my room and asked michael at the desk where i could find a clinic that was open, he pointed one out that was really close to the hotel just around the corner. when i went outside it was about midnight and it felt like the episode of its always sunny in philadelphia, cuz i love to compare my life to this show... when sweet dee is staying at charlie and franks apartment and they have to eat cat food in order to fall asleep so they arent kept awake all night by the stray cats outside the apartment, but instead sweet d sniffs a bunch of glue and has an overdose and walks outside to find people on the ground shaking and convulsing and she sees two little girls who are dead and they ask her to play with them,   so this is how i feel when i walk into the streets of lagos at midnight, and go to the clinic. the doors our locked but i can see a guards sleeping on the ground through the gate, after about 10 minutes of knocking and some other guy helping me i get this guy to open the gate. when i get in i find a really friendly nurse working the overnight and a doctor who lives at the clinic full time named banjoko. i tell them my symptoms and they take my temperature. it was just under 102 degrees. they think i have either malaria or typhoid. so they ask me questions i fill out some forms and then the doctor takes some blood to send off to figure out what i have. then the nurse takes me in the other room and sticks me in my left butt cheek with a needle, which hurts so so bad, maybe the most painful shot ive ever had, then she comes at my right butt cheek, this one doesnt hurt as bad. then they give me a bunch of pills to take and i am off back to my filthy hotel. that was my first treatment on thursday night. as i was walking back to my hotel i could feel my stomach getting really full and full of gas or air or something, i didnt know if it was cuz of the meds i got at the hotel or if it was something i ate, but my stomach was exploding. when i got to the hotel i layed down in pain my stomach reeling, i had watched the movie the night before, the last king of scotland, and there is a scene where the doctor puts a bat over edi amins stomach to help relieve the pressure and he let out a huge fart and it worked, so i thought of this and was literally hitting my stomach and massaging it and actually jumping up and down on the bed almost as if i was having sex with the bed, and i was just slamming my stomach down, it must have sounded like i was having a lot of sex to anyone that could have heard, cuz i was grunted and about every ten minutes i would let out a little gas out of my butt or from burping and it took me about an hour of this to finally get my stomach down to normal. i found my self laughing at the situation and how silly it was. the next thing to hit me was the shot in my left butt cheek, it hurt so damn bad, i could not lay down on my left side at all, and it was so hot to lay on just my side. the ac unit in my room is horrible, and i am so hot that night, sweating like crazy and of course getting cold every once in awhile. it is miserable and i get basically no sleep. i dont know how to explain it but it was like a challenge in my room for me to go to sleep, i kept thinking there were other people in the room trying to challenge me to fall asleep then i would wake up and realize i was alone, it was a very mystical feeling, and i would fall asleep and wake up in about 1 minute, and just feel like i was going nuts. i managed to get through the night, and woke up really weak with my head and body hurting and i was dizzy, i mean my equilibrium was off so it made walking really difficult. i got some bread and water and headed to the clinic for my results. doctor banjoko, said i had malaria and lots of it. i wasnt to surprised but i wasnt really happy. so they set me up with a bunch of pills to take for three days. since i couldnt really sleep in my hotel and asked them if i could sleep a few hours in the clinic and they agreed, but then of course at 12pm the power also cuts off there, so i was forced out into the streets. i asked the doc where i could go for some salvation and some ac, and he told me there was a mall not to far away, so that was my plan to spend the day at the mall in the ac, cuz there was nowhere else i could go to feel comfortable. i made the strenous walk,and it was not fun cuz this town is hard enough to walk when you feel well, but i was like a malarian zombie walking the streets on my way to the mall. i happily found it and headed in. due to my fever once i walked in i was immediately freezing cold, but it still felt better than being out in the hot hard sun. i first found the market where i got a sports drink to hydrate, the market was very expensive, so i didnt buy to much , but than i told myself that i had to get better and if i have to spend money to feel comfortable i would do so. so i stopped worrying about costs and ate what i needed to eat, later after walking around the mall i found the movie theater, which was the greatest site i could have ever seen, they were showing some american movies. i figured this was gonna have to be my salvation for the next three days to waste the hot hours during the day and watch movies. the girl at the theater was very friendly and i didnt have enough money to buy a ticket so she gave me the student price and she even let me watch a movie for free before my movie started. so i went to watch a cartoon the princess and the frog which is the old story of the frog kissing the princess, when i went into the theater i was shaking like crazy and my hands were going numb, i was so cold, finally i warmed