Tent City and the Serengeti

We left our lovely lodge near the town of Karatu and drove for three hours on motion-sickness inducing windy roads around the edge of the Ngorongoro Crater, to get to the Serengeti. Serengeti is Masai for "endless plain". It is a huge park, and also the first national park in Tanzania. The park is the start and end of the giant wildebeest migration (between here and the Masai Mara in Kenya). Typically we would have been able to see the migrating animals at this time of the year, however due to climate change, the animals were still in the southern parts of the Masai Mara. 

We had a total of 2.5 days in the Serengeti. We saw a LOT of animals. We also spent a lot of time driving around on dusty, bumpy, windy roads. The landscapes in the Serengeti are incredibly varied. We started out in a giant plain that pretty much looked like Southern Alberta, but there are also rock formations (called kopjes; think Pride Rock from The Lion King), rivers, streams, green meadows, scrub land, and little tropical oasis areas with Palm trees around little ponds and streams. As it is still the dry season here, many of the rivers and streams were small or dry. 

Highlights of our three days here included: 

- 8 separate lion sightings

- watching a young male lion attempt a run at some zebras (which I happened to catch on video)

- lion copulation. The male was huge and super sexy. We could see why the female chose him and his luscious ginger mane. 

- 3 separate leopard sightings (2 mating pairs, and one solitary leopard in a tree right before the park gates on our last day)

- many many hippo viewings 

- a group of vultures devouring an old dead hyena

- 5 hyenas 

- coming across a group of at least 20 giraffes one morning 

- 2 cheetah sightings (the first a pair of brothers eating a dik dikthat we first saw from afar and then later got to go in for a closer look, and then a mama and cub (kitten?) that we saw REALLY close up. As we were watching the second pair, a safari jeep with cheetah wheel coverings came up, and the mama, seeing the cheetahs on the car, G&T super defensive and crouched like she was going to pounce. I actually got down and shut my window this scared me so much!)

- many many elephants. Just when you think you've been there done that though, you stick around and watch and see new cool things, like a nursing calf, or elephants drinking and playing in the water. One day we saw Stumpy, an elephant that had a stunted trunk (genetic or damaged we were not sure but it looked like it had been chopped) that was about half the usual length. He had adapted by kneeling down to be able to teach grass, and then bracing the grass against his tusks before putting it into his mouth while feeding. 

By the end of our first day in the Serengeti we had seen all of the Big 5 (last was the leopard), but we still had 2 more full days after this. Luckily we still saw lots of amazing things to keep us entertained, including 2 more leopard sightings on the last day. 

The entire trip we have been wanting to see a lion kill, but this is extremely rare to actually witness. We thought that we were pretty lucky when we saw the one lion charge the herd of zebras on our first day in the Serengeti. We got really lucky on our last afternoon however and came across a group of lions that we swore had surrounded a lone Cape buffalo. We watched for quite some time with nothing really happening, and then thought we would drive around and come and watch for the other side of the plain, where more lions were lying under a tree. As we are coming around, we got stuck in a mud hole! While we were being pushed out of the hole by another jeep, we were just able to see the lions attack a zebra (apparently the buffalo was a decoy!) and take one down! We didn't see the actual kill, but arrive to see them eating, which was pretty incredible in itself. The sounds of lions eating is crazy! They are all growling and asserting their dominance for a position at the kill. I think we watched the pride for at least an hour, until they were mostly finished eating and went back to the shade to sleep off the kill. Pretty great end to our last day on safari! 

We had quite the experience with out lodge the last three nights. Out itinerary from the travel company said we were to stay at Robanda Safari Camp, but when we arrived, they had no reservation for us. No reservation in a safari camp means no food, water, preparations, anything. We then proceeded to go to three more camps in the area to see if they had our reservation. By the second, Camille and I decided that we better get some beers and embrace the hakuna matata mentality. She had even started chatting up and making dinner plans with a couple of Malaysian boys at the third camp that thought we were university graduates. This was also not our camp however, despite the fact that we had keys to tents, and someone ready to carry our bags for us! 

