Chitalian Travels

Well, I’ve been a bit of a missing-in-action Chitalian lately, as, once again, regular life takes hold and barely leaves me time to think!!  But as I got on a plane to Mexico City, I had some time to reflect on the literal journey to wherever it happens to be on any given day.  I thought about the flights themselves, and how I like to pass the time.

Today, as I sat in my economy seat (actually, economy plus which was nice, but I think I’ll explore the benefits of frequent flier programs in another post) I thought about the actual voyages to reach the many interesting places I have gone to recently.  Now, some people absolutely abhor flying.  I’ve never been one of those people.  I’m told that when I took my first international flight as an infant of less than 6 months of age, I was pleasant and seemed not at all fussed to be on a plane, so maybe its in my nature.  I don’t know.  But as I sat in my seat staring at the paid TV option before me I had to weigh my options and see how I wanted to pass the time.

First, you should know that I actually enjoy the forced detachment from constant reach-ability that modern life offers.  I like the fact that on a plane, I don’t have to feel at all guilty about turning my phone completely off (in fact, flights are probably the most consecutive hours my phone is ever powered down!) or not responding to texts/phone calls/emails.  Don’t get me wrong, I’m a Mac girl who totally loves her iPhone, and I like being able to contact people at any time or get online at any time.  But there’s a certain level of escape that I feel when I hear the airline staff tell me to power down my electronic devices.  For the most part, airplane time is totally “me time”.  There are times that I might use the time to work on things for the office – reports, presentations, or whatnot.  But the rest of the time, its totally time where I don’t have to feel guilty because I’m not doing the laundry, cleaning the house, organizing my paperwork, or whatever.  I can’t do any of those things because I’m on a plane…. duh.  Sorry, guilt, try someone else!

As I sat on the plane this time though, I had an interesting debate with myself, and looked around to see what those around me were doing.  I was on a United/Continental flight, and each seat was outfitted with its own TV that could receive DirectTV….. for a fee of about $8.00.  You might think to yourself, OK, $8 for a 6 hour flight…. not too bad.  But maybe it was the cheap-skate in me, but I felt resentful at having to pay for my on-board entertainment.  I chose to forgo the convenience of the TV in front of me (as, I might add, did most of those around me – I think that this DirectTV idea may prov to not be as profitable as they thought.  They might have a captive audience on planes, but I think that a lot of that audience will be equally resentful as I was, and find other ways to amuse themselves), and opt for other forms of entertainment.  Here are my favorite ways to keep busy on planes:

1. Music.  Probably my favorite way to keep busy on a plane.  I love music.  I have an extensive and eclectic collection on my iPod and airplane rides is often when I discover old favorites that I forgot I had.  I have stand-by music for when I am just looking to relax and sleep (Enya is good for that, as is Jack Johnson – both help me relax and tune out…. and having earphones that reduce the engine noise is key).
2. When its FREE, I like on-board entertainment systems.  My favorite is the one offered by Virgin Atlantic.  Now, I get that they’re owned by the same person as Virgin Records, etc., so by offering free music and TV on their flights it’s essentially free advertising for them, but I’m totally OK with that because they offer a great selection of music, TV shows and movies.  I’ve seen many a movie that I’ve really enjoyed but never would have sought out on my own because it happened to be one of the options on my personal movie screen.  Not too shabby!
3. Old school printed games.  My favorites are the logic puzzles.  I’m convinced that working on these sharpens my deductive reasoning skills….. and even if they don’t, I just enjoy them!  I tend to buy them in magazine form and do them on planes with some frequency.  I also like the New York Crossword puzzles, and since I don’t do them daily, I will buy myself one of those crossword a day calendars every other year or so, and bring a few weeks worth on every trip, and do them as I go along.  My dad prefers Sudoku…. not my favorite, but also not bad.
4. Sleep.  Ah, sleep.  Yes, I’m one of those people who has no problem conking out on a flight.  But its largely because I come prepared.  For every trip with a flight longer than 3 hours I pack the following: a pillow (and not the inflatable kind – the kind with those little beadies in them), eye shades, ear plugs and/or noise reducing ear phones for my iPod, and a shawl that can double as a blanket if needed.  These days, you can’t take anything for granted.  Airlines aren’t giving out blankets, pillows, and especially not those cute little sets with socks, earplugs, toothbrushes, etc., that they used to give out.  If you want to be sure to have these things, bring them yourself!  Or fly first class, because I think they still get them there……
5. BYOV.  Bring Your Own Video.  Whether its DVDs that you can play on your work laptop drive during travel, the movie you downloaded to your iPod or iPad, BYOV is quickly replacing the airline provided videos.  You can watch your favorite TV shows or that movie you’ve been dying to see but never quite made it out to the theater for.
6. Books, newspapers and magazines.  I like to go for things that I don’t think I’ll mind throwing out or giving away along the way, so that they won’t take up space in my luggage on the way home.  But these classics are still good.  And though the Nook/Kindle/iPad/whatever other eReader suits your fancy, are starting to take over the market, there’s still something to be said for the feel of a book in your hand.  Of thumbing through actual pages, not just virtual ones.  If you’re on a long trip, an eReader makes more sense because you can bring 50 books or more in one device.  But for a short one-weeker, especially if you think there’s a chance you’ll be lounging on a beach or at a pool (which sadly I’m not on this trip) it’s nice to have a paperback novel in hand.
7. Work…. OK, if you HAVE to get something done, this isn’t a bad time to do it.  You’re not getting interrupted by phone calls, or distracted by emails.  The only down-side is that if you are looking for something online to supplement your presentation or report, it’ll have to wait until you’re on the ground and can connect to the internet, but in the meantime, you can still get a lot of the groundwork covered.

Here’s wishing you safe travels full of entertaining activities!
TC2

So when I was in high school, my dad got into an accident.  His accident landed him in the hospital, undergoing a couple of surgeries, that ended with him having a scary Frankenstein-like (at least in my teenaged eyes) contraption made with metal bars coming out of his leg.  He was bed-ridden for a while, followed by a period in a wheel chair.  During that period, I realized exactly how unfriendly the world can be to those who get around on two wheels.  Our home at the time wasn’t too bad for that purpose, having been designed by someone who had medical concerns of their own.  The majority of the living space was on the main floor, and not going down to the basement (where my room and the rec room were) was not a hardship to my dad at all.  With the help of some family friends, all we needed to do was to put a wheelchair ramp over the stairs up to the front door and some bars to grab onto in the bathrooms – where spills are more likely and more dangerous, and the house was all set for my dad to get around in.  The hallways were wide enough, the floors were hardwood or tile, and even the bathroom in my parents’ room was outfitted with a shower stall that he could fairly easily get in and out of, when he was able to get around.

The world outside our home, however, wasn’t always as friendly.  For some time, we became much more aware of which places were sensitive to the needs of the handicapped and which weren’t.  Then, my father got onto crutches, and through physical therapy got back to walking without assistance again, and though I’d like to think that I remained somewhat more sensitive to the needs of the handicapped, admittedly, I didn’t think about it quite as much for a while.  I’m starting to become a bit more sensitive to it again, for various reasons I won’t get into now, but when I pay attention, I have to say that I’m frequently disappointed.

Getting around airports can be a challenge to those with physical disabilities.  For one thing, needing to sprint from one terminal to another can pose a big challenge.  The good news is that in many airports worldwide, the airlines provide great assistance to those who require it (or the airports themselves do), and almost every major commercial airline allows for priority boarding to those who need assistance.  Heck, with those golf-cart-type things that many of us have almost been run down by at the airport, sometimes the disabled can make better time getting from one gate to another than the rest of us!

All of these issues were at the forefront of my mind when I was moving to Africa for 6 months.  My parents spend much of their time in Italy, so being in East Africa, I was actually closer to them than I normally am on the East Coast of the United States.  It seemed like such a great opportunity for them to come to visit me!  But then I thought about the ease of travel around the area, and whether or not I felt that it would be a good idea for them to come out.  While my parents aren’t wheelchair bound or disabled, my father does have Parkinson’s disease, which makes him more nervous about the likelihood of falling.  And while Djibouti does have its share of wheelchair-bound people, to be honest, I don’t know how they do it.  The streets have gigantic pot-holes, and there aren’t too many sidewalks to get around on.  Able-bodied young people sometimes have trouble keeping their footing on the ill-maintained or poorly paved streets and crumbling sidewalks!!  And some of the government buildings I went into at various points were crowded and most had stairs at the entrance or inside, with no elevator alternatives.  There doesn’t appear to be any Djiboutian equivalent to the Americans with Disabilities Act, requiring that US government buildings be handicapped accessible.  Even the newer Djiboutian government buildings I saw had no wheelchair ramps or elevators to allow access.

