Touristy Weekend

This weekend my cousin Tabi came down from Nairobi to visit for her birthday! She and her friends Evette, Brian, Melissa and Tara (I hope those names are spelled right) all came on Saturday evening and stayed until today. There was a national holiday yesterday which meant that most schools were closed today so we were able to have a lovely weekend together. They arrived Saturday at around 7pm and right away we checked into a little hostel called Sooper Guest House and then went to eat at The Laughing Buddha. The Laughing Buddha is a veggitarian cafe that has delicious food. We are dinner and went back to the hostel to get ready to go out. It was my first time going out to a club/bar scene since being in Kenya and it was pretty interesting. Tara, Tabi, Evette, Brian and I all went to this club called Signiture. I tried a Tusker for the first time! Real African beer! And then we danced the night away! They even played Spanish music which I freaked out about. Dad, they played your song by Don Omar - Danza Kuduro! And oh man, I love Kiswahili music so much! Brian gave me a huge list of people to look up. It's definitely good to go to the clubs in a large group and I don't want to go to any clubs or bars unless I am in a big group like that. We all watched out for eachother. At one point some guy came up trying to offer to buy me a drink and I just spoke Spanish to him and pretended to not know English. Tara and Tabi couldn't stop laughing! But we had a great night and I could barely walk back to the hostel, my legs were so sore from dancing! The next day (Sunday) we decided to spend all day on the lake. We woke up late and went to the lakeside for some fish.

We ended up at a Restuarant called Delta. We originally had a table on the rooftop. And then we went downstairs to pick out a fish. When we got back to the rooftop there was a couple sitting at our table. Now I just want y'all to know I was with a group of Canadians and this is where the difference between Americans and Candians was obvious. I was ready to wait for another table or demand to have the table back. The girls just said "oh sorry lets go back downstairs". Typical passive Canadians hahaha! Litteraly they say sorry wayyyy to much! Anyways, here is a picture of the fish we ate. 

And a view from the lake. 

That's Lake Victoria. The second largest lake in the world and the largest lake in Africa. Then after the delicious fish with chapati we went to the Dhow point to relax and maybe find a boat to take us out to find....hippos! Here is all of us stuffed in a tuktuk (6 people!)

We laid around for a while and just talked. Then Brian was able to find a cheaper rate for a boat and we got a great tour of the shore line of the lake. 

There is me and Tabi!

And then...dun fun duhhhhh! WE FOUND HIPPOS!! 

It was both scary and amazing to see these magnificent creatures in real life. The tour guide said that the hippos in Kisumu are the least aggressive because the humans tend to let them do their own thing as opposed to take over their land on the shore so they are less intimidated by the boats and humans. 

There's just some landscape pictures! 

From left to right: Evette, Tabi, Melissa, Tara and me in the brightttt pinkkk! Haha. 

After the hippos we walked back to the hostel (about 40 minutes) and took a quick nap before going out for dinner. We went to the Green Garden Restaurant. Oh my gosh. We waited over an hour and a half for food...which was okay just a bit annoying because we didn't get out of there until 9 ish. Then, today we went for breakfast at the Al Noor Cafeteria which is famous for its sheesh kebabs and mishkaki. We had breakfast and then just hung out at the Jomo Kenyatta park in the middle of the town. We just laid around and talked for a while. Then we went around looking at fabrics and different vendors. And we finally ended up back at Al Noor for the famous sheesh kebabs and mishkaki. 

And I ordered falood! This milkshake with noodles and tapioca! And look what I saw at Swan Center (a mall).

It doesn't work but it was cool to see! 

Anyways, I had a wonderful time with the Candians. It's cool to travel in a group. You have more freedom to go out without worrying about the dangers of being alone. I can't wait to go visit them in Nairobi! And I really hope they had as good of a time in Kisumu as I did with them.