PS

The damnable power has gone out 4 times, and takes the net down with it. Alas, know I am well.

Enjoy the cute kid. 

I have luggage!

After the escapade of last night, there was no waking up before noon.

After binging on a lunch of orange juice (amazing here, btw) I trekked to the front desk to ask them if they’d call about my luggage. Turns out, the airport called to say my luggage had arrived at 10 am and the front desk had called my room… but I didn’t hear it. This was good news, and I immediately hopped in a cab to go collect it. 

I went into the customs area and explained my situation to them. They sent me to someone else, and I showed him my baggage claim form. He led me into a room FILLED (like, to the ceiling) with luggage and told me to find mine, and walked away. I eventually found it and with the help of a custodian got it out of the pile.

I even got the rest of Shaloo’s “From Canada” care package, as it was lost for awhile in the Great

Luggage Disaster of 09. I had brought him some gems in my carry-on baggage—2 issues of GQ, the Sports Illustrated

Swimsuit edition, a package of Peeps (he missed easter!), a carton of Pringles, and a Wall-E pez dispenser. The important things, KMS Hairplay mainly, were in the other bag. Finally, everything has arrived, and I can only hope to not have to repeat this situation with my next flight.

I had lunch with Shaloo and Sarah, a malaria researcher from Winnipeg, before hitting the beach. The road to the beach was dirt, and had been somewhat flooded by torrential rains. It took awhile to get there, but we made it eventually and even got to see Barack Obama St on the way. It was a beautiful area, but the waves were deadly. For real—as a former swimmer and lifeguard, I can say this is the easiest way to lose your life ever. The waves are huge and the undertow very strong. We watched some people surf while we laid on our beach recliners and drank. 

I've never been to Venice...

After my stellar arrival, I holed up in my hotel room but couldn’t sleep. I walked around checking the area out. I didn’t see any rabid bats, but apparently they exist. Awesome. The pool and deck area is incredible-- the hotel itself is straight out of 1975, but the facilities make it worth it. It's one of the expensive hotels in Benin, coming in at $87 USD/night.

Shaloo came over at 930am and we headed out for a walk around Cotonou.  Benin has one of the most stable governments on the continent, and a low crime and HIV/AIDS rate.

The only remarkable sight we saw, aside from unique side of the road gas stations (gas in liquor bottles) was Marie-Mere Notre Dame, an interesting red and white church. There were a large number of people standing outside in traditional African garb—big hats, bright colours, crazy prints etc. We thought it might be a wedding… til we saw the hearse. We stuck around to watch the funeral start and hear the INCREDIBLE choir sing French hymns.

We hit up the pharmacy (I needed hair products…) and the supermarket on the way back to the hotel (more alcohol in their supermarket than in our liquor store). There is a great covered over open-air patio here, so we had some lunch and Shaloo joked (I thought) about going out on a boat. It wasn’t a joke.

Hotel du Lac is, as you’d expect,on a lake, and I’ve spent the past 2 days watching people go out at 5 am in sketchy boats to fish. I saw one particularly ballsy Beninese guy take 3 strokes and haul out a bucket to pour out the water that was coming into his boat via the hole in the bottom. He would remove 3 buckets, paddle a couple more strokes, and repeat. So, I was hesitant about the boat situation. I figured it meant instant death—But, Shaloo had booked us onto a Hotel du Lac tour of Ganvie, what the guidebooks refer to as the “Venice of Africa” (note the PDF 'lifejackets' in the boat, but not in use). The people who live there fled when there was a war (ages ago) and just never came back. It is only accessible by water. We piled into a boat with some Belgians and headed off on our trek.

People in this area fish a lot. It’s their thing. There are shrimp and crab catching devices everywhere. We headed into Ganvie and there were children everywhere, some swimming, some driving their own boats, all prepared to strike when a tourist arrived. There were some great kids, but mostly they cover their faces from the camera when you try to take a picture. I figured it was because they thought we were stealing their souls or something…but Shaloo says it’s likely because they think we will sell their pictures to National Geographic and make millions off of them. Towards the end of our trip there, we stopped at a couple shops…

like, souvenir stores built on stilts. There was some great shopping here though, and I picked up some fabulous little souvenirs for friends. On the way back, we hit loads of waves and got soaked. Shaloo was laying down on the boat and we hit a wave and a fish came out of the water and hit him in the face. It landed in the boat and flapped around a little, before a Belgian threw it back to the sea. Anyone who knows of my extreme fear of fish can imagine this was not pleasant.

