A Tale of Two Cities: Brazzaville (part 2)

If you ever get the chance to go to Brazzaville from Kinshasa, don't do it.  Really. Take the advice of those old anti-drug campaigns and just say no.  Much like meth, it's nowhere near worth it.  One of Delphin and Régine's friends, Gertrude, works in the foreign affairs office and does all the travel documentation for government officials. She managed to get me a visa to the Republic of the Congo in a day!  My visa count is up to 5 now I think. Anyway, we left to get on the ferry at 7:30.  Guess what time we finally boarded?  Noon!  We spend the whole morning just waiting for our documents to be processed at the ferry dock.  Oh, and did I mention there were 9 kids with us?  Such good times.  The ferry was a little speedboat, and all of the adults had to take responsibility for a child (no childrens' life jackets, for one).  Crossing the river was, no contest, the absolute best part of the trip (not that there was any competition).  On the boat:

Looking ahead toward Brazzaville:

And back toward Kinshasa:

It took about 20 min to cross, and we had to wait another half hour for our documents in Brazzaville.  Finally we got them a little before one, and were informed that the return ferry left at 3.  Fantastic.  We got some croissants to eat (after more fruitless waiting in a restaurant), then we all crammed into 3 different cabs (8 adults and 9 kids) and took a mini tour of the town.  The first stop was the De Brazza mausoleum.  Pierre Savorgnan de Brazza was born in Rome but later became a French citizen and explored/claimed for France much of the current Republic of the Congo.  He founded Brazzaville (hence the name) at the site of a native village.  In addition to his tomb and those of his family, there were a bunch of journal pages, photos, and drawings on display from his expeditions.  I would have really liked to spend more time there and read it all, but we had to run off to the next stop after 10 min or so. The outside of the mausoleum:

An informational plaque, and doesn't that look like a movie poster above it?  

De Brazza:

The tomb (he died of dysentery pretty young, as you can see):

Apparently he was also a big fan of harem pants:

Next we drove to the new airport, which the cab driver seemed very proud of.  With good reason- it's as nice as any airport in the west.  Apparently the Chinese built it.  Anyway, we looked around for a bit and everyone decided to ride up the escalator, which was quite fun to watch (they don't really exist in Kinshasa). In front of the airport (clearly no one else is paying attention xD):

After that, we drove through the town some more, and stopped at a huge street market.  Brazzaville pretty much looks like Kinshasa but with paved roads.  Oh, and all the cabs are green:

After the market we swung by the Basilica of St. Anne, which has a really neat roof:

It was closed though, unfortunately.  We made it back to the ferry just in time, but guess what?  We had to wait anyway.  Until around 4:30 or 5.  Everyone was in a pretty bad mood at this point, and I'm pretty sure Régine was contemplating beating Stan with the world's largest sucker:

We finally, finally got on the boat, crossed, and waited another 20 min or so for the documents on our side before finally driving home.  It was pretty much a disaster of a trip. Below is one of the big barges that ferry people and goods across and up and down river:

We took one of the small ones though, as it's apparently faster.  Ha!  I feel very sorry for the people on the big one.