Crystal Hostel

May 23^rd, 2013 6:36 pm

We have decided to stay at the Crystal Hostel in Accra for the rest of our trip.  It is a nice place with about ten rooms, three of which are large dormitory style rooms that can sleep four people.  There is a communal area with a ping pong table that we eat most of our meals at and a roof top patio where we can look out over the rest of the Darkuman region.  Crystal Hostel has a small kitchen with a single gas burner and a couple of old aluminum pots.  The occasional guest has tried to cook a meal in the kitchen with some pretty poor results, I’m pretty sure it is best to only use the kitchen for making tea, coffee or maybe some plain rice.    The nice lady who runs the Crystal Hostel prepares three meals a day and if you like you can have a plate, she also keeps a supply of cold water, soda and beer on hand.  The hostel is on the western side of Accra in the Muslim section of town.  There are a lot of mosques and you can hear the call to prayer at various times through the day and night.  The Darkuman area is very lively and is constantly bustling with traffic and various hawkers trying to sell all types of goods.  Thou It is very hard to find western goods here in Darkuman.  They don’t get many white people in the Darkuman area.  If we want to purchase western goods we can either go to Koala market which is very similar to any small Canadian supermarket, or the Kanishi market which is a huge market that has just about everything you could ask, though you many have to search around for whatever it is you are looking for.

The Patio

The Kitchen

Our rat catching dogs

Today I had a day off, so I traveled to Usher Fort in Usher town.  Usher Fort was a Dutch slave trading post and later became a British prison.  It was used as a prison up until the 90’s and was where the first president was imprisoned when he became president.  It was quite fascinating, after the fort I went to Accra’s lighthouse and climbed to the top and took a series of photos of the ocean and Accra.  It was a very nice and relaxing day off topped off with a nice piece of grilled chicken and chips with a cold beer.

Accra's Lighthouse

Usher Fort

Johnny