Sao Tome Weekend

I apologize for the inconsistency in my posting lately. Frankly, we haven't travelled as much in 2016 as we did in 2015 so I find that our day to day life is somewhat uneventful. However, this past Monday was May Day in Ghana so Dan had a three day weekend. This calls for a weekend getaway... Enter: Sao Tome and Principe. A small country of two islands in the Gulf of Guinea off the coast of Gabon.

We learned of Sao Tome back in October 2014 when we spent a weekend in Lisbon, Portugal. The board listed our flight's destination as Sao Tome so we thought we were at the wrong gate. Come to find out the flight from Lisbon to Sao Tome stops briefly in Accra... so there you have it. It's by far the cheapest flight we've booked while living in Africa and we booked a hotel in Sao Tome using points from the chain that we "lived in" while in Maputo, Mozambique last year. Such a deal!

Our flight left late afternoon on Friday, getting us into Sao Tome around 5pm. We actually buzzed the tower on the landing, which prompted a good Top Gun reference. Turns out the runway is not very long and we didn't come down at the right angle in order to be able to stop in time so Mr. Pilot had to pull back up, circle around and try again. Success on attempt number two, followed by immigration, a quick shuttle ride to the hotel and a sprint off the bus to check in before the masses. Our vacation was underway. We changed clothes and went down to the bar to watch some soccer and have an appetizer before dinner. There was a barbeque buffet at the hotel so we sat outside with the ocean breeze and had dinner and some Portuguese Douro wine, and then we cried in remembrance of what good wine tastes like. We got tired (actually I got tired) so we went to sleep at a reasonable hour after a long day of work and travel.

View from our room

Saturday morning, we woke up and went down for breakfast. Found some pool chairs on the ledge of the pool... the ones that when you sit down, your bum is actually in the water. Ah, yes, this is the life. Busted out our books, slathered on the sunscreen and just relaxed. A few hours later, we went in for a quick nap, showered, and decided to venture out for some lunch and a walk into town. We found a place that got good reviews, and the name Papa Figo has a soft spot in our hearts. Back in Maputo, we used to visit a tapas place called A Esquina. The first time we went, we ordered a nice bottle of red called Papa Figos. This became our wine of choice at the restaurant, which resulted in Dan being dubbed "Papa Figo" by the waiters.

We ordered one plate of "frango" (chicken), a "peixe grelhado" (grilled Joe Pesci.. wait, no, grilled fish) and beers and took a seat at an outdoor table. Lunch was tasty and after paying, we headed out for a post-lunch jaunt into town. Town was... disappointing. Surprisingly, nothing was open on a Saturday afternoon. We wandered for awhile, eventually gave up and took a different walking route back to the hotel.

For dinner, Dan had a crab salad appetizer and we both had some steak. After dinner, we sat outside for a bit and then walked to the "Beach Club", a nightclub/bar that is adjacent to the Pestana Sao Tome hotel. They had a nice outdoor patio, so we sat, listened to the waves, completely lost track of time... all the things you should do on a vacation.

Sunday morning, we reunited with our pool chairs and soaked up more of the Sao Tomean sun. The hotel granted us a late checkout, so we lounged until we needed to go get cleaned up and pack. After checking out, we found a table in front of a soccer match and ordered two prego no pao (steak sandwiches) and some white wine. After indulging in the last of our good beef and wine, we boarded the shuttle back to the airport for the flight home.

On Monday, I planned to work a half day... which somehow turned into a full day. Dan ran some errands for me and brought home some tasty lunch takeout. And just like that... the calendar flipped to May. 20 months down on this crazy adventure, 4 remaining...

2nd Annual Valentine's Day Fort-Build

Valentine's Day weekend was surprisingly busy, despite not having any concrete plans ahead of time. Friday night, Dan and I went to dinner with Robin. It was his last night here in Accra before going back to the UK for a few weeks. They are currently in the process of moving up to Akosombo so the house here is pretty much empty and certainly without food.

