Around Carlisle

 In roman times, around AD 122, the northern border of England was in Carlisle, with Hadrian's Wall. The wall - a literal wall - stretched 73 miles from Bowness-on-Solway to South Shields, or from Carlisle to Newcastle upon Tyne. 

In Carlisle, there are still many remains of the wall, as well as various monuments to the wall, a path along the old route, and a number of other walking paths. These little monuments are a depiction of the location and spacing of the towers along the wall. 

We did a lot of walking around town. 

Glascow

 The next morning, we packed everything up again and walked to the Paisley Gilmore train station for a direct and short train into the city. We enjoyed the damp walk and our view of Paisley, though it wasn't very glamourous. 

From the downtown Glascow train station, we walked a few blocks to a trendy restaurant to meet up with mom's friend Victoria. Among other things, we got to try trendy haggis - three flavors!

Then Victoria walked with us back to the train station. 

The Glascow train station is really fun - and we weren't the only people who thought so. They were filming the day we were there - for the show Inside Central Station. The trip to Carlisle was an easy hour, and it was fun to watch out the window to see the countryside - lot of sheep. Adam was there to meet us. It was great to see him!

We walked (see the theme of the trip!) across town to our airbnb and got settled. It was great to unpack knowing we'd be in one place for several days!

Dublin

 The best thing about having a kid study abroad is getting to visit them! Not really, but selfishly, that was one of my thoughts when Adam decided to take a summer history course based in northern England - Carlisle. We decided to plan a family trip to coincide with the end of his trip. We'd get to come see where he'd been on his class, and then he could come with us on some adventures. 

Flying into Carlisle isn't a thing. The closest airports are Manchester, Glascow and Edinburgh. After checking out all three, I found us flights on Aer Lingus, which had just started flying direct out of MSP. Adam was on one of the first flights they had out of MSP - it was almost empty! Not so much with ours. We were excited to fly a new airline. You can see our green plane amid all the Delta!

All Aer Lingus flights from the U.S. go direct to Dublin first. We'd never been to Ireland at all - so we planned to spend the day in Dublin. Overnight to Dublin, all day in Dublin, then a commuter hop over to Glascow. Aer Lingus certainly fed us well!

But it was a long flight plus a 6 hour time change, so we were pretty tired when we emerged from the airport in Dublin and got a bus into the center of town. We had a lot
of our stuff with us, since losing any checked luggage was going to be a problem. 

We were totally exhausted. This seemed like a good idea at the time - but in retrospect - we were too tired to appreciate the city. But finally it was time to head back to the airport for our puddle jumper flight over to Glascow. I'd been excited to get seats in the front of the plane - not realizing that we boarded at the back!

This is us the very same day, walking from the Glascow airport to our airbnb, now with every bit of our stuff. It was nice to get moving, and it was only about a mile, but we were exhausted. 

Our airbnb was up three flights of stairs, but finally we could collapse and sleep!

More Ghana

Things move slowly here. It’s hot, so we get up early to walk on the beach. We come back sweaty for a slow breakfast of Ghanaian omelet, two pieces of toast, a squeeze packet of margarine that says “Do not refrigerate”, tea, and a bowl of fresh orange, banana, mango, and pineapple. 

Yesterday’s main adventure was Cape Coast University. Meg’s dad stopped in Ghana during WW2 - back when planes could only fly 300 or so miles per day. Someone took him to the beach and offered him fresh pineapple - he loved it. So when he had the option to get a Fulbright grant in 1968, bringing his family and coming here to teach for a year, he jumped on it. Meg was 6 when she arrived, and she attended the Primary School associated with the University. Yesterday we walked over to the University and visited her old school. 

We waded right into the school, through hundreds of kids at recess with very little supervision. No one seemed worried about it, and two girls cheerfully took us to the office. The assistant “principle” abandoned what he was doing and took us on a tour of the school. 

Meg was of course most interested in the primary classrooms for 4 and 5 year olds. Here she is with some of the staff. The school has expanded so much that her second form classroom is now part of the school used just for the youngest kids. 

Each classroom was bursting at the seams, but the children seemed cheerful and focused. At least until we came into their room - we were a huge distraction! This school is partly funded and supported by the University, and does charge fees, but less than most private schools. So many of these kids were associated with the University or from other “middle class” families from Cape Coast and surroundings communities. 

Next, Meg gathered her courage, and we dropped in, unannounced, at the Department of Basic Education. We ended up talking to two professors who do research in early childhood education. So interesting. Both were so welcoming. Meg is hopeful that she can find an ongoing partnership somewhere here. 

Last evening, we climbed up to a tower overlooking the town to see the city lights. The tower was built hundreds of years ago - it’s falling apart. In the US, it would have been barricaded off. Here, a family was happily squatting in it, “watching” over it. I’m glad we got to see the view. 

This morning, we took a shared taxi to Elmira, a little fishing village 12 km along the shore. Small, medium and large traditional pirogues, or fishing boats, bobbed in the natural harbor. The market was mobbed - so Meg didn’t take me - and full of fresh fish. Meg bought me a bag of water that was almost entirely frozen - one of my favorite moments of the trip!

Meg is finishing up our shopping, and tomorrow we start the journey home!

Cape Coast

We were woken this morning by the rhythmic chanting of men pulling in their nets from the sea. The nets are taken out in these large canoes, then pulled back to the shore by teams of 3-6 guys. It look likes hard work. But apparently it’s effective, because this is not a revitalized traditional industry - it’s just the way people here get their fresh fish. There are apparently larger fishing boats that stay out for a week or more - we can see the lights at sea at night - but most of the fishing this near-shore stuff. 

