Arrived Nairobi!

 [My internet isn’t great so I’ll publish this as text but will try to add pictures after.]

The short summary is: it was a lot of travel, but it all went smoothly, I slept some, and I’m happily ensconced in my first home. 

Ethiopia looked very lush!

It was good to get the worst out of the way at the start - the red-eye and almost 5-hour layover in Chicago wasn’t awesome. Flying business class on the longest leg was amazing - my one-way flight cost 88,000 miles from my stash but was very worth it. The countryside in Ethiopia was breathtakingly lovely with so many shades of spring green, and the fancy airport lounge was pretty posh. I appreciated that the buffet there served both African and Western foods, but I wasn’t hungry enough to have any. (I did sample fenugreek juice. It was quite odd.) 

The meal served between Addis Ababa and Nairobi seemed more Ethiopian in style and was delish!

Landing in Kenya wasn’t nearly as pretty - quite brown so not as photogenic. It took two hours from landing to arriving at my hotel, which was actually pretty impressive. I had to line up three times: present vaccine information (yellow fever and Covid); passport control, where I had to present my tourist visa; and lastly customs where my baggage was scanned. I was met outside the airport by the guide who is showing us around for the next day or so. 

The drive from the airport was interesting- I saw 2 camels being ridden alongside the highway, and when we passed the National park I saw an ostrich, Cape oxen, and also gazelles - just … out there!

My lodging is the Karen Blixen Coffee Cottages - part of the coffee-growing land featured in the movie Out of Africa. It’s very lovely - cottages, trees and flowers, glass-and-stone bar and restaurant. I arrived here about 4pm local time and managed to stay awake til just after 6pm. 

I had a blueberry gin & tonic and enjoyed the gardens.

Now I’m getting breakfast; my travel companions are still sleeping (they arrived near midnight last night, but came from Europe so will be less jet lagged). Today we’ll explore Nairobi with our guide and tomorrow we head out to our actual safari experience.