Good Morning Passau!, Long Walk, Yummy Food X2 (Passau, Germany)

Passau view

Good Morning, my sweet Passau. 

I walked for many miles today…covered a huge chunk of this magnificent little corner of the World.  During my walk I did do a practical thing…. I found a long sleeve button up shirt that won’t show sweat for the Africa portion of my trip.  I know it sounds odd to hunt for a sweat hiding shirt but dude Africa be HOT!  Actually the heat in Europe right now is more intense than the Ghana temperatures I dealt with two months ago.  I also found a huge electronics store in the mall while trying to get to the train station.  A super helpful guy helped me find a SD card converter, a case that actually fits my dual Sim phone and a micro SD card for the dual Sim phone.  Quite successful housekeeping outing if I do say so.

Finally made it to the train station and scooped up a ticket to Vienna for tomorrow.  Hopefully I meet up with the family for a few minutes before I leave town.  I have no clue what time they dock in Passau so fingers crossed we can get some hugs and coffee in.

Tasty Salad

I ended up walking along the waterfront for quite a while to the University of Passau.  I discovered a lovely footbridge and decided it needed to be crossed but the smells wafting from a tiny café at the foot of the bridge lead me and my empty tummy inside to investigate.  Cappuccino to accompany my vegetable quiche and salad was a much-needed sidebar to my fantastic but hot day.  The quiche was absolutely amazing and the salad was picture perfect (8.80 Euro).

I took some great pictures as I crossed the bridge and a tiny nun with a beautiful smile said something wonderful to me in German.  No clue what she said but it made me very happy. 

Quiche Baby!

So, who knew, but the other side of Passau is just as picturesque as the main part of town but very few tourists cross over.  It always amazes me how quickly you can get out of the tourist mass even in the high season.  I managed to wander away two hours on the ‘other side’.   There are churches, a cemetery, gorgeous streets and a brilliant view of the main side of Passau. 

I headed back to the Wilder Mann to rest my toes after 4-5 hours of straight walking.  Rested up and hungry again I head back to the restaurant I visited on my first night here where Weiner Shnitzl.  Just to let you know Weiner Schnitzel is the national dish of Austria...I guess I had better eat some when I'm there eh?  Sat outside again to people watch and ordered a beer and Gulashsuppe (Hungarian Goulash).  I am almost certain it is illegal here to NOT have a beer with dinner and I like to follow the rules.  I often see people having beer with breakfast in Germany.  The soup was outstanding and I am quite certain that pretzel bread should be served at every meal.  Germany has made the short list as a top contender for favorite food destinations. 

Footbridge, Passau

I had the amazing

Walk to Busua, Dixcove.....Shark Fins, African Heat, Beaches and Banku! (Ghana, Africa)

Path to Busua, Ghana

Must have walked close to 8 miles today.   The walk from Butre to Busca was a long, hot one but well worth it.  Once you reach the top of the hill you can see the sleepy town of Busca with its beautiful beach. Busca is a larger village/town about 4km over the hill from Butre.  Busua’s beach is just as nice as Butre but there are actually people on it.  If the Hideout Lodge weren’t so amazing I would for sure have stayed in Busua. 

Once we finally hit the town we decided to take a break (we had been waking for an hour in the scorching African heat) for a Fanta and to play a game of pool at the African Rainbow Resort.  Met a couple older Canadian men traveling around Ghana.  I have meet very few travelers.  All the Westerners I meet are volunteers.  For a few seconds I was so excited as I thought one of them was Willie Nelson.  To my disappointment it was not Willie Nelson….I will have to keep waiting for that dream to come true.

Next stop on our journey was to eat Banku with fish at a tiny street stale.  I am not a fan of Banku…I think it is because it has the texture of a banana, which is my most hated food; but it’s cheap and does the trick. 

Dixcove / Western Ghana

Next stop, Dixcove.  Dixcove is another 20 minutes walk from Busua through another tiny village.  Dixcove is full of run-down alleys and a bustling fishing area.  We wandered around the maze of boats, nets, and huge metal bowls of fish.  I wish I could have taken a bunch of photos but it is just so obvious to do so.

 Walking the streets I saw fish of all kinds and the one thing I didn’t expect to see…. shark fins and lots of them.  I have always thought of this practice as an Asian thing not African.  Looking at all those fins (there must have been 30 at one location) I wondered where the meat had gone, as I have never seen it on a menu. 

We eventually ended up at Fort Metal Cross, which had great views of the town on one side and children swimming in a cove on the other.  Must admit I am getting over done in the mid day heat at this point but we still need to walk back to Busua.

Caught a taxi to Agona about 15-20 minutes away so we could catch a tro tro back to Butre.  Before we jumped on a tro tro back we wandered the colorful market of Agona for a bit. 

Beach at Busua / Western Ghana

The tro tro back took maybe 30 minutes (1.3 Cedi) and stopped at a few small villages along the way.  I did grab a couple bags of water and papaya out the window.  After a long day in the African sun I ended up drinking two bags of water like I was taking a breath of air. 

Ended the day with a well-deserved beer and chilling in the shade back at the beach.