Home » Ghana » African Adventure to Ghana - Summer 2003 (part III)

My summer of 2003 was a very exciting one. I went to Jonquière, Quebec to learn French for 5 weeks, and with only a few days to prepare (including a party at my friend Paul's cottage in between) I was off to Accra, Ghana landing July 1 (Canada Day, and also Ghanaian Independance Day). After that, within 3 days I was back at Ottawa to complete my Economics degree, so it was a very action-packed summer.

African Adventure to Ghana - Summer 2003 (part III)

Andrew Wozniuk
2006-04-02 10:47:42

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wasn't the first time I saw an interesting shirt here in Ghana. A while back I saw a shirt that a Ghanaian was wearing that said something to the effect of "Not only am I Polish, but I'm perfect too!" I had seen one just like it right before I came here when I was at Polish Day at Ontario Place. It's amazing the things you can find here.

So I guess this is just about it for my journals of my trip to Ghana. I will probably post one more time about my flight home and hopefully some cool adventures in London.

Sep 3, 2004
The Trip Home

Well, getting on a plane in Ghana is also an adventure like anything else. Because there is only one flight per day per airline usually, all flights are extremely overbooked, so if you want to make sure you can get on, you have to show up about 5 hours early for your flight and check in. Once you check your bags and get your boarding pass, then you can go home, or hang out at one of the airport bars (usually the choice that is made). Then, 2 hours before your flight you have to go through customs (yes, there is even customs leaving the country), then to the gate, and then through the metal detectors. Finally, you board your flight and are on your way. It seemed like just about every other time I've traveled in Ghana, people bring a lot of luggage. Even though you are only allowed one 13lb bag for carry-on, people bring on much more than that and so the flight attendants are struggling to find spots to stow all the luggage.

The flight was like any other, and I arrived in London about 6:30am or so, and I got through customs by 7:30am and hopped on the tube and was able to meet up with a friend from Ottawa for 9:00am. We had breakfast, and we started my 3 hour tour of London at 10am. I was able to check out the main sites for those 3 hours. I saw the Globe Theatre, St. Paul's Cathedral, Tower of London, Tower Bridge, Westminster Abbey, Parliament and Big Ben, Buckingham Palace and the Changing of the Guard, Trafalgar Square, and finally Piccadilly Circus where I caught the tube back to Heathrow Airport. At Piccadilly Circus, I used a public washroom which in 96/97 apparently won the "Loo of the Year" award. I wasn't too impressed by it. Once I arrived back at the airport, I was scanned by a body scanner and because I was quite early and did not have to check any luggage, it took very little time to get through security, so I was basically 2 hours early at the gate. I had a chance to look over pictures of mine, and also pictures that I got from friends while in Ghana and wrote up this little final message. I hope you've enjoyed reading my little stories and I guess this is it until my next trip.