Wrapping Up in Stone Town

Our return to Stone Town on Wednesday marked the beginning of the end, so to speak. TC would head to Dar on Thursday before flying home on Friday. I was staying in Stone Town until Saturday when I would commence a couple of marathon travel days. (I'm writing this during one of my layovers. By the time I get home, it will have been 36 hours of travel from departing from Zanzibar airport to arriving at the Victoria airport.) To celebrate our last night together, TC and I headed to Traveller's Cafe for beautiful views of the sunset.

Once it was dark, we wandered around Stone Town to work up an appetite and then headed to a little Indian restaurant that TC liked. We were the only people in there and the proprietor sat down with us and chatted about what it was like to live in Zanzibar Town. Still a little sore from our Tuesday night at Gerry's Bar in Nungwi, we called it an early night. It was a low-key but very enjoyable last night together.

The next morning, TC and I said our goodbyes and I headed out on a tour of Stone Town. Through the magic of Instagram, I had befriended a local tour company a few years ago. It just seemed rude to not hire them for something while I was in Zanzibar. Despite repeated visits to Stone Town, I ended up being really happy with my choice to do a tour. Because the streets of Stone Town are so twisting and confusing, you get into the habit of only walking the ones you know. With a guide, they know all the shortcuts so you end up seeing a lot of smaller side streets you wouldn't normally take.

We visited the Anglican Church and the site of the old Slave Market. Always an uplifting way to start the day.

These were believed to be the holding cells for slaves before being shown at market.
(There are a few historians who dispute this.)

This memorial stands roughly where the market was located.

We then headed to the Fish, Spice, and Chicken markets for a wander.

One section of the fish market is an auction. This was fish waiting to be auctioned.

Fish Market auction: all the pride of showing the fish you caught without actually having to catch it.

The other section of the market was vendors with their fish to sell.

There may have been a few cats hanging around. I can't think why!

Thanks to an overly aggressive tout, I got distracted in the Spice Market and realised after that I didn't get any pictures. (Just a reason to go back... again.)

Every street in Stone Town is picture worthy.

Cats the world over are exactly the same when it comes to sunbeams!

The spikes on a Zanzibari door. Once upon a time, these helped repel invaders.
Now they're just pretty.

An Indian-style Zanzibari door.
(The persian style ones have a rectangle instead of arch at the top.)

All the doors on this street were being refurbished. (You can see
water damage on the lower left of the door.) The worker was trying
to clean up the doorway for me. He became part of my pictures.

Like any good tour of Stone Town, we ended up at Mercury House. Freddy Mercury was born in Stone Town to Indian parents. Freddy didn't live in Mercury House - it's pretty much just a cash grab on the name because it was built on or near the site of his home which was demolished  - but when standing in front of Mercury House...

Friday was souvenir shopping and lazy day. After I picked up a few items for the few people on the list (the handy thing about almost all of your family have visited at one point or another is that you don't need to get them squat!), and headed to a waterfront cafe I liked for one last fruit smoothie and the gorgeous view.

The last time I left Tanzania, the morning started with a massive downpour and Justin, our gatekeeper at Cradle of Love said that it was Mother Africa crying because I was leaving and she didn't want me to go. Well, she cried this time as well. In fact, she cried for over 2 hours and with thunder and lightening, I started to get a little worried about flight cancellations. Instead, I spent three hours hanging out in Traveller's Cafe drinking coffee and chatting with Suleiman about life, politics, and religion in Zanzibar. If you have to wait out a storm, it's the way to do it.

This little guy decided that my table and chair was the perfect spot to hide from the rain.

I had a great time, Tanzania. I'll see you again!