We ended up at Robanda Wildlands Camp. They had our reservation; however this was not the level of accommodation we had become accustomed to, or that we had paid for. We decided that we would have an adventure, and then deal with the travel company the next day and move to the place on our itinerary, which had had lovely permanent tents with a lookout tower where we were already planning on drinking some bia beredi (cold beers). We had even learned a new cheers for the occasion (myshamarif!). 

The Wildlands camp was a basic tented camp.  These were military style canvas tents with small, not very comfortable beds in them. A shower was a bucket of hot water heated by the kitchen (6L each), dumped into a bucket with a shower head in a separate canvas compartment of your tent (definitely no hair washing). There were spiders. Dinner was by candlelight in a mess tent. Local village men patrolled the grounds at night for hyenas, with their African bow and arrows, the tips treated with poison for the kill. Definitely a great addition to the safari experience. But we thought one night would be enough! 

Unfortunately we were extremely disappointed by the travel company's refusal that they had made a mistake (the name, and the picture of the camp in our itinerary, and in the guide's itinerary very clearly matched the first lodge, NOT the tented one). We were very frustrated for a part of the day, and then decided to let it go, embrace the adventure, be slightly grubby and hungry for the next couple days, and just deal with the company when we got home. So we tented for another couple nights! And no one got eaten by a hyena (although we did hear them often at night, very close to the tents)!

This is not a dik dik

Day 3 safari we left Tarangire and went to Lake Manyara national park.  This reserve was made into a park one year before the country's independence (by the British colonialists) and I got a more formal "national park" vibe here. This was a much more tropical landscape, with rainforests and many more rivers and streams. There are a large number of baboons in the park, so we spent a lot of time hanging out watching them play and interact on this day. Overall this was a much slower day for exciting animal sightings. New animals spotted: blue monkeys, some kind of stork, black faces fervet monkeys, and hippos! The highlights included hippos (they were fairly far away but we got to see them climbing out of the pond and hanging out in land, not just lying about like lumps) and a large group of elephants that crossed REALLY close to our jeep while we were hanging out watching them. This was super cool. 

We stayed the next two nights at the Oldeani Safari Lodge, which was a fairly new lodge, with only 4 rooms, partially owned by some Americans. The lodge was realllly nice, and even had a potable water filtration system! This is the only place we saw this. We were also the only guests so had the entire place to ourselves! There was a staff of 2 guys that were super attentive and the food was amazing. There was also a big fireplace that they lit every night (we were at higher elevation and it was cold here). There was even enough water pressure that Manon and I managed to wash our hair for the first time since the start of the trip! This was a big deal for everyone. 

The only complaint was the poor beer selection - note to future Tanzanian visitors - Castle Light is not good beer. 

Safari Day 4: we headed into the Ngorongoro Crater, which is in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area. This is not a national park, so is a multi-use land area, which means that people and domestic animals can also live inside the park as long as their behaviours to not cause damage to the environment or the wild animals.  The area used to be part of Serengeti national park but some years ago (Matt would remember the year but not me) it was turned into a conservation area to allow the Masai more land to live. The crater itself was formed when the volcano exploded and collapsed in on itself. The volcano is no longer active. The crater used to be the only place I. Tanzania to see the Big 5 easily, however due to interruptions from the Nadia I. The park, it is now really hard to see leopards as they tend to hang out in the forested area by the escarpment, where there are not a lot of roads going though for viewing. This is the only place however that it is really possible to see rhino though, since they are very endangered due to poaching (apparently one set of rhino horns can bring in $700 000 US dollars on the Asian market) and also cuz they hang out in areas where there are not a lot of roads as well. At this point we had seen all of the Big 5 except for leopards and rhinos, and our goal was to see rhinos today. We did accomplish this, which was really cool, however they were pretty far away and most of the viewing was through binoculars. (Bring binoculars!! Very important. Thanks Maggie for the lending of your's, in case you happen to read this!). 

Other highlights included: 

- five separate lion sightings (we pretty much never get tired of lions)

- three hippo sightings (I never get tired of hippos, but I might be the only one to say this) 

- first hyena sighting 

- watching some wildebeests humping (highlight for Manon anyway)

Random Thoughts and Musings about being on Safari

The Truck

We are riding in a 6 passenger Toyota Land Cruiser with a pop up top. Ultimately, it is quite comfortable, however most of the roads, particularly through the park, which means you get thrown around a lot. We seem to prefer standing up and looking through the top of the jeep for animal viewing, which increases your chances of being thrown around a bit, so I have quite a few small bruises on most of my extremities. There is also one corner that is a little jagged, about boob-height, which we are calling the shirt ripper corner, since I discovered that nice little bit of danger on day 1. 

