Went to Africa

My college roommate is currently living in Tanzania and invited me to come visit. It's not something I would ever think to do on my own and so I said yes. 

It was a pretty long trip from London - 3 1/2 hours to Istanbul, a 3 hour layover, then a 7 1/2 hour flight on to Dar Es Salaam. We arrived at the somewhat uncivilised hour of 3:55am. The heat and humidity was a shock after the cold of England in November (and the dryness of the airplane). After an extremely thorough inspection by the World's Most Slow and Careful Immigration Officer, I had a somewhat hair-raising taxi ride to their house. 

From what I can tell, traffic laws are nonexistent.  People are encouraged to drive on the left, but that seems somewhat flexible. Roundabouts do not exist and would be an utter failure. Traffic lights seem to be for suggestion only. The potholes are bigger than some of the cars and just add an extra frisson of excitement to the whole enterprise. There are taxis and busses and bikes and men with carts and It's chaotic but for the most part seems to work. 

The coast is truly gorgeous- the ocean is unlike anything I've ever seen and there are palm trees and aloe plants growing everywhere. 

The fruit is delicious and the food so far has been really good - smoothies and pastries and sandwiches and excellent fresh fish. 

We went swimming in the Indian Ocean and it was startlingly warm - I'm definitely not in England any more!