Our first entry: Travel and Arrival
Trip Start
Jun 30, 2008
1
18
Trip End
Aug 04, 2008
Kumasi,
Ghana
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
The next step was to navigate$ our way through the International Flights section of the airport.. We had to wait for about three hours because we wanted to be early enough so we didn't run into any trouble. After checking all our bags and going through security we all had our last American meal. Mitch had a hot dog, Cory a piece of pizza, and Marcie had a BLT. After eating we all played cards until it was time to board the plane.
We were seated in front on an exit on the plane so we all could sit together. We really could feel the excitement as the plane first began to taxi down the runway. There was no turning back now, we were on our way to Amsterdam. We enjoyed a few meals on the plane and some terrible in flight movies, but all in all it was a smooth and enjoyable experience.
When we got off the plane in Amsterdam it was 10:15. Our flight didn't leave till 1:40 so we decided to explore the airport a little. We ate some McDonald's, walked through a small museum that they had full of paintings, and checked out some of the duty free shops.
We then ended up getting to our gate an hour early but the line was extremely long. We ended up having to go through a full security search. By the time that we were half way through the screen had said that the gates were closing but there were still many people including us that were not on the plane.
The airport
We ended up getting on the plane just as it was supposed to leave. Because of this the plane was about an hour late to leave. Marcie and Cory were asleep during the majority of this so it really didn't bother us too much. The food on this flight was not as good as the last flight. There was a choice of chicken and beef and neither gained rave reviews. We did our fair share of sleeping and watching movies during this flight. Once the flight landed we were put on a shuttle bus to the airport. The shuttle bus was all of 50ft which was not as eventful as we hoped but we had lots of adventure to come inside of the airport. We then got off the bus and all the walls said Akaawba which means welcome. There were green, red, and yellow clothes hanging from the ceiling. We then entered the immigration office. We got in a very slow line and ended up being the last people out of the building. The officers gave some people trouble on where they were staying but we had said the University in Kumasi and we did not have much trouble. The real trouble came when we tried to pick up our bags. We had put some orange rope on almost all of our bags. One black bag escaped the rope and it was very hard to find. The room was very small and there were many people inside of it all trying to do exactly what we were trying to do: find our bags. We had one black bags that did not have the orange on it. This was very difficult to find with some many people. Once we did find it we had to weave through a maze of people to get out. We then pretty quickly headed outside to find Andrew and Emmanuel. There were so many people but Andrew was pretty easy to spot. A tall white man on his cell phone.
They then navigate us through the maze of people. It was quite dark. It felt like almost 11 p.m. but it was really only 8 p.m. local time. We headed to the hotel van to put our stuff in. It went pretty smoothly but we did end up giving the men helping us a little too much money because they asked for it.
Much more to come!
Comments
bargain and tips
Marcella the hardest thing for Americans to do when over in a foreign country is learning how to bargain with people. You hardly ever pay what they ask.
safe trip
I'm glad you all made it safely to Ghana, and were able to find Andrew so easily! I look forward to future postings about your adventure. (ps you board a plane, not 'bored' it...):-) C
Photos
Marcella the photos were great, try to get local people into your shots. The market shot could have some local buying some produce. On the other hand, pictures of the people trying to sell everything to you.