Our Guide 

Emanuel is a native Tanzanian who had been guiding for 8 years. To be a guide here you have to have a lot of schooling. He has university level education in environmental science and biology. I would say he is the perfect mix of friendly, joking and knowledgeable. He is not in your face to be super chatty, but will joke around with you easily. This is good since we spend 8 days with him before going to Zanzibar. He is quite progressive in his views (he is 32 but is not getting married yet as he is working hard to put his 4 younger brothers through university; despite the fact that the average age for marriage in Tanzania is 18). Cool guy for sure. 

Driving around Tanzania

The landscape is much more varied than I would have thought. There are the stereotypical red earth savannahs, but also forests, rainforests, lots of cultivated crops, and rice fields in some areas where there are lakes for irrigation. We have not yet been to the capital (Dar es Salaam) so no comments really on cities, but houses range from simple wood structures to concrete and brick buildings. In the Masai villages there are also thatch/mud buildings. 

Highways are paved and are mostly good (except there are lots of speedbumps, sometimes in place of stop signs) to tell you to slow down. Other roads are dirt and vary from pretty bad to really bad. This is all a part of the "African massage" you get from the jeep. There is also a lot of "African snow" (dust). 

The Routine 

Pretty much every day on safari is he same. Wake up, get ready, have breakfast, get picked up by Emanuel. Drive to the park, pee while the guide pays the park fees. Drive around looking for animals. Stop for lunch at a picnic spot around 12:30. Pee again. Around 5-6 head back to the gates. You should probably pee here too. Drive back to the lodge/camp, shower/drink a beer. 7:00 dinner. The sun rises around 6:30 and sets around 6:30. I usually wake up with the sun, and then I am usually ready for bed around 8:00 pm. One night I stayed up until 11pm. It was pretty amazing.

The Food 

Breakfast is always fruit, your choice of eggs, and toast. Sometimes there are crepes, or strange hotdog tasting sausages, or grey fatty bacon. I usually eat none of these last things. 

Lunch is always a picnic box. Pretty much all the lodges prepare these for their guests, although we have seen a few (of what we assume to be higher paying travellers) have large ounce baskets or coolers with their lunches. Lunch always consists of: a piece of fried chicken (or one time, a beef(?) chapati thing which was really tasty, a juice box (which I always give to Manon), a boiled egg, some kind of prepackaged biscuit/cookie (which is tasty about half the time), a banana, and some kind of bread/carb (sometimes bread with butter, sometimes bread with a carrot, sometimes some kind of cake thing). The only exception really was our last lodge, which definitely was the worst, where we got containers of plain white pasta and tomatoe/teeny amount of chicken/mayo sandwiches instead of the fried chicken leg. None of this lunch is ever refrigerated or kept in a cooler. Food safety Danni learned to let this go fairly early on. By the last few days however, we were maybe eating 1/8 of the food in our lunch boxes, as we were all pretty much tired of the boiled egg combination and no friend chicken. We are also very tired of fried eggs and toast for breakfast every day. 

Dinners (with the exception of our last lodge, which had very average food) have been quite excellent. They always start with some kind of squash or leek soup (pumpkin, butternut, zucchini, or leek; pretty much on rotation). They are always delicious. I had considered just having double courses of soup sometimes. Main course is typically some kind of veg, meat curry/stew thing, and rice/potatoes/pasta. Usually really good. There is always dessert, which I typically do not enjoy for some reason. 

We also invariably each drink 2 beers a night. There are quite a few local beers, of which we have tried them all, and decided that Kilimanjaro and Safari are he best by far. 