up, and was able to watch the movie, but it wasnt so pleasant, the malaria gave me a really strange feeling and i was never really comfortable at all. and being really dizzy and weak that didnt help either. after that movie i waited around for a bit and talked with another worker at the theater, i asked him if he had ever gotten malaria and he said of course, many times, and i realized that everyone here gets it and its like getting the flu in america. he told me that i should be better in a couple days. i was also very optimistic that i would get well fast. later i watched the movie invictus the story about nelson mandela and the south african rugby team, i liked the movie, and at the end when they won the world cup and got that feeling you get like chills when at the end of the movie your team is triumphant, and i smiled and thought to myself that was the first good feeling i have felt in a few days. after the movie a trodded back to my hotel where i attempted to sleep but had no luck at all, i kept a rag on my forehead the whole night and took many showers to cool down, which made me cold temporarily. i played inspirational music to keep my mood up and tried to stay calm, i spent half the night sitting up in a chair just staring at the wall, wishing i was in a better environment, basically anywhere else than here. getting food was also such a challenge cuz all i wanted to do was sit in bed all day and just lay there, but i was forced out, due to hunger and heat everyday. so here i was it was saturday. i knew my flight was on monday and i didnt feel like it would be wise to leave on that day in case i wasnt better, so i made it to the internet to try and change my flight to tuesday. when i checked my mail i had a message saying that my flight had been changed, to my surprise it was changed for tuesday. happily my job had been done for me and i didnt even have to do a thing, i was very grateful for this, so i had now an extra day to get better. that day i went back to the mall and hung out at the market and then i watched a really good movie called Avatar. i had switched my hotel room again and this time i agreed to pay for a nicer room, i really needed to get some sleep and thankfully this room had a good ac unit and it stayed cool in my room all night, also there was a tv that was good to take my mind off of my health. i watched many nigerian dramas which werent very good, but it was ok and i managed to get a good amount of sleep that night. the next day sunday, my third day of treatment, i took all my pills and headed back to the mall for some more movies. this time i watched when in rome, a romantic comedy, very cheesy but still did its job, hung out in the mall until it was time for the power to be back on in my room and headed back. i really wanted to go see femi kuti that night, but my body wasnt letting me, so i had to stay in the hotel. that night i didnt really sleep much and still wasnt better. i was really hoping i would be better by now, but my head was really not feeling good, so in the morning after a crappy night i went back to the clinic. took some more blood and found out i still had malaria in me but it had gone down. thankfully my fever was gone and i was going in the right direction. doctor banjoko and i talked for a long time about nigeria and our lives and he gave me more meds, and i said goodbye and thanked him for all his help, i was hoping i would soon be better. earlier that day before going to the clinic i was wandering around town searching for a place to go to relax, cuz i was sick of going to the mall, i had no luck, i ended up falling asleep on a bench, when i got to the clinic i told the doc that i fell asleep on a park bench and he asked what park? i said well not quite a park bench but just a bench, he knew there werent any parks in lagos, and i got a laugh out of that, the city wasnt really built to be pleasant it was built to just function and you can tell there is nothing around that would make a person want to hang out in the city. after i left the clinic i went to the internet cafe and bought 5 hours, it was quite nice in there, and about half way through i suddenly felt that i was feeling better, and that maybe those last pills i took really worked. i wasnt as dizzy and felt i could walk better now.   my flight was leaving at 7am the next day and i thought to myself in all my travels i have never wanted to get out of a city as i did lagos. that night still couldnt sleep and was counting down the minutes when it was time to leave for the airport, time moved so slow. finally i made it to 5 am, i left some clothes with the guys at the hotel , cuz they were so nice to me, even though they had a shitty hotel and it was filthy, they really tried there best to help me out, even going to get me some water one time, so i left them two pairs of shorts two shirts and 4 boxers, they were really grateful. after one of the guys helped me get a motorbike to the taxi stop i was on my way. i got a taxi to the airport and said goodbye to lagos, im sure it could have been a great time if i would have felt better, there were some friendly people there and everyone for the most part was nice to me, even a few times some woman on the streets asked me if i was ok and she even gave me some cold water to drink. its to bad i have to have such a negative feeling of the city. you can really tell the difference in how people treat you when your walking around with a negative demeanour as i was while in lagos, my head was down and i looked grumpy, i feel like i got the same in return, and when i started feeling better i was able to joke around