The hotels I stayed in there, however, do seem to be largely accessible.  The Kempinski hotel has access to all major areas on the ground floor, and has elevators to access all other floors.  The hotel seems to be entirely wheelchair accessible, and the large shower stalls in many of the rooms (though, notably, not all the rooms – you would have to request a room with a large shower stall not one with a tub for maximum wheelchair accessibility) would be easily used by someone in a wheelchair, many even having a built-in bench that you could easily trans from a chair onto in order to bathe in comfort from a seated position.  The Kempinski hotel seems to be the best set up for handicapped guests.  Les Acacias hotel, a new hotel by the German hotel chain, Bavaria Hotels International, also seems to be quite well set up for handicapped guests.  I have only seen one of the rooms here, but there is elevator access to the various floors, and the hallways seem wide enough to accommodate wheelchairs.  The bathrooms are spacious enough, and the shower stalls offer a 1/2 door and access to the shower is easy for wheelchair guests to get in to.  My concern with their bathrooms, however, is that only having a 1/2 wall on the shower stall, the water gets everywhere in the bathroom, so anyone on crutches or using a cane or walker would have to be careful not to slip in the bathroom after anyone takes a shower.  But this is a brand new hotel, so maybe that’s something that they will work out in time.  If I were them, I’d have some concerns about liability with the way the showers have been designed, but with some minor adjustments, they could be made much safer for everyone – disabled or not.

Turning back to the airports though, here’s an example of something that I saw that highlighted exactly how difficult handicapped life in Africa can be.  I was in Addis Ababa’s Bole airport, waiting to get a flight to London.  My whole epic journey was the subject of another post, so I won’t get into my personal ups and downs on this trip now, but I would like to share the struggles of one of my fellow passengers.  When you enter the waiting area after checking in for your flight at Bole, they issue you a color coded loading zones boarding card.  You are supposed to be called in order of the seats in the plane – Blue zone might be the back of the plane and get called first.  Then Red zone for the middle of the plane and get called second.  You get the idea from there.  Anyway, after carefully assigning everyone color codes, when they actually call boarding, they disregard the color-code system and call everyone at once.  What that does is result in a bum’s rush of the door that presumably leads you to the plane.  During that bum’s rush for this flight, I noticed an older gentleman, seated in a wheelchair, looking a little lost as fellow passengers streamed past him towards the exit.  His eyes were wide, and he looked very alone.  I walked over to him and asked if he spoke English.  He did.  I asked if he was traveling alone.  He was.  I asked if the airline was supposed to be sending someone to assist him.  He said yes.  I looked around and saw no one.  I told him I would go check with the staff at the front and make sure someone was coming for him.  He looked at me with very grateful eyes and nodded his head.  I briefly thought about just helping him myself, but then I was worried about liability issues (though in Africa that probably wouldn’t be as much of an issue – I don’t think they’re as litigious in Ethiopia as they are in the US!) and taking responsibility for a stranger, so I just went to the desk, fighting the crowd to get there as I was going against the flow of traffic.  I got up there and confirmed that someone should have been going to offer the gentleman assistance, and I pointed out that it would’ve been better to assist him before calling the other passengers for boarding, as most airlines allow people requiring assistance to board first and avoid the rush, but obviously it was too late for that.  I went back to the gentleman and gave him a thumbs up letting him know that someone was coming.  He returned my thumbs up along with a hesitant smile, and I let myself get swept up by the flow of the crowd towards the exit and went on my way.  The crowd followed the turns of a hallway and came to an abrupt stop right before a turn.  As we turned the corner, I was surprised to see the people ahead of me lining a flight of stairs, their rolly suitcases dragging behind them, or their big shoulder bags threatening to knock over the people crowded next to them on the steps.  I didn’t see an escalator, but presumed that they would be taking my disabled friend downstairs by way of an elevator or something.

Wrong.

As I stood there, I heard people behind me saying ‘Excuse me! Excuse me!’, and I turned to see two Ethiopian airways employees pushing my new friend’s wheelchair right to the top of the stairs.  Then they asked him if he could walk down the stairs!  They got the crowd to give way just enough room for one employee to walk next to this elderly man as if the employee were a crutch or a cane as he was helped down the flight of stairs.  Of course, the crowd did their best to accommodate them, but being tightly packed in, there was only so much room they could make.  Then, the other Ethiopian Airways employee followed them with the chair, which he had folded, dragging at times in front of him, at times behind him.  His small frame and the size (and likely weight) of the chair didn’t really inspire confidence, and I think everyone around him was holding their breath hoping it wouldn’t slip from his hands and knock the old man down, while essentially bowling for other customers as it flew down the stairs.  I know I held my breath until all 3 were safely down the stairs, thankfully not having taken anyone down along the way.

Anyway, watching the difficulty that this man had just getting to the transit bus I admired the fact that he was traveling at all!  It can’t be easy for him, and it did make me wonder what had motivated his trip.  I should also explain that after the stairs, you get on a transit bus that brings you to the tarmac, where you walk a little ways and then climb stairs up into the plane – I didn’t see how he made the rest of the journey onto the plane, so I didn’t see if the bus was one of those hydraulic kneeling ones that make it easy for people with physical disabilities to climb aboard, or if there was a wheelchair assistance method to board the plane – I suspect they just found a bigger Ethiopian airlines employee to carry the gentleman up the stairs (in my mind, piggyback style).  I don’t think that age or disability should stop anyone from seeing other parts of the world.  I hope that maybe people will start to think about that a bit more, and more of an effort will be made to improve the handicapped accessibility level of other parts of the world.

Here’s a little US-pop-culture aside:  the popular US show Glee includes a singing and dancing wheelchair-bound student, Artie, in the glee club that is the focus of the show.  The character, whose disability was the result of a car accident when he was young, allows the show to explore the issue of challenges that the handicapped face in a way that makes it very easy for viewers of all ages to relate to.  Interestingly, the actor, Kevin McHale, who plays Artie, is not physically disabled, and had to become comfortable with being in a wheelchair for the role.  In one episode, called “Wheels” the whole glee club performs a musical number in wheelchairs and they become more aware of how hard life is for Artie, the need for wheelchair ramps in schools, and the isolation Artie sometimes feels due to simple things like not being able to take the same bus to competitions with his club-mates.  I highly recommend watching the episode for anyone who is interested in this issue – I think they handled it pretty well!  Here’s a clip of the cast of Glee, talking about doing a choreographed wheelchair routine and how hard it was to be in a wheelchair:

OK, well, that’s it for now.  Wishing you all safe, comfortable, and happy travels,
TC2

Andy Warhol Screenprint - Click on picture to go gallery

While being away from home for over 6 months, living in Africa – a land far, far away, with customs and cuisine very different from what I’m used to, I had a chance to reflect on a lot of things.  Then, not too long ago, friend and fellow blogger Starvacious Gal (whose trip to Reykjavik made me rethink my post on my most wanted trips to see if I can squeeze Iceland in there too) wrote this post on Secret Single Soup, and reading that while I was laying in bed with a cold, I started thinking about comfort foods, and the things that I missed from home.  This post has been lingering on my mind for a while, and I’ve been pondering what really defines home and comfort to me.

While I am an adventurous soul, and I’ll go almost anywhere and try pretty much anything once, there are certain things that just make me feel comforted and at ease.  Some of them I knew I would miss when I moved to Africa, but others took me by surprise.   And, to be honest, the amount of junk food that makes the cut is slightly disturbing to me, but what can you do, the heart wants what the heart wants, right?   Here are some of the things that said “home” to me, and that I couldn’t wait to get back home to have:

1. My favorite sushi rolls from my favorite sushi place back home, Samurai Sushi.  They make a Tartar Layer appetizer that’s to die for!  So far, everyone I introduced it to loves it, and its something I’ve never seen served anywhere else.  And frequently adding a side of seaweed salad really completes a sushi meal!  Yum.
   