Game Drives and Animal Interactions 

After our first day of almost constant animal sightings, it got more like a typical safari for us. Much longer periods of driving without exciting sightings. Keep in mind that we were always seeing zebras, wildebeest, warthogs, giraffes, baboons, a bazillion birds, elephants, and too many species of deer animals to name; every single day. And while it is always cool to see zebras, this does not usually require us to stop and hang out and watch them for periods of time anymore after about day 2. We entertained ourselves be making up songs about the animals (me and Camille anyway) - oh baboons, you make me swoon.... There is also a lot of time for contemplation since it's often too windy or noisy to talk much while driving. 

It is really cool to see all the animals hanging out together. On day 1 we stopped for lunch at a picnic stop overlooking the river valley and it was honestly like the scene in Jurrasic Park when they pan over the park playing the theme song and you see all the different herbivore species just hanging out together. There were at least 8 different species all hanging out around the river. 

A lot of animals also have symbiotic relationships: zebras and wildebeest hang out together often cuz zebras have good eyesight and can spot predators, and wildebeests can smell water up to 600 km away so know when it is time to start the migration to new areas that are getting rain. Also birds hang out with, and eat parasites from, a bunch of large animals like elephants, giraffes, hippos, etc. 

Closest animal interaction: Matt getting touched by a monkey at lunch one day that tried to steal his food. A giant monkey also jumped onto our table to steal some pineapple, causing Camille to scream. Camille screams a lot around animals though. And bugs. 

The Weather

It was way colder than anticipated for most of the safari days. It rained a couple, and it is often windy. The truck with the top up is also pretty windy on a regular day. Most days Manon had at least 3 sweaters/jackets, a scarf, ear and and hoodie on. I brought one hoodie with me as my warmest item of clothing and have worn it every day. Also some of the areas (Ngorongoro) are at higher elevation so are colder. I had to borrow a pair of wool socks from Matt for sleeping. 

The Bugs 

Surprisingly (knock on wood), these have not been bad. There are Mosquitos, but we've been good with spraying and I have only had one bite. There are other flies and such which are sometimes annoying but not dangerous. There are also these creepy black jumping spiders which have caused some anxiety, but are apparently also not poisonous. 

Some areas/parks have tse tse flies, which cause African sleeping sickness, and can be a big deal. Apparently they are really attracted to blue, green and black, so there are blue and black canvas flags treated with poison in many areas of the park. Pretty much every item of clothing I brought is blue, green or black, so that was a nice surprise to learn about on day 1. 

The Language 

Jambo! Swahili is the national language of Tanzania. We have all made a point of learning the basics (hello, thank you) as the locals are definitely impressed when you speak to them in Swahili. I had made a point to try and learn 20 words in Swahili, and by day 7 safari I know at least 36. One lodge owner even asked if I was working in Tanzania, after I asked for beers in Swahili. (Jill, you'll be glad to know that Camille is at least as bad as you with remembering foreign language terms!)

Also, people really do say hakuna matata! This made us sing the song for days. There is also a Tanzanian song that we learned with the phrase in it, and we also sang this repeatedly in the truck. I'm sure our guide was delighted. (Terri and Kelli, this song was very familiar to me, I'm thinking from the movie Cheetah. Which I'm thinking we need to watch when I get home!)

All the wild lives!

Quick catch up information: I'm writing this on Saturday Sep 6. We flew from Amsterdam to Kilmanjaro airport on Sep 2. I think we last had wifi on Sep 3. We won't have wifi for at least another 2 days, but if I don't write this now then I'll forget everything and there will never be another blog post! (Update: we didn't have wifi until Sep 11)

Flight from Amsterdam to Kili was 9 hours. As a birthday surprise, the person who was supposed to be sitting next to me did not show up, so Camille got to sit next to me for the flight. This consisted of us lamenting the fact that we didn't have time for one last good European coffee before we got on the flight, drooling over our neighbour's delicious looking croissants that they seemed to eat throughout the entire flight, and wondering which combination of drink trifectas would finally make our flight attendant too exasperated with us to continue. We arrived in the dark and did not get to see the mountain out the window of the plane unfortunately. 

