Ghana 🇬🇭

I’m so delighted to finally be writing a travel experience. Ever since I was a little girl, I wanted to wander the world, meet new people, experience different cultures, try new food, and just to hear people’s stories. The world is God’s gift to us and that’s why no matter how uncertain I am about my future, one thing is clear to me – My thirst for adventures and desire to document it.
Come and see the world through my eyes (not that you don’t have your own eyes but, you get what I’m trying to say)
I have visited a few countries in the past but I have nothing on them except random low-quality pictures, That’s going to change soon. Ladies and gentlemen, shall we?


Planning


My friend and I have arranged to go on many trips but whenever we got so close to making it happen, something always came up, I guess the universe wasn’t ready for the trip to leave the group chat. Considering how many times we have tried, planning this trip wasn’t as difficult as I expected. We knew we wanted to go to Ghana which by the way, I have been to countless times but, this time I was going with my best friend! That’s why when our friend in Ghana told us about a promo that was going on at Africa World Airlines that would save us about 30% of flight money, we quickly jumped at it. Thinking about it now, I don’t know if we saved so much as 30% but I’ll leave the maths to you, return ticket plus tax was about 92k each. We booked the flight and were scheduled to travel on the 28th of December and return on the 2nd of January. Not only was I going to spend the New Year in another man’s land, but I was also doing it without my family. But that’s it, we dun book the trip, there’s no backing out now. Also, I lowkey fancied the idea of starting the new year in an unusual way so we move!
The date is set, and next is accommodation. Where do we stay? This was where all my years of reading numerous travel blogs and planning multiple trips in my head came into play. It’s true, where you stay during a vacation will either make or mar your entire experience. I’m not about to lay my head then hear gbas gbos in the middle of the night or find out water only runs early in the morning. I went on booking.com, Trip Advisor, air BnB, all the sites you can think of and started searching for a place. My search was narrowed to beach houses, best reviews and certain locations close to town (smarter to be close to town than spend ridiculously on Uber) I was so particular about staying close to a beach but my friend didn’t care as long as there was wifi. Most of the hotels we fancied were all booked but we were lucky to find one which was beautiful, artsy and all that vibes but wasn’t by the beach. I obviously wasn’t satisfied but it was either that or we slept on the road so I booked it, without payment of course and with the option to cancel no later than the 24th. The accommodation was settled.


Where do we visit during our stay? This was the most hectic of the planning process. In fact, we didn’t come up with anything solid till we got there. All we knew was we wanted to have fun, learn the history and get a proper Ghanaian experience in 6 days. The only certain thing was, we’d visit one of the slave trade castles and attend Afro Nation. Every other thing would come to us spontaneously. We were also non-chalant about it because we had a friend in Ghana, that could help us in the decision-making.
Everything seemed to be falling in place except my beach house fantasy, but I kept an open mind. One day, our friend in Ghana (Mr. T) texted us about a beach place that was available and was super close to town. I was very excited, got details then went ahead to do a quick Google search and Oh My! No one on the internet had anything good to say about the resort, from horrible staff behaviour to bad food. Literally the worst of the worst reviews. Looks like the only good thing about the place is the beach but I wasn’t going to give up on a beach house just like that, I was going to see things for myself but won’t cancel the previous booking either just as a backup. We told Mr. T to go ahead and book the beach place. We’d make our decision once we got there. We were ready and set to go!


The Trip


Our flight was 5:10 pm on Saturday, Dec 28th. Being Nigerians, we got to the airport about 2-3 hours early mostly because we didn’t have our vaccination card and knew we had to sort that out before the trip, which we did (Trust me, you don’t want to know how) On getting to the airport, the security at the entrance said only those who are travelling could enter the airport. I found that extremely strange, the boarding hall I can understand, but denying entrance into the main airport to nontravelers was beyond me. You mean to tell me that if my 10-year-old daughter was to travel, I’ll leave her at the main entrance to go and sort everything out on her own till she enters the plane? If you ask me, I’ll say that’s ballsy for an airport that smelled always of urine. Thankfully, it was just us two and we were both travelling. We went ahead and got our boarding passes.

We got snacks while we waited to board, all the officers seemed to be interested in every traveller’s business as they would not hesitate to ask silly questions every chance they got, “Where are you from?” “where are you going?” “what do you do?” “what are you going to do?” “you look familiar” “When was the last time you travelled” “When are you going to take me with you?” All these silly and unnecessary questions coupled with numerous begging techniques, “Come and do Christmas for mummy” “This one you’re going now, won’t you buy something for us before going?” “fine girl, give us something” We survived and it was finally time to go. Massive shoutout to Africa World Airlines for being on time, we were already seated and ready to go by 5 pm. Everything was smooth and the service was excellent. Mid-flight, they served Tuna sandwiches or crackers and Tropical mix juice or Pineapple and ginger juice. Of course, I had the sandwich and Tropical mix juice, which was good.


Remember what I said earlier about my “low-quality picture” lifestyle changing now? Well, here you go:
 (Missing Pictures)
Of course, Arsenal had to make an appearance. 
I don’t know how the pilot did it or even if it is legal to fly at that speed but in exactly 27 minutes, we were at Kotoka Airport in Ghana.
Over the next few days, I’ll share my AfroNation experience, what to do in Ghana, and everything that happened during my stay!


Stay tuned!