We went to a South African restaurant that is in a hotel/apartment complex that looked new. The menu was pretty robust for a "hotel restaurant". We got some chicken and seafood skewers to share as starters and a bottle of wine. For mains, Robin got short ribs, Dan got the pork chop and I had a steak. Few places here have steak, and even fewer have good South African beef so I figured I'd give it a shot. My steak was actually really good, the best I've had in Ghana for sure. The guys seemed lukewarm about their choices. Robin's ribs were not braised the way we would have expected short ribs to be, so he gave the chef a hard time (which he always gets a kick out of doing).

Saturday morning, we lounged around the house. Francis, the head security guy, had been bugging me about washing our windows. I held him off for awhile with the good ol' "it's harmattan, let's wait til April" spiel, but he was growing impatient. As I'm certain he needed extra money, and we genuinely like him the most of the staff, we said ok. We did, however, choose to limit his access to just the living room and kitchen. We rarely open the windows in any of the bedrooms anyway.

He came at 10:05 (impressively punctual for a Ghanaian) and got started. When he finished with the patio, I was really grateful. Mostly because I had been dreading cleaning the deck after harmattan and trying to de-dust our patio furniture and the grill. He did all of that and washed the screens/sliding glass doors. We had agreed on 75ghs but we were so blown away by the job he did that we gave him 100 (which is still only $25, to keep things in perspective). I might have him do it again in August right before the patio furniture gets packed onto the shipping container.

Saturday afternoon was spent by the pool, with a side of naps. We got cleaned up and went to our favorite restaurant, Bistro 22, for Valentine's Day dinner. They had red lights throughout the restaurant with silk flower petals and heart confetti on the tables. There was a live band playing "love tunes" on a guitar, saxophone and a strangely high-pitched male vocalist. We ate a lot, enjoyed playing a mildly successful version of Name That Tune and got carrot cake to go. Came home and watched Mr. and Mrs. Smith whilst fork-fighting over the slice of cake.

Sunday was equally as relaxing (read as: lazy) while we watched a triple-header of soccer games. Last Valentine's Day, we were living in Mozambique. To refresh your memory... or mine, since I don't recall whether this story was told at the time... Dan offered to plan the activities for the day. When we left the hotel it was humid and over 100 degrees and felt like a sauna. By 4pm the sky turned black and was about to dump. We stopped off at the store for snacks and gave up on dinner reservations. Good thing we did because it was hurricane-worthy. Cars were stuck in the flooded streets, rain was blowing sideways, it was crazy. We took the mattresses and couch cushions onto the floor and built a fort of bedsheets and blankets, created a makeshift charcuterie plate and watched movies.

It was such a spontaneous but fun night that we decided to make it a tradition. So, this year was the 2nd annual fort-build-movie-watching Valentine's Day. We put together some snacks, built a fort with the sofa cushions and dining chairs and climbed in. We watched Bridge of Spies with Tom Hanks and then cleaned up and crashed. Still fun the second time around so I suspect it will continue.

Things have calmed down a lot on this end now that the weddings and things have passed. I expect the next couple of weeks to be pretty uneventful... which is just fine. :)

Christmas Vacation - Part 2 - Switzerland

We arrived in Geneva and checked into Eastwest hotel. The train ride was quite long so it was already late by the time we got settled at the hotel. We went to a pub to watch the Manchester City match and had a late dinner before going to sleep.

On Tuesday, we got up and walked across the lake to the shopping district. The main language in this part of Switzerland is French so we had a bit of a language barrier to deal with. We waited in line outside the supposed best chocolatier in Geneva and I got a small box of truffles. Dan got a gold star for this considering there are few things he dislikes more than waiting in a line and chocolate. Haha. That night we had dinner at a hotel restaurant which was pretty good, then we walked back to our place to get some rest. We had an early morning wake up call the following morning to take a bus up to Chamonix.

 Geneva's fountain from the Mont Blanc bridge/Dan's true feelings about chocolate

The bus ride up was uneventful. It was unseasonably warm throughout much of Europe so there wasn't much snow. This was obviously disappointing but we dealt with what we had. This was one of the few things that Dan really wanted to do on the trip so I was happy we were able to do it. We skied a bit throughout the afternoon.... Dan skied... very well, as usual. I fell most of the way down. I was much better in Tahoe but I guess that was already 4 years ago so I lost my snow-legs. You can take the girl out of Florida, but you can't take the Florida out of the girl. That said, Dan was incredibly patient with me and my last run of the day was... respectable. (Even that's probably an overstatement but, hey, just let me have this one.)

