Blogs from Windhoek, Namibia, Africa - page 17

I know two days in a row is a lot to handle, but I'm feeling slightly Thanksgiving inspired and and highly against the paper I have to write on Thanksgiving. Here's a poem by Maya Angelou that Rob, one of the other students also from UNC shared as a toast during our Thanksgiving. The title is also a quote from his mom, which was so fitting for our hodge podge family this Thanksgiving. Human Family I note the obvious differences in the human family. Some of us are serious, some thrive on comedy. Some declare their lives are lived as true profundity, and others claim they really live the real reality. The variety of our skin tones can confuse, bemuse, delight, brown and pink and beige and purple, tan and blue and white. I've sailed upon ... read more

So the developments of this week include a recent unhealthy love of eggs and meat. Atkins anyone? I really never used to like eggs...but while most people have internships or class Wednesday morning me and two other girls have open mornings since I go to my internship in the afternoon. We pretty much spend the entire week planning where we will eat breakfast on Wednesday mornings and how we will order our eggs. I'm in love with Wednesday mornings...we're gradually hitting all the best breakfast places in Windhoek, and I now know I like my eggs fried hard with toast. mmm. And the meat...somehow meat has become a perfectly acceptable snack. Come back really late at night, what do we do, fight for the left over processed chicken patties in the fridge. Go to a ... read more

We drove to Windhoek and stayed at the lovely Pension Steiner, we had rung ahead the day before to check they had a room available. Pension Steiner was great, secure parking, friendly staff, they served lunch in the lovely garden around a pool and it is REALLY close to the centre of the city. We walked around a small part of the city and saw the meteors that dropped in Gibeon 300km south, about 600 million years ago, and saw the Christus Church up on the hill built in art nouveau and gothic styles. The centre of the city is not like London for example, it is not dirty, crowded, busy or closed in, and it was not raining! We did some chores, got stamps, took out some money from the ATM, and bought some souvenirs. ... read more

David and I went to Namibia for just over two weeks. David had booked our flights with Air Namibia from London Gatwick direct to the capital of Namibia, Windhoek. And we had sorted out our own route/itinerary and David had booked the accommodation through the excellent Namibia Reservations based in Otijwarongo. He had also organized our hire car which we were to collect from Hosea Kutako International Airport. The flight was fine - a little bumpy for most of the flight over Africa - but not really too bad. We landed early in the morning and collected our car and set off by about 0930. It was a glorious sunny day and the road was very quiet. In Namibia they drive on the left - so that was fine for us! We drove towards Windhoek, 37k ... read more

Well, I finally left Chameleon Backpakers' today and Windhoek itself. I see that as of my last blog I intended to stay for one night until I could get a rental car together - that was a week ago. I woke up the day after the 27 hour bus ride feeling refreshed and little more comfortable in my surroundings, however it was still my goal to rent a car that afternoon and head out to the sand dunes in Sossusvlei. This was a slight problem because I didn't have any cash on me and I also needed to transfer some money onto my credit card to rent the car. This was going to be a feat in itself. As luck would have it, the internet seemed to be down in all of Namibia. First I tried ... read more