Next day we were pretty tired due to late arrivals and all of us pretty much slept the 2.5 hour drive to our first safari park - Tarangire National Park. The park (like a lot of other parks in Tanzania) used to be a game reserve for rich European and Americans to come and hunt, that were later turned into national parks with no hunting allowed. Due to the earlier hunting, and ongoing poaching activities, there are no rhinos left in this park. Our guide, the fantastic Emanuel (more on him later), told us that we would be able to see most African animals in this park, but likely no cheetahs as they rely on speed for hunting and this park has too many trees, so they prefer parks with more open spaces where they can run and get up to speed. Tangarire also has a lot of boabab trees, which are important because they lose all their leaves in the dry season so that they can conserve water in their roots (it is currently the dry season) so elephants often gather around the trees to dig down to get the water. There are hundreds, if not thousands of elephants in Tangarire National Park. 

Basically the routine for entering the parks is this: stop at the main gate, pee (cuz you won't get another pee stop until lunchtime unless your guide can arrange for you to go "in nature" (and the thought of this is quite frightening once you see animals around and also when you think of the lions that could be hiidng in the bushes), pop open the top of the land cruiser and then start looking for animals. We have heard a lot of stories from others who have gone on safari, as well as our guide, how sometimes you have to drive for hours before spotting animals.  We were apparently very lucky in Tangarire. As we drove in, we played the 'spot the animal game' and awareded points to whoever spotted something first. This soom became redundant as we wondered if this was an animatronic park and they had strategically placed the animals just for us. First we saw 3 giraffes. Then a few meters later, 2 zebras. A few meters after that, a group of elephants clustered around a baobab tree. It progressed like this until we were seeing herds of impalas (kind of like pronghorns), wildebeest and zebras around every turn. There were also hundreds of elephants. We also saw other animals: warthogs, bush pigs, baboons, black faced fervet monkeys, dik diks, antelope, common water bucks, ostrich, vultures, secretary bird (scavenger bird that looks like an old man when it walks), jackals, some kind of scavenger stork that is creepy and we couldn't remember the name so we call it a reaper stork. 

We were in the park for 2 days. In addition to the amount of animals we saw above, we also saw lions on FOUR separate occasions. This is apparently quite rare to see in this park. The first time we saw a couple of males sleeping under a tree by the river. Later that day we saw a female and a cub hanging out in a bush. There was a mobile camp (where people actually sleep!) just down the hill from where this lioness was hanging out. The thought of this freaked us out a lot. On day 2 in the morning we came across a group of 11 lions sleeping around a fairly fresh zebra kill. We hung out for awhile and watched them, and then were lucky enough to see them again when we left that night - a couple of them were finishing off the remains of the carcass while the rest of the pride hung out around them. 

We were also able to see a kudu, which is a deer-like animal with kind of twisty type horns. Apparently it is not common to see them as they have been hunted out due to the demand for their horns - the horns are used in a traditional tribal dance for the unique sound that is made when you blow through them. 

The animal highlight of day 2, and an example of how lucky we were: we spotted a bunch of jeeps in a spot and went to check it out. Emanuel thought it was a cheetah, but it was far back in the buhs lying on a red sand hill, so we all pulled out our binoculars to try and get a better look. I saw a cheetah butt disappear behind the hill. We sat around looking for where it went; Camille swore that she saw it again but Matt and I thought it was a clump of grass. I was about to be satisfied with a cheetah butt sighting, but Emanael thought we could do bettter so pulled offroad into the bush to try and flush it out. We drove around for a bit but no luck. We were heading back on the road, around the side of the area where we had seen them, when Manon and I started mumbling 'oh my god oh my god' and pointing at the front of the truck because there were 2 cheetahs crossing the road in front of us and we were so excited that we couldn't get the words out! We followed them into the bush again, thinking that they would take off and this was going to be the best thing ever, but THEN, they stopped on another rock and decided to pose for us (and a few more jeeps of people that Emanuel had called on the radio) for a few pictures. Sooo amazing. We all pretty much felt we had gotten our safari money's worth within the first 2 days!