We got back to the hotel, showered up and went on a hunt for dinner. We found a burger place that was very busy so figured that was a good sign. We ate there and went home to rest after a long day.

On the morning of Christmas Eve, we headed off to Zurich. We stayed at Hotel St. Gotthard which was perfectly located right near the train station and on the main shopping street. Unfortunately, everything was already closed for the holiday but the city was very well decorated with Christmas lights almost anywhere you looked. The main street had strands of lights hung vertically from 4-5 stories up the whole way down the street. It was an impressive sight.

Months before we traveled, I contacted the hotel's concierge regarding restaurant recommendations. I suspected many places would be closed for the holiday and I didn't want to wait too long to book a table and find that nothing was available. She helped us book tables for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. On Christmas Eve, we went to a place called Blaue Ente (blue duck in German). What we didn't know was that it was not actually in the city center. So we took the train out to the suburbs and went to a cute little place for dinner. The food was good and it was packed so clearly we made a good selection.

On Christmas Day, we kept the family tradition going of seeing a movie. Any guesses? Yep, Star Wars... again. BUT this time it was in English, thankfully. We laughed on the way home about the bits we had totally wrong or just missed entirely from our first viewing in Italian. We took a nap, facetimed our family to wish everyone Merry Christmas and went off to dinner at Zunfthaus Zur Waag.

The building was beautiful and based on the photos inside, it is quite old. Dinner was really good and the ambiance was nice. We didn't feel rushed at all. I actually didn't see many tables turn over so maybe they only took one reservation per table for the entire night. Lots of families out and about. On the way home, we found a pub that was open and figured it would be a quiet way to wind down. Boy, were we wrong. It was jam-packed. People everywhere at 10pm on Christmas.

We stayed for a bit and then went back to get our things together for the next train ride the following morning. Next stop: France.

Christmas Vacation - Part 1 - Italy

Dan and I arrived in Torino (aka Turin) within a few minutes of each other. He was held up a bit having to go through immigration but we met at the baggage claim and got our show on the road. We checked in at Townhouse 70 which was a really cute boutique hotel chain with a great, central location, and went out and about.

Considering Star Wars Episode 7 was released while Dan was flying to Istanbul, we decided to try to find a movie theatre. We succeeded in locating one... but, it was closed. They had advertisements for the movie posted all over the place but the doors were locked. Perplexed, we circled the block looking for another entrance. We came upon a quaint little restaurant so decided to go in for a quick bite and a glass of wine. We sat down and were quickly told that they were closing as lunch service had finished, but they had a table at 8pm if we wanted to come back for dinner. Sure, why not?

Circled the block a few more rounds and noticed more people congregating around the entrance. Apparently, they must open just a few minutes before the first showing. We went in and waited in line. We had a discussion regarding whether or not the film would be in English. Dan said that he didn't think it was possible that the film had already been dubbed in foreign languages, so, at worst, it should be in English with Italian subtitles. This seemed logical to me but I requested that he inquire with the ticket sales counter to make sure it was in English. He did not. And it was not. haha.

When the plot started rolling up the screen and it said "Il Risveglio della Forza", he must have been relieved that I don't possess Vader's choke hold skills. But, the way he laughed at me and knowing how much he loves Star Wars, I couldn't leave. So we stayed and tried to comprehend as much of the film in Italian as we could. Dan "gathered" much more than I did but I got the general gist... or at least enough that I wasn't worried about any spoilers that could be posted on the internet. We went home to rest up and wandered back that way for dinner.

Back in our hole in the wall restaurant, we had our own private room surrounded by Italian wine on all the walls. The place was called Ristorante Enoteca Parlapa, and we had 3 courses each, with wine, and left about 4 hours later. No I'm not kidding. We sat down at 8 and as we were finishing our coffee, Dan said holy shit it's midnight. The food was good, not great, but the experience was quintessentially Italian.

See that table in the back room (on the left side of the photo)? 

