So let's try and recap.
On Friday morning my friends Josh, Tim, Christa and myself left Lusaka and hitched about two hours north to a town called Kapiri Mposhi, to the Tazara Railway station to catch a train leaving at 1400 hours for Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania. We rode first class, which means we were in a compartment that held 4 people, as opposed to 2nd which holds 6, or 3rd, which I don't even want to think about. The train was sparse, to say the least. Our compartment consisted of 4 benches with blankets which were our beds, and a small table. every car had a toilet and a sink. and there was a bar car that served drinks and dinner. We reached Dar 51 hours later. While the ride through Tanzania was beautiful, and it's nice to have transportation that you can walk around on, 51 hours is too long to do just about anything. We arrived in Dar on Sunday afternoon. Since it was too late to get to Zanzibar that day we got a hotel in Dar for the night. The Econo Lodge (no relation to the American chain) was pretty bare bones, but we were just happy to shower for the first time in 3 days. The next morning we got up early and went to catch the 0700 hours ferry to the island. At approximately 0900 hours, after three solid days of traveling we had reached our destination. Was it worth it? Absolutely. This island is unlike any other place I've ever seen. We arrived at Stone Town, the main port town on the island. It's an odd place. There's a mixture of African, Indian, Middle Eastern, and white tourist influences, an odd combination that gives the city a very unique feel. It sucks you in pretty quick. We spent the daygetting lost in the many alleys and walkways that comprise the city (think those scenes from like Indiana Jones movies where he's chasing some villain around Cairo or somewhere like that) and eating at Mercury's, the restaurant named for Zanzibar's most famous native son, Freddie Mercury, the late lead singer of Queen. Tuesday we decided that before the music festival started on Thursday we should head to the beach for some serious down time in the sun. We got a shuttle bus to take us to Kendwa, a popular destination on the West coast, about an hour out of Stone Town. We ended up staying at Kendwa Rocks, a nice lodge right on the beach. The beach is amazing. It looks like all those pictures of beaches you've seen on postcards or calendars or on your computer screen saver that look too perfect to be real and you can't believe those pictures were taken at a real place. They were probably taken here. The sand is incredibly fine, like flour almost. The water is almost a neon blue and is just warm enough to make it enjoyable (watch out for sea urchins, though. i watched two people get stung). We've spent the last two days here, laying around, eating good food, getting sun and swimming. Tomorrow we head back to Stone Town for the festival. More updates sometime soon.