We stayed 2 nights at the Kirumuru Under Canvas Lodge, which is basically a permanent tent lodge - the tents are canvas, but are on a concrete base, and there are bathrooms in the tents. The lodge is about 250 meters from the edge of the park, and there is no fence or anything, and so the animals can come freely into the lodge area. From the amount of scat in the area, we knew this was often the case. We were a little nervous going to sleep that night I think, but it was really cool going to sleep with all the animal sounds around us. We all heard elephant grunts really close to the tents in the night too, and the staff told us in the morning that there had been elephants in the camp overnight. When we checked in, they told us that during the daylight we could walk around but to be 'careful of our surroundings' and that at night we were to be escorted from our tents to the dining hall by Masai boys with spears. The first night, Manon and Camille had a jumping competition with our escorts, and then they put on a little demo for us complete with chanting and jumping. It was really awesome. During our first breakfast we saw four giraffes just wander past the dining hall while we were drinking our coffee, which was pretty fantastic. In the morning on day 2, we found our tent surrounded by at least 15 elephants. We decided that we were going to have to wait to go to breakfast until our trusty escorts arrived! We stood on our balcony watching them grazing until they were gently herded away by the Masai boys. Matt and I had the tent closest to the park, and all the elephants passed within about 5 feet of the tent! As we were eating breakfast they returned so that we could watch them from the dining hall. So cool!

Quick note on pictures: 

Most of the safari pics are on my actual camera. I don't have an easy way to get pictures off of the camera and I to my iPhone, where they need to be in order to put them in the blog. So most pictures posted until I am back are from my iPhone, which means: a) that I had to be close enough to the animals to take a picture with my iPhone, and b) I actually had to remember to take a picture with my iPhone. Most things falling into this category are pictures taken at the lodges or (a newly fashionable thing to do on safari), animal selfies. 

An all inclusive plate of Dutchness

Hello from Amsterdam! 

We arrived in the city after a 9 hour flight on which the most sleep anyone got was maybe 2 hours. The wine, however, was really good. We were pretty jet lagged and tired, but decided to rally and try to stay up until 9 pm. We found our apartment, which is pretty much right on the edge/on the same street as the red light district. We dropped off our bags and set out to wander, as we couldn't get into the apartment until 2:00pm. We had breakfast and then basically just wandered until we decided that we needed beer. Camille made us go into every single dutch cheese shop (approximately 1 every 1/2 block) and smell all the stinky cheese. We then met up with Matt's friend Henk (Henk!) and wandered some more. There were chips (with mayo.. very delicious) and more beers. Then some falling asleep at the table at the pub. This was about 4pm, and we were very dead, so the girls decided to head back to the apartment and leave Matt to rally with Henk. We failed at the waiting until 9 pm and were sound alseep by about 5 pm. We did however wake up when Matt came home around 8:30, and went for pizza and yes, more beers. 

The apartment has 2 big windows in the living room/mine and Matt's room, which of course we need to keep open for air. I am super thankful for my earplugs! Haivng windows right on the street does make it easy to scout out all the action and do some really great people watching at night though!

Sunday morning Manon and I left Matt and Camille to sleep until noon and went to Anne Frank house. Neithe of us had actually ready the book, and although we recognize the importance of the memorial, found it to be a bit overrated and tourist trap-y. Oh well! Met up with the rest of the gang, walked halfway across Amsterdam (oh my poor blisters) (Jill, don't worry, they are NOTHING like Athens!) and went on ze party boat canal tour, narrated by the oh-so-witty Nell and RON, where we drank wine and Heineken's and did not yell 'hello strawberries!" at each canal bridge we came to. We learned a lot, including that the XXX on the Netherlands coat of arms has nothig to do with the red light district and instead stands for the three dangers of ancient Holland - fire, floods and the plague. 

Now, what happens in Amsterdam stays (mostly) in Amsterdam, so I will just say that lots of fun was had Sunday afternoon/evening, and that I rallied (desite pretty much no sleep Saturday night due to jet lag) until 2:30 am and that Sunday morning was not really very much fun for me and in fact its now 5:30 in the evening and I just started feeling better about an hour ago. 

Spent the afternoon walking all over the city yet again, complaining about how much our feet hurt, assisting Camille in her ongoing search for fruit beers, and also at the Rijksmuseum. This was an art museum, but up until we walked through the door I thought it was a natural history museum, so you can imagine my dissapointment. Matt, Manon and I got the audioguide, and then spent most of the time just trying to figure out where the hell we were going due to the lack of overtsignage and sad maps in the infobook. I actually spent most of the time there just hanging out in the picknicroom, which was amazing. Manon napped in there for a short bit. The other amazing room was the library - amazing. I would want this in my dream house, along with a room of cheese. 

