Story time: Once Upon a Time in Africa

“Not all those who wander are lost.”
~J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Getting Away With Nothing

This is a story on a brief moment in my life when I found absolute coolness and got away with something. Read on!

A tiger in Africa? Not really, just a cute little spotted hyena 🙂 Photo: fictivestina

This story happened in real life and to be honest, not too long ago. I lived in Kenya for two years and I did quite a lot of traveling during the time I was stationed in the beautiful country.

Well, to begin with, this one particular time, I was traveling with some relatives north of Nairobi, the capital city. For a very short time, we parked the rental car on a parking lot and I used the nearby ATM. Once I got back to the car, there was a sweet lady trying to communicate something.

Being full of travel spirit, I assumed that the sweet lady was selling things – happens everywhere in Kenya. There are countless numbers of persons trying to sell baskets, animal figurines etc. And usually those things are really nice.

Okay, first lesson in life should really be that one never assumes anything. In this high-spirited mode that I was in, I waved my hand in a very cool way, like celebrities are used to, and told the lady “Maybe next time!“. Then I got back to the car. She looked perplexed and quite astonished. It was as if she did not know what hit her.

Once I was properly seated in the car and we drove on, my fellow travelers kindly asked me why I sent her away. They advised me that the sweet lady was acting in an official duty – as a traffic warden. But little did they do to stop me from getting away with parking tickets.

Okay, the moment of absolute coolness factor did not last all too long. And to be honest, this was the one and only time I have evaded authorities 🙂 I hope they still let me enter Kenya…

THE END

List of visited countries

An alphabetical list of all the countries I have visited so far in my life.

1. Austria
2. Belgium
3. Denmark
4. Estonia
5. Finland
6. France
7. Germany
8. Greece
9. Ireland
10. Italy
11. Kenya
12. Latvia
13. Liechtenstein
14. Lithuania
15. Luxemburg
16. Netherlands
17. Norway
18. Poland
19. Russia
20. Sweden
21. Switzerland
22. Thailand
23. Uganda
24. UK
25. USA
26. Vietnam

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.”
~Augustine of Hippo

Mt. Kilimanjaro from southern Kenya. Photo: fictivestina