Day 5: Arusha

It had been dark by the time we arrived at the hotel last night, so it was exciting to wake up this morning and find out what we could see from the balcony of our hotel room.

The weather looked quite cloudy in Arusha this morning and the temperature was really quite cool first thing. A big change from Qatar!

We went downstairs to explore the hotel breakfast. It wasn't quite as lavish as the buffet we'd had in Doha, but it was fine. There were pancakes and really crispy bacon, which was nice. The only problem was the coffee; really terrible instant!

By the time we'd had breakfast the view from the hotel room was looking sunnier.

We set off shortly after 9am to track down the conference venue. The Esperanto event is being held in the large international conference centre, which is only a short walk from our hotel.

The courtyard outside the conference centre is lined with flags...

...including the Esperanto one, of course

There are also lots of signs around advertising the conference.

Once we got inside the venue we were able to register and receive our name badges, as well as a conference bag which contained the programme and a few other items.

We also received our vouchers for the excursions. I may have signed up to a few!

The official opening of the conference was due to start at 10am. We went and took our seats in the main hall.

In the end things didn't kick off until around 10.30. There were a number of local dignitaries attending and at least one of them was late, leading to a delay in proceedings which ultimately contributed to the ceremony finishing an hour later than scheduled. When things did get going there were lots of speeches, some of which were interpreted between Esperanto and Swahili. The most exciting bits were the music interludes, where we had some singing from Burundi and some Maasai warriors dancing.

Everyone was fascinated by the Maasai display, filming and taking photos. What made me smile was that the leader of the Maasai seemed to be similarly fascinated by the Esperantists and was taking his own photos and videos later on  

After the ceremony there was a communal photo of all the conference attendees and then we definitely felt ready for lunch. We set off back towards the hotel to drop off our conference bags.

On the way out we spotted the Maasai, seemingly putting on another impromptu display.

Once we'd dropped off our bags, our next priority was to acquire some Tanzanian shillings. There seemed to be several banks and exchange offices a short walk away from the hotel but they were all closed today - I guess because it's Sunday - so we weren't able to change any of the US dollars I'd brought with me. Luckily we managed to find an ATM to use instead. Although we only took out a small amount of money, we ended up with a big bundle of notes. There are over 3,000 Tanzanian shillings in one pound.

After a short walk we found what looked like a nice coffee shop. I really felt like a proper coffee after the unsatisfactory one at breakfast, so we went inside and realised that it was also a restaurant with a proper menu. I ended up having a pizza (as well as my coffee!), while Tim was more adventurous and went for a traditional Tanzanian dish, which involved stir fried beef and vegetables.

For dessert we both had a slice of cake from the coffee shop and the portions were huge. Here's Tim's lemon cake, with his hand for size...

...and here's my enormous slice of chocolate cake, which I didn't manage to finish!

The meal was great but the service was extremely slow, so the whole process took a couple of hours. Nothing seems to happen very fast in Tanzania! We were pretty full by the time we'd finished, so we headed back to the hotel room to relax. On the way we passed the clocktower in Arusha's main square, which also has an Esperanto sign this week

The weather had become sunnier as the day had progressed and so when we got back to the hotel we had a clearer view of the large mountain behind the town.

It's been an exciting first day in Arusha  And really nice to be in a milder climate after the extreme heat of the past few days in Qatar!