Stonetown doesn’t get many compliments in Zanzibar

When it comes to Zanzibar, most people imagine that there are beautiful beaches everywhere, but the country also has one big city – the capital Stonetown. Life in the city is not at all like those beautiful resorts that tourists come for.

To be honest, I have found very few compliments for this city – mostly tourist disappointments, pickpocket warnings, heat. The city does not have a very good reputation. However, at the same time I read an intelligent article that said that everything is changing in Zanzibar, and the more tourists come here, the more they adapt to the international audience, improving the conditions little by little.

Now I am at the most visited house in all of Zanzibar – it was where Freddie Mercury lived until he was 5 years old. It is now a museum named after him. I have shivers running through my body because of two things – I’m a big fan of it, and secondly, it’s probably the coolest building to escape the heat outside.

I don’t dare criticize anything related to Freddie Mercury, but I still want to say that it wasn’t quite what I expected. It is simply a very small space that you can walk through in 10 minutes. If I were to speak as a critic, I would say that the museum could be much more prepared. There’s nothing very special here besides a few clothes and a piano.

Unbelievable – we travel to Zanzibar for the most beautiful beaches, we look for beautiful coastlines, sand, and the locals do not recognize such places. The best thing for them is the waterfront of a big city, where the ships are moored – at the end of each day, crowds of people flock to jump into the water.

It is important to make the jump as interesting as possible – everyone is competing here. Even the jumping locals are sometimes joined by tourists who also enjoy a dip. Businesses are also emerging among the jumping guys – one of the ways to make money is to greet arriving tourists with special paintings, with which they then jump into the water. Tourists pay them money to call out the name, the name of the country, to convey wishes.