22nd post - Arrival in Madagascar

Finally the time has come : the adventure begins, we're off to Madagascar *-*

After spending the whole day packing yesterday, I arrived at the airport at 1:00 p.m. today. That's when I met Julia and Nina, two of my three travel companions. After successful check-in, we boarded the plane. Since, as always, everything was on perfect time (cough cough), I quickly wrote an exam online in the time between boarding and departure, but unfortunately I didn't have time to send it off.

The flight lasted 90 minutes and we even got a small lunch. This was very convenient because I hadn't eaten anything since lunch and my stomach was growling - and it was still a few hours until dinner.

When I landed, I quickly submitted my exam in the remaining 10 minutes - at the last minute, but at least on time. I'm really looking forward to the grade :D But it's also my own fault: flight from 3:40 p.m. to 5:10 p.m., exam from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m....

At the airport we bought our visa and filled out some documents for entry. We then gave these to the border guards, who were very talkative and in a good mood - maybe a little too in a good mood. Because after he asked me how old I was, he directly asked me if I had ever had a relationship and/or my first time... well :D

After this very amusing but bizarre conversation, we got our suitcases from the conveyor belt and then met Edi, our fourth member of the group, outside. He had traveled from Mauritius and was waiting for us for some time, which he spent changing money (The banknotes here are sooooo beautiful!! I'll show you pictures in a later post 😊). One euro is equivalent to approximately 4900 Ariary.

Hotel staff picked us up in a very interesting car (two stick shifts, I've never seen anything like that before :D) and took us to the hotel, not far from the airport. When we got there we were absolutely positively surprised and really blown away. It was so modern, beautiful and big, I didn't expect that at all!

So we made ourselves comfortable and after a short while decided to use the remaining sun to buy water (and four beers) - the tap water here is not drinkable.

It was amazing to see the difference between our luxurious hotel and the poor street it is on... That really reminds you...

In the evening we ate in the hotel restaurant. Everyone had a drink, a main course, sometimes a side dish and then also a rum. In total we only paid €30, which was quite steep.

Now I fall into bed dead tired and look forward to tomorrow, when we will meet our guide Michel at around 8:00 a.m. I'm very excited!