Yeah, that was our table. Photo credit: here

The next day was Sunday, so we slept in and wandered around a bit. Walked toward their famous landmark, Mole Antonelliana (which is actual the Museum of National Cinema). It was cordoned off by police as apparently there was a bomb scare. Luckily, it turned out to be a false alarm, but we didn't stick around to find out. To the left is one of the few photos I was able to get of the top of the Mole Antonelliana.

Around 6pm, we wandered to an aperitif place under a colonnade surrounding a plaza. The plaza had a stage with a gospel choir singing Christmas carols so we sat outside and listened and people watched. We found a sushi place called One Apple for dinner, propped Dan's phone up against a glass and watched football in the corner upstairs while we ate.(hooray, Slingbox!)

Monday morning we boarded the train to Switzerland for 5 days in Geneva and Zurich. I promise I won't break every city into a separate post. This one was just particularly eventful with our movie go-ing and crazy dinner experience, so it was getting a bit lengthy. :)

NAWA and Dan's Birthday

The early part of this week was quiet, mostly because we were waiting to get paid... haha. On Wednesday, I went to a cafe to work and Alex came over at lunchtime to have a coffee and chat. She mentioned that she recently joined NAWA (North American Women's Association) and wanted to go to an organized dinner the next night. She wanted me to tag along; partially, so she didn't have to go alone but also because she's British, so she wanted an American partner in crime. Dan was expected to have a work happy hour that night anyway so I agreed and we RSVPed.

Thursday evening arrived and Alex was coming to pick me up. Just then, the sky opened up and DUMPED rain. In the run from the door of our building to her car, I was drenched. We very carefully navigated Accra's poorly drained roads and got to dinner safely. We weren't sure what to expect as we had been told that NAWA was a lot of older ladies, so we were going in open minded. There were about 20 of us and I think people ranged from early-mid-20s to early-mid-40s, so a good group. Everyone was really friendly and it was nice to meet some new people and share our experiences here in Ghana.

Maybe 5 of us were actually North American which I found pretty funny. One girl from Boston, two from Montana, one from all over California and me. The dinner was at an Ethiopian restaurant and was served buffet style. The food was very good and as enjoyable as I recall it being in Addis Ababa. The owner of the restaurant is definitely Ethiopian so the authenticity was never in question. We had some wine and chatted, and eventually parted ways around 10pm. The restaurant was very close to Alex's house so I felt bad having her return me back home. Luckily, one of the other ladies lives quite close to me and was kind enough to drop me off. I'm really glad I went and grateful to Alex for inviting me. Going to stuff like that alone can be overwhelming.

Friday was Dan's 30th birthday and we had reservations for dinner at a place called Urban Grill, which we heard good things about. It's close to his work so he and some coworkers went over and hung out at the bar downstairs after the end of their day. I met them there and, apparently, just missed the cake/singing bit. Funny because I know that Dan is not a fan of that stuff so I know better than to inform any servers it's his birthday. He had gone to the bathroom and when he returned they started their birthday music and parade of servers with a cake that has a sparkler in it, and immediately knew what was coming. That's what he gets for leaving Noks unsupervised. Dan and I went upstairs for dinner while everyone else kept enjoying their happy hour. We got a bottle of malbec and shared a tuna and avocado appetizer that came with plantain chips. For dinner, we got salmon with quinoa and a beetroot sauce and plantain chip crusted grouper with salsa and green beans. We swapped plates halfway through, haha.

After dinner, we went back down and found everyone right where we left them. We rounded up the troops and headed to Republic, an outdoor bar in Osu. We had some drinks and chatted until we got tired after a long day of work and celebrating. Headed back home around 11 to crash. I think Dan had a good birthday and a nice kickoff to Halloween weekend.

Germany Part 1 - Oktoberfest

We arrived in Munich around 5pm on Monday evening... just in time to get caught in traffic of people trying to go home from work or meander over to the festival for a liter of beer after a day at the office. Took us quite some time to get to the hotel but the room was spacious, for European standards so we quickly showered off the airplane smell and decided to roam over to check out the happenings.

Monday night's intention was just to get an idea of what this whole thing is about. I knew from photographs that there was a ferris wheel and maybe some other rides but I wasn't expecting the grounds to be as big as they were. They were easily twice the size of what I imagined. We were warned by friends who have attended in years past that it's almost impossible to get into a tent if you weren't there first thing in the morning.

