Quick stopover in Dar Es Salaam...

...en route back home to Ghana. After our time in Zanzibar had come to an end, we flew back across to Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania. We thought we would spend a day or two there similar to what we did in Addis Ababa. We arrived around 4pm on Friday and promptly got stuck in afternoon traffic on the way through downtown out to Oyster Bay.

Oyster Bay is a lovely area that appears to be a somewhat new development. We stayed at the DoubleTree hotel on the water and had a lovely view from our room. After checking in we walked next door to the Slipway hotel which had a cute outdoor market of some shops and restaurants. Since we hadn't eaten since breakfast, we sat down at a restaurant on the water and had an early dinner and some Tanzanian beer (aptly named Tusker and Kilimanjaro).

After lunch/dinner (lunner? dinch?), we browsed the shops a little and then headed back to our hotel for a rest. On Saturday, we woke up and Dan indulged my desires to visit an art centre. One of Tanzania's famous artists was Edward Tingatinga. When I was doing research on what to do in Dar, I stumbled upon the TingaTinga Art Centre. We took a little motorized-golf-cart-looking-thing (yes, that's the technical term) over to the art centre.

I wasn't sure what to expect aside from the photo I found online:

photo credit: here

We walked in and it actually smelled of acrylic paint. There were artists painting while we walked through, all of whom were very nice. Per the lady who was helping us, there are approximately 60 artists who work at the centre and were all trained in various styles including Tingatinga. There were a number of paintings done on stretched canvases that were hung on the walls or leaning in stacks against the walls. Additionally, there were rows and rows of stacked canvas that were available for purchase as well. I was completely overwhelmed.

We decided it best to buy items that weren't stretched so that they would be easier to transport home. We could always get them restretched and framed when we get back to the States but they would be less likely to get damaged if they were rolled and safely packed in our luggage. After some debating and decision making, we picked out two pieces that we liked. We also got a trio of colorful painted wood fish and an obligatory Christmas tree ornament. A little negotiation with the woman and we were on our way back to the hotel with some neat souvenirs.

We went back to Slipway that afternoon and I found a hair salon. I creeped past the window to see if there were any patrons who were white (or had white clients in their chairs thus knew how to cut European hair). Luckily there were. I entered and a South African man came over to ask how he could help me. I asked for the price of a women's haircut and if he had any availability. He quoted me 50,000 shillings, about $25, and that he could take me right away. Boom. First haircut since London in April complete. Hooray!

We went to Cape Town Fish Market for dinner that evening and enjoyed a nice sunset. Had a glass of wine and some sushi before heading back to the hotel for a few hours of sleep. We got up around midnight to finish packing and head to the airport for our 3:30am flight. A quick stopover in Addis and we got home safely around lunchtime. After unpacking we went to grab some food and groceries and relaxed at home to finish off our vacation before heading back to work on Monday.