Accra, Ghana

I arrived late in Accra from São Tomé and had a fun time clearing passport control before getting on the plane. The guy literally went stamp-by-stamp through my passport and asked why I’d been to those places. “Tourism. Tourism. Tourism.” It got old. I also had a good laugh about showing my boarding pass 4 times to get on the plane, when it was literally the only plane at the airport at that hour. There’s no way I was getting on the wrong one.

In Accra, I’d arranged an airport pick-up, it went smoothly, and I had a really big apartment to myself for the next few days. I will say from the outset that I really liked Accra.

There’s Ghana-style fried rice available at tons of street carts, which is vegan if you ask for ‘no brown sauce’, since several places told me it has fish in it.

Uber is up and running in Accra, which I found pretty convenient most times, but selecting ‘pay by card’ when requesting a ride also meant several drivers wouldn’t pick me up, because they wanted cash on the spot. (Note: Uber will charge them a penalty for canceling/not picking up a passenger, so it’s a short-sited win)

On my first full day, I tried walking up to Vegan Spice Bakery, but it seems they’ve closed, so then I caught a ride across town to Assase Pa (translates to “The Earth is Good”) vegan restaurant. I wanted to try some traditional Ghanian foods, and they kind of laughed when I didn’t really know what anything was and asked, “What’s your favorite? I’ll have that.” I don’t remember what it was called, but mannnnnnnn was it delicious and cheap.

From there, I walked through the Makola market, past the government buildings.

Then down to the Kwame Nkrumah park, dedicated to the first president of Ghana after independence. He was later exiled after a military coup organized by….yup, the CIA. Good job, America, ousting someone who was super popular, elected by the people, but was costing us $ with his policies.

Some guys had followed me to the park, trying to convince me to buy things from them, but they obviously didn’t pay to get in and were waiting for me at the gate. I went out the back entrance when I left 🙂

The next day, I walked up to the national theater and past the law house on my way back.

Then I passed the Nationlism Park, Black Star Gate, and parade grounds.

Next, I walked out to a former military retreat on the coast. I saw this recommended on Trip Advisor, but it turns out you can’t get close to it, so I’m not sure why it’s recommended.

At least I saw some baby goats on the way!

I walked around a lot at night and early in the mornings, but I didn’t feel comfortable pulling out my phone to take pictures several times. I had some good street food, ate at Assase Pa again, and truly enjoyed Accra.

Next, I was off to Ethiopia en route to Angola, because the airlines clearly don’t own a map.