Africa » Ghana » Accra

Flight was ok despite being delayed by an hour or so from Amsterdam. Had to
kick a Ghanaian guy out of my window seat. which is good preparation for the
weeks ahead. Over mainland Africa you could see the desert but it was soon
swallowed up in dust and sand. the ground then just looked like a circle of
fluffy yellow, with a few clouds.
Immigration was a minor nightmare. I joined one queue out of the 5 going and
one of the guys dealing with my line left for a break shortly afterwards. An
hour and a half to get through was the longest I’d spent in line anywhere
abroad. I spent the time eavesdropping on the Swedish couple behind me as
they attempted to get in front of me in the line. fun. Once through (without
a mention of the £50 yellow fever vaccination I had had :( ) I grabbed my
backpack and hit the scrum of tax drivers. I didn’t have a single cedi on me
so I ignored them and went for a ATM hunt. no joy. Not surprising really as
the airport was like a deserted concrete shopping mall, the lights are on but
no one is home.
I got a taxi driver to drive me to an ATM and onwards to my hotel. the Lemon
Lodge. I knew straight away that we weren’t going in the right direction, I
might only have been in the country an hour or two but you know when the
airport is 4 km from the city the lights should be getting brighter as you
go in. it seemed like we were heading into the ghetto!! After 5 mins of
mounting concern I realized that plenty of people had seen me in the cab, the
driver insulted and laughed at someone who gave me a stupidly high quote and
was chatting to someone at the garage/ATM. I relaxed. but where the hell was
he taking me? After about 30 mins we arrived at the Golden Lemon Hotel.
Hmmmm. I got my book out relieved to be alive and unmugged and pointed out
the right place. More expensive to get there but I had a night tour.
Lemon Lodge was full so I checked in next door. What a dump for the money I
paid, although the fridge was nice. I had been working nights that weekend so
I was pretty tired. I went for a walk around though, despite it being 10pm
and pitch black outside. There were a couple of local bars but no tourists,I
bought some water and found an ATM for the future. I wanted to walk to the
main tourist area, but after wandering around for a while and nearly getting
lost the map I had didn’t make much sense so I though it best to get some
sleep.



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