Our journey to Tanzania

This summer, I made an amazing journey with my family. We travelled to the wonderful country of Tanzania in Africa. This holiday was one big adventure full of experiences and many moments that we will remember for a very long time.

During the time we have been there we've been to many different places. We started and ended on Zanzibar and in between we went to main land Tanzania. There we did some cultural trips and of course also visited a couple of the national parks for game drives.

I have made so many photos during our journey which I would like to share with you. Because there are so many I decided to divide it into a couple of different blogs and this is the first one.

Zanzibar; a piece of history

Our journey started on the island Zanzibar. To get a better understanding of why Zanzibar looks the way it does, it's important to know a bit of the history.
Zanzibar is a part of Tanzania, but it used to be an independent country. It was under strong Arab influence for a long time. Sultans of Oman grabbed control over the country from the 17th century.
In the 19th century the British came to Zanzibar and the island officially became a British protectorate. The Sultan remained on the throne, but the British were in charge.
In 1963, Zanzibar became independent from Great Britain and one year later there was a revolution where they kicked out the sultan. A few months later Zanzibar became part of the union with Tanganyika (this is how main land Tanzania was called). Later on they merged the island and main land and renamed Tanganyika and Zanzibar into Tanzania. That is how the new country received its name.

Arrival in Stone Town

Our journey started on Zanzibar. After a long intercontinental flight from Europe, we wanted to 'land' a bit. My wife have experienced Afrika before; 20 years ago, but our teenage kids hadn't been outside Europe until then. For them it was a very big culture shock.

The first days of our holiday we stayed in a hotel in Stone Town, which is the capital city of Zanzibar. When we drove from the airport to our hotel in the center of the old town, we immediately experienced the overwhelming chaos. We come from a relatively small town in The Netherlands, we're everything is very organized. The scenes on the street therefore made quite a big impression on us.

Cars, tuk-tuks, motorcycles constantly honking to get to their destination and pedestrians in between trying to cross the roads. It was chaotic, but also fascinating.
Africa stimulates many of your senses. Apart from sounds you also have countless different smells. The smell of fire is everywhere because people prepare food along the roadside and also spices are very common. A lot of people wear beautiful colorful clothes. Everywhere you look, there is something to see, hear and smell.

Narrow streets and shops

After a good night of rest, we decided to discover Stone Town a bit. Our hotel was located in the eastern part of Stone Town near the popular spice market.
One of the first things we noticed when walking through the narrow streets was how friendly the people here are. Everywhere you hear “Jambo”, which means hello or welcome in Swahili, which is the language spoken in Tanzania.
The shop owners are not pushy either, unlike what we have experienced in some other countries. If you don't buy anything they say; "Hakuna matata" which means "No worries". And the locals are also very friendly and helpful.

The Arab influences are clearly visible in Stone Town. Around 99% of the population in Zanzibar is Muslim. In the streets you see many women wearing headscarves and there are quite a few mosques all over the city.
Several times a day a call to prayer is broadcasted through loudspeakers. Unfortunately, this also happens at sunrise, which is very early in the morning 😅.

The people

One of the other things where Africa is very different from our country is the people on the streets. A large part of everyday life here takes place in the streets. This surely has something to do with the weather, which is way better then where we live, but I also think it's a cultural thing.
Everywhere you see locals. You see small groups that socialize together, but also people that are just chilling or even sleeping in the streets.

The markets

Zanzibar has a lot of different markets. They have a spice market (Zanzibar is called Spice Island), a fish market and a daily food market near the beach. Here is an impression of the different markets.

The beach

Stone Town lies on the west coast of Zanzibar and has a long coastline with a sandy beach.
The beach is very lively, with both tourists and locals. Many locals come here to relax, just like the tourists. But there are also many vendors around. Especially football shirts from Zanzibar, sandals, scarves and boat trips are especially popular.

Some random pictures

As I already mentioned at the beginning of this blog, I have made quite a lot of photographs. I don't have a story for all of them, but I do want to share them to give you a better impression of Stone Town. So here are some 'random' photographs I took.

My recommendation

Stone Town is a beautiful and overwhelming city. There is so much to see, hear and experience and the people are friendly and welcoming. Besides that, Stone Town has a lot of history which is still clearly visible in the streets.
If you ever have the chance, I would definitely recommend staying here for several days to experience this city.

Thank you for taking the time to read my blog. I am very curious to hear what you think, so feel free to share your thoughts in the comments.

This is the first blog of our adventure in Tanzania. Follow my blogs to join us for the rest of the journey!

Friendlymoose