Salla VartiainenDakar part 2 – Brunch to die for and Village des arts!
Originally posted 2023-06-02
(Link to Dakar part 1 in case you missed it)
The first morning we woke up hungry as wolves so I googled a place where we could have brunch. Ko Tao was located like 10 minutes walk away from hotel Farid and on our way there we could see that Dakar was already awake!
In Gambia things move slowly. People move slowly, businesses move slowly, service moves slowly, tourists move slowly and even some dogs move slowly. But Dakar! It has a city-feel to it. Also the temperature was a nice 25 degrees celsius compared to Gambias 34 degree celsius.
Brunch at Ko Tao
The brunch at Ko Tao was to die for! It was not cheap but also not super super expensive. The pancake brunch cost 14000 CFA (21 euro) and The energy brunch cost 12000 CFA (18 euro).
After the brunch we went to the hotel to meet the driver
I wish i could eat here every day
Village des arts – Ker Yoff
Our first destination was Village des Arts! I was really looking forward to going there after I researched it on the internet. Village des Artes hosts around 30 artists and you are free to walk around and visit the studios and talk to the artists. We found a plaque that said that the Village was grounded april 25 1998 and both the prime minister and minister of culture were present. The artvillage is located near Ker Yoff which is some kind of shopping mall and there is no entrance fee.
We walked around and I think I took like one million pictures. Unfortunately it happened to be a public holiday so many of the studios were closed, but we got to see some of them and also talk to some of the artists present. The surroundings also contained art and I think we spent like 2 hours there.
I bought a pair of pants from an artist called Sasha Gader and two small fridge-sized glass paintings from an artist called M Babali. Glass painting, called sous-verre, is a Senegalesian tradition where the image gets painted on the back of a pane of glass. According to this article the craft was brought to Senegal by traders from North Africa in the early 20th century.
Monument de la renaissance Africaine – Ouakam
After the village we jumped into the car and went to Ouakam on the west coast of Dakar. Africas biggest statue is located there and even though I have an irrational fear for big statues I really wanted to see it.
The monument is depicting a hetero normative family reaching for the skies and is said to be a tribute to freedom. It was designed by a Senegalese architect called Pierre Goudiaby and was inaugurated in 2010.
The statue is 52 meters tall! So 2 meters taller than the statue of liberty in USA.
After the monument we drove home for some naps and dinner 🙂
Part 3 coming soon…
xoxo/Salla V
Originally posted 2023-06-02