Category Archives: Africa Our travels plans have changed again! Here is an updated plan for the rest of 2015, involving a trip home to Canada, a lot of time in Europe, and even a bit of North Africa! It’s so different from the travel plan I posted about six months ago that I’m considering no longer writing travel plan posts (except for the fact that I just did it again…)!  Long before I met Bruno, he visited Sudan. He told me of following sandy tracks along the banks of the fertile Nile River; of encountering nomads in the Sahara Desert after days without spotting another human; of his inability to spend his money, such was the hospitality of the Sudanese people. This was far from the image of Sudan I had in my head.  Sudanese culture is a unique marriage of African and Arab. With its Sufi dance celebrations, bustling downtown streets, and immense Arab markets, Khartoum, Sudan’s capital, was the perfect place for me to begin my new cultural education.  Sudan is well-known among travelers for its lengthy, confusing, and ultimately pointless bureaucratic procedures for arriving tourists. We weren’t looking forward to all the offices, papers, and stress that were waiting for us on arrival. Well, I gotta say: bureaucracy has changed – for the better – in the region.  Gondar, the 17th century capital of Ethiopia, may have once been a place of splendour and magnificence. But, just like the crumbling castles and palaces of the Royal Enclosure, the majesty of Gondar has disintegrated, and it is now but a ruined shell of its glorious legacy. It’s time to say goodbye to Ethiopia. |
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