When we got back, I was finally exhausted-after having not slept on the plane or upon arrival. I had a little nap and a bed picnic of pizza and Pringles before supper. Getting ready for supper was easy as I had no clothes, so we got into a car and headed to L’ Atelier, a little European restaurant, with Shaloo’s friends Nate and Catherine. The food wasn’t so hot, but the company was fabulous, and after a couple bottles of wine we decided to move onward—to La Verdune. La Verdune is a Kelly Wilson place, as I call them, meaning the shittiest bar you can imagine but with such character it’s impossible

not to love. When we walked in, the song “Footloose” was playing, and the centerpiece of the room was a crooked pool table shimmied up by coasters, and the 6 VLT machines were all occupied by very excitable prostitutes, all waiting to win the jackpot. I made friends with Suzanne (aka Chiquita) who first told me of her jackpot dreams. I wasn’t sure if she meant picking up the clearly affluent older white gentleman who was alone at the bar, or winning the literal VLT jackpot. I figured either. Or both. This proved correct. Chiquita was fabulous, and told Shaloo later that white people aren’t usually that nice to them, so I guess she was surprised

that I talked to her.

What can I say? I love prostitutes.

She asked me if I’d be her ‘copain’ and we danced to ‘It’s Raining Men’ before I got my drinks and went back to our table.  We decided the night couldn’t end there, as it was so far perfect, and moved on to New York, New York, one of the most popular clubs in Benin. I didn’t know what to expect- but I certainly didn’t expect what I got. It was FANTASTIC! Great music (there is amazing music everywhere here…even on the dirt road you can hear someone singing or playing music somewhere), great drinks, lots of interesting people….we danced til 430 am and gave up—but the party was still raging. I moved my marriage proposals up by 2 and got a few phone numbers along the way. At this point, it was just Nate, Shaloo and me, as Catherine had gone home, and we realized we no longer had a drive. Cabs aren’t too common here-people use the much cheaper “moto”, a cheap version of a motorcycle where you pile on behind the drive and hold on for dear life. None of us were willing to do that, so we had to find a cab. We found one guy with a car who was willing to drive us, for 10,000 (20$ USD). Shaloo was like “6000 or nothing”…and the guy basically said screw you and walked away. Nate and I stood around wondering how the hell to get out of this mess, while Shaloo approached random people with cars asking for a ride. One nice Lebanese guy told another guy he had to find us a cab, so he did, and we got our 6000 drive without too much more trouble. It was a perfect, random, crazy day.

Now to find my luggage.

Unceremonious African Arrival...

So, I'm in Africa. The adventures started upon landing.

Some things I have learned:

1) I can't live without Colgate Wisp's. They are little disposable tooth brushes that don't require water and have a minty gel thing in the middle that makes your teeth feel lovely. WAY better than having to carry toothpaste and a brush/using the airplane water to brush your teeth. Im a teeth fanatic and can't deal with swamp mouth, so these we a great find. $1/2 pack at my local Wal Mart (love American Wal Mart...)

2) Two other must-have travel items have been discovered on this trip. One is the Body Shop's Vitamine E Intense Moisture Cream and the other is Polysporin Lip chap. This replaces my old standard, the Blistex medicated pot. Gotta thank Jacqueline for these ones-- she gave me a going away/survival package pre-Africa which contained these gems.

3) Royal Air Maroc is truly the most crap airline of all time. Far exceeds Air Canada in crap-ness. The food is heinous (more than most airlines), they lost my baggage, and they don't print all the via points on the tickets. I flew Casablanca-Cotonou (Benin) but we mysteriously stopped in Lome (Togo). It was a scheduled stop of the route, but it wasn't listed on my ticket so I had no idea. Not impressed. In the end, I had no bag in Cotonou and when it did arrive (next day) the nametag and lock had been removed, and someone had rifled through all my stuff. 

Ok, onwards to the real story.

I arrived in Cotonou on Saturday, June 20th at 4:20am. I had to file a lost baggage claim form, so came out of the customs area at 4:45am. My friend lives here and was supposed to come get me... but he wasn't there. I, like an idiot, didn't have his number. This is made worse because I have a 10 page itinerary with everything I could possibly need, but I didn't write that down. Anyway, I was immediately accosted by 5 large, burly taxi drivers who wanted to drive me around. Bad idea, methinks. I told them, in French, that I was waiting for a friend. 20 mins elapse and they're like vultures to a kill. They come back and harass more. So, I went to the lady at the info desk and asked her who she trusted to take me to town. She pointed to a driver named Vincent, so I followed him out. We walked through the pitch black to a car in a sketch parking lot. I asked to go to Hotel du Lac, as it was the only place in town I had heard of. I got in shortly after 5am with nothing buy my carry on baggage and my purse, and checked into the hotel. I had 8 mins of battery life left before my Toshiba bit the dust, and my converters were in my other bag (the lost one). I quickly booted up and got my friend's number from my Outlook, before it died. I then called him 10 times until he answered, at 7:30am.

