However, I really think there is some god or something who really was against me ever spending time in Lome. The best way to tell this story is via a little timeline.
Friday 5 pm: Left Accra figuring it’s a 3 hour trip to Lome.
5:30 pm: Realize that we (perhaps dumbly) failed to consider the absolutely atrocious traffic leaving Accra on Friday at rush hour.
9:45 pm: Finally arrive in Aflao, the Ghanaian border town. Relieved since the border closes at 10 – we just made it! Yay!
9:55 pm: Finish with the Ghanaian exit point and walk toward the Togo entrance point.
9:57 pm; Arrive at the Togo entrance point. The guy sitting at the desk there (the border is really just a desk with a wooden fence that he lifts a bar of to let you through) immediately tells us we’re too late, the border closed an hour ago. What! Well, it turns out, Togo is an hour ahead time-zone wise, so the Togo entrance closes an hour before the Ghana exit. Do not ask me how this makes any sense WHATSOEVER. He insists we turn around and return to Ghana and spend the night in the border town on the Ghanaian border.
10:05 pm: After a fair amount of arguing and asking “is there ANYTHING we can do?” in that wink wink tone, he continues to insist it was a lost cause and we had to turn back. So we walk back to the Ghanaian border (there is about 100 yards between the two).
10:07 pm: We learn that it now after 10, and the Ghanaian border is closed as well. We seemed doomed to be stuck in no man’s land for the night. The Ghanaian guard claimed that the immigration people have left and he can’t let us through, and we had to go back and beg the Togo guy again.
10:08 pm: We respond to this whole situation by laughing hysterically, because what else can you do.
10:10 pm: We arrive back at Togo to plead our case further. Finally, an old man mysteriously appeared out of nowhere, asked our oh-so-lovely border guy what the problem was, and insisted he process us and let us through. Seriously, this guy was our guardian angel.
10:12: pm: The original border guy very sourly gives us the visa forms.
10:13 pm: I realize I don’t have a pen to fill out the form. I reluctantly ask the guard if he has one I can borrow. He gives it to me. I fill out the entire form. I hand it back. I am yelled at for writing in red pen and told I have to do it again.
10:25 pm: The guy is still completing our visas, moving sooo slowly and inspecting every answer on the forms, every page in the passport, clearly just to be as obnoxious to us as possible.
10:35 pm: We are finally let through into Togo! And now we still have to find a hotel…
But despite this rocky start (I really legitimately thought I was going to be spending the night on the ground between the two countries), we really had a great time in Lome. It is a much quieter, more laid-back city than Accra. There’s not much to see or do per se, so we just walked around a lot (and sweated like crazy. It was the hottest weekend I’ve experienced yet here I think). In the market, you can actually walk down the street and browse without being immediately swarmed like in Makola Market in Accra. No one grabs you! Crazy! And rather than constant shouts of “obruni!” you just get “madame!” which is really much nicer. Go French influence.
And the food! Unfortunately I didn’t get much of my beloved fromage since that it more of a north Togo thing, but still, the food way surpasses anything you can get even an hour away in Ghana. There are fresh baguettes everywhere and they are SO GOOD. You can get them with this avocado spread and beans which sounds kind of gross but is amazing. I think we each had like 8 over the course of 48 hours. And you can get real meat there relatively cheaply! Something beyond just bone and fat which is basically all the red meat you ever get served in Ghana. AND they have this drink called Sport-Actif which is basically like a carbonated lemonade and one of the best things I’ve had (possibly because I was incredibly dehydrated because of all the sweating every time I drank it).
If not for the food, though, easily the most exciting part about Lome is that they have…wait for it…public trash cans! Seriously! I have lived in Accra for over 8 months now and have seen ONE public trash can the whole time. And as Lome proves, it makes a huge difference. There aren’t disposed water satchets everywhere you look! The beach isn’t a giant junk pile! It IS possible!
That said, though, while Lome is a great place to escape it all and spend a weekend, I definitely wouldn’t want to live there over Accra. While the hustle and bustle can get very tiring, there is a certain energy about Accra that is just so invigorating that I was glad to return to after Lome.
WOW, crazy adventures at the border, Gracie. The photos of Lome look AMAZING, though. Togo is now on my list of places to visit - thanks for the inspiration!
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