Dear diary !

Part 1

I have been a little bit nervous before the trip to Nigeria. I have never been in Africa before, so this will be exciting. I took the first plane from Værnes to Paris, early in the morning. The plane that was going to the capital of Nigeria (Abuja) from Paris, was four hours too late. I had no idea what to do the next four hours at the airport. After the boring hours, I was finally on the plane on the way to Nigeria. When I looked out of the window in the plane, I saw how exotic the nature was compared to the nature in Norway. It was everything from the dry Sahara to the humid rainforest. When I got out of the plane, the heat was really hitting me. It was like a shock. It was a really contrast to the cold in Norway. I took a taxi to the hotel that I had booked before the trip. The first thing I did when I got up to the hotel room, was to put me in bed. I fell asleep with once.

Part 2

I woke up with a lot of energy. I was ready to discover Nigeria. Before the trip, I had researched about different things to do in Nigeria. I ate a quick breakfast and packed a bag with a bottle of water, some food, a bikini and a camera. There was a bus with some tourists who were going to the eastern part of Nigeria. I went with them, since they were going to a national park. We stopped on the way, because we drove through a big market. There were many different homemade crafts at the market; like hand-woven clothes, herbs and leather goods. I bought a leather bracelet and a “Fulani”. A “Fulani” is a richly embroidered horse that they use in their festivals. The horse was really nice!

The national park we were going to, was called “Yankari National Park”. It was the most developed wildlife park in Nigeria and was famous for its variety of animals. There was a guide who met us when we came to the national park. He showed us around in the park. The guide was very nice. He talked a bit special English. I think he maybe had an African melody over it. He showed us and told us about the many interesting animals in the park. Some of the animals were baboons, elephants, crocodiles, monkeys and hippopotamus. I thought it was most funny to look at the monkeys. They were totally crazy and jumped from a place to another all the time. It was a little monkey which jumped up on my shoulders. It sat there for a while, and then jumped further. That was really incredible.

When we had been in the park for a while, I took a bus down to the coast. I was starving when I came to “Ibeno Beach”. The “Ibeno Beach” is one of the numerous fine beaches in Nigeria. There was a small quite restaurant on the beach. I asked the staff if they had a traditional dinner. I got the answer “of course, we have”. So they served me one of Nigeria’s specialties. That was something they called “suya” (barbecued liver and beef on sticks). There were some new flavors, but it was delicious. After the dinner, I ran down to the sea. I jumped out in the cooling water. I could not get it much better than it was.