Skanking

Last night we ventured out to Adams Morgan, 18th street. Think something along the lines of Long Street, Cape Town. It's a street that looks ordinary enough during the day, but at night it transforms into a street where it's difficult to drive because of all the cars and people filling the street.

There are numerous restaurants, bars and clubs with themes from around the world. An Ethiopian restaurant is across the road from a Brazilian Rumba bar, which is two doors away from a French cafe, next to a reggae club.

We started off at an Ethiopian restaurant called Meskerem. Yes, they do have traditional food from Ethiopia, not sure when last it was actually served in Ethiopia though. We sat around low tables on little chairs and shared a large platter of food, breaking a sour dough type of bread called injira, something like a roti but thinner and softer and with a sour kind of taste, of course. And we drank honey wine; quite sweet, not at all potent.

After dinner we went off to Bokum, a reggae club with live music every night and no entry fee! There was a really diverse crowd and of course plenty rastafarians who thought I was one of them because of my hair. I had to keep batting them off. There was one who was quite persistent, the one in the picture at the top of the page. He eventually got thrown out by the bouncer, who had warned him a few times to behave himself. Everytime we tried to take a picture he decided to do his thing in front of us. And he kept skanking right in front of us, which can be quite hazardous if you're too close. Getting thrown out of a free entry reggae club...quite a low point I think!

Despite the vultures and the pests, we had a really good time. No one cares what you're wearing or how you're dancing, as long as it's not bad for their health. Everyone is friendly and the bar tender made good drinks that got us out on the dance floor and made us not want to leave! Our feet and legs were so sore by the time we finally dragged ourselves out of there.

We'll definitely be going back there before we leave the US!