I know Nairobi has had some bad press lately in the news. I admit when we were on our way there I was not sure what I was going to think about it. We originally planned to spend about 4 or 5 days there, because we needed to get our visas for Ethiopia and Sudan, as well as get some car maintenance done. It turns out we were in Nairobi for most of two weeks, since we had to send the passports back to Canada in order to get the Ethiopia visas, which meant a lot of waiting around. So I can say with some confidence that I now have an informed opinion about Nairobi.
NAIROBI ROCKS!!! We had such a great time in Nairobi. Here's my top 5 reasons that I loved it:
First of all we stayed with our friends Lisa Kurbiel and Johnson Kimuyu who have a fantastic house in Gigiri. But I can't put any pictures of the house in this blog because then everyone will want to stay with them. We ate lots of great food and watched lots of World Cup soccer matches together. Also, they had great neighbours (Hi Dylan!), and a shopping area with a Planet Yogurt within walking distance.
Second, I got to do one of my favourite big-city activities on the Big Drive - go to the movies. We went to see the new Transformers movie - Transformers: Age of Extinction - the very first day it was released in Kenya. It was totally boss.
Third, my parents had other friends who invited us up to the Naivasha Yacht Club, which is only an hour and a half out of the city, to hang out for the day. I got to chase my mother around on a paddle board, and I got a sailing lesson. Thanks Megan Gilgan and Patrick Fruchet!!
NAIROBI ROCKS!!! We had such a great time in Nairobi. Here's my top 5 reasons that I loved it:
First of all we stayed with our friends Lisa Kurbiel and Johnson Kimuyu who have a fantastic house in Gigiri. But I can't put any pictures of the house in this blog because then everyone will want to stay with them. We ate lots of great food and watched lots of World Cup soccer matches together. Also, they had great neighbours (Hi Dylan!), and a shopping area with a Planet Yogurt within walking distance.
Second, I got to do one of my favourite big-city activities on the Big Drive - go to the movies. We went to see the new Transformers movie - Transformers: Age of Extinction - the very first day it was released in Kenya. It was totally boss.
Third, my parents had other friends who invited us up to the Naivasha Yacht Club, which is only an hour and a half out of the city, to hang out for the day. I got to chase my mother around on a paddle board, and I got a sailing lesson. Thanks Megan Gilgan and Patrick Fruchet!!
Fourth, there are tons of fun and interesting things to do right inside Nairobi, like going indoor rock-climbing, and helping to feed baby elephants and giraffes. You do have to put up with some traffic problems, but overall it it worth it!!
Fifth, even though Nairobi is a huge city, it also has some big parks and green spaces that make you feel you are not even in a city. The parks are great places to go hiking and biking for hours. We even found rope swings and waterfalls in the forest we went hiking in.
I have to call Nairobi a very cool place to visit. I was kinda sad when our passports finally came back and we hit the road going north, except I knew I was going to visit some more great friends in Ethiopia. But we'll get to that story soon....