Yesterday, Friday, the big day finally arrived and we were off to Africa. This trip has been in the planning since last year in Iran and Nina and I are both quite excited. But unfortunately as often happens with exciting vacations they start with a long spell of waiting in airports and sitting squished up in modern planes. Our Africa vacation started the same way. Hours at Berlin Airport waiting for a delayed plane, a packed plane of Egyptian families and their spoiled sons. More waiting in Cairo, a reasonably comfortable flight to Nairobi and finally a 4:00am landing and the inevitable paper work. But never the less we were in bed at our hotel by 5:00am and got some welcome catchup sleep.

Today, after finally waking, took a walk to a local Mall (called the Galleria) to get some money and generally have a look around and organized some more extensive excursions for the next couple of days.

We are staying at the Hotel Troy which so far seems like a good quality three star place that is costing us under $100 per night. It appears to be a large home that has been converted to a hotel. It is located right on the boundary of the Nairobi National Park. It has nice grounds, a very vocal black faced sheep, and extensive security.

I must say the security arrangements, two steel gates and a stone fence topped with an electrified razor wire, at first glance caused us to wonder about safety but during our walk to the Mall today we got no sense of safety being an issue during daylight hours.