Christmas in Stone Town

My first Christmas away from home and away from the warm, cosiness and familiarity of my parents house in Somerset. I have to admit it was strange to be away from them, my brother and the rest of the family. There was no excitable niece and nephew, ripping open wrapping paper and their smiling faces showing off their presents; and no stocking with toothpaste, deodorant, post-it notes or chocolate! Despite this sorrow, if I had to choose to be somewhere else then Zanzibar was a wonderful place to be. A Christmas breakfast of fresh mango juice, homemade biscuits, tropical fruit (more mangos, pineapple and passion fruit), fresh bread and tropical jam (the only let down was the powdered coffee) was a good start, and all took place on our hotel balcony that looked out over the narrow streets of Stone Town and an inviting, lovely blue sea. We then had a lazy day exploring these narrow streets, getting lost, re-finding ourselves and then getting lost again. Locals wished us Merry Christmas despite most of them being Muslims. We were enticed into numerous selling local goods for tourists and resisted any purchases at this stage. In the evening we met up with a number of other VSO volunteers, who had also travelled with us on the train, at an Arabic / Swahili restaurant. We sat crossed legged on mats on the floor, two men played a drum and some form of string instrument in the corner, and we tucked into a number of tasty fish dishes. We then wandered to a bar on the beach and had drinks under candlelight with the sand beneath our feet. All very different to a normal Christmas at home but still nice.