Ghana. Africa. I have spent five weeks on an internship in Ghana thanks to IAESTE programme. Five weeks, of living with a local family and working in an architectural office. Travelling on weekends. More about life in Ghana I shall describe in Cape Coast post. For now, let's take a closer look at Accra, the capital. The only international airport of the country is located there, so after my inbound flight I spent my first days there before being transferred to Cape Coast. 

Accra is fairly different than other Ghanian cities. Extremely busy and overcrowded, it has over 2 milion inhabitants in the metropolitan area. Most parts of Accra seem to look the same, a couple of three-lane arteries with everlasting traffic leading to a maze of suburban streets with a village vibe. Most buildings are one up to three stories high, and it's very common for building sites to be left uncompleted. Inbetween houses there are plantain trees and palm trees popping up here and there. I have been to Accra a few times, and the first three this was the only image of Accra that I had in my mind, because nobody really took me to see any sights in the city. I saw it mostly from a window of an Uber or a tro-tro.

When you are stuck in a traffic jam a bunch of street vendors will instantly run up to you and offer you food, drinks, watches, fabric, jewelry, toilet paper or anything else you wouldn't be expecting. Ghanians generally have a culture of street-vending, you can buy literally everything on the street and this is how people prefer to do the shopping - heading to a marketplace instead of a supermarket. I don't blame them because the prices in the supermarkets are outrageously high.

One of the busiest junctions is Lapaz. I have been there a few times, but it was my first marketplace experience. It's a tro-tro station, a large marketplace and a place where 5 or 6 roads join together. 

Oh, i haven't explained. Tro-tros are how ghanians call buses. They don't have any city buses, like in any other part of the world. Tro-tros are buses made out of old, rusty vans. They work like buses, having their own routes and stops but they are not indicated in any way. Locals know where are the stops and what goes where. As a tourist you have to either keep track with navigation on your phone or keep asking people "excuse me, what is this station?". Each tro-tro has a driver and a conductor that everyone calls "mate", who shouts the name of the route of his particular vehicle out through the window and collects the money from the passengers. They are really small and supposed to take a maximum amount of people possible - even on the bus aisle there are retractable seats.

But eventually I saw some sights from Accra as well. The first of them was Kwame Nkrumah mausoleum.

Kwame Nkrumah is one of the most important people in Ghanian history ever - the man thanks to who Ghana gained independe from the British rule in 1957, and also the first president. This area is where his tomb is located (and his wife too) and also a memorial site with gardens and a museum.

Just one week before my departure, on my third excursion to Accra I finally made it to the independance square - a monumental and representative space. In its center there is a roundabout with an Arc remembering the year 1957, with a giant black star above. A black star is located on their flag, and I noticed that ghanians are often reffered to "the Black Stars".

Between the arc and the ocean there's a big empty space, perfect for hosting events. When I was there, actually, there was a preeching conference called "The Greater Works".

What's kind of surprising is that we were told about a SkyBar, and yes we found one... but on the 7th floor. However, how ridiculous it might sound it actually was towering over all the vicinity and the view was pretty enjoyable.

Right next to the centre of Accra, one of european castles is located. Their purpose is dark and daunting, and it's slave trade from a few centuries back. This one is called Osu castle and was founded in 1659 by the Danes. Later it was sold to the British. 

It was not as impressive as Cape Coast castle for me, but an interesting thing is that after slavery was abolished and Ghana regained independance Osu castle had become the residence of the Ghanian Presidents. Rooms were redesigned to serve other purposes, but still - it's a former slavetrade centre.