2. Pretty much ANYTHING from Trader Joe’s – being in a country where recycling was unheard of, where plastic bags fly around every time the wind blows because they are everywhere, and buying “organic” is nearly unheard of, the affordable deliciousness of the healthy selections of a Trader Joe’s grocery store is enough to make this east-coast gal’s mouth water!  Items I missed most?  The mushroom & black truffle flatbread pizza, the gingerbread cake mix, and the Columbus salami.  When I came home, the gingerbread cake mix was not in stock (it’s a seasonal item) but you better believe the salami and the pizza were in my cart on my first trip to TJ’s!
3. Good buffalo wings or chicken fingers.  Preferably eaten while sitting at a bar, with a nice cold beer, and in the company of good friends.
4. Grilled Cheese Sandwich with Tomato soup (usually Campbell’s basic tomato soup, made with milk instead of just water to add a bit of creaminess to it) – I found some La Vache Qui Rit processed cheese slices in Africa, and some instant tomato soup that I could easily make on my electric cooktop at the hotel, and it was yum!  Though the instant soup was not nearly as good as Campbell’s, it did the trick and held me over until I could get home for the real thing!
5. Stove Top Stuffing – OK, I know it’s nowhere near the homemade stuffing that I make at Thanksgiving (garlic & mushrooms really make it fantastic!), but when you don’t have hours to slow roast a turkey just to have some stuffing, it is not half bad!  I’ve been mocked for asking my friend CB to bring some Stove Top out here when he came to work with me in Africa, but what can I say, it’s easy, tasty, and something I missed from home!  Classy?  Maybe not.  Comforting?  Totally! (And I should say to CB, who mocked me for asking him to bring Stove Top, that the McRib’s he loves so much from McDonald’s are no better than my Stove Top in the fine dining department!)
6. Cool Ranch Doritos- OK, this one isn’t so much of a comfort food that I’m homesick for now as an adult, but it really was when I was younger.  When I was in high school, and we moved to Florence, Italy for 6 months, nothing made me feel more comforted than when my best friend KL (at my request) sent me a couple of bags of Cool Ranch Doritos in a care package.
   

   Muttsy, by GUND

   Then, to make it even better, she included Muttsy, which to this day I find comforting to hug!  That was a very homesick time for me, because as a bratty teenager it took me a couple of months to stop pouting and appreciate the beauty and wonder of where I was.  It’s hard when you’re 16 to be pulled out of your high school and brought anywhere away from your friends, no matter how fabulous a place you’ve been brought to!  And in times like that (parents of teenage brats or soon-to-be teenage brats, take note) small tokens from home can make a HUGE difference!

7. Readily available good Italian salami & prosciutto – pork products are very expensive when you do manage to find them in a Muslim country, and you can’t get the good Italian stuff very easily, if at all.  I found a good Italian deli in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and wound up buying some there while I was in East Africa.  Since I wasn’t living in Ethiopia, though, that was certainly not the easiest way to get lunch meats!!  Much easier when I’m in the US or in Europe!

Now comes the bigger question of how to avoid the feeling of homesickness while away…. that’s a little tougher, but I’ve found that a few things help.

1. Skype/FaceTime or any other video chat programs to see the faces of those you miss
2. Google Voice or Skype to Go for cheap calls home
3. Exciting trips to avoid feeling lonely during holidays.  For example, I found being in East Africa, and away from home for Christmas lonely and isolating, as I was far from my family, so I hopped a quick flight to visit an acquaintance (now turned friend, thanks to this trip!  And meeting AB’s friends in Jordan was an added bonus, as they were also great and as other adventurous travelers, who knows where our paths will cross again!  Some of us have kept in touch, and it’s always great to have friends around the world who you can visit or meet up with for more adventures.) who had recently moved to Jordan in the Middle East for New Year’s, which gave me an exciting distraction.  Having a new place to explore and a bit of excitement for New Year’s breathed new life into me and allowed me to finish out my work and the rest of my time in Djibouti revitalized and refocused.
4. Keeping up on local news back home, by updates from friends, keeping an eye on the online versions of your local paper back home, and, for me, watching CNN while I’m in hotels abroad.
5. When possible, watch TV from your home country while abroad.  I found myself watching a lot of really bad American reality shows on E! Network while I was abroad – embarrassingly enough!  I don’t watch that kind of stuff back home (in fact, I don’t even have cable at home!), but being in a totally different culture, I found reminders of my lifestyle at home (though I don’t live at all like either Kendra or the Kardashians) was oddly comforting at times.  Any time they would visit cities I’ve lived in, I would scan the buildings on the streets behind them to see familiar sights.
6. Make new friends.  As I mentioned in my last post on far-flung friendships wherever you are, making new friends makes any experience more fun.  I know that it was the friendships I made in Djibouti helped me enjoy my time there and miss my loved ones a bit less.
7. Stay active – it’s hard to feel homesick while you’re snorkeling or hiking!
8. Pamper yourself a little – it’s hard to feel sad or lonely while you’re indulging yourself by doing whatever makes you happy.

Well, that’s all I’ve got on homesickness for now…. except to say this: if you’re feeling homesick, then you’re somewhere new, and are getting a chance to get to know a new place.  The more you explore, the less homesick you’ll feel, so live in the moment, and enjoy wherever you are for as long as you find yourself there!

Happy travels, with as little homesickness as possible!
Affectionately,
your TC2

Zoo Lights at the National Zoo in Washington, DC that I visited with old friends that are practically family to me now.

I don’t know about anyone else, but for me, the weeks surrounding the transition into a new year is always a time for reflection for me. For the past couple of days, I’ve been thinking about how lucky I am for the friendships I have developed over the years.  In fact, my father used to always tell me that if I could turn my ability to make and stay in touch with friends into something I could have made millions….. maybe if I had listened to him and pursued (and if I were a lot smarter, creative and better with technology) that I could have beat Mark Zuckerberg to creating the world’s largest social network.  Hmmm, what would I have named it…… but I digress.

Many of my friendships came about the traditional ways – growing up together: getting through awkward phases in elementary school, insecure phases in middle school, starting to figure out who we were in high school, exercising our new-found independence in college or just bonding over tough real world experience together. But then there are others with whom I’ve managed to form special bonds with just due to travel alone. There were the Australian girl and British girl who my cousin and I randomly met on a train bound for Venice, with whom we bonded over hunger & the lack of a food service/cafe car on a long ride. We’ve since lost touch, but we spent a great day together in Venice and I visited them in London twice after that day. There were the girls from San Diego, CA and Cheyenne, Wisconsin who I bonded with during a one-week training course in South Carolina, who I was so sad to leave behind that we soon thereafter planned a girls weekend in Las Vegas, NV, and have stayed in touch ever since. In fact, I believe I’ve found, particularly in the one from San Diego, a lifelong friend & kindred spirit. There is the friend I met at a wedding in Canada, who I barely knew when I went to visit her in Jordan, for the simple reason that I was feeling isolated in Djibouti for the holidays and needed to get away for a little while. Spending New Year’s last year with her and her friends in Aqaba, Jordan was totally random, but I had a fantastic time making new friends there that life would probably never have otherwise brought across my path. There are my classmates from an international graduate program – no more than two of us in our program came from the same country, and we took every opportunity to travel together during that year in Europe. Since we completed our program, I’ve gone to New Zealand and Mexico for weddings for former classmates, seen a couple of them in Holland, visited another in Australia and met up with her in Portugal too. Some have come to visit me here in the US too. There was the random Dutch girl my coworker and I met by the pool in Abuja, Nigeria, who made us feel welcomed and showed us around the city way more than our hosts did. There was the woman I worked with in Cameroon who took me under her wing when I found myself stranded in Yaounde for a day longer than everyone else, who taught me to cook Egusi pudding – a traditional Cameroonian dish. There was the young woman I worked with in Zanzibar, who took mercy on me for being a woman traveling alone in a Muslim country and invited me out for meals and to meet some of her friends. There’s a couple I met through a mutual friend who moved to Africa around the same time as me, and who welcomed me into their home in Arusha and went on safari in the Ngorongoro Crater with me. And most recently, there are all the expats I got to know in Djibouti, and while some have remained in Djibouti, many of whom have since scattered around the world – from Afghanistan, to Dominican Republic, to Mozambique, to Chad, to various parts of the US like Omaha, NE and Washington, DC. Our shared time in such a different environment than what most of us were accustomed to made for a great opportunity to get to know each other and bond over shared unusual cultural experiences.

