This is a multiple part series of my trip to Nigeria this summer. It's going to be a recount of my experiences as well as mini-reviews. I stayed in Ibadan and Lagos throughout my trip.I thank God for journey mercies I'm also grateful for the time I got to spend with friends and family. To see all the posts, click here.
I grew up in Ibadan before "porting out". So, I headed straight to my father's house after leaving the airport. Waking up in Ibadan wasn't quiet like I expected. I guess I remembered wrong. If dogs weren't barking, somebody's generator was on or construction was going on somewhere nearby. In this post, I will highlight the places I visited in Ibadan in chronological order. If you plan on visiting Ibadan soon, I hope this helps.
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| Beautiful painting on a wall in Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan. |
Heritage Mall, Dugbe
I went here to do some grocery shopping at the
Shoprite there. It was a typical grocery store except for the sales people in your face trying to convince you to buy their brand. The annoying thing was that they were dressed just like the store employees so there was no way to avoid them.
The mall itself had a couple of stores but I didn't explore at all. The restroom here, however, charged ₦20* and there was a uniformed attendant there (with an office between the restrooms). Serious Business. My bladder decided to betray me here and I unfortunately didn't have any change on me, only big bills. The attendant didn't have enough change either so he let me use the restroom for free after much hassle.
Domino's Pizza, Bodija.
I went here with my good friend and it was totally unplanned. I had asked him to come pick me up to run some errands and on the way back he suggested that we go here. I had their pepperoni pizza because it was the only familiar thing on the menu and it was pretty good. Their "MEATZZA" also looked good and was similar Meatlovers pizza here. I think the medium box cost like a little over ₦2000*. We had the option of eating downstairs, upstairs or on the patio overlooking Bodija. We ate upstairs because it was more private.
Ventura Mall, Samonda (Very Close to U.I,)
I went to the movies twice here to see
San Andreas and
Pitch Perfect 2 with friends. I also went to the game room (yes I'm a big kid) to play
Dance Dance Revolution and ya girl won both games! This mall is very nice in terms of aesthetics. There's an upscale restaurant, a bar, and the mall entrance on the first floor. On the second floor, there's the game room and stores and then there is a movie theater on the third floor. I really liked this mall. it was very clean. The bathrooms especially (I saw some HORRIBLE restrooms in Nigeria. If you will be visiting,make sure you have tissue paper/wipes on hand, just drink enough to stay hydrated and please pray your bladder will not betray you). The movie tickets were ₦1000* each and ₦1000* got us 7 tokens at the game place (1 token per person per game). I don't know why but I didn't take pictures except this beautiful fountain outside the mall.
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| I love fountains. |
Agodi Gardens
There's been a lot of buzz about Agodi since it was recently renovated. I was supposed to go here with a friend and his buddies but they changed the date which didn't work for me. Since I was determined to go since I saw it on
Berry's blog, I went with my sisters. The gate fee was ₦500 (I think ₦1500 if you wanted to swim at the pool). Since we had no plans to swim, we opted for the basic ticket. There was a forest walkway sparsely lined with plants and trees which honestly didn't meet my expectations.
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| This is not the forest walkway. This is actually the path to the zoo that ended abruptly. |
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Next, we headed to the zoo. We were very skeptical going here because the walkway ended abruptly in front of a puddle just before the zoo area. As we got closer, we saw a bridge strewn with trash that we had to cross over and we were scared to go on as the zoo area looked deserted. We saw somebody walking by the animals so we assumed it was the zookeeper. When we got near the zoo though, the guy suddenly disappeared. Is this how horror movies start or nah? Then, we started yelling "Hello", "Excuse me" and nobody came out. As we headed back to leave, we ran into one of their nice employees who offered to show us the zoo even though he didn't work at the zoo. (We ended up making friends with him because we ran into him somewhere else in Ibadan. He's an engineer that designed their water slides.) The zoo didn't have a lot of animals in my opinion. They only had 2 lions, a couple of monkeys, an alligator and ducks. Our friend was telling us that they plan to bring in new animals as part of the renovation process.
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| Simba and Simone |
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| Alligator |
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| I shook the monkey! And that's our friend beside me. |
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| My pet lions lol |
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Lastly, we went on the raft to explore the lake. We turned around right before the lake turned into a waterfall. It was ₦1000 for four of us. Our friend later told us it was supposed to be #400 (#100 each), so we got overcharged. Oh well.
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| Another fountain on the lake. Love them! |
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| My Ride. |
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Next Up is my Weekend in Lagos a.k.a. Lasgiidi a.k.a. Gidi a.k.a. Eko
* $1 = ₦215 (as at the time of my trip)