Given that advice, we found a small beer stand off to the side and grabbed a beer and kind of surveyed the land. There are a ton of carnival rides and games that are all over the grounds, mixed in with these absolutely massive beer halls. Each big tent is sponsored by a different German brewery and most of them serve one particular brew in their tent, which is their brewery's Oktoberfest offering and you cannot get it anywhere else. After our beer, we went roaming around to find an ATM. Every one we found was out of cash but we were walking past one of the big tents and Dan noticed there was one inside. Expecting to have to haggle with the bouncer to get in the door, I offered to wait outside as "collateral". Dan walked right by and the guy didn't even look at him, so I did the same and Voila! we were in a tent.

This particular tent was really busy, so we decided to check out a few others before choosing a place to settle down for some dinner. We went to the next tent and asked one of the servers for a table for two, so she took us upstairs. We were looking at the menu when we realized... we had stumbled into the one wine tent that Oktoberfest offers. Dan found this particularly amusing as we then noticed all the  decor was grapes. We sat down, had a bottle of chilled German Reisling and some dinner... roasted chicken, with potato salad and a massive pretzel.

Our dinner and a quick picture from the second floor of the Weinzelt tent

Post-dinner beer

After dinner and wine, we figured we should find some beer so went over to Festzelt and posted up at a table with some nice Canadian guys. We chatted for awhile and then parted ways around 10pm as we were exhausted from our travel. We didn't sleep well at all and were awake at all sorts of crazy hours so our alarm at 9am was not particularly enjoyable. We had breakfast, threw on lederhosen and a beer maiden dress and walked back to the festival.

There was one particular tent that was on my "must-see" list. I've seen so many photos of it and I just needed to see it in person, so we went there first. We got another delicious "base pretzel" to line the bellies before the beer and got the day started. By maybe 11am, people were standing on tables chugging liters of beer while the rest of the tent cheered them on... these people don't mess around. We shared a table with two German girls and two guys from Texas. The table behind us was a whole group of young people from Switzerland so we were having a good time. So good, in fact, that we totally lost track of time and laughed that Oktoberfest is like Vegas where you have not the slightest clue what hour it is. Around 1pm, we decided to go next door to Hofbrauhaus's Tent.

Our tablemates here weren't nearly as much fun but the atmosphere was still worth experiencing. It's funny how much the decor inside each tent changes it's entire ambiance even though they are the same size. We finished our beers and decided to head back to the hotel for some naps.

 My fave tent - Hacker Festzelt/Tired Dan and the "base pretzel"

Silly pictures/Silly hat/Hofbrauhaus Tent 

 After our naps, we noticed it was raining (good thing we came home when we did), so we borrowed an umbrella from the front desk and set out in search of a dinner spot. We found a German restaurant/bar that was showing soccer and had dinner there. I had weinerschnitzel, and Dan had veal medallions with a sausage/sauerkraut starter... very German of us. After dinner, we walked back through the rain to the hotel and tried to get some rest before our early train to Frankfurt the next morning.

All in all, Oktoberfest was a blast. I'm not sure you need more than maybe 2 full days there... nor do I think that would be the best decision for one's liver. That said, I'm so glad we went and it was definitely a worthwhile experience that we would recommend.

How is it already May?

Seriously though. Seems like yesterday was the Super Bowl... and the day before that was Christmas. Where does the time go?

Things have certainly settled down and life is back to normal for us. Hannah came over on Wednesday and ran errands with me during lunch and then we hung out here for awhile and worked. She doesn't currently have a job but is in the process of trying to write a book. As a result, she spends most of her time editing, and hanging out with me when she needs an excuse not to edit.

Thursday was NFL Draft night. Dan and I went to the draft in NYC back in 2010. We had a good time but it's definitely not an event you need to attend more than once. In the years since we attended the event, we have created a tradition on the first night of the draft. We have chicken wings and beer for dinner. I'm not sure how or why we started it, but it just kind of happened. And continues to happen each year in April.

This year's draft-watching spectacular proved slightly more difficult than in years past, that dreaded time zone change caused issues for us yet again. The draft began at midnight local time. Thankfully, Friday was May Day, a holiday in Ghana so Dan had the day off. So we had our wings and our beer in our team frosty mugs, and then took a nap on the couch. I can safely say I made it to about 2am before I crashed. Dan watched the entire first round, finally hitting the hay around 3:30am. Talk about dedication.

