A Long Journey Home

Once we got back to our backpackers in Blantyre, we set up our tents and sprinted to the showers.  After not showering for 4 days it was just about the most amazing feeling in the entire world to rinse off the dirt that was caked in between your toes, under your fingernails and wash your hair [although my dreads were very nice because I really didn't have to worry about my hair while we were hiking] and decided we just wanted to chill for the afternoon. So we all picked a comfy place to sit and relax.  Then Audrey and Claire went over to the bar to be social and I just didn't really feel like talking to anyone so I sat and read for a few hours then decided I should probably go have some human interaction since we didn't have any on the mountain.  Apparently I had "TALK TO ME, I'M AWESOME" stamped on my forehead because the second I got to the bar area, people attacked me.  We found these two guys that had a car so we went out to a chinese restaurant for dinner that was actually run by an American guy that went to USC so he and I had a long argument about american football and who were the best teams in the nation because clearly USC is not one of them, even though he thought so.

But we went back to our hostel after that and I got proposed to twice, one of which was the security guard who would not leave me alone, he was hot but man alive 'coming on strong' would be considered an understatement.  So I stole a spoon from the lodge.  It was on accident but then I decided it was what he gets for being so annoying.  Anyways we spent a good amount of time playing pool and then at like midnight, everyone decided it would be a good idea to go dancing.  So we went to this local place and danced till about 4 am which was really fun.  We went cray-cray for a few hours and even though my dear security guard friend joined us, I just avoided him as best I could because all the other guys we went out with were really awesome and fun to dance with.

The next morning after about two hours of sleep we got on another bus to get to Harare, Zimbabwe.  It was a 16 hour bus ride where we had to pass through Mozambique and head down from there.  That is where we hopped on the struggle bus.  When we got to the boarder at Mozambique we were hoping to get a transit visa since we were only going to be in Mozambique on a bus for about 5 hours but nope. $86 U.S. dollars and an hour of waiting later, we got through the border and on our bus through the country [also a scary side note, about a week later, the same bus that we had traveled on, got shot at and three people were killed... apparently Mozambique is unsafe during elections] but then we got to the Zambia border and realized that we needed to get visas on that border too and we were almost out of american money, which was the only currency they accept.  So we scrambled for a bit and luckily we had just enough for our single entry visas so another $30 U.S dollars and 3 hour wait later we got back on our bus to finish out the most stressful of bus ride so far.  We showed up at the bus station in Harare, Zimbabwe (the capital) at about 11:30 pm and were trying to figure out how to get to our lodge when another little "mom figure" came to the rescue and saved us.  She was catching a bus the next morning as well and she was just sleeping on the bus we just got off and catching a cab to the bus station in the morning so we stuck with her, spent the night on the bus and bright and early got up, got a cab to a restaurant for breakfast, where another random guy came up and asked for my phone number, and then eventually to the bus station where we got haggled onto the wrong bus.  Luckily I checked and we got off in time to get on the right bus that got us all the way back to Gaborone in like 22 hours.  Once we got on the bus, all was well.  It was Easter Sunday so we treated ourselves to chocolate and were content with the local singers on our bus that were jammin out to church songs in like 4 part harmony.  Very enjoyable.  Then the rest of the bus ride went down hill.  Background: there are two male conductors on the bus.  For some reason, they both decided they wanted to date/marry me.  Literally the last 6 hours of the bus ride, they were arguing about who got to sit next to me and talk to me.  I tried real nice to explain that I had a boyfriend that I was madly in love with back in the United States (whether or not that was actually true I thought it was my best defense) but they didn't seem to care.  One was suggesting that I could love him and my boyfriend at the same time.  Claire and Audrey just sat there laughing at me because apparently I am too nice to people and I need to just tell them to "get the heck away from me" but I can't be mean.  Its a problem.  

We got back to Gabs at 5:30 am and went to our rooms after 24 days of travel.  It was an awesome month. I learned so much, had so many new life experiences and would not take one second of it back.