1/1/2019. Beginning the year (2019) in Zanzibar.

 We again woke to the call to prayer and the call for us to roll over and sleep a bit more. At breakfast, we again heard several languages (no American English though), and suddenly we spotted Finnish! I stopped at the table and think I startled the two people (enjoying their coffee), when I said “Hyvää huomenta.” – Finnish for ”Good Morning.” .. probably the extent of the Finnish I remember. So this truly is THE place for Scandinavians. After breakfast, we ventured in a totally different direction from where we had gone before – to reach the port and see more of the daily life in the town. We strolled and checked out new winding pathways leading to the Old Fort and to various mosques, small hotels, cafes, and stores run by NGOs. We thought we were heading to the Forodhani Gardens, but we never saw them – even though according to the GPS we were there!

The heat and humidity make the days slow and tiring. A one-mile walk seems to take forever. Again, we ventured into several interesting women’s coops – each developing a different craft and skill; each making products to sell to tourists. Tourism is a major economic driver here in Zanzibar. And these coops have the best goods.

Eventually we reached the sea and saw a restaurant overhanging the water so we were sold. It was a pretty basic place appropriately called Floating Restaurant. We shared a simple grilled calamari steak which came with fries. Actually, except in the upscale restaurant, everything comes with fries.

As we walked we spotted some graffiti (first we’ve really seen) with a political message about the future of Stone Town. Apparently although it is a UNESCO Heritage Site, many of the buildings are crumbling and need significant repair. Funding has been received to protect the institutional buildings but not the everyday ones that frame the interior and make it what it is. Indeed most of the institutional buildings are on the edge of the town and ring the waterfront.

More walking and finally we returned to the hotel to get off our feet, figure out our dinner plans, as well as what to do tomorrow on our last day in Zanzibar. We decided we’d head to the Night Market Food Stalls — just to look and then head to the Lukmaan Restaurant, which we heard has typical Swahili food. You need to queue up to make your selections and then they warm things up, and bring it to your table.

We walked to the Night Market which is actually where we had walked this afternoon to get to the waterfront – but this time we took a more direct route. The Night Market – like those in many other cities (Xian, Tunis, Hong Kong, Beijing, etc.) are always fun and this was no exception. Lots of food booths selling kebabs, shwarama, juice made from cane sugar where they put the whole stalk through a hand driven machine that squeezes the liquid out, “pizza” which is really a concoction made of two crepes inside of which they put whatever ingredients you want – mostly sweets (not sure why it’s called pizza).

Lots of families, hordes of little kids – dressed up, perhaps because today was a holiday. We caved in and got chicken schwarma and kebobs and a coconut naan… and gave up on the restaurant idea. Vendors and their “assistants” walking into crowds trying to convince customers that theirs is the best schwarma or the best kebob.. Many vendors approached us – always asking where we are from. Tonight one was totally convinced I came from Italy. But then when I said US – he immediately said “Obama-land.” We strolled the whole market.. and then it was time for a beer (no alcohol is served at any of these night markets), so we wound up back at that Floating Restaurant. Actually thought we’d have wine and a dessert, but although the menu had a few desserts listed they didn’t have any of them. So we settled for a beer. By then it was about 9:00 pm and we navigated our way back through those winding nameless alleys. Frankly the GPS has been a lifesaver. Hard to believe it can track every one of these tiny alleyways, but it does. And amazing that we can get a signal here in these tiny alleys. And we certainly don’t stand out… Everyone here – from ages 12 and up seems to be on a phone. So it’s pretty easy to take photographs and to be walking reading a GPS map. Hard to remember the days when we had paper maps (and we actually found our way!)

About halfway to the hotel (which was only – according to GPS – a 7 minute walk), we stopped at a hotel to try to get that longed-for dessert. But after trekking up three flights to their rooftop restaurant they didn’t have any of the desserts on the menu. So, we just had bottled water and went on our way.

Back to Emerson Spice for the night. Tomorrow late afternoon (after we go to the Slave Museum), we take the ferry back to Dar es Salaam for our very last night in East Africa. We leave on Thursday for Brussels.

I’ll let you know how the final day unfolds.

Again Best in 2019 –

Fern

Fern