Today I’m writing one of my last blog posts ever concerning my journey here in Kenya. I cannot believe I go home today; my 3 months here have gone by so fast. The beginning of my journey feels like a distant memory now, as I’ve seen and done so many new things since then. So in my final week I tried to visit some of my favourite places and see some of the friends I met here before I have to leave for Canada.
In my final week, some of my roommates and myself went into Nairobi town for the day to go to the markets and sightsee. I had realized there were still many people I needed to get things for, so I made a list of things I needed to buy in the markets. I will definitely miss shopping in the markets, as Kenya has so many beautiful souvenirs, if I had more space in my suitcase I probably would have bought so much more! We also went up in the Kenyatta International Convention Centre, which is a 28-story building that has a helicopter pad on the roof that offers great views of the city. Another day that week we also went into Nairobi, to go souvenir shopping (again). We went to Spinner’s Web, which was my third visit here, to meet with our friend Reni. After, we all went to Mercado (a Mexican restaurant) in Nairobi to have happy hour drinks and food. They have the best cocktails! That night after drinks we went to our Airbnb near the airport as we flew out the next morning for Mombasa.
The next morning, 4 of the 6 of us received messages from the hotel we had booked in Diani saying that they had overbooked and for us to cancel our bookings (helpful hint: never book with Travelocity). This was about 2 hours before leaving to the airport, so it was a stressful flight into Mombasa. Luckily we had another good trip to Diani beach, as we had perfect weather and good company. The first full day we had there, I third wheeled Elena and her boyfriend Arthur and we went to the beach! The other girls went to the Kisite Marine Park to go on a day trip snorkelling. That night we all met up and went to dinner at Leonardo’s, an Italian restaurant, and had some gelato! Our last day at the beach was stressful as we were still dealing with the company we made our hotel booking through (again never book with Travelocity), but the weather was beautiful so when we were on the beach we still had an amazing time. We went to Nomad’s beach bar again, as they are situated on a really nice area of Diani beach (the sand is so lush here), and we had a metre long pizza for lunch! That evening we left for the airport and flew back to Nairobi at around 10:30pm.
On our second last day, after doing some work on our final report for our internship, Wenna and myself went to Nairobi to see our friend Reni one last time before we leave Kenya. We met up with Reni and her mom at Mercado (maybe my favourite restaurant in Nairobi – if you couldn’t already tell), for drinks and dinner. Reni’s mom came all the way from Vancouver to visit her, and they’re going to spend about two weeks travelling around Kenya and Tanzania before they go back to Canada. It was so nice to see Reni before we left, because even though we weren’t living super close to each other in Kenya, she was such an amazing friend and I’m so glad I met her!
That evening when we got back to Juja, we had some friends over for our last goodbyes! Our roommate Aidan was leaving at 5am on the 15thof August, and we left Juja at 5pm the same day, so it was good to say goodbye to everyone together. It’s really a bittersweet feeling because I’ll miss everyone I’ve met here so much, but I’m also looking forward to coming home to Canada.