We didn't want to leave the beach but we had pre-booked our train tickets already, so it was time to go back in the cold, rainy city. At least we were lucky with the train this time. Only half an hour delayed at departure and only 3 hours late in Nairobi. We could enjoy the dinner and the night in the compartment much more this time. We were better prepared though with lots of sandwiches and nibbles, boiled eggs and sweets which we couldn't possibly finish during the train ride.
And we were positively surprised by the good weather in Nairobi. It was hot and sunny, albeit not as damp as Mombasa. Before departure from Nairobi the previous week we had selected a nice midrange hotel in the city center, where we had the relieving shower.
Most of the must-dos in Nairobi we had already ticked off, so it was hard to come up with more things to do. John was a bit reluctant to walking around aimlessly in the city, even though we were always on the search for something, be it a coffeeplace or a bookshop. On the busiest corner in the middle of the day it then happened: I felt a sudden rip on my bag, turned around and at first saw nothing suscpicious. But when checking my bag I found out that someone had tried to slit it with a knife! My brand-new Africa-bag for which I had bargained so hard at Bamburi beach! Luckily nothing had dropped out, but I was mad at that idiot! Yes, everybody warns you of "Nairobbery", but I always consider myself cautious and alert... well, thanks to this guy I was reminded that you should never ever feel safe! For the rest of that day I couldn't stop thinking about what if things had run differently... what a nightmare!
But let's not focus on the annoyances here. We enjoyed ourselves in our favorite bar, had streetfood-like Swahili cuisine (which gave me the runs), went to a fancy shopping mall to do nothing, went to the City Park to do nothing, except watching African families dealing with monkey families and glue-sniffing streetkids in between, went to THE restaurant attraction in town called "Carnivore" where different sorts of meat were served Brazilian-style, went to the elephant sanctuary and to the Nairobi National Park safari walk, which was nothing else but a depressing zoo, went to the very touristy and annoying Massai market for souvenirs and that's about it. By now we had our own designated taxi driver Ken who took us everywhere for fair price and we didn't have to negotiate anymore.
We didn't feel the need of doing more exciting stuff, we mainly enjoyed each others company and had time to reflect on our travels, our observations and thoughts about Africa... because that was the end of it.
And we were positively surprised by the good weather in Nairobi. It was hot and sunny, albeit not as damp as Mombasa. Before departure from Nairobi the previous week we had selected a nice midrange hotel in the city center, where we had the relieving shower.
Most of the must-dos in Nairobi we had already ticked off, so it was hard to come up with more things to do. John was a bit reluctant to walking around aimlessly in the city, even though we were always on the search for something, be it a coffeeplace or a bookshop. On the busiest corner in the middle of the day it then happened: I felt a sudden rip on my bag, turned around and at first saw nothing suscpicious. But when checking my bag I found out that someone had tried to slit it with a knife! My brand-new Africa-bag for which I had bargained so hard at Bamburi beach! Luckily nothing had dropped out, but I was mad at that idiot! Yes, everybody warns you of "Nairobbery", but I always consider myself cautious and alert... well, thanks to this guy I was reminded that you should never ever feel safe! For the rest of that day I couldn't stop thinking about what if things had run differently... what a nightmare!
But let's not focus on the annoyances here. We enjoyed ourselves in our favorite bar, had streetfood-like Swahili cuisine (which gave me the runs), went to a fancy shopping mall to do nothing, went to the City Park to do nothing, except watching African families dealing with monkey families and glue-sniffing streetkids in between, went to THE restaurant attraction in town called "Carnivore" where different sorts of meat were served Brazilian-style, went to the elephant sanctuary and to the Nairobi National Park safari walk, which was nothing else but a depressing zoo, went to the very touristy and annoying Massai market for souvenirs and that's about it. By now we had our own designated taxi driver Ken who took us everywhere for fair price and we didn't have to negotiate anymore.
We didn't feel the need of doing more exciting stuff, we mainly enjoyed each others company and had time to reflect on our travels, our observations and thoughts about Africa... because that was the end of it.
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