Layovers in Our Travels

One of the unfortunate things about living off the regular airline grid is that to get anywhere we usually face long airport layovers.  Unfortunately, this gives us much more time than we need to get to know the airports en route.  Fortunately, more and more airports provide comfort services, including playrooms for wee travelers.  

BRU  

On our way to Yaounde, we routed through Brussels, and found a small, clean play area in an international terminal.  This was the Girls' first time in Europe, and they celebrated by doing what little girls do best:  playing.  

Girl 2

Girl 1

NBO

In January, on an interesting, if luggage-challenged trip, to Kigali, Rwanda, we were lucky enough to schedule an 8-hour layover in Nairobi's Jomo Kenyatta International Airport. (Where is my left-leaning font when I need it?) Kenya's trying - there is a great coffee and beer pub in the far end of the airport, and you can easily while away a few hours there talking trash about cricket and CNN's Zain Verjee. 

NBO has a children's changing area which, inexplicably, is up a flight of stairs, rendering it useless to anyone who's traveling with wheels.  They also have a brightly lit playroom, with well-loved (read battered) toys and an instructive view of the tarmac.  

The decorators' idea was to use familiar cartoon figures, but draw them so badly that no one could seriously claim copyright infringement.  I think they pulled it off.  

ZRH

The Girls hit paydirt on our summer trip back from to America, transiting this time through Zurich.  Wouldn't you know it:  the Swiss had a playroom that made the six-hour wait seem like only four.  The Girls had fun - remember, this is midway through a 22-hour one-way trip, and they're still going strong. 

Bonus: Meeting cute EuroKids

New Year on the Equator

New Year's Eve finds us in Malabo, the capital of Equatorial Guinea. While it's only a 15-minute flight from our home base in Cameroon, it's very different from the life we've grown into back in Yaounde.

• Split personality: The capital is located on the island of Bioko, separated from the larger chunk of the country wedged between Gabon and Cameroon on Africa's mainland.

• Se habla espanol: Equatorial Guinea is the only Spanish-speaking country in Africa. (I'm not going to get into it about the former Spanish Sahara -- there's not much time left in the year.)  EG has a decidedly Spanish colonial feel to it - witness the cathedral downtown, a stone's throw from the President's palace.  We have decided that we like Spanish much better than French.

• No bumps: We're staying near the Embassy, which lies along a highway that follows the northern shoreline. Steve's morning run was completely flat, a stark contrast from the hills he finds on every outing in Yaounde. Make no mistake - geologically Bioko is part of the range of mountains that includes Mount Cameroon back home. Pico Basile looms over Malabo, but we've barely been able to see it because of the dusty haze the dry season has brought. Here's a better picture someone else took:

• Black gold: There's oil in them thar waters. It's not quite OPEC worthy, but the influx of money results in a per capita income of $37,000 (unevenly distributed, make no mistake) and a lot of sparkling new buildings being built both on the island and in the mainland provinces.

The opportunity came up for a short-term assignment here, and we decided to make a family outing of it. Life is slow here -- enough to drive you crazy, some would say -- but we're together, exploring a new place. Today we took an auto tour of an oil facility, sparkling new buildings in a Malabo II that will replace the current city, and the sleepy capital descended from colonial days. We ended it with a mad rush through Martinez Brothers grocery store to get a bottle of champagne.

We won't be missing much outside at the stroke of midnight. Equatorial Guinea has an auto curfew on major holidays, including New Year's Day, and after 10 pm tonight no cars are allowed on the roads. I'm not quite clear on what happens if you are out, and how you get home, but I hear that most people ring in the New Year with their families. Here, we've put the Girls to sleep one last time, finishing Stuart Little, and we're going to watch a video or two before we wake each other up, sip champagne, and go to bed.

A lesson: no matter where you go, after a while New Year's Eve is the same the world over!

[Footnote: though Equatorial Guinea is the closest of several Guineas to the Equator, we're a few degrees north. The Equator does run through Gabon and Sao Tome.]