Thanks to social networks like Facebook, it’s easier than ever to keep track of your new friends no matter where they move. And these friendships can inspire you to visit places you might never have considered. For example, there’s the woman I worked with in Ethiopia who I hope I’ll get a chance to visit in Malawi on a future trip to Africa. And Facebook, or other social networks and even just google might let you find that nursery school friend you used to dress up in tutus with who has since moved to Melbourne, Australia that maybe one day you’ll get to visit. So as I enter into this new year, anticipating a chance to travel to Greece for another friend’s wedding among 2012′s trips, I’m thankful for the friends that travel has brought into my life. And I’m happy not only to have gotten to know these great people, but also for the opportunity and inspiration that these friendships provide me for future trips. It gives me the chance to dream about reunions in far-off lands, doing what I love most: exploring new lands and cultures.

For those I know and love, reading this from afar, may 2012 bring us back together. For those I haven’t met yet, may the coming year find us crossing paths and forging new friendships. And to all, may all your dreams for the future come true!

Your travelling Chitalian.

Christmas Tree across from Lincoln Center in NYC

Well, for those who celebrate Christmas, we’ve survived the shopping madness of this increasingly retail-focused holiday, and many, like me, have traveled some distance to be with loved ones, through traffic and crowds, and finally, the day is upon us!! Christmas!

I’m taking a moment to myself to reflect on the vast difference between this year and last. Last year on Christmas Eve, I was with new friends, on beautiful Moucha Island in Djibouti, which kept me from being too lonely and missing the loved ones I was separated from. This year, while I’m still away from my biological family as they are currently across an ocean (not unusual for my family), I drove to Maryland to be with what I can best describe as my surrogate family – my best friend from high school and her family. I stopped along the way to see some other old friends who were having a holiday open house Christmas Eve party, and hit minimal traffic on my drive down the East Coast. I feel lucky and loved this holiday season, and I hope you all feel the same. And, while I would have rather not have woken up at 3am, I did, and at least I have already gotten to see my favorite Christmas movie once already, thanks to TBS’s 24 hours of “A Christmas Story”!

I hope you’re all with some, if not all, of your loved ones. And for those who have suffered the recent loss of a loved one (as I have lost a few friends this year and even more of my friends have suffered the loss of a close family member, so this is very much on my mind), know that at this time of year more than any other, it’s important to cherish the memories of them. Keep them alive in your heart, and focus on the good times because they wouldn’t want you to be sad because of them. And, depending on your belief system, they are still with you in spirit. At least I believe that they are.

Wherever you are and whomever you are with, have a very Merry Christmas!!

With lots of love,
your travelling Chitalian.

Djibouti-Addis Ababa-London-Newark.  Also known as: JIB-ADD-LHR-EWR.  Either way, it’s a mouthful.

And, OK, so it’s probably never going to be a short trip.  But wow, did it ever get to be an epic journey this last time around!

I just recently got back to the States from Africa.  I left Djibouti on a friday evening, and  was scheduled to arrived at noon the following day.  Doesn’t sound so bad, right?  But then you add in the time difference and realize that it is supposed to be a 28 hour haul.  Following my itinerary, I expected to arrive around noon on saturday….. I arrived closer to 2 pm, after closer to 30 hours in transit.  It was NOT a good trip.  My first flight (Djibouti to Addis Ababa) left late, but I figured, whatever – I was expecting to have an over 4 hour layover anyway, so no big deal.  There isn’t that much to do in the airport in Addis, so I thought that of the 3 flights I was about to embark on to, that would be the best one for a delay….. little did I know it was just the beginning of a trend.

The shorter layover in Addis Ababa’s Bole airport was actually an improvement.  The souvenir shopping isn’t bad there, and you can get some good gifts for loved ones back home at OK prices.  Alright, totally unreasonable by Ethiopian standards, but by US standards, not too bad.  But there aren’t too many options for food, and there isn’t nearly enough seating to relax.  But that’s not the worst thing about the airport.  The worst thing to me about Addis’ airport is that they NEVER seem to get the gates right.

When I landed, I diligently checked the departures screen, like the seasoned traveler that I am.  The screen told me my flight would be leaving from gate 7.  Comfortable in the knowledge of where to be and when, I went into a few stores to kill some time, picked up a few Christmas presents, and slowly wandered towards gate 7.  Not enough seating near the gate, so I sat on the floor (cold tile) for about 30 minutes until a seat opened up.  Then, after another half hour in my seat, around the time I expected the flight to board, I checked the screen again, and it told me to proceed to the gate.  I got in line and proceeded to gate 7.  I got to gate 7, after security, and I noticed a disproportionate number of women wearing beautiful and ornate Abayas for a flight to London…..

An adorned abaya for sale at Amazon.com

Something didn’t seem right about this.  While London is a melting pot of cultures, it seemed like a disproportionate number of practicing Muslims awaiting that particular flight.  Not only were the women covered, but the abayas looked (in my estimation, anyway) quite elegant and adorned – not your basic black abaya, but the more expensive and fashionable ones.  In my conservative, but western, travel outfit (a standard uniform for me of yoga pants, a t-shirt, and some kind of layering top – in this case a white linen button down shirt) I didn’t feel was at all controversially dressed until I found myself in this crowd!  That’s when I realized they were waiting for a flight to Saudi Arabia…..I wouldn’t want to get on that flight by mistake!  I rechecked the screen, and realized that it now said “gate 2″.  So off to gate 2 I went!  Of course when I arrived at gate 2, clear on the other side of the terminal, I saw a sign indicating that the flight departing from that gate was destined to arrive in Rome….. now I’d rather accidentally arrive in Rome than Saudi Arabia, as my clothing and mannerisms would allow me to blend in better in Rome, but nonetheless, I wasn’t supposed to be going to Rome either!  So I waited in line to ask the Ethiopian Airlines employee at the front where I was supposed to be.  He responded “Gate 8″, back at the other end of the terminal.  So I headed back again, becoming more and more anxious with every step.  I found another Ethiopian Airlines employee and asked for reassurance.  He did not give it.  He told me to go back to gate 2.  I did.  I found other people looking lost as well, and they were also bound for London.  So I just sat near them, and figured that at least if I missed my flight, I wouldn’t be alone!!  And at least I know a great hotel in Addis Ababa (the Sheraton – it’s like an escape from Africa – you’d think you were in Europe as soon as you walked in!) and a great restaurant (Castelli’s – I described my last experience there in this post on Luxury and Fine Dining in Ethiopia, which also describes the Sheraton).  So I sat and I waited…. and slowly a crowd gathered of people who looked more like they might be UK-bound, and finally it became clear that this was, in fact, the right gate.

The moral of this story?  When at Addis Ababa’s Bole airport NEVER trust the gate information.  Do not leave things to the last-minute.  Be proactive.  Ask.  Ask again.  Don’t assume any information you have been given is correct until you’ve checked it a few more times.  And look for other similarly situated passengers, so that if a whole bunch of you are missing from a flight after it boards, they are less likely to leave without you and if they do, you can fight the airlines together.  I saw a couple that had missed the Rome flight yelling at the Ethiopian airlines staff after their flight left without them (from what I could gather, they had been waiting just outside security for the flight to be called and hadn’t heard it – the announcements are not very audible, if they make them at all), and I couldn’t help thinking that maybe if there had been more of them it might have had a bigger effect on the completely unfazed staff that stared blankly back at them.

Ethiopian Airlines - image from Airways Magazine

So finally, we boarded our flight.  Next step in my epic journey?  A fight over my seat.  I got to my seat, and was thrilled to find it in an exit row, with tons of leg room (not a huge issue for me since I’m “vertically challenged” – that’s the politically correct term for just plain short; but it meant that I wouldn’t have to scramble over my tall seat-mate to get past him to the aisle!).  I was not quite as thrilled to find a tall Ethiopian man sitting in my seat.  I politely asked to see his boarding pass, after the flight attendant confirmed that my boarding pass clearly listed that seat, and the mistake was not mine.  He went through his wallet.  He went through his pocket.  He went through his other pockets.  We looked on the floor.  All the while, the woman behind him is trying to tell him that he was supposed to be in row 15, and he was ignoring her.  Finally, after a good 5 minutes (during which I completely stood my ground, not wanting to give up my extra leg room!) he found it, and admitted that he was supposed to be in 15H not 21F, and skulked away.  I triumphantly took my seat and settled in for the long ride, complete with another delayed departure – this time about 2 hours.  Though we made up some time in the air, we still arrived in London late.

