Hello Kampala!
Before we left for Uganda I got to spend a couple of nights in D.C. with the fam. Kate and Elliot bought a house earlier this year, and it was so much fun to see it for the first time and ooh and ahh over all the improvements they've already made. We had a little happy-new-house pre-trip root beer toast (nice root beer, no high fructose corn syrup!), and I found this fortune inside the cap. It was a little bit disconcerting, actually, because taking myself less seriously is something I have to work at on a daily basis.
Laid over in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
First things first: we set up our tents at Kampala Backpackers Hostel. I expected to feel disoriented—seeing as this was my first time in Africa—but everything felt new and fresh and exciting, even something as simple as sucking on sugar cane from a street vendor:
After wandering around our neighborhood for a bit, we met up with Spencer's friend Ambrose (from his first trip to Africa in 2007), and experienced mall food Uganda style:
This photo doesn't actually capture how intense it was. A waiter from each restaurant in the mall hurries to your table and tries to get you interested in their menu over everyone else's. It was a relief when we all finally decided on what to order!The next morning Colin met us at the hostel, and after a brief trip to the travel agency to iron out the details and pay our balance, we drove down to Queen Elizabeth National Park. We had to stop for fruit, of course:
SO CUTE!
Jackfruit. I loved it in India—I remember it tasting like a cross between pineapple and mango—but we never got around to buying any this time. I did snack rather compulsively on passionfruit though, haha. Next time: Queen Liz, part 1!(All Uganda and Rwanda entries here.)