Don't get me wrong... I love Africa!


But traveling through Africa is tough! The distances, the uncomfortable rides, the men constantly on your face, and the dust among many other things get on your nerves!

After trying to get tourist visas to go to Ethiopia, Egypt, and Morocco failed, I decided that if those countries didn't want my traveling money I wasn't going to beg them. Traveling with an El Salvadorian passport is not the worst, but also not the best. Months before I arrived to Nairobi I emailed all those embassies and told them I was traveling and if I could get a visa, all of them sent me the info with the papers that I needed to get a visa. Well, I showed up and guess what? They forgot to mention that they don't give visas to people who are not Kenyans or have a resident permit in Kenya!! Arghhh

Ok, those things could usually be worked out... or so I thought! The Egyptian embassy had zero interest in speaking to me because "you can not get a visa in kenya, period" and the Ethiopian embassy wanted an original letter from my embassy... but there is no embassy of El Salvador in Kenya!!!!! In fact, the only embassy in the whole of Africa is in Addis Ababa... the capital of Ethiopia!!!

All those "bumps on the road" made my decision of leaving the continent earlier than I thought much easier. I decided that the last month and a half of my journey before heading home was going to be spent visiting friends!

I looked for tickets out of kenya and then I understood why Kenyans don't travel much! It is expensive! I couldn't find anything under $700 to go to Europe one way so I searched and searched and searched until I finally found a $250 ticket to Frankfurt via Morocco. Why so cheap? Maybe it was the 21hr layover in Casablanca, Morocco. I called Royal Air Maroc and the embassy to make sure I didn't need a visa but they couldn't make up their mind so I decided to pay $25 and get a transit visa. The embassy was extremely nice and since I told them I was leaving the following day to Uganda they processed my visa in within 24 hours when it usually takes 3 weeks! Woohoo

The day finally arrived when I had to say goodbye to Kenya and hello to Europe!

First stop... Cologne!

I stopped by Cologne and visited my friend Ines and her boyfriend Oliver whom I met in Myanmar during our hike from Kalaw to Inle lake.


During my time in Cologne I walked the cute streets, and walked by many churches, visited art galleries, and walked through many parks.






I asked both Ines and Oli where to go and they both recommended to walk thru the cemetery close to their house... so I did!


It actually was a really nice walk, trees all around, and very nice tombs, many of them decorated with little statues, figurines, and fresh flowers. As I walked through I saw many people gardening and taking care of their loved one's grave.

My favourite was the little clown by this grave.

And the funniest was the clown nose that someone put on the statue across the street from the clown statue.

How cute, it has an angel, a deer, and many other small decorations.

This was the oldest one I found... 101 years old!

Cologne is very famous for its cathedral so of course I went to check it out...





From there Ines and I walked across the lock bridge and along the river.







On my last day we started by having some amazing ice cream...

Maybe not the best idea on a freezing cold day!

And then some hot chocolate...

While we strolled in a really nice local park that had some animals that kids (and adults) could feed.

A couple walking its cat!

From cologne I took a flixbus to... Dusseldorf and visited my good friend Felix!
Felix and I met on my 2nd day in Sri Lanka and traveled together for almost two week and my favourite memory of him is when he was so so red because of the spicy dosa and he refused to stop eating it! haha

This time I visited him at his mom's house while he was back from uni for the weekend.


After catching up about life for the past 10 months we went out and explored town.
The whole place had the Christmas vibe going on, a big department store had amazing displays with stuffed animals as the Christmas window decoration. It kind of reminded me to the Macy's windows in downtown SF!





From there we kept strolling through town and walked along the water taking in the beautiful view of Dusseldorf!

A chilly but nice sunset!

Felix, Brigitta, and myself walking by the water

It was only one night but it felt so nice to catch up with Felix and meet his mother!
Next stop... Amsterdam!!!