When the mind wonders off – part XII

We talked about certain things, when the name Zanzibar popped up, which is some 40 kilometres away from the eastern coast of Tanzania. We’ve agreed a weekend spent on an island in the Indian ocean would do us no harm. Having no luck searching plane tickets online, we headed straight for the airport. Some haggling latter we were on a small plane heading for a short vacation on a large island in the archipelago of Tanzania. We left the car at the airport and observed a whale during our short flight. We haven’t even arrived to Zanzibar yet, but I’ve already liked it. The surroundings of two larger island is full of smaller islands, bathing in the sun in the embrace of the torques sea.

After arriving we’ve got a car for an extremely low price, one we found laughable, but the irony was, we’ve left our international driving licences in our luggage in our car back at the airport. We had three licences, but not a single one with us, so we had to pay additional US$10 for a temporary licence. Spending few minutes settling the formalities we cleared that problem as well and having a dip at the northern beach of Nungwa.

On the next day we took some time to visit the town of Zanzibar, called also »Stone Town«. It’s the hometown of legendary Freddy Mercury. White walls of narrow streets, many street vendors, huge amounts of spices and even more sideways in which it’s really fun to get lost into. A pleasant walk concluded with a haircut for the three of us in an accidental barber shop at the price of some €2 per person.

The town with its surroundings has a rich history. Many travellers, conquerors, merchants and colonizers arrived here. Sumerians, Egyptians, Indians, Persians, Chinese, Arabs and probably many more found their way to the island. And every one of them left a little bit of their culture here, which still leaves a special mark on the island today, seen in many interesting details. The name of the island comes from Arabic, meaning the land of blacks, for it was the main outpost for transporting slaves from the mainland into the world. Luckily only books remind us of this period of time.

Thus our visit to the island in the Indian Ocean was coming to an end. We wanted to be back on time, for we wanted to be ready for the visa.

We visited the embassy three times. First time, to get the information on how to get the visa, second to prove we’ve paid the $45 for it and finally with an additional proof of paying $15 more. It wouldn’t have been a problem if the bank was not very far away and the sun was so terribly hot. But we’ve managed and were satisfied, when they told us that the visas will be ready the very next day.