After meeting another stunning sunrise on the island of Zanzibar, we booked a minibus with a driver for the whole day and went to the city of Zanzibar. This is the only major settlement on the island, and its most interesting part is called Stonetown, which literally translates as Stone Town.
After leaving the hotel we began to absorb the local flavor. Along the way, there were a lot of rickety shacks:
Since now Zanzibar is a Muslim island, you can meet these ladies here at every corner:
And approaching closer to Stonetown begin to appear larger buildings:
Before leaving, we learned the contacts of a local Russian-speaking guide who, as it turned out, had lived in the Soviet Union for more than ten years.
First of all, we went in search of our guide, which was not difficult. We handed him a note written by the manager of our hotel:
First of all, Stonetown is the oldest part of the city, which means that there are ancient buildings. Walk past an ancient Catholic church is impossible:
And of course we immediately went inside:
In former times, this city was the center of the slave trade. So-called bounty hunters caught people in the savannah, and then took them to Zanzibar, where they sold them to local buyers, and those in turn sold slaves to traders from India, China and Europe. In the heart of the city, not far from the church, there is a monument to the slaves:
You can also see with your own eyes, in what conditions slaves were kept waiting for the appearance of new owners:
Leaving on the central square, we "hit their foreheads with a smell". It immediately became clear that the fish market is nearby. I was naturally unable to pass such a color:
It should be noted that this fish market was the most fetid in my mind. A little walking through it I found myself in a meat market, where the smell of fish still reigned:
But the meat market has gradually changed into fruit, where there is practically no smell of fish:
At the exit from the market, local entrepreneurs sell beds:
Having skirted the whole central part of the city, it is time to delve into the narrow streets of Zanzibar. At that time we had three goals: to buy souvenirs, to find a local coin collector and to exchange coins from him and, of course, to find the legendary house of Freddie Mercury.
Our ladies immediately went into souvenir shops, while I was studying local architecture, among which there were quite nice solutions:
But, in general, the streets are all alike:
Local women basically sit and sit back, and children kick the ball in the doorways. Although, we noticed two kids with a backpack, which, as we decided, rushed to school:
Finally, we were lucky! We found the only numismatist in the country!
He had a whole bunch of old coins. In colonial times in England, special coins were issued in very limited quantities for each colony. We were looking for these coins!
If you ever find yourself in Tanzania and want to buy old coins, be extremely careful! They are sold in almost every souvenir shop, but it's all a remake!
We managed to exchange these coins for our anniversary dots, which the local numismatist was extremely happy.
In the garage next door was found a real rarity:
We found the Freddie Mercury house, but I could not find the photos on my server. And there's nothing to look at, really. Now an ordinary hotel was made from his house, and two stands with photos of Freddie were hanged near the doors. If you find yourself in Stonetown, you can go there at the same time, but especially for this purpose, you do not need to go to Zanzibar, even if you are a big fan of Queen.
After wandering the narrow streets a little more, we went to the coast, where we were met by an ancient fortress:
Just behind it is the palace of Beit el-Ajaib, built in the late 19th century. Now it is used as a museum:
At the entrance to the museum there are guns, of which once, it seems to me, were fired from the enemy who came from the sea:
I must say that the whole walk took a long time, and we went to the nearest decent restaurant, where we had dinner, enjoying a beautiful view of the sea:
As the light day was drawing to a close, we went back to our hotel.
On arrival, I went to the bar to watch football, because on that day the first official match of the Russian national team was held with the then new coach, Fabio Capello. It is noteworthy that the match was with the national team of Côte d'Ivoire, and the only visitor to the bar, except me, was a tourist from Côte d'Ivoire. The match was companionable, and played a draw, so that there were no any football passions that evening.
This concludes my first sightseeing day in Zanzibar.
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