A City of Mytholigical… Happenings

From Africa to Europe… we don’t know exactly how we got here and why, but at least we were given the luxury of travelling in a hand luggage rather than that bumpy, dark hard-case luggage we went to Africa in. On our way to the destination, we heard people speaking Italian… so we thought we were in Italy… but apparently it was just the airport since all we could hear was the female voice announcing departures of planes… first in Italian… then in English or whatever language needed… of course with the usual funny Italian accent… ‘Ladies and gentlemenn, fly number AZ 855 will board from gatté B3 instead of gate B6, I repeatt…’ It was a long wait at the airport… and finally we could feel the air getting lighter again… colder a bit… but it was loud… I’m telling you… some big guy was snoring like a cow… while some ladies were talking quite loud…

It wasn’t a long flight… 1 ½ hour at most… and when we landed… we heard people speaking in a language very strange to our ears.

Everybody was talking about Acropolis, expensive taxis (€44 from the airport to the centre of the city which we heard was called Athens, €50 from central Athens to airport… yes… more expensive to go back for some mythological reason) and a different alphabet… a government that might change soon and with it the public officers as well, elections on the 4 October… so we can assume it’s September now… how people can be very friendly but how others are really rude especially in hotels and restaurants, and touristic places.

A nice street full of restaurants and bars complemented our stay one evening… relaxing atmosphere, excellent food (Kuzina Restaurant)… the only annoyance was the rain… we tried our Ghana bargaining tricks again with street sellers trying to sell umbrellas… but it didn’t quite work this time. At the end we bought an umbrella for €3.
Yes we had the time to play tourists for a day… so since we heard many people talking about ‘Acropolis’… we thought it might be an interesting place to visit… so we started walking and walking… asking around for directions… then we had to buy a €12 ticket… the lady behind the counter was… to put it nicely… quite daft. Her English was worse than that of a parrot in a French house. ‘Do you have a map of the place?’ we asked… her reply was, ‘ticket to go in is €12’... ‘Yes but do you have a map?’… ‘Only books… inside on the left.’ Whatever that meant in mythological English, we wouldn’t get a map from that lady.

Then we started our way into this place called Acropolis… a Pantheon, amphitheater, temple of Dionysius… everything more or less in ruins but of high historical value, where all philosophical thought started, Socrates, Plato, even the man himself, Zeus stepped foot here apparently, and where the first form of theater existed. Then we saw a sign reading ‘restoration project commenced in 1983’. My gosh! Can you believe it? 26 years of restoration and, guess what?  What is quite mythological about the place is that there are still plenty of cranes … the restoration is still on! Even the world isn’t as round as it was 26 years ago… and they… are still restoring it. Must be a complex endeavor that had cost too much for the Greek government… if not, then Greek workers are just a teeny bit lazy. Sorting stones… excavating... and a couple of earthquakes on the way that surely didn't help the works.

As with the evening at the bar… the God of Akwaaba decided to send us some rain again today… only that Acropolis is on top of a hill… so you can imagine what fun!

Well… this was our experience in Greece. We were not left impressed of Athens, as apart from the Acropolis thing… the streets are quite shabby, and it’s quite a congested city. The centre is okay... a nice shopping street but for the rest... we're not so sure. In the most touristic places we could see among the most kitsch souvenirs one can find. However… we’re sure there’s more to see in this country… we heard there are plenty of islands… so maybe one day, we should return. Our last impression ended at the airport… it has free internet terminals… so that’s cool… but after they took the x-ray for us again… there was nothing else, just a lousy coffee shop, and toilets for the men and the ladies.
P.S. If you are wondering how we managed to take these pictures… yes during the wait in that Italian place we found a camera… so we just borrowed it for our use.

Waking Up in Africa

Trees, spiders, ants, a monkey, white people, black people, very friendly people, blacks called whites ‘obruni’, whites replied with a smile ‘bibini!’. It sounded fun. We were on a beach in Brenu, small children passing by, carrying a log on their head, a baby on their back. Lovers kissing and hugging as the sun decided to settle. And we were there, enjoying the sand, and the sounds of the waves.

Close to here, earlier on we’ve been to Cape Coast and Elmina. We heard that many Africans from this part of the continent were sent to various parts of the world as slaves. How’s that possible? Humans using other humans as slaves? We heard the name of someone Barack Obama and that he was here some weeks before… saw even some posters of him on billboards and posters... Must be someone important.

Before that we were hanging somewhere high... it smelled of trees. What to us sounded like a tour guide... said that we were somewhere by the name of Kakum... we’re still wondering what that really is... but we also heard the sounds of laughter... and of people shouting and that they’re not afraid of heights. Nobody died at the end... so it must not be a dangerous place.

Yes we are in Ghana. Our hair and our shirt carry the same colours as this country’s flag. What a coincidence! A country void of the complexities of life, rich in its own simple way of life, in the smiles of the people who work very hard and do not loiter around begging for money.  A country where although life is a daily struggle for the majority, the truth is that these people are very respectful, friendly and there smile is welcoming, to say the least... that’s unless you offend their cultural or integrity in any way... something that can be avoided with some extra effort in trying to understand one another.

We went shopping at a cultural market. Thousands of handmade items... but the fun part of it is the bargaining for better prices. “I give you a good price”... “No, I want the best price!”... “Give me a price”... and that’s when we would give a starting price of half of what we thought any item was worth. Cheeky... but it works. .. got ourselves a big djembe with case included for 37 Cedis (approx € 18)... a xylophone for 13 Cedis, a whole lot of wooden African statues for between 5-8 Cedis each... well... we managed to get good bargains on almost everything. So now we return happily back to the next destination.

In fact shopping was the last thing we did here in Ghana... for the rest... we were hoping that we won’t be sitting again in the hard case luggage... nor in a plastic bag... space is tighter after all that shopping!  The God of Akwaaba heard our prayers and this time we were sitting in a comfortable hand luggage.

From there we didn’t feel anyone throwing us anywhere. We were X-rayed and occasionally got ourselves some bouts of fresh air. We heard the words ‘volunteers’ and ‘Don Bosco’ a couple of times... so we deduced it’s a password to access forbidden or restricted places.

That was the Ghana experience for us. I heard that during our stay in the darn plastic bag... some people were doing some good things out-there. Pity we were not there with them. But ... that was our adventure and we’re only looking forward for more!