Dakar/Senegal

8.6.2024 Dakar

We are just leaving Africa behind us for the time being and I am not sad at all. Dakar was not nearly as desolate as the two previous port cities, but I still found it annoying.

There is a lot of traffic with a large proportion of junk cars (some of them have "For Sale" written on them, which suggests that the owners are very optimistic), and as a pedestrian you often come into close contact with the local population. As a "white bread" you are approached by every beggar, taxi driver and salesman with a crude and familiar "Hey, friend!" and sometimes harassed in a persistent manner. An artist and Germany fan forced himself on me as a guide, chatted me up and led me through the chaos. He also took me to the market hall, where I saw the biggest lobsters I had ever seen.

At lunchtime I wanted to go to a restaurant serving local cuisine. The guide first took me to something that looked like a shell between two buildings, where smoke was blowing towards us. On one side there were people sitting on the floor, preparing meat skewers by hand, and on the other side people were squatting closely together, holding these skewers over an open fire. I told the guide that it was too "rustic" for me, and he took me to a slightly more civilized restaurant.

While I was waiting for my food, the guide and I parted ways in mutual dissatisfaction: I had given him more than I wanted, but less than he wanted.

My meal was fufu with chicken. Fufu looks like mashed potatoes, but also contains plantains. The whole thing tasted pretty good, but was so filling that I could only manage half of it.

After dinner, I headed back to the ship. Before that, however, I went to a modern supermarket that offered a large selection of drinks. Following my motto "buy what you don't know," I bought three juices that I didn't know and am looking forward to trying them.

A towel animal greeted me in my cabin. I don't know what it's supposed to represent, but it's definitely funny.

In the evening, the "Philip Brothers" performed as jugglers. And who did they bring on stage for the riskiest trick? Me. First, I had to check whether the glasses and hoods of the two Frenchmen were really opaque. When they couldn't see anything anymore, I had to sit down and they threw their clubs just past me. I was just not allowed to move. Everything went well!