Throughout my journey, I had so been looking forward to my couple of hour layover in London!  Heathrow airport has some of my favorite airport shopping, as they seem to often have special promotions on my favorite champagne: Piper-Heidsieck, Rose Sauvage.  Yum.  But my delayed departure meant I had very little time….. 40 minutes, to be exact.  And I was in the wrong terminal.  I’d have to book it from Terminal 5 to Terminal 4 as soon as I could get into the terminal.  Yeah…… that turned out to be a bigger challenge than you might have thought.  They open the door of the plane, and we got off onto a ramp.  We followed the ramp and then came to a dead stop.  It seems that the airline staff had forgotten one thing.  To open the door that connects the ramp to the actual airport hallway.  Minor detail.  People tried to start a game of telephone: hey, get someone from the airline up to the front – pass it down!  But that only got about half-way through the crowd, and then the back of the line stared blankly at the front of the line, like “how dare you ask me to pass along a message that might get us all out of here??”  But to be fair, by the time the message got to them it could have sounded like something like “hey, get someone to ask the airline for front row seats” or something, since the game of telephone always distorts the message.  So someone pulled the alarm by trying to open the door.  And you know, in a world where presumably heightened security is supposed to keep everyone at airports and other public transportation hubs on high alert, it took a surprisingly long time for this to draw a response!

So now I’m down to 25 minutes to get to my gate.  That doesn’t sound so bad, but it involves finding the transfer area to get from one terminal to the next, waiting for the bus, taking the 8 minute bus ride, figuring out which gate your flight is leaving from, and getting to the gate – a tall order in that time frame!  Luckily, I’m a seasoned traveler and I have been to this airport before.  So I manage to stay a step ahead of the confused masses behind me (many of whom I’m sure did miss their connections) and made it there just in time to find an empty boarding area with me one of the last people to get on board.  Sadly, no Starbucks stop.  No champagne.  No time for any duty-free shopping of any kind – certainly no stops in Burberry or Gucci (where I could only look longingly at things that are totally out of my price range anyway!)  Not even time to really stretch my legs, as I pretty much went straight from one 7 hour flight onto the next.

Or so I thought.  Here comes the next bit of bad news: the anticipated 7 hour flight from London to New York was leaving on time…. but due to weather conditions (I think!), they anticipated that the flight would actually take 8 hours and 47 minutes.  YIKES!!  And my mother was picking me up, so all I could do was hope that she went online to check on the flight before heading to the airport.  I let out an audible groan at the news, and my seat-mate, a sympathetic Brit living in the US who had been home visiting mom, gave me a pitying meek smile.  This was his first flight of his journey, not his 3rd, so I take some solace in knowing that my misery gave him some measure of appreciation for the fact that he didn’t really have it so bad after all!

Finally, another movie, a few naps, 2 mediocre (actually decent for airplane food – kudos to Continental Airlines on that one!) meals, and many short TV programs later, they announce our descent into the New York area.  Hallelujah!!!  Home sweet home!  I call my mother, who is patiently waiting at passenger pickup, from the plane as soon as I’m allowed to use my cell phone and tell her I’ll be out as soon as I can get through customs and grab my luggage.  Easy enough, right?  Right……

So customs…. not a problem when you’re a US citizen, right?  Unless the guy in line in front of you is super slow…. but OK, I got through it, and even had a nice chat with my border guard.  Slow and steady will eventually win this race, right?  Wrong.  I get to baggage claim.  My sympathetic seat-mate grabs his bag off the carousel, and with that he’s off and out of my life, probably forever.  I wait.  My luggage hasn’t come down yet, but there are a lot of people standing around.  We wait.  And wait.  And wait.  And then a United Airlines rep comes over and gives us the news: no more bags are coming out.  Fantastic.  28+ hours into my trip and now I have to go to Airline services.  I book it out of the baggage claim area, in order to beat the rush.  I call my mom and explain the unhappy developments.  I make it to airline services ahead of 9/10 of the people I was standing with, and get on line.  Of course there is only one woman there who can help with baggage issues.  I’m 2nd in line and it takes me 40 minutes to get to her.  I hope things speed up after me for those in line behind me.  I put in my bag claim request.  She tells me that my bag is on its way, it just failed to make the London connection, and so it should arrive on a 10pm flight, and will be delivered to my house between midnight and 7am.  It’s almost 3pm by the time I get into the car with my mom, beaten and ragged from my epic journey.  Finally, 20 minutes later (it would have been 15 if I had been driving!  But only if I hadn’t been so tired that I would’ve crashed the car, so 20 minutes suited me just fine!) we arrived at my house.

Ah, home sweet home.  Eventually my luggage would join me (not first thing in the morning as promised, but by 2pm the next day).  In the meantime I’m happy to have a break for at least a few weeks before my next journey.  Now, time for some rest.

When you are returning from Africa to the East Coast of the United States, there are plenty of options for a layover in one direction or another – especially if you’re going to a less popular location, as this almost always involves at least 3 flights.  So far, on trips between the US & Africa, I’ve stopped in Paris, Amsterdam, Dubai and London.  As far as stops within Africa go, Nairobi, Kenya and Addis Ababa, Ethiopia seem to be major hubs for travel to or from the Eastern Horn.

On my most recent two return trips, I opted for passing through London Heathrow airport.  The advantage to Heathrow airport is that if you have enough time to leave the airport and head into the city, you can easily store your luggage with a left baggage service so that you don’t have to carry all your stuff around with you.  Then, once you’ve checked your bags in, you can easily hop onto an express train or the tube to get into town.  The advantage to the Heathrow Express train is that you can get into Paddington Station in 15 minutes, but it’s not cheap – not crazy expensive or anything, but certainly not the budget option.  The Tube (aka the underground, subway or metro, depending on where you’re from), on the other hand is inexpensive, but it is a loooong ride to get into the city center.  Plan on at least an hour, if not more.  Now, depending on how long your layover is, and how tired you might be, this might not be an unpleasant option.  For me, if my layover is around 12 hours, I’ll take the tube.  If it’s closer to 6 hours or so, I’ll take the Express train.  If it’s overnight, then it all depends on my flight times!

Taxi Advertising in London

On my way back from Africa, in the spring of 2011, I opted for an overnight layover.  I chose a well-located fancy hotel, to pamper myself a little bit in the middle of my epic-two-long-layovers journey home, and stayed at the Chancery Court Hotel (which at the time was still part of Marriott’s Renaissance Hotel chain, though seems to have now become independently operated).  I picked the High Holborn neighborhood, since I always try to pass through Covent Garden whenever I’m in London.  Now, most of the stores there are out of my price-range, but there are one or two British stores that I love to go look at.  One, Karen Millen, makes the nicest dresses – though now I don’t need to go to London to covet them, as Karen Millen has opened stores in the US as well in the past couple of years, so I can covet from a closer distance.  Gorgeous dresses, though many are out of my price range.  The other, Storm, isn’t technically in Covent Garden, but is adjacent on Neal Street.  They make fantastic watches – modern, but simple and elegant.  Delicate but strong at the same time.  They are my favorites, and more within my price range – maybe a bit of a splurge, but not too bad!  And the only other place that I know of where I can buy them is Montreal, and that involves crossing a border too, so it’s not like that is that much more convenient an option!

The HMS Belfast

Other than the shopping, I like stopping off in London because it’s an active city, and no matter when I find myself headed there, I can usually find a friend from some part of my life that is living there.  This time, I was able to see a friend from college for a quick little sushi lunch by her work.  Then in the afternoon, I met up with an elementary school friend and her two children, and we went to visit the H.M.S. Belfast, which is home to the Imperial War Museum.  What an interesting way to spend an afternoon, and it’s a great activity for kids!  Though I will say that my friend’s son enjoyed it more than her daughter, who was a bit younger, and after a while started to get very freaked out by the dummies that were playing various roles in the various rooms of the ship.  To be fair, they are kind of scary looking, looking kind of human but maybe not quite human enough…. but nonetheless, we spent a couple of hours walking around, and looking at the displays, and also walking around London.  The ship is docked on the Thames, so it’s in a lovely area to walk around in on a nice day.  I got incredibly lucky and had beautiful weather for my whole day in London – not exactly what England is known for!  And I was happy not to totally freeze after having spent the past 6 months in Africa!  It was really quite lovely.

M&S Greek Yogurt with Mango/Passion Fruit compote - not low-calorie, but delicious!!

