I celebrated by 21st birthday in Togo on May 8th! Traveling to Togo marked it as my third West African country that I have seen within my past year abroad. I went with five other girls in the CIEE program but it was not a CIEE scheduled trip. We stayed in Lomรฉ, the capital of Togo, for a total of four days and three nights. It was not to difficult to travel to Togo. We took a tro-tro (public transport bus) to the Togo/Ghana border and paid around $20 for a 7-day tourist visa. While in Togo, we were able to visit a popular market (not the infamous Akodessewa Fetish Market (Voodoo market), Monument de l’independence (Independence Monument), and spent the rest of our time at the nearby beach and walking around the neighborhood. I had a good time and very memorable 21st birthday! I also managed to snag some photos!
A view of the beach from the street where our hotel is located. We stayed at Le Galion which was a nice hotel that also had a restaurant nearby.View from inside the hotel. There are rooms located inside and outside. This is a view of the gate from an outside hotel room. On our first day we ate at this cute ice cream/restaurant place. The owners were very nice. Two of the people in our group wanted a dish that they currently didn’t have so they ordered the food from their second location and delivered it to us here for free! I wish I could remember the exact name but it wasn’t too far and the prices were decent.Cool graffiti located near the restaurant that I talked about in the picture above. View of the Monument de l’independence (Independence Monument). Another view of the Monument de l’independence (Independence Monument). Me and my friends at one of the stores in the market. This photo was taken on my 21st birthday.The Lomรฉ beach!
The trip was fun aside from a few struggles. I definitely plan to visit Togo again to do some shopping and visit the beach again! This was a very special birthday and I will always remember it. Right now, I am back in Ghana and getting ready to wrap up the semester. I have three more finals and then I’m off to America! BUT, I have another big announcement that I will be making next week.