Tonight is our last night here. The plan is to go for a nice dinner and then perhaps to a sex show. It is 40euro though, so Camille and I are wavering on whether we are too cheap to actually go. I suspect the verdict will be something along the lines of "when in Amsterdam" though! Camille has heard many things about the banana show and thinks she better see it for herself. 

Random things about Amsterdam: 

- IJ together is pronounced AY

- there are so many bikes. Way more bikes than cars. There are also seemingly no traffic rules or lights. Also the trams run in the center of the driving/walking streets with no guard walls/berms/anything and if this was Calgary at least 20 people would die everyday. 

- Dutch service industry people are pleasant but stern. They get paid a living wage so no tipping necessary and they do not work for your tips,. No, you cannot switch out chips for a salad and no, we will not separate your bills. We are getting really good at doing math in our heads. 

- The red light district is not as crazy as I thought. Many fewer windows. Less crazy clubs.

- A coffee shop is where you go to smoke/buy pot. You can also drink coffee but its definitely not a Starbucks. 

- The name of this post is the actual name of an appetizer at a cafe we frequented quite a bit here. In our 'everything is incredibly funny' mood on Sunday night we decided that we needed to eat this plate of Dutchness. It was slightly dissapointing (mostly cheese and some pickled onions) except for Grandma's meatball, which was DELICIOUS

Random blog note: I'm wriitng this on my phone and the blogger app is pretty terrible, so you'll get a post (maybe not as long as this one??) and THEN some pictures. It won't be fancy, but I'm hoping to at least post more than twice! 

Tommorrow: 9 hour flight and then TANZANIA! It's also my birthday :)

California Love

Hello! I know everyone that is subscribed to this blog is really used to hearing Jill's voice in their heads as they read it, seeing as how she was so amazing at updating while she was in Australia! You've got Danni this time. I've been told by my sister to 'update the blog', and seeing as how I'm really really terrible at doing so when I'm actually traveling, I guess it is my turn.

I'm nowhere as exciting as Australia, but I AM in LOVELY Northern California this week. I'm staying with my friend Marcia at her Auntie's house in Healdsburg (about 2 hours north of SF), and it is a fantastic place. First off, its wine country. WINE COUNTRY. And it's a super cute town. And there are many fabulous restaurants. Truffle fries, people. TRUFFLE FRIES.

The only really annoying thing about getting here was the fact that instead of 2 hours from SF, it was about 4.5 due to rush hour traffic. We were sitting in the car around 7 pm (landed at 3), Marce carsick and on the verge of biting me due to low blood sugar and not eating since 11:30 am, and decided to ditch off the freeway and go get some food. In Marcia's words "I am just going to tell the waitress to bring me the first easy thing to put in my mouth, and THEN bring me a menu".
We googled "restaurants in Petaluma" and picked the first one, which was the amazing Lagunitas Brewery (neither of us knew anything about it). This was the best accidental restaurant choice ever. Beer was great (especially the Farmhouse Sour!) and so was the food. Marce had a 10" hot dog that sent us into 12 year old boy level giggles at the waiter's comments when he set it down in front of us.

The next morning we woke up, threw on clothes and headed out to the farmer's market. As we were heading back to the car around 10 am we stopped in at a tasting room to ask about the bottle of Christopher label wine in the window, for Marcia's bf, and ended up having Mike, the manager of the tasting room, ply us with wine for the next hour. Oh 10am accidental wine tastings! 10 glasses of wine and 2 100$ bottles of wine purchases later (Umm... apparently 15% off sounds a lot like 50% off to Marce when she has had 10 glasses of wine) we were ready to finally get ready for the day!

We don't really have a lot of plans for the rest of the week except for hopefully getting a tan amidst the bursts of rain we've been having, hot tubbing every night, wine and music in the park tonight(!), and continuing to cook delicious but simple meals out of our farmer's market goodness. And I'm even managing to get some work done, which is made easier by the fact that I'm sitting in a backyard that looks like this while I do so:

Oh, and of course I'll need to have more truffle fries.