Me: Where are you?

Friend: Uh, where are you?

Me: I'm in Benin.

Friend: WHAT?

Me: *silence*

Friend: Shit.

There was a slight miscommunication. He thought I was coming in at 4:30am on SUNDAY, when it was actually Saturday. 

There is more to this day...it does improve significantly after this slight disaster. I would have killed for a serax at that point... but, they were also in the lost bag. Stay tuned for the tales-- an African funeral, the "Venice" of Africa (a stretch, in my opinion), and a nightclub that would put many Canadian ones to shame. Oh, and a bar called La Verdune that featured a crooked pool table shimmied up with coasters, VLT machines and Beninoise prostitutes...with whom I made friends. 'Chiquita' was my favourite. She asked me to be her "copain". Ha.

A bientot!

L'Afrique!

I have arrived in Africa! I will post my adventures (and there have already been a few) in blog form as soon as I get a real internet connection. All I can get is Google and occasionally email... bah! Just wanted to say "Hey, I'm alive!"

Voyaging to Africa, with a 'Fulfilling Childhood Dreams' Layover

I'm leaving in 4 hours for Africa... I still can't believe it. I thought I'd be more excited, but I still haven't processed that in a few hours I will be basking in 120 degrees. Basking or baking. Either way.
The flight from Halifax wasn't too exciting.  I had a red eye-- departing at midnight and arriving at 10am. Despite this perfect opportunity to sleep, I watched He's Just Not That Into You, Taken, and Gran Torino. These gem films however were not the highlight of my day. That job was taken by one Mr. Patrick Stewart.

I went down to the Haymarket Theatre and took my seat before a beautiful, simplistic set waiting to see Waiting for Godot, starring Stewart and Sir Ian McKellan. I had heard from everyone I knew that this play was heinous, very boring, and one where 'nothing happens'. I read it in advance and kind of agreed.This play, Stewart and McKellan's Godot, was spectacular. they added in some comedy and were the perfect pair, a 'performance masterclass' as the local critics heralded. I can't say enough good things about this show, and would wish for everyone the opportunity to see it.
I would also wish for everyone the chance to stand at the stage door and meet Patrick Stewart. This man is my childhood hero and it was my first real goal in life it meet him. He was gracious and lovely, as was McKellan, who posed for pictures with some fans. I was unfortunately alone and couldn't get anyone to shoot a picture fast enough-- but, strangely, for once (perhaps the first time ever) I didn't really care about the pictures-- just meeting these incredible actors was enough. (Though, I did get a full cast-signed program).
That's about it for excitement so far-- I didn't sleep til 4am due to Stewart-fuelled adrenaline. But, it was worth the exhaustion today. I walked into Helmsworth to send some postcards and a package and had lunch at the Five Bells Pub. In true British form, it was all meats of some sort-- some sketch, some I'd heard of, no chicken. The pub owner-lady referred to me as goldilocks and made some porridge comment before I got away and sat down. I enjoyed a Foster's and the best chips of all time, before trekking back through the footpath, beside the prison, to my hotel. That's right. When the concierge said 'Oh, walk down that path by the prison for 10 mins' I made a guffaw sound. He just looked at me in blank, British fashion and said nothing. So I stopped laughing and headed down the path. They're right about the Brits--they don't joke. It was a prison. From the look of it, not a light security one either!
Off to Africa in 3 hours! I'll be in touch. Photos to come. Oh, and editing. Don't have time for that nonsense.

I'm slacking...

  Tuesday I didn't do much-- Paris recovery and WICKED!  Chris and I went for supper at this great place that was all chicken.  Then hit up the theatre and saw Wicked, finally.  I've wanted to see this for so long!  The show was fantastic, despite having to stop the production after the third number for a few minutes to fix some technical malfunction that was making a loud noise... The pic i've posted is of the main screen, a map of Oz highlighting the Emerald City.

Wednesday I was back in action-- got up and tubed to Kensington High Street to shop.

  However, I didn't really find anything to buy--strange I know.  But, even on sale, stuff here is SO expensive when you convert the money back to Canadian, and I haven't found anything I couldn't get at home.  I'm going to hit up some more places tomorrow in a last ditch shopping effort, but it isn't looking good.

Instead, I walked through Kensington and Hyde parks, down to Green Park and Buckingham

 Palace, then over to Whitehall, Big Ben and Westminster Abbey.  It ended up being a day of

 signtseeing and walking for 7 hrs.  So sore.

  (Thursday has been a somewhat recovery day too... chillin til Cirque du Soleil!)  It was a perfect English day-- damp, cool and foggy.  Looked like Halifax.  

