Tag 1 - Airbnb in Nairobi

Tag 1

At 3:00 am in Lübeck I was woken up. Actually, I didn't really sleep. Then to Hamburg, by plane to Paris, and then you are at the third largest airport in Europe. Correction: You run. At least that's how it was for me. In the small town called Charles de Gaulle, which is connected by its own suburban railway-like rail network, 2.5 hours of stay is just enough. With a supposedly good buffer in Paris, I looked at my boarding ticket, to find out where my gate is, where the plane to Kenya takes off. It said Terminal 1, so I took the train for 20 minutes to Terminal 1. Once I arrived, I found out that I was in the wrong place and that my gate was at Terminal 2e, where I arrived from Hamburg. Looking at the ticket again, I realized that I had confused the gate with the arrival gate in Nairobi. So back again. 50 minutes were already wasted. Then find gate L22 at Terminal 2e, which was not particularly easy due to huge crowds of passengers who preferred to stand in the way. Here too, I had to take one stop by train to realize that I had to go through another security check. And there were 1000 people in front of me. At least. The slowly, very slowly decreasing line was the biggest enemy of my watch. Because while still standing in line, boarding started. The gate closed in half an hour. Just a few minutes before the gate closed, I actually arrived and even had a minute to get myself a sandwich and a bottle of water. In the airplane, completely sweaty, I found my seat and through a friendly announcement from the Air France steward, I then realized that the flight would be delayed by about 20 minutes as we still had to wait for a few passengers. Well.

Eight hours later, I finally arrived in Nairobi, it was already dark. I wanted to book a flight to Kisumu, where I would go in two days. At the counter, I found out that my credit card didn't work, so I tried to withdraw cash from two different ATMs. But even here, my card refused to cooperate. Somewhat frustrated, I took an Uber to the city center and to my accommodation, where Winnie was waiting for me. 

Winnie is my host here in Nairobi and I live with her in her chic apartment in Westlands, north of the city center. She is in her late twenties, has lived in Norway for a few years, studied in Canada, and has been to Germany several times. She is a huge fan of Munich, and I looked at her in disbelief, which made her laugh. It should be mentioned that she worked as a flight attendant for a long time and has traveled a lot because of it. Then she worked in the communications industry for a few years and since Corona, when she realized that the 9 to 5 week no longer suits her well, she has become a farmer. Among other things, she exports green beans to Europe. 

In the evening, she cooked a, as she says, typical Kenyan dish for both of us. It was a kind of bean stew with bell peppers, onions, tomatoes, and rice with some cumin. The whole thing was sprinkled with delicious spices and tasted really extraordinary. Winnie found it too salty and apologized constantly, but I didn't think so at all. After that, it was time for me to set up the mosquito net and go to bed. 

The next day, I had to take care of a few things, such as buying a SIM card with an internet plan, resolving the issue with the credit card, and booking the flight. Of course, I was also overwhelmed by the climate change for the first time, and the numerous new impressions, like the bustling and lively Nairobi and the completely new culture, led to me being quite exhausted in the evening. Nevertheless, I felt like exploring the nightlife of Westlands a bit and I had already identified a very interesting bar from Germany. So I asked Winnie if she wanted to come along and she was immediately on board. The bar was only about 600 meters away and I was about to leave the front door when Winnie stopped me and said she would quickly call an Uber. 'Dont walk at night in Kenya,' she said and I had no objections. 

The bar was quite fancy. It was located in a courtyard and covered with a few sheets. The walls were painted, people played pool, sat in sun loungers, and a surprisingly good DJ played smooth techno. Unfortunately, it wasn't very crowded, so we went to another location. It was bursting at the seams there. Young cheerful people everywhere, hip-hop blaring from the speakers so loud that conversations were hardly possible, and cold Tusker, the Kenyan national beer. The beer's logo features an elephant's head. Well, what else.

Completely exhausted, I fell into bed after the nice evening before I had to check out this morning. It was very nice in Nairobi, especially with Winnie and the great accommodation made it a good start. But now I'm going to Kisumu. I'm sitting at the airport as I write these lines, and I'm about to board the plane. Off to the interior, off to Lake Victoria, and off to the region far away from any tourism. Will there be techno, globetrotting Winnies, and Uber in Kisumu too? We will see.