Hellie and I went for another nice jog together before heading to the post office. I sent a package of some heavier clothes and mittens that I was glad I had in Switzerland, but will not (better not) need in Uganda. They say it would take ten days to reach Canada. I am curious if it will take longer than ten days, and if I will make it back before the package arrives? Who knows!
She took me for a tour to the Black Forest in the convertible! I have never rode in a convertible before! It was a gorgeous day and we had the top down and everything! It was a lot of fun. We drove part way up a hill, parked the car and hiked the rest of the way up. We hiked up to a tower that was built in 1893 (the first part of the tower anyways...it was built in stages). We climbed the tower! At one point we were exactly 1000m above sea level! Very cool! From the top of the tower we could see many different mountains!!! On a clearer day, we would be able to see the French mountain range, and we could have had a better view of the Swiss Alps. We hiked back down the hill and ate at a restaurant. The house/building that the restaurant was in was built in the late 1700's (1780 or something!). It amazed me that such a building was still standing!
Hellie then took me to a grocery store and we stocked up on some munchies for me to take with me on the train/plane. Cookies, chocolate, gummies ... all the good stuff! (Also I some buns and an apple ... gotta balance it out somehow ...) as well as some apple juice.
We had a relaxing evening before it was time to drop me off at the train station. Hellie saw that I got on the correct train and we said goodbye on the platform. I sure hope it doesn't take 8 years to see her again!!!!
The train left the station at 22:23. (10:23pm). It was an overnight train. I was in a compartment with 6 beds total. They were beds that pulled down from the wall, and there were two columns of 3 beds. I was in the middle one. I shared the compartment with a family from Malaysia who was traveling Europe for a 2 week vacation, and some random guy who boarded the train obviously after I had fallen asleep. He got off the train in Köln at around 06:00. It was a good experience traveling on such a train! I slept fairly well too!
I switched trains and eventually ended up in Schipol Airport! I arrived quite early for my flight, but because the overnight train was late coming, I was not left with quite enough time to do any exploring in downtown Amsterdam. I put my luggage in a locker and toured the airport. There is a lot of stuff here in Schipol!
I resorted to grabbing a cold drink from Starbucks (apparently in Dutch the "ph" in Steph doesn't exist ...)
and headed outside to read for an hour or so before checking in and getting the airport security process started.
I was really excited to have purchased my very own Dutch soccer jersey!!!! Yay! I've been wanting one ever since the FIFA World Cup in Africa a few years ago.
I boarded my flight and was off to Cairo. It was about a 5 hour flight from Amsterdam to Cairo.
The plan was late and I had to rush to my gate (although some other Gainline coaches had to sprint through the airport to make the plane!). I met up with almost all of the other coaches on this plane. We were all conveniently (and very coincidentally) seated around each other. That was nice because I had no idea what I was going to do once I made it to Entebbe.
This flight was about 4 or so hours as well. We arrived in Entebbe at around 0300 hours (3am). We got through customs, got our baggage and sat down for a beer. It was abot 0400 hours (4am!!!!!!) It was Nile Beer.
We took two taxis to the Entebbe Backpacker's. Our rooms were not ready at 6am, so we crashed on the lobby furniture until we could get into at least one room. We all dozed off!
Once we were showered and ready for the day, we explored the town of Entebbe. They drive on the left side of the road here. We decided to head to a beach to see a Ugandan beach. Spennah Beach was the smallest beach I think I have ever seen! It was nice though to walk on the sand and take some pictures of Lake Victoria and the birds. We then travelled to a botanical garden. Apparently there are supposed to be three types of monkeys, chameleons, birds, and iguanas/lizards. All we saw was a chipmunk, birds, termite mounds and one little lonely gecko who was definitely king of the biggest termite mound. Termite mounds are HUGE! Some are at least 3 feet high and wide.
We stopped and ate some samosa from a local seller. They were DELICIOUS! Green peas and bean samosas! Hmm!!!! We also experienced a drunk local. Uganda has a very high alcoholism rate. This man (his name was James) was a very interesting fellow. We were able to see through some of his comments the inequality there is between men and women. He had some sexist views and opinions.
We came back to the hostel and crashed hard. All of us napped until about 7pm. We then went out to this LOVELY nice restaurant for dinner. It was expensive. David said it would probably be the most expensive meal we would eat on the trip. My large glass of pineapple juice came to 32,000 shillings. Our bill came to roughly 250,000 shillings. No big deal or anything haha! $1.00 American is equal to about 2,500 shillings. In total, for the five of us to eat, drink, have coffee and dessert, it cost about $100.00 American. Not bad at all!
The mode of transportation are bodas. Bodas are these guys who drive motorcycles/dirt bikes and we pay to ride on the back. It's cheaper than a taxi and a lot more fun. No worries mom, they do not drive fast or dangerous. Dave told us to tell the guys to stop and let us off if we ever felt uncomfortable. It's safe mom.
So here is a map of Africa with Uganda pointed out....
And here is a map of just Uganda.
Not too sure what the internet will be like over the next two weeks. I will try to blog as often as I can!
Cheers!!
-Steph
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