After I took leave of my friend and her two children, it was time for me to head back to my hotel and figure something out for dinner.  After having been restricted to what was available in Djibouti for 6 months (not bad food, as you can read about in my Djibouti Restaurant Review post, but not a hugely broad selection), I was eager to have something that I hadn’t had available for a long time.  But what to choose??  Early on, I picked up some snacks at the Marks & Spencer store at the airport, and stopped in for a quick juice and a sandwich for the next day at Pret a Manger (a favorite chain of mine, now available in select US cities as well! What I like about them is that they make everything fresh, and naturally, and to avoid waste, they donate whatever is leftover at the end of the day to a local shelter.)  Then, at the end of my day with friends, my eyes were definitely going to prove to be bigger than my stomach, as every restaurant I passed by looked tempting.  I read over the menu for an Asian restaurant near my hotel that had a big dim sum menu, and I mentally selected every item when I returned a couple of hours later,  since it was too early for dinner.  I continued on, until I caught a whiff of something….. sniff, sniff….. where was that delicious smell coming from?  Believe it or not, the fried chicken place across the street!  Now, I’m not a huge fast food person, but I must confess to an occasional weakening of will when confronted with fried chicken.  Djibouti has chicken, but not usually of the southern-style fried variety, so I soon found myself in line ordering a combo platter of fried chicken and fries….. this was probably going to throw off my dumpling/dim sum plans for later on!  But my body was so jet lagged and out of sorts from strange flight times that I couldn’t really predict when I would be hungry again anyway.  So, I ordered my fried chicken, took it back to my hotel room and dove in.  And you know what?  It may not have been classy.  It may not have been fancy.  It may not be the most sophisticated meal ever.  And it doesn’t even come close to being the best thing London had to offer me that day.  But it was DELICIOUS!!  It’s amazing what you find yourself drawn to after a long period away!  The “comforts of home” aren’t always predictable, and sometimes you don’t recognize them until they are right up in front of you.  Well, for me, this was one of them.  I might only have it 1-2 times a year, but this time, boy did I enjoy it!  In fact, 6 months later, as I finally get around to finishing this post, my mouth waters, and I think it might be time to find some fried chicken again sometime soon……

So here’s to the comforts of home!  May you find them whenever you crave them, but not so often to rob them of their specialness….
TC2

PS – as a side-note, can anyone explain the squiggly lines on the side of the roads to me?  I have no idea what they signify….. to me they say: “hey, just a reminder: you’re in London!”

Much like hangovers, I find that jet lag recovery gets worse with age.

As I write this, it is 4am.  I have been awake since 2am.  This is improvement, as the night before I woke up at midnight.  And couldn’t get back to sleep.  Today (a Monday), I have work in several hours, and even if I could sleep more, there wouldn’t be much point, so in bed with my laptop I lay, writing this for you.  In fact, this is the second post I’m working on, having just finished a draft post on my epic journey home that should be forthcoming soon.

It occurs to me that I may have some word of wisdom to share when it comes to getting over jet-lag.  I offer it to you here, with the disclaimer that 1) I obviously don’t take my own advice, or I’d be asleep right now; and 2) everyone needs to find their own system, so this is just a starting point meant to help you find your own system.  Here are Travelling Chitalian’s words of wisdom:

1. Naps are crucial.  You don’t want to straight up go to bed whenever you’re tired because if you do that, you’ll never adjust.  But if you simply can’t make it to an appropriate bedtime, take a little nap.  Under an hour, or, trust me, you’ll never get up.  Follow the nap with a shower if you can to get yourself sufficiently awake to make it to that reasonable bedtime goal.  The sooner you get to a normal bedtime, the sooner you’ll sleep all the way through the night.
2. Make the most of your weird awake time.  For example, it might be a good time to start getting up at 5:30am to work out before work, because, heck, your body wants to get up even earlier than that anyway.  I know that I would love to get back into my morning workout routine, so getting over this 8 hours ahead jet-lag from my most recent Africa trip has me waking up early anyway – why not use that to my advantage and get back onto that workout schedule I’ve aspired to get back to for so long?
3. It gets better every day.  Yesterday I woke up at midnight.  Today 2am.  Tomorrow I project 3-4am.  Soon, my desired 5:30am wake-up time will become natural, and hopefully I can make it my norm.
4. To drug or not to drug: THAT is the question!
   And this is not one I can answer for you.  I actually prefer to limit the amount of medication I take generally, being a bit of hippie/organic-food-loving/natural-is-best person, so I really leave these as a last resort, but many really like them, so here’s a summary of some things I’ve tried, and if I thought they helped.
1. Melatonin
   Pro: it is what I would call natural-ish….. well, you can get it in the vitamin section of your local pharmacy, so it seems somewhat less bad for you anyway.  This stuff worked great for me.  It’s supposed to help you get back to your natural rhythms when you’re traveling.  I loved it for a while, and found that it really helped me get over an 18 hour jet lag when I went to Australia a few years back.  I just popped the recommended dosage for my first 3 nights in Canberra, and in no time I felt like a native Aussie!  Unfortunately for me, at some point it stopped working for me, and now when I take it, I feel like it almost gives me the caffeine jitters – opposite from its intended effect.
2. Nausea medication
   Whether you call it Dramamine or Gravol (a Canadian brand name version), nausea medication can work wonders for you.  I use it for a hangover or for jet lag.  Whenever I feel like more sleep might make my problem go away!  It helps me fall asleep on airplanes (as do eye-shades and ear plugs)
   [Important disclaimer: I am not a doctor.  I am not a nurse.  I don't have any medical background whatsoever.  I just have some experience with using these drugs myself completely off-label, so if you choose to take my advice, do so at your own risk. Like I said before, everyone needs to figure out what works for them.  This happens to work for me.]
3. Now some people like prescription sleeping pills like Ambien or Anti-Anxiety medication like Valium.  I have never tried these for this purpose, though Valium did help me sleep quite soundly after a car accident.  I was prescribed it as a muscle relaxant though, not a sleep aid or anxiety-reducer.  I can’t recommend them or give warnings about them.  I have concerns about the addictive quality of drugs like these, as well as some of the side-effects (sleep-eating, -walking, even sleep-driving are all reported side-effects of Ambien).  For those reasons, I choose to stay away from them unless strictly necessary and only use them with a doctor’s advice, myself.  But make up your own mind!
4. Get onto the right sleep schedule as soon as possible.  I try to match my sleeping habits in transit to what they should be once I reach my destination.  If I’m flying out when it’s evening where I’m leaving but still daytime where I’m going, I try my best to fight sleep off until a reasonable bedtime at my destination, which will make it that much easier to adjust when I arrive.  I use every tool in my arsenal to either stay awake or fall asleep when I should.  For staying awake?  Coffee.  Movies.  Books.  If you’re really desperate, work!  For falling asleep?  The above listed sleep aides.  Earplugs, or at least sound isolating headphones with soothing music (my go-to artist of choice for long flights?  Irish artist Enya.  Very relaxing.  Nothing too up-tempo), eye shades.  Anything to shut out light, flight attendants trying to bring you things, or distractions such as airplane noises.  If I forgot my eye shades, a pair of dark sunglasses make an acceptable (albeit less comfortable and effective) substitute.

Well, OK, now you know my tricks for travel.  Now, my intrepid travellers: go forth, out into the world and find your own methods!  And please, if you have any other suggestions, please add them as comments here!

Yours hoping to be time-adjusted soon enough,
TC2

OK, in no way shape or form does this constitute a comprehensive list of restaurants in Djibouti city.  But when I was getting ready for my first trip to Djibouti back in 2010, I was trying to get some information on restaurants and food before I got out there, and I had a lot of trouble finding any.  So, I thought I’d give a shot at creating my own Djibouti restaurant review list.  I’m an amateur restaurant reviewer, but I like think of myself as a huge foodie, and I love to cook, so why not give it a shot, right?  Maybe it’ll help someone else who is Djibouti-bound!  Here goes!

Restaurant de la Gare

• Value – good (my last dinner there, three course meal, with wine: around 4000 DJF)
• Food – excellent!
• Best dishes:
  The Yemeni Fish – this is a whole fish (I like Dorade – I think that’s called Sea Bream in English, but I’m not sure – but you can get a few different kinds of fish prepared this way), split open down the middle, and covered in seasoning.  I think its baked, not grilled…. either way, it’s delicious!
  The eggplant spread is delicious!  It’s not baba ghanoush, it’s not melitzanosalata.  But it’s great!  The humus is good too, but the eggplant stuff is awesome!
  The chocolate mousse with caramel.  Delicious.  Divine.  Delectable.
• Service – very good, attentive without hovering
• Atmosphere – nice, relaxed, and a bit more elegant than most other places in the area.

