BootsnAll Travel Network



July 20th, 2008 – Etosha National Park to Windhoek, Namibia

Windhoek is the capital city of Namibia and with only 2 million people the capital I believe has 200,000 people, where the rest of them are I have no idea I certainly haven’t seen that many during my many nights in Namibia.  I was up at 530am and it is really depressing to wake up when it is still dark out, when you went to bed when it was dark out.  I can now see why there is a drug problem in Alaska during the winter when some parts have 24 hours of straight darkness.  I gathered my things, took care of business in the bathroom, brushed my teeth and ate breakfast.  I also made a quick call to Sarah back home to say and we were off.  We would have 75 kilometers in Etosha to drive through before leaving the park and continuing the journey to Windhoek.  We are expected to arrive at roughly 430pm or 5pm depending on how long our stops go for and how fast we can drive.  In Etosha we can only drive 60 kilometers an hour which is roughly 30 miles per hour.  Today will be a long drive on the bus.  Lucky for me both sets of batteries are charged for my camera, my iphone is charged up and for the first time in a long time I am listening to music, enjoying the bus ride.

  

We stopped for lunch fairly close to Windhoek along the side of a road in a small railway town in Namibia.  Conveniently across the street was a nice sized local market.  All the people came from Zimbabwe with their stuff to sell.  Rusty, my friend who I met in Capetown was right, every place sold the same crap.  I decided to not wait for Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe where apparently all the stuff we have seen since South Africa came from.  I ended up bargaining real hard for a cool bone bottle opener with an elephant painted on it, a salad fork and spoon with a decorative bone handle, a  bracelet and necklace as gifts, and a very nice, hand carved salt and pepper shaker for when I finally move out of my house.

 

We arrived in Windhoek around 4 or 5pm.  I immediately jumped on the internet to take care of some business and check my email.  After getting some emails from law school I started to panic about having to apply for jobs and all that post graduate but that stress and anxiety was quickly cured by a few drinks.  Tonight, like in Swapkomund, we all went out for dinner.  Before we went out, we played some pool, had some pre dinner drinks and did whatever needed to be done.  We went to the most famous and probably most touristy restaurant called Joe’s Beerhouse.  Ironically enough, it was NOT famous for its beer, but for its exotic game meat.  I ended up getting a rather large skewer that had on it crocodile, ostrich, kudu, chicken, and zebra.  I got it rare and it was delightful.  This just adds to my list of exotic animals eaten.  In Australia back in 2004 my mother and I went up to the top of the Sydney tower and ate a really extravagent lunch that had camel, ostrich, emu, kangaroo, crocodile and other animals.

 

After dinner the truck drove us back to the hostel and then it was off to the bar, as usual.  The highlight of the night was that people would buy shots for everyone and then we would pretend it was their birthday and the whole place would sing happy birthday to them.  I of course had to do it, and was the last person to do so.  That night I also met these three guys from London, one of whomwas Jewish.  I am always taken back when I meet fellow Jews traveling from other countries besides America. 

 

I got one of their numbers and they me that if I was ever in London to call them, which of course I will do.  I am slowly building this great global network of contacts and people.  I should make a map and place pins in the countries and cities where I know people, I bet it would look cool. 

 



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