Not much of an accomplishment, but here it is, after two full years of nothingness, another country has been visited (or, is being visited)
Another one
Long Island Panorama
Not that Long Island though. It’s a Dugi Otok (aka Long Island) in Croatia.
Truly beautiful place to spend active (as in swimming, snorkeling or in my case, biking) holidays.
James Bond – Behind the scenes
Right after I took this photo of the Hummer, I heard yelling behind me.
After few seconds of unsuccessfully ignoring the voice I turned around and saw a young guy perhaps 20 meters away standing behind the wall asking me, and not in a pleasant way, what did I take that picture for. So I answered calmly that it’s a beautiful car and that I thought it was worth taking a photo of it. Since it was a bit hard to understand what he was saying, against my better judgment, I walked back towards him while keeping waist-high wall and some five meters distance between us. He kept saying that I shouldn’t be taking pictures and that I should delete the photo from the camera. Not being in a mood for a fight (nor in a position really since it was pretty empty part of town with me, that guy and few of his buddies further back behind him but not involved in the conversation) I said, OK, I’ll delete the photo. At that point, his face broke into the huge smile and he said he was just kidding. We shook hands (everyone is shaking hands there, all the time), talked for few minutes and then I left thinking how my impression of people in Accra as being very friendly remains unchanged.
I just added a mental note that they can be pranksters as well.
Contrasts
To be honest, contrasts can be found in pretty much any city. New all-glass-and-steel tower built amidst old houses or businessmen wearing thousand dollar suits walking past homeless people on the street, you name it – it’s all there.
When it comes to overall quality of life, in Europe, it looks to me, it degrades somewhat gradually as you move further from the downtown, while in US and even in Canada I found it fascinating that on the one side of the street you may have a bustling city center with business buildings, fancy shops and restaurants but just by crossing the street you find yourself in a neighborhood with rundown or abandoned houses, people drunken or high out of their minds and general feeling of abandonment, disrepair and danger.
From what I’ve seen so far, Accra seems to be even more extreme. Everything looks almost seamlessly mixed up so seeing a fancy hotel with a beautiful restaurant terrace right next to which runs open sewer almost doesn’t seem strange. Here however, unlike US example above where those nasty places were somehow ruined over time, I have a positive feeling about it since it looks like all the “bad” (quotes due to the fact that , admittedly I look at things from typical westerner’s perspective) things are really remnants of the past and that things are actually getting better.
Having said all that, contrasts indeed are huge.
Both photos above were taken within minute or two walking distance.
Market Day
To be honest, going to a market is not something you will see me doing if I can avoid it. Usually, instead I can be found if not in bed, still fast
asleep, then at least sipping morning coffee in a nearby caffe while my “better half” does the shopping. I know number of people loving the whole market-going routine, and everything that goes with it. Me? If you don’t mind, I’d rather steer clear of the whole thing.
Skip to some other country and everything changes. One of the “must” places I always try to see everywhere I go are indeed markets. Museums can wait, squares and alleys I will run into anyway at some point, but real, local market is something to be seen to get a feel for the place.
It’s all here, local food with colors and scents that go with it, local customs and above all, local people.
So, I grabbed a taxi and went towards some mall downtown for no other reason but because it seemed like a good starting point for wandering. Rarely do I have some specific sightseeing plan (especially in somewhat chaotic place like Accra). I much more prefer putting my legs to a good use and explore the place in a more or less random fashion.
While in a taxi, I asked the driver which market would he recommend to see. His answer sounded like a lazy brush-off since he mentioned Makola market and, what a coincidence, first thing I did getting into a taxi was asking him to take me to Makola Mall.
Although I’ve been to that part of town previous Sunday, that couldn’t prepare me for the scene I stepped into once I left the car.
C-H-A-O-S.
Oh, really?
Drive-by shooting
So, the scenario goes like this: you arrive to another continent, to a country you’ve never been to before and which is so much different to what you are used to seeing, that you are eager to see, experience and record as much as possible.
Some people who know you feel sorry for you, others envy you but everyone agrees, it’s “something completely different”.
Finally, you arrive but soon realize that your daily routine consists of being picked up from your accommodation at the edge of town and driven to office where you do your X hours of work and are driven back. In the meantime, sun went down and everyone, from visitors like me, to locals, agree that it is not very advisable to get out after dark (and where would you go since, remember, you live at the edge of town).
What to do in a situation like that? You adjust in fairly efficient but morally (ethically?) dubious way.
Not to go on with this whole theory; frustrated for not being able to take any photos, out of desperation I started doing something which does not strike me as particularly nice and frankly, smacks of human safari.
Taking photos from the car!
There are bunch of things going on on the street, from cow herd marching in perfect discipline in one of the road lanes (was too slow for that one so I have no photo proof), giant greetings to the most popular politician today, through sometimes hilarious signs on the cars and of course, ubiquitous street vendors selling about anything you can think of and being prepared to run between and after cars on a 3-lane road just to make the sales.
So, as a result of my frustration, here are few photos taken from the back seat (click the picture link below to be taken to another web-page. Failing that, use the textual link next to it).