Dan's Friday was pretty lazy. Lay around, work out, take a nap, all the things you should do with a day off. I worked during the day and then Hannah invited us to meet them for drinks and dinner with another British couple. We met them at our favorite sushi place just for drinks and then we went to an Indian restaurant for dinner. The other couple, Peter and Annabel, are very nice. They are an older couple with three kids, two in college back in the UK and a 14 year old here in Ghana. Peter works for the British Embassy. They have been expats for almost 20 years, in India for awhile and in Egypt for 4.5 years... and yes, they were there for a lot of the turmoil and were evacuated a few times. Thankfully, Ghana doesn't have those types of issues.

The food and the conversation were very enjoyable. Afterwards, we parted ways with Peter and Annabel and we were walking to another place to wait for Asare (Robin's driver) to pick us up. Conveniently, the landmark he used at a meeting place is a French restaurant called Bread and Wine. Suffice to say, Asare arrived... and then sat waiting for us for awhile as the four of us went in for an after dinner drink, or bottle, or two, or... yeah.

Official Dannifer Maputo Restaurant Reviews

Dan's been moonlighting as a restaurant reviewer and by that I mean he eats and drinks at various establishments and then writes to you about it. Without further ado, I bring you Dan's latest guest post:

Mundos

I’m pretty sure this place was mentioned in previous posts.  The menu is extensive and the food won’t kill you.  The best thing here is the wings, but the pizzas are very popular too.  The pizzas are super thin crust (so in my book the highest rating they can achieve are “not bad”), and there are a large variety of toppings.  Sorry, nothing too “exotic”.  On principle, I ordered the Mexican pizza. Ground beef, lettuce, tomato and cheese.  It probably should’ve been called Taco Bell pizza. The atmosphere is what makes the place.  Good crowd, and lots of TVs for sports.  Wait staff is pretty good with English.

Africa Bar

We went on a Sunday evening.  Outside clientele will find posters advertising the exciting events they have coming up.  Sunday evening was not an exciting event.  The Saturday night before, however, supposedly was. By walking in, we can validate that the evening prior was definitely a lot of fun.  Evidence included sticky floors, the aroma of stale beer, and hungover staff.  Given all I remember about the place is the party I did not attend, apparently the food isn’t anything to write home about (pun intended).  English is not useful, hand gestures required.

The Wine Bar

What?! Wine and tapas?   Why the hell not?  Getting here required us to use a brand new taxi driver.  Like super new.  We went to this place our first week in Maputo and we knew our way around better than him.  However, his English was spectacular and he also showed up after our meal to bring us back.  But enough about him.  Walking in you can smell the wine.  Not like the stale beer from Africa Bar, this is more like a fancy smell that makes you feel sophisticated.  The menu is full of Portuguese style tapas.  Cured meats, random things with eggs on them, and plenty of fish dishes.  The wine menu involves literally walking around the place and pulling a wine off the shelf.  Not too bad.  Points deducted for having one shitty California wine (actually called “California Wine”), but I know I shouldn’t let national pride get in the way.  The food was good and what we ordered came out at a good speed. 

A Esquina

Oops, guess it turns out that Wine Bar is A Esquina’s slightly less attractive sister or slightly less athletically inclined brother.  A Esquina tops Wine Bar in atmosphere and wine list.  Coming here also revealed that Wine Bar was overcharging for their wine.  The food at Wine Bar might’ve been a bit better, but it’s hard not to like a place where the next time you sit down, they call you Papa Figo.  It’s sorta like being the Godfather except people don’t kiss my ring, I don’t get money from organized crime activity, and I have no political influence.  The name comes from the wine I ordered two bottles of the first time we ate here.  It was the second most expensive one on the list (approx. $40). 

