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Published: February 26th 2009
Welcome to Tanzania! But for our intents and purposes - Zanzibar! We decided to do the "dummies" version of Tanzania - we skipped the "deep" or "hard" stuff and went in for the fun! New Year's was approaching, so we decided that taking it easy was a good plan anyway!
Zanzibar is known for exoticism and fragrant spices. It is also known for the beautiful old part of the main city called "Stone Town" and Zanzibar's magnificent beaches.
Like most of the coastal areas on the East Side of Africa, Zanzibar is predominantly Muslim. The mosques, the architecture and the cuisine is reflective of that, and that was an interesting opportunity for us to look back on on our travels through the Middle East earlier in the year. The Sultan of Oman also thought that Zanzibar was pretty special and set up shop here, which had a significant impact on the architecture, trade and culture. These days it is considered one of UNESCO's world heritage sites.
That said, Zanzibar has a really low-key, relaxed atmosphere that we know more from our travels through Africa. Their language, Swahili, is particularly reflective of that: "Hi, how are you? - I'm
Zanzibar!
Little island off the coast of the mainlandfine" translates to "Jambo, mambo? - mambo poa". Just nice!
Because Zanzibar is directly on the coast, they have the most beautiful fish. Also, the heritage as the famous "spice island" has blessed the cooks with the most delicious spices. The result is a wonderful cuisine and we partook and enjoyed! Every evening we went to a night market, where we ate freshly grilled fish and drank fresh sugar cane juice. That was our New Year's Eve dinner. Cheers!
On New Year's Eve, we also rented a car and visited the beautiful beaches - we couldn't said farewell to 2008 or welcomed 2009 in a nicer way!
With Zanzibar we reached the most northern point of our trip through Southern Africa. After New Year's we headed south again and had a number of adventures awaiting us in Mozambique. Stay tuned!!!
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Vince
non-member comment
less pictures of Florian and more of Heather
You guys are having a great trip, but I must say I am quite impressed with Heather's journalistic skills! Her writing is excellent and a pleasure to read. I'm impressed!