The Gambia

Well, after over 24 hours in airports and planes I arrived in The Gambia. I was able to sleep for a couple hours on the 2 long flights (first one was almost 10 hours and the last one was around 7 hours), and my luggage actually made it! I flew from Windhoek, Namibia to Frankfurt, to Brussels to Banjul in The Gambia (it was that or spend the night in Dakar airport...no thanks). The Gambia is very very poor from what I can tell. On the ride from the airport to the hotel I saw maybe one house that I would consider livable. The hotel however is very nice...it is right on the beach and the room/facilities are nice. It is pretty strange/depressing however to be in such a nice place when you know right outside the hotel is so poor. There are a few restaurants/shops right outside the hotel, but as soon as you walk out of the hotel area, people come up to you and either try and pull you into their restaurant, offer you some service that you don't need, or just ask for money. You can't make it five feet without being approached. It happens just as much on the beach too (once you get outside the hotel area on the beach...fortunately there is a guard to keep people from bothering the hotel guests)...I went for a run this morning and within 3 minutes I had someone running beside me...he was nice enough, but give me a break, I just wanted to be left alone and go for a run. Luckily he didn't last too long. I don't have any pictures right now because I don't have internet access in my room yet, I am using the hotels computer in the lobby...but hopefully tomorrow it will be set up and I will be able to post a few shots. I am definitely looking forward to Paris, but it was pretty nice being able to watch the sun set on the Atlantic Ocean tonight.