The Purple Penguin

As we were at the bus getting ready to head out to Accra and the airport, one of the delegates strolled up and said his flight left at 1745!  So it was a mad drive to the airport and we just got there in time. Check in was chaotic and I was given a sheet of paper saying how important it was I was at the gate by 6pm. So off I scooted to make sure I was there and sure enough, arrived at 5 minutes past only to find security sitting around chatting and telling everyone that it was closed ‘come later’. Typical. Half an hour later I asked ‘when will it be opened, because we were told if we don’t go through by 7 we won’t make the flight!” then they let us through. Weird system.

Turns out could have gone in later as they didn’t even start boarding until 8 – after 4 days in Ghana I should have been used to it. Full flight and not much time to sleep so arrived feeling like I’d pulled an all nighter, which was pretty accurate.

First thing we did was stop at the cafe and get a decent coffee, then the train back to the hotel. Settled in (took a nap!) while Joe went off to his meetings. Then off to the boat trip. The couple had hired a boat to take us around the canals in the evening – nibbles and drinks and good company. Quite fun.

I’ve noticed an odd thing though – there is more smoking here than there was in Ghana! I’d got quite used to not breathing in cigarette smoke so it’s quite odd to smell it all over the place again! Apparently you can’t smoke in public buildings in Ghana but there are no signs anywhere. People just don’t smoke.

Travelling is catching up with me today, so it may be a quiet day reading and resting.