Our first few days in Cape Coast have been difficult. I’m hot and sweaty almost all of the time - definitely every minute from 8 - 5 every day. At first, we were so mobbed by pushy children and taxi drivers and street vendors and party goers that it felt like we couldn’t leave the room. And we kind of couldn’t. 

A couple days later, we’ve figured out a few things. People here DO like to talk and they are pushy. The taxi driver associated with our hotel just stopped by in the hotel garden to chat, as did our server from lunch yesterday at a restaurant. Our host, the manager and the cook stop to chat several times a day. Meg has learned to talk to the street children - giving them food but never money. Some of the chats have been wonderful and informative and profound. Sometimes it’s just hard, when we want to do something else, like read or talk to each other. 

Our hotel, right on the beach.

I also have not taken very many pictures. It feels rude here. It also invites attention, and we’re already got enough. And it feels like it makes me a target to pull out an expensive camera. So I’ve taken fewer than usual, and will post even fewer, since internet seems to be scarce here. 

We took a cooking class with Global Mamas, a local organization that support local women to earn a fair wage. This is Meg helping to make fufu, which is made by pounding green plantain with cassava. We also made red red and a groundnut soup. Yummy. 

This afternoon we visited Cape Coast castle, where thousands of slaves were sent off to America and other locations. The dungeons were awful - the stories are pretty bad. The hope has to come from the fact that it DID end. 

Tomorrow we head to the University of Cape Coast, where Meg’s dad taught 50 years ago. 

Next up: More Ghana

First Day

I’ve traveled enough that I should know this lesson by heart - first days in a new country are HARD. Things are different, and we are usually tired, jet lagged or both. Our first day in Istanbul involved driving a stick shift in rush hour traffic with people who view traffic rules as a suggestion. Our first day in Cape Town was easier, but we still had to change money, buy groceries, and figure out how to get places.

Last night we had our “first day” in Ethiopia, even if it was just an overnight. The airline arranged transport and a hotel for us, but almost everything was primarily in Ethiopian, we had to figure out where to go and where to wait, and eat a very strange (and spicy) continental breakfast.

This afternoon was our first day in Ghana, and I hit the “why the hell did we come here and when do we leave” moment about an hour after we arrived. It is hot, humid, and a lot more typically African than Cape Town.

Our taxi driver rushed through clogged streets, past pedestrians, motoscooters, and make-shift shops of all kinds. I sweated. 

These are not bottles of coke - they’re bottles of gas. Motorists or cyclists can buy fuel or bananas or soda or toilet paper right from their car, or with a very quick pit stop. 

On our way to dinner, we had another wildlife sighting - goats! A bunch of them. 

We walked the streets of Accra this afternoon in search of money changing, shampoo, a USB plug (I left our good one in Ethiopia this morning) and water. This Indian place was just where the guide book said it would be - and had lovely shaded tables amid trees. 

Right now we’re up on the roof of our hotel watching the sunset and feeling the cool(ish) breezes. To one side, there’s this compound with three or four family “houses” with a shared bathroom (or at least that’s what I think it is). 


On the other side, is a junk heap, but next to that is this nice house with a walled compound and trees. From street level I couldn’t tell!

The breezes are amazing, the lights are coming on, and the call to prayers are echoing across the city. I might survive Ghana after all!

Next up: Cape Coast

Safari!

When people think of Africa, they think Safari. So did Meg yesterday afternoon as we hiked down from table mountain. She suddenly realized that she didn’t want to leave Africa without seeing zebras. She called a tour company from the hillside, and set up a trip for this morning. Ah- the wonders of cell phones!

Kruger National Park is amazing. People say it’s a trip of a lifetime. It’s also on the other side of South Africa - a really long ways away. Near Cape Town, Table Mountain National Park, at 85 square miles, hosts tons of plants and a variety of animals. But not the Big Five - Lions, Leopard, Rhino, Elephant and Buffalo. I’m not exactly sure why those are the big five - I think there are all sorts of other just as interesting animals - which is good, because we saw many of them today. 

We went an hour north of Cape Town to a private game reserve that boasted four of the five. We took a tractor/Jeep game viewing vehicle all over their 10,000 hectares to see giraffes, zebras, eland, springbok, gnu/wildebeest, ostrich, rhino, cheetah, lion, leopard, and a little nocturnal cat. Seeing the herbivores was best - they were loose on most of the property, and mingled freely. The carnivores were in large pens. They looked pretty happy, and most were rescue animals, but it didn’t feel that different from a zoo, except for walking IN the cheetah pen - that was different. 

This guy was just hanging out by himself. 

We saw a couple eland on table mountain, but there were a lot more and they were a lot closer here. I took all of these pictures with my 3x zoom. 

There was a whole herd of eland. 

The springbok were a bit more skittish. 

And finally - zebra! 

They have two rhino - a male and a female. They go everywhere together, but five years later - no babies. These animals are huge - we didn’t get that close. 

Meg didn’t get nearly as close as the toddler and her mother, but this cheetah was pretty chill. He looked at us, rolled over and went back to sleep. But yes, we were IN his enclosure. 

We were not in the lion enclosure. Not even fingers. 

There were ostrich everywhere. They’re a kick. 

On the left is the giraffe dad with the 7 month old baby on the right. 

I think the giraffe were my favorite. So much character! 

To cap off the day, the staff sang Happy Birthday to Meg and brought her sparkling grape juice for her birthday. Happy Birthday Meg!

Next Up: First Day (in Ghana)