Ethiopian Community Center

• Value – great value.  Probably the best meal-deal in Djiboutiville.  For the price of dinner for 1 at one of the other Ethiopian restaurants in town, you can feed 4 people here. My last meal here cost me 2000 DJF, including a generous tip.  And the beers are only about 300 DJF, while mixed drinks are 500 DJF.  MUCH less than most other places in town!
• Food – delicious Ethiopian fare.  Most of the time I have no idea what I’m eating (other than the Injera) but I enjoy every bite!  I always do the platter, which is all kinds of different meat and veggie dishes served on top of a large tray of injera bread.
• Service – not bad, but be ready to pay for your drinks as you go.  You pretty much pay per round.
• Atmosphere – kind of like a schoolyard.  There is outdoor seating in a cement courtyard, with plastic lawn chairs & tables.  They bring out a TV or two on rolling carts, and you can watch Ethiopian news, music videos or other TV.  It’s laid back, and casual.

Tamarind

• Value – Good, reasonable prices, for good food
• Food – Varied menu, everything I have had there was solid.  It’s a great place for lunch.  Good burgers, sandwiches, and fish dishes, as well as fresh juices.
• Service – it’s a small place with good service because I’ve never seen it full.
• Atmosphere – not the draw to the place.  It’s a basic hole-in-the-wall, sandwiched between a little mini-mart and gas station, but it is clean and minimalist.

The Melting Pot

• Value – Pretty good (last meal I had there, entrée and beer, 4000 DJF)
• Food – Japanese/French/Greek fusion….. tasty, and normally good.  The Asian inspired menu is creative, and they have some really interesting things.  The “Morningstar” is an interesting item.  It’s essentially a Medieval weapon that they use to hang meat or shrimp onto, in order to barbecue it, for 2 or more persons.  The shrimp one wasn’t as good as I’d hoped, but I’m told that the camel one is fantastic and totally the way to go.  While I haven’t had the camel there, I have had camel elsewhere in Djibouti, and I would definitely try it prepared this way.  The sushi is also pretty good here, as are the “sword” meals – basically like a large kebab, presented on a long sword.
• Atmosphere – the outdoor seating area is lovely here.  It has recently been renovated, and there is a pool with floating lights in it.  It has a nice bar area, and the new chairs they have are comfortable.  Overall, I love the atmosphere here, but if its mosquito season, make sure to wear your bug spray!
• Service – not bad.  You will have to flag them down to get your check, but the food comes reasonably quickly most of the time.  And it is a great place to have a relaxing dinner with friends and catch up or brainstorm silly party ideas (inside joke).
• Website: http://www.meltingpotdj.com/accueil (French only)

La Mer Rouge

OK, I can’t actually give a personal review here, because somehow, despite having spent over a lot of time in Djibouti over the past 2 years, I actually haven’t ever eaten here.  I have heard nothing but good things about it, though, and they have the best website I’ve seen for a Djibouti restaurant (and it’s even in English!) so I’ll give it points for that and make sure to go here next time I’m in Djibouti, which should be in 2012.

Website: http://www.letseat.at/lamerrougedj

Mask

• Value – good.  Prices and portions are both reasonable.
• Food – good.  Many say this is the best pizza in Djibouti, though I am torn between here and the Italian restaurant at the Kempinski hotel (see below).  Mask is less expensive than the Kempinski though, so that’s a definite plus!
• Service – good.
• Location – very centrally located, right on the main square in town, making it very convenient to walk to whenever you’re downtown.

Pizzaiolo

• Value – reasonable
• Food – Italian, fairly good.  Though far from an authentic Italian dining experience.  The pizzas are pretty good, and the lasagna are maybe the best I’ve had in Djibouti….. but I’ll qualify that by saying that I’ve been afraid to order lasagna in most restaurants in Djibouti.
• Service – it’s been a while since I’ve been there, and I don’t remember the service being either outstandingly poor or good, so I guess it was probably acceptable?

Cultures

• Value – Fair.  Not too expensive, but also not cheap.
• Food -  Asian.  The sashimi is good, the sushi less so, mostly because I find the rice is often over-cooked and a bit stickier than I would like.  If you want a good meal here, ask them to have the chef prepare a Philippino dish – put your hands in the chef’s hands, and he’ll do right by you.  Oh, and definitely try the fruit smoothies – delicious!  The mango is my favorite.
• Service – pretty good.  They’re fairly attentive, without being overbearing.

Cedars

• Value – not too bad.  It’s not cheap, but they give you a TON of food.
• Food – Lebanese.  Tasty, and though I have had better Lebanese food in the US and Canada, this is definitely the best in Djibouti!  Good humus.
• Service – pretty good.

Kempinski Hotel

• Lac Assal  buffet
  • Value – I find it expensive, but if you’re staying at the hotel (though not in the Kempinski apartments), breakfast here is included.  The lunch buffet runs upwards of about 6500 DJF – I’m not sure what the exact figure is, because I don’t go often.  Same with the dinner…. well, actually, I’ve never gone to dinner there.  They have various theme nights (Japanese one night, Seafood the next, etc.), so I have been tempted, but I do find it a bit too expensive for my taste.
  • Food – broad range of food, and it is pretty good.  The breakfast buffet is great – in my opinion, better than the lunch buffet.
  • Service – self-serve, except for some drinks which the wait-staff is usually good about bringing fairly promptly.
  • Website – http://www.kempinski.com/en/djibouti/Restaurants%20and%20Bars/Restaurants/Pages/LacAssal.aspx
• Tentazioni
  • Value – A little pricey, but not too bad (my last meal there, appetizer, main, and wine 5000 DJF)
  • Food – Italian
    The pizzas are great.  The pastas can be a little bland at times, so I always ask for Parmigiano cheese on the side.  Portions are generous.  The entrees are OK, but I usually stick to the pasta & pizza.  Of the entrees I’ve had, the fish is better than the meat.  But that’s true most places in Africa, I guess.
  • Service – Very hit or miss.  Very friendly, always service with a smile.  But you’re usually going to wait.  A while.  It’s a great place to sit if you have a friend you want to catch up with, but if you want to eat in a hurry or have plans later on, it might not be the best place to go.  And don’t hesitate to flag down a manager or other member of the wait-staff if things are taking too long to happen on their own.
  • Atmosphere – the outdoor seating is great (if the wind is right and the air doesn’t smell too much like sulfur), and you can even occasionally see a mongoose wandering the hotel grounds!  The inside is also nice, and preferable during the summer heat or the mosquito-y weather.  It’s a more fancy atmosphere, but not so fancy that you have to dress up to go.  Overall, good atmosphere.
  • Website – http://www.kempinski.com/en/djibouti/Restaurants%20and%20Bars/Restaurants/Pages/Tentazioni.aspx
• Juice Bar
  • Value – fair
  • Food – good selection of salads, sandwiches, and juices
  • Service – pretty poor.  It’s not very well-staffed, with only 1-2 people working at a time, it seems.  You have to flag down or go find the waiter/waitress any time you need anything, pretty much.
• Bankouale
  • Value – pricey, but you do get a lot of food.  I think its worth it for the fresh seafood, nice atmosphere, and good food preparation.  But I’d only go for more special evenings, and probably wouldn’t make a regular thing out of it.
  • Food – delicious!  When I went, we picked out one fish and one lobster for 3 of us (it’s all sold by weight), and could choose how it was prepared and what sides we wanted.  Everything was super-fresh, delicious, and well prepared.  And I was eating left-overs for days after!
  • Service – slow, but that kind of matches the laid back vibe of the restaurant, so I didn’t mind!
  • Atmosphere – the setting is beautiful in the evening, since this is an outdoor restaurant on the beach.  It has a laid-back, vacation-y vibe to it.  Quite lovely.
  • Website – http://www.kempinski.com/en/djibouti/Restaurants%20and%20Bars/Restaurants/Pages/Bankoual%C3%A9.aspx

Les Acacias Hotel

• Sankal
  • Value – not bad.  Sandwiches are reasonably priced at lunch, as an alternative to the lunch buffet (which is smaller than the one at the Kempinski, but also has a lower price tag).  Breakfast Buffet is included if you are staying in the hotel.  I can’t speak to dinner, as I’ve never had dinner here.
  • Food – pretty good.  If you are going for the breakfast buffet, though, make sure to come early.  It goes until 10:30am, but they seem to stop restocking it after 10am, so after that you just get scraps.
  • Service – pretty good.  The hotel is very new, and doesn’t have that many guests yet, so the staff seems eager to please.
  • Website (for the hotel) – http://www.bhihotels-djibouti.com/launch/index.html

L’Etoile de Kokeb

• Value – a little pricy for Ethiopian, once you’ve been to the Ethiopian Community Center, but not bad if you’re bringing in first timers to the region, as this place also offers a performance of traditional dance.
• Food – Ethiopian – Good.  I can’t say that there’s a marked difference between this place and the other Ethiopian places in town in terms of food quality.
• Service – good and friendly.

