Dakar

My impressions of Dakar were.. wow! A city is before my eyes, as The Gambia just doesn't have high rise buildings and only a few bitumised roads. Dakar is a city with high rise buildings, decent roads, traffic lights, round abouts and even a small garden square. The females mainly dress in beautiful, colourful West African clothing which I see everyday in The Gambia. Ladies wear a long skirt with matching fitted short sleave top and head tie. Although the females here also dress in office like clothes, but always skirts below the knee. The streets had pavers, with many markets set up sellling all sort of things, shoes, mens clothes, sunglasses etc. One thing that I found both annoying and sad about was the number of hasslers on the street trying to sell things. They wouldnt take a polite 'no merci' for an answer and we were persistently hassled, if we stopped we were swarmed. Dakar also has kids with tins walking around begging for money.The kids don't go school and collect money for their spiritual leader.
Due the French occupation and influence, pastry shops are everywhere. I'm not really into pastries, but I couldn't find anything else to eat for breakfast, so i'm still hanging out for natural yogurt, fruit and muesli. Although, a chocolate croissant wasn't so terrible in the morning! I also ventured out to the coast for two afternoons to have a swim at a place called N'gor. On the beach I was surrounded by Senegalise kids catching the waves with me, whilst others played soccer or wrestled on the sand.
We discovered some beautiful restaurants, we were all so excited. The nightlife in Senegal is mixed, a band playing Senegalise rhythms to a bar playing Western music from the 90's.
One relief was not being called a Toubab, there are quite a few Western people who live in Senegal and having white skin does not seem to attract as much attention.