From the airport, we took a taxi to the hotel that Alison had stayed in the night before. The Joska Lodge in Osu, was very nice. The room had air conditioning (although Alison didn't use it) and a private shower, toilet and sink.
We brushed our teeth and washed our faces, changed into hot weather clothes and checked out of the room so we co
uld spend a little time exploring before we made our way to Elmina.
(Above is a picture of the outside of the Joska Lodge)
We left our baggage at the front desk where they kept it safe and sound until our return.
The first thing we did after we departed the hotel was find a bank to change money. We brought about $300 USD a piece and needed some GhanianCedi's. This is where we learned some valuable lessons about Ghana, for example:
Lines/cues mean nothing. There may be a line, but people completely ignore it. We waited about 20 minutes in a "line" only to be told that they don't change money there. This made the sign reading: "exchange money here," very deceptive.
We went to a couple more places and finally found a nice spot. Alison spotted this place that was up wooden stairs, around a corner, and through an unmarked door. It became necessary to change our money in Ghana after repeated attempts to change money in the US failed. Each place we went to advised us that they don't carry Ghanian Cedi's.
One quick thing about getting Ghanian money. Try to get small bills (one Cedi bills and Peswas). It is nearly impossible to find anyone with change for more than one C
edi, and when buying food off the streets, they often don't have change at all.
We then headed over to Frankie's for some lunch. Frankies is a very overpriced place for white people to hang out, although there were some Ghanians there watching the Black Stars whoop up on South Africa. I got a side salad and a bottled water for an astonishing 7.50 GCD. That's about $7 USD. Yikes!
From Frankie's we headed back to the Joska Lodge to pick up our bags, then we took a taxi for 6 GCD to the STC station.
The STC is their bus system. These busses are similar to a Greyhound bus, minus the restroom.
Our bus was running one hour early (time means relatively nothing in Ghana) and we boarded for our trip to Cape Coast. The three hour bus ride cost us 3.50 GCD each.
There was this entire crazy routine for checking our bags under the bus, you are charged by weight, all of our bags were completely different weights, but we were all charged 20 Peswas (about .20 USD). I also had to use the restroom at the STC station and that cost me another 20 Peswas, this price did not include toilet paper, but I was prepared. The toilet was western style, but without a seat.
Upon our arrival to Cape Coast, we found a taxi driver, named Brother, who drove us to Elmina for 6 GCD (way too much money!).
Even though our ride was completely overpriced, Alison retrieved our driver's cell number so that we could contact him for a ride the next day.
Brother dropped us off at our hotel, the Bridge House. There was a little confusion upon check-in. We thought the rate was 30 GCD/night. This was not the case, it was actually
84 GCD/night. It turned out to be totally worth the money. This place was three stories. We were on the third floor in a "triple," a room for three people. Our room had working A/C, tons of hot water, and a television (that didn't work). We overlooked the Elmina castle (used for slave trading, but now a museum of sorts) and a canal that the fisherpeople used to park their boats for the evening. We tool lots of pictures from the hotel, grabbed some bread for dinner and went to bed around 9PM. We had a busy first day!
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