Singh’s

• Value: very good – my last meal there (bottled water, shared an appetizer of cheese naan and 2 entrees with a friend) cost me under 2000 DJF.
• Food – Indian – delicious!  I really like the food here.
• Service – very laid back…. not very present.  But for the value, I won’t complain!

Saba’s

• Value – very good
• Food – good.  Probably one of the better burgers I’ve had in Djibouti.  Good selection of sandwiches.  Great place for lunch.  Absolutely delicious fresh fruit juices!
• Service – pretty good, and one of the faster meals in the area.  You can get in and out fairly quickly, making it a good lunch stop on work days.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for now.  Here is another resource if you’re looking for more information about dining out in Djibouti.  I’m not sure how current it is, but check it out: Djibouti Telecom Restaurant list – http://www.adjib.dj/sortir/restaurants.php?type=17

May you soon share a delicious meal with your loved ones!
TC2

For a return trip to Djibouti, I was able to extend a layover in Amsterdam for a day in order to see some family.  My painstaking route of New York-Amsterdam-Nairobi-Addis Ababa-Djibouti took FOREVER, but it was all worth it to meet a few new relatives who were born in the last year and a half, and see the older ones as well.  Of course, there were a few “hometown favorites” that a girl who grew up spending most of her summers at the Dutch seaside had to hit during this short little sojourn.  My quick stops?

• A Dutch Snackbar for some kroket (meat croquettes) and “patates met” (literally “fries with”, which when uttered at a snackbar means one order french fries with mayonnaise).  If you’re hungry enough, I recommend getting a kaassouffle too – these little salty cheese pastries are delicious!

• 

  A fish store to pick up some zoute haring (traditionally preserved herring, usually salted and served with chopped raw onions that you dip them in before you hold them by the tail over your head and eat them from the bottom up – see photo) or some gerookt makreel (smoked mackerel – which you can sometimes buy right on the beach, straight from the fisherman who has just finished smoking it. Delicious!!).   Honestly, this time I, sadly, didn’t have time to get my fishy fix, but I’ll definitely make it a priority on my next visit to Holland!!

  Dutch costumed girls enjoying haring

• The HEMA – a department store with good quality cheap basics – I had to stop in to the same one that I used to go to buy my school notebooks as a child.  I loved that I didn’t have the same Five Star notebooks all my classmates were carrying, and that I had cool pens from the Hema too!  And when I was younger it was a pretty big deal when I was first allowed to walk from my aunt’s house all the way to the main street in town to go to the HEMA by myself, or with one of my cousins.  Though the layout has changed a little over the years, the store is still in the same place, and the value is still unquestionable!
• Gassan Jewelers – while my budget doesn’t allow me to buy their diamonds, looking is free, and if I’m lucky I hit a sale on my favorite Danish costume jeweler’s wares.  Dyrberg/Kern always has cool designs and I’ve scored some great pieces at very discounted prices at Gassan – which is nice, since the brand is not readily available back home.  They use a lot of Swarovski crystals and have unusual designs.  Nice stuff!  And, as I can only get them when I travel, each piece I have reminds me of a particular trip, which adds to the sentimental value.  And now, Gassan has a couple of locations in Schiphol airport, so even if you’re just passing through you can make a stop!

If it’s your first time in Holland, hopefully you have more than 24 hours to spend there!  There is a lot to see.  And I’m not even going to go into the “coffee shops” or red light district stuff that make people raise their eyebrows when you mention going to Amsterdam…. honestly, from my perspective, those things take a backseat to a lot of the more cultural activities that Holland has to offer.  And the drugs and sex stuff that seem so exciting to many tourists are really not something that many Dutch people (at least not in my circles) take advantage of, which may come as a surprise to some.  That stuff is really mostly for the tourists than the majority of locals.  Here are some of my favorite (non-controversial) recommendations to visitors:

• Tulips and other flowers – if you’re lucky enough to get the timing just right (I was lucky enough in 2002), every 10 years, the Floriade happens, so if you’re there between April 5-October 7, 2012, you should DEFINITELY get a ticket to the Floriade.  The best way that I can describe it is like a Cirque du Soleil with flowers.  It’s an impressive event, and after having seen the intricate detail and beautiful design of the full-day experience, I understand why it only comes around once every 10 years.  It probably takes about that long to design!!  If you can make it, I highly recommend it.  In fact, if you live in Holland, I would even consider getting season tickets to this amazing event.  Very cool.  And if you aren’t going to make it to Holland during that period, you should at least check out Keukenhof flower park in Lisse, which is much less schedule-sensitive.
• The Kroller-Muller museum – super cool museum with a great Van Gogh collection (in my humble opinion actually better than the collection at the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, though the latter is more conveniently located), and a cool setup in the middle of a park.  When you get to the entrance you pick out a white bike that’s about the right size for you and ride it through the windy roads of the park, through the randomly scattered statues and pieces of outdoor art work, until you reach the museum.  Great atmosphere, fantastic sculpture garden, overall a wonderful way to spend a day, if you’re willing to take the time to get out to the Hoge Veluwe National Park.
• The Anne Frank House – its important to remember the tragic events of the past to make sure they don’t happen again.  This is a good place to not only learn about the struggles people endured, but to actually really feel it, in the house where a real Jewish family hid from the Nazis.
• The Heineken Experience in Amsterdam – visit the brewery, get a tour, drink some beer.  I’m not even a huge Heineken fan, but I enjoyed the tour.
• In winter, ice skating on the canals.  Sometimes, if the canal itself isn’t cold enough, they’ll put a skating rink on top of a barge that’s parked, so you can skate on the canal even if global warming prevents the canal from freezing over!!
• The Vondelpark – a large park in Amsterdam that is just perfect for a picnic or a beer at one of the park’s cafe’s on a nice summer day.
• Historic Leiden – boasting the country’s oldest university, this city has a proud heritage.  If you visit around the 3 Oktober festivities, you’re sure to hear the tale of how the citizens of the town chased the Spaniards off so fast that the food that they had been cooking was still hot on the stove.  Since then, ‘Hutspot‘ (the dish that was found on the stove) has become a Dutch tradition, and a typical dish served on 3 Oktober, along with the salted herring and bread (see above) that is said to have been provided to the starving citizens of Leiden by the leader of the revolt, Willem van Oranje (Prince William of Orange) just before the city was reclaimed.
• International Den Haag (The Hague) – considered in many circles to be the center of the international law world, this city is home to many of the international tribunals.  For example, a well-known court here is the ICTY (International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia), where the former president of Serbia and Yugoslavia, Slobodan Milosevic, was tried.  This court, as well as others like the ICC (International Criminal Court), the PCA (Permanent Court of Arbitration) and ICJ (International Court of Justice), have very interesting histories, and many, if not all, allow the public to attend hearings.  And the PCA and ICJ can both be found in the Vredespaleis (Peace Palace), which is just an amazing building.  Many of the different components of the Peace Palace were gifted by various countries that were signatories to the second Hague Conference, and it come together in a pretty cool way.  Definitely worth a visit!!
• Delft – go visit the home of the famous blue on white designed traditional Dutch china.  It’s also just a very nice place to walk around.
• For the family:
• The Efteling – along with Canada’s Wonderland, this was one of the first amusement parks I’ve ever been to.
• RollyGolf in Noordwijk aan Zee (the “aan Zee” part designates the part of Noordwijk that is closer to the sea – Noordwijk Binnen is Noordwijk “inside”, meaning inland) – the trampolines that you can rent time on here were my FAVORITE thing when I was a kid.  And the mini-golf course isn’t half bad!!
• The beaches – OK, so the weather in Holland is often rainy, and you don’t get GREAT beach weather all the time.  But when you do, it’s pretty fantastic!!
• Linnaeushof – another amusement park, this one geared more at the younger children, in which my favorite thing was the “funny wheels” (#27 on this map, which unfortunately is not available in English).  The Funny Wheels are bicycles with the spokes off-centered so that they kind of go up and down in a not so smooth and more challenging but entertaining manner to ride.  Fun to ride, fun to watch!

Anyway, that should be a good start for anyone visiting Holland for the first time.  Its a fun country!  Veel plezier!

Yours always,
TC2