Amelia's Travel Blog : Africa-first day-and the market

Sunday, January 23, 2011

Africa-first day-and the market

We have arrived in Accra, Ghana! It has been an amazing experience so far. There are so many unfamiliar sight, smells, and people but overall its been amazing. The first day we arrived on the plane we walked off to have a rush of humidity and warmth hit us. Wearing our long pants, and coats I have to say it was pretty nauseating. When we walked into the airport there was a faint smell of a porta potty and Christmas decorations were placed all over the place. Finally we all crammed into the van that would take us to the airport and that was when we truly got our first glimpse of Accra. It was very filthy, with an open sewer and people walking in the road trying to sell you things. It was very displeasing to experience all the poverty in the city, but at the same time I feel it was something everyone must eventually know about. The hotel was really nice with a pool and amazing food. This is where we spent the rest of our first day.

We walked on the beach that eventing and it was quite a sight. There were people riding horses and restaurants all over the beach. There was quite a bit a trash on the shore, but still many people were swimming. Up and down the beach people were trying to sell things, somebody offered my mom a horse ride. We also saw somebody making a sand sculpture and a group of people playing drums. You would definitely not see anything like it back in the states. We ate dinner and then went to bed fairly early that night. Our second day in Ghana was a lot of fun! We had a wonderful breakfast and then we went with another pilot to a local market in Accra. The minute we stepped out of the car, people came up and tried to get us over to their shops. The shops consisted of jewelery, clothes, and wooden items in little shacks. We ended us getting lots of jewelery because it is was so cheap. One pair of earrings were 2 cidis which is equivilant to about one dollar and fifty cents. I also got to watch my dad attempt to haggle. After looking around/ being dragged into more shops, we headed back to the hotel. It was still extremely hot out so we hung out by the pool for a while swimming and reading. The rest of the night we relaxed at the hotel. I can't wait until tomorrow!!!!

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Notre Dame

Today we visited notre dame. Notre Dame is a gothic cathedral in Paris. Once we got to Notre Dame we had to stand in a large line. it took about 15 minutes until w actually got inside. Right away we started to climb the 400 steps to the top of the church. We climbed and climbed and climbed and pretty soon we got to the first level. it was a pretty good view but the top was much better. Once we got to the top we had a spectacular view. Not as good as the Eiffle tower, which you could see, but still a view of the river and below Notre Dame. Inside the church the priest was preaching and there were candles lit everywhere. We walked around and looked at statues like the sculpture of Joan of arc. Once we left we headed on looking forward to the rest of the day.

The Patisserie

Today after we got back from are big museum walk my brother, sister, and i went to the Patisserie to get dinner and dessert that night. We walked around the corner towards a little shop that was down the street from our apartment. they had decorated treats like pie with the fruit in beautiful designs and they had treats that looked like they were a big glob of whip cream. We ended up getting one tiny pizza and a bunch of little pieces of pizza. For dessert we got to pieces of berry pie and 2 pieces of apircot pie, also an apple pie. The pie looked so pretty you didn't want to eat them to destroy the designs. they tasted just as good as they looked. when we got back we feasted on pie and pizza.