Today is also cool and foggy... I am heading out to check out some more stores, and Chris and I are heading over to Royal Albert Hall to see CIrque du Soleil's Quidam tonight!

Romantic Paris!

So, this day began with a 4am wake up call. We hauled ourselves out of bed and got ready, and went down to meet the car at 5 am. The night before, I had requested a "taxi"...we got outside and it was a sleek, hot Mercedes. We were like.. "uhh...how much does this cost?" 24 pounds to Kings Cross...ok. Acceptable. We found out later that that was amazing, as we took a real, garbage cab on the way back to the hotel and it was 26! Anyway... we started with a Mercedes. Good start.

Caught the train at St. Pancras to Paris, and had 9 hrs to be fabulously French. We started by mastering the Metro (maybe not mastering...) and heading to St. Michel Notre Dame. I've always wanted to see Our Lady, mostly because of Disney's Hunchback of Notre Dame and was a little disappointed to not see Quasimodo and Esmeralda. Alas. The building is insane and so gorgeous... there isn't much I can say about it. It was just a beautiful place.

We next headed over to the Louvre, walking towards Champs d'Elysees. The Louvre is huge and majestic, and would be impossible to get through in an entire day, let alone a few hours. We decided to give it an hr, and went to see the general tourist sites-- the Mona Lisa and the Venus de Milo! Both were incredible to see, as was the entrance to the Louvre itself. Chris and I were like... :

Chris: That's the thing from that movie...

Me: Yea, the Tom Hanks one...

Chris: yes, where she is buried...
Me: Exactly, that Dan Brown novel! *silence*
Chris: yea, that one.

We then decided to skip L'Arc de Triomphe, as we were running low on time... we also missed Versailles, which was the dream. So, another trip to Paris will be in order! We had some slight Metro issues here, trying to get on the right line to the Eiffel stop... but then realized we were reading the bus route map and quickly got straightened out. Quickly = 20 mins later. The Eiffel is still majestic and romantic in the day, though it is kind of a giant stick of steel. We couldn't go to the very top level as it was closed for the week for renovations, but the second level was still high and gave us some great views of the city.

After touring Eiffel, we decided to hit Montmarte and the centre of Bohemia (Toulouse!). Montmarte was everything I expected it to be, and we stopped to have a glass of wine and a snack at a cafe, and proceeded to check out some of the sex shops. Wow. These are a little different from the Canadian version. Let's just say more "fetish". We were really curious about the peep shows... but decided we didn't have the time!
Of course...we couldn't miss the famous Moulin Rouge. We didn't have time for supper and a show, but it was still awesome to see!

Londontown!

Well, after a grueling journey across the pond I have made it to the beautiful hotel and mastered the Tube lines. Mostly. No mistakes today, anyway!

I got into London and decided to be cheap and take the tube to Gloucester Rd and walk to the hotel, saving 30$ from a bus and a whopping 90$ from a cab (the British Pound will kick the Canadian Dollar's ass any day). Unknown to me was the fact that it was about 2 miles to get from Baggage to the trains. So that was a good time. Then I bought my tube pass for the week, looking like total garbage, and tried to make little eye contact and get straight to a shower. No judgment.

The hotel is fabu and much more spacious than my previous London accommodations. They also have wonderful room service, as I ordered the kids menu for 7 pounds. Score. They brounght me pizza, garlic bread and a wee banana split. Delicious.

My goal today was to find Paddington Bear, so the first thing I did was hop on the Circle Line and head to Paddington Station. There were lots of lame tourists like me taking pictures and buying bears, so I didn't feel totally lame. And I got my bear. And I love him.

Then it was off to Camden Market, which is a massive area that springs to life on Sundays. It was essentially a lot of ethnic markets put together, with a dash of tattoo parlour and goth renaissaince faire garbage. But, the food was delicious and the crowd was happy and there was a lot to see! There was a lot of stuff from India that had been taken from a super cheap Indian market and moved to London with 10x price increase, so I didn't buy much. But, I got some gifts for other people and beautiful art. I got a set of 3 black and white oil paintings and one of 2 elephants...very Indian, for luck! It was the one thing I didn't get in the country, so I was happy to find it here.

By this time...around 330, I was passing out. I got on my train home and fell asleep twice, but didn't miss my transfers! Yay! I came back and had a fabu nap and am now waiting for Chris to get here. Travelling by yourself is only so much fun...can't wait for Paris tomorrow!

Yes, this is totally for my Mother. Cindy, I hope you are happy!

Ye Olde Motherland

Up next: London and Paris. I will keep you ( =my mother) apprised of my survival as I trek around the homeland!