New Galaxy Indian

Tacky neon flashing sign outside and it’s across from A Esquina.  This was very highly recommended by coworkers and others, so we were willing to give it a chance.  Also, India is a hell of a lot closer to Mozambique than the US.  The place isn’t too fancy, but there always seem to be Indians eating there – a good sign.  Unfortunately, the place is Halal (i.e., no alcohol, like, not even wine).  It’s tough to eat the flavorful dishes they have here and knowing across the street is an establishment with plenty of Cab, Shiraz, and other reds that would pair nicely with it.  Regardless, the food is pretty damn good.  Reminder: dosas in San Francisco (at the restaurant called Dosa) are about the size of your palm.  Dosas at New Galaxy Indian are approximately the size of a small newborn.

Shawarma Hut

I’m actually not sure what this place is called.  I just know it’s in the food court of the mall and cranks out $3.50 shawarma in minutes that’s delicious.  There’s a consistent group of Middle Eastern guys playing backgammon in the corner.  I’m pretty sure it’s a front for something, but I won’t push the issue as long as the food stays cheap and good.  It’s also halal, but for how quickly they turn out the concoction of sliced kabob meat, I don’t mind.

Costa de Sol

Went here most recently.  It’s a “famous” place along the beach that specializes in seafood.  On a Sunday afternoon, you can see the beach parties starting to get started (recommendation from coworkers – get a better tan and learn Portuguese before trying to partake in the Sunday beach parties).  I ordered a prawn cocktail that was quite good, but was served over some interesting neon green liquid.  Luckily the waiter came and picked it up before I drank the mystery ecto drink.  It’s rather difficult to get to without a car, but it’s worth the periodic trip.

Our Weekend Trip to Lisbon

Last week, we realized that Monday, October 6th was the Muslim holiday, Eid-Al-Adha. This is one of the bank holidays observed in Ghana... we're still not sure why as approx 95% of the country is Christian. Regardless, we happily took the extra day to the weekend and decided on an impromptu trip to Lisbon, Portugal. (To be fair, we had planned to go at the end of October for Dan's birthday, but the extra "free" day made it too hard to pass up).

We took the red eye flight out of Accra on Thursday night arriving at the crack of dawn on Friday morning. Ate some breakfast at the hotel, chugged some coffee and hit the road to start soaking up the city. We actually benefitted from our early start as we got to see almost all the monuments and sights before the rest of the tourists were up and moving. Since Dan hates waiting in line more than anything (aside from maybe my Steelers), this was a welcomed surprise.

We spent much of the weekend sightseeing, eating delicious food and drinking surprisingly reasonably-priced Portuguese wine. I think it's safe to say we would recommend Lisbon to anyone. It has all the European charm of the bigger tourist cities, but at a fraction of the price. We were shocked at how reasonably priced things were, especially dinners and wine at well-respected restaurants.

Things that we learned about Lisbon/Portugal:

• Portuguese as a language may look similar to Spanish, but it is NOT pronounced anything like it. It sounds more like a Russian/German blend than Spanish.
• After dinner coffee comes in teeeeeny tiny espresso-like cups
• Lisbon is San Francisco's sister city. They have a Golden Gate Bridge/Bay Bridge combo and cars like the F-train that go around the city.
• While it is very walkable, the streets are all tiled so a bit slippery and uneven. Also, the underground metro was impressively efficient and clean.
• While Port is a bit too sweet for us, we learned that we actually really enjoy Madeira (the other of the sweet wines for which Portugal is known). This was especially enjoyable considering I grew up in Madeira Beach, Florida, and attended Elementary and Middle schools of the same namesake.
• That's it because we don't want to give it all away... you should go experience it for yourself!

And let the photo montage begin:

 Front of the train station

 I'm kind of obsessed with these lamps

 Many buildings are covered in beautiful tile work

This is a monument in the Placa da Comercios. We were told that this is where all commerce was done in Lisbon long ago because all the ships would dock here from Africa and unload. 

Lisbon's replica of the bridges of San Francisco. It's the color of the Golden Gate and has the two suspensions (and is quite long). But the anchors look more like the Bay Bridge with the X's...

Convent de Carmo - There was a sizable earthquake in 1755 that required much of the city to be rebuilt. This convent's roof was lost but never rebuilt making it open air. We think there was a concert hosted here the night before as they were taking lots of equipment out when we arrived and the cables were likely holding speakers.

Thanks for the lovely weekend getaway, Lisboa. We loved you.