Traveling Tanzania: Introduction and Arrival

“All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” – Martin Buber

Almost two years ago, in fall 2011, I went with my family to Africa. It was such a great journey and I got to experience so many things, I have to do this recap, even though the journey was only 2 weeks long, in parts. I do not know how many parts this will have, I guess this will depend on how much I want to write that day.

The raw beauty of Africa itself and the mentality of the people there was so life changing for me and I learned to appreciate life much more and that nothing is for granted. I am really thankful that I got to visit this beautiful country and I am certainly returning one day to Tanzania. I try to share as much as I can from this wonderful journey even it has been almost two years. So I guess I get started. 

Saturday: Arrival 

The most of this day we were on the plane, obviously. However, because we had the first flight leaving, we got there at about seven o'clock in the evening, the time difference was only about 2 hours. We got through immigration quickly, because we already had the visa and we didn't have to wait to get one as most others had to. If you are travelling to Tanzania or any other country get the visa before your trip, because you save so much time at the immigration. At some countries it is even required you get it before you go. As we had all our things with us we had a taxi picking us up from the airport. Well at the time I though it would only take us a short time to get to the place we were staying at, but as the airport has been a little bit further apart so the drive has been about an hour. 

So we arrived at the Arusha Coffee Lodge, which was a really lovely place in a quiet part of the city, surrounded by coffee farms. It wasn't like an actual hotel, there were little bungalows spread all over the area and there was one big building with the dining area and the reception. The rooms were obviously ready, it was already dark outside. Luckily they served diner until eleven which was nice, so we had the time to got o our rooms, take a shower and change into other clothes. The food was excellent and we all felt a little bit thrown back in time, everything was hold in that classic british style. As usual after a long journey you are a bit tired, so I went straight to bed after diner. Okay like I said I felt like I was in England, so I made me a cup of tea as I got ready for sleeping. The room itself was quite nice, there was a large lounge area, a great bath and a really comfy bed. I wished we could have stayed a little bit longer there, but this wouldn't have been a safari, if we hadn't been everyday at a different place. 

So I know that was a brief introduction and not a long text about out first stop but I takes me a long time to remember everything and put everything in the right order.  However, I really enjoy doing this because I like to fresh up my memory about this amazing trip and before I leave it there, there is this one song that always reminds me of this journey. Always when I hear this track, I immediately think about how we have driven on those endless roads and how my hair flew in the wind. I know that might sound cheesy but when I first saw the clip I seriously cried. Probably because it was about an elephant and Africa itself... I do not know, but it was a little bit how I imagine paradise could be.