with the people on the streets and this in turn changed the way they acted towards me. positive energy out brings positive energy back in, and i really experienced this in lagos, however on the negative side. so i made it to the airport with plent of time to spare, everyone was very welcoming and i got my flight, with a stopover in the casablanca aiport. i took a nice nap on the plane, and when i got my meal, i was so happy, it was the most well balanced and tasty meal i had had since being in lagos, i found this quite funny and laughed out loud. i got to casablanca at around 11am and my flight to cairo didnt leave until 11pm. i was more than happy to hang out all day in the ac and relax in the airport, i ate a nice lunch of salad buffett, and read a lot and slept for a really good two hours on the floor. later that night as i was reading i met a girl from holland, who was on her way to mali. we talked for about two hours until it was time for our flights. this really recharged my spirits and i started feeling a lot better. we had really nice talks about travel and life, and when we left we exchanged emails and hugged. i hadnt really talked to anyone in over a week on a friendly traveler basis, so this was really great for me. and i needed it! hopped on the flight to cairo and listened to music the whole way. i arrived in cairo smiling, i had just spent 2 and a half months on the west side of africa and now its time to explore the east side. when i got out of the airport i ran into an older australian guy who was doing a whirlwind trip around the world for two months. he payed for my bus to downtown cairo, and first thing i realized was the nice cool air. i was so relived to get out of the heat and humidity for a bit and this was a nice break. i had a booked a hostel online two days before so i knew where i was going, and i knew i needed something nice to rest up in. richard and i made it downtown and he went with me to my hostel, i said goodbye to him and he wanted to follow my trip so we exchanged emails, my room wasnt ready so they gave me a mattress on the floor and i zonked out, it was only 7am when i arrived. at about 10am they gave me a room with three beds in it, cuz the single was full. i slept a great sleep until almost 3pm, and ventured out to see cairo. i was loving this place, such a change from lagos, and the people were so friendly, i was coherced into a few shops to buy things but i didnt mind i enjoyed looking at the artwork and smelling the fragrances, it felt like i was back in morocco, everyone was very welcoming. and the food here is so good, the falaffel shwarmas pitas, and so on, i eat a lot of food, and the oranges here are just as good in morocco. i get back still a little tired and crash at 7pm and dont wake up until the next morning. that morning i was ready to go see the great pyramids at giza. when i found the bus stop, it was so hard to read the bus numbers cuz they were all in arabic, thankfully there was an asian girl going the same place, and i think she studied the bus number in arabic cuz she knew it when the bus came, and i asked how she knew, and she showed me how she had written down the arabic translation for that specific bus in her notebook, i was very impressed. and there i was at the pyramids. i arrived there at around 11am and walked around avoiding all the camel and horse touts and the rest of the baksheesh wanters. i really enjoyed myself and felt the history of the place and the energy. there were people everywhere in big buses, it seemed i was one of the only ones not in a big group. after walking around for a bit, i walked over and met some kids who were selling postcards and bookmarks. i ended up hanging out with them for over an hour just playing around, they even gave me free bookmarks and even bought me a fanta. the whole time i was at the pyramids, the egyptian tourists wanted to take their pictures with me. i was quite strange but they found me fascinating. i didnt mind though.    later on when i was going to get some food i ran into richard from australia again, who seemed to be just moving at a mile a minute, he head alreay seen some other pyramids that morning, and was leaving that night on a night train to luxor, he was going to kfc, but i decided to go on the street and eat. say goodbye and wished him a great trip, and went eat. at the place i was eating i didnt really know what to order cuz i didnt know what the things were, a guy noticed i was confused and he asked me what i wanted and he helped me order. his name was nasser and he is a yellow taxi driver in queens new york just on vacation here in egypt. he bought me a falaffel and we went to a cafe and smoked sheeshah and drank tea for the next two hours, we talked about egypt and the us and everything in between, he even payed for everything which i was grateful for. i left him to go catch the sunset over the pyramids. one of the best ive seen. i made my way back cairo. got a great sleep that night, and with the nice cool air in cairo it feels great. the next morning my goal was to inquire about getting a visa for sudan so i can head south in a bit. walked to the embassy and eventually found it and found out that the next day i can apply is on sunday and that it takes 24 hours. i was happy to hear that, cuz i had heard that it could take up to two weeks. ate some good food the rest of the day and that leads me to where i am now, in the internet cafe writing this. gonna stay in cairo for a few more days until i get my sudan visa, and then go around egypt for a little bit more and then its time to make my way south in my journey to south africa.