Elmina is a small town just a few kilometers along the coast west of Cape Coast. It is known for its Fort, Elmina Castle, built by the Portuguese in 1482. It was the first castle along the Gold Coast of West Africa.
My travel there was easy, taking the well-known Tro Tro to Cape Coast and switching to a shared taxi. It is an experience, though, to be squeezed in the backseat of a taxi next to two Ghanaian ladies, and the woman beside you just starting to breastfeed her child. Whatsoever, I arrived well and in time so that I entered the castle just when it opened. Unlike at Cape Coast Castle here there are no guided tours but you just explore the building on your own. Being the first and only tourist, I had leisure to explore every inch of the castle, starting from the top with the view on the ocean and coast line, the Gouvernor's quarters and moving down to the slave dungeons. In Elmina these are not as dark as the ones in Cape Coast. This is because the Fort was not build for this purpose in the first place but rather modified later to serve as slave trade station. Still, the dark history stays the same...

Right in front of the castle there is a small harbour crowded with small wooden boats and a mass of people on the shore - the fish market.

Further up on a small hill there is a second fort, just smaller. It was deserted and so I only took a quick stroll through the building. In Germany you would never find places like that open to the public without guards or at least some safety measures. Also in Elmina Castle there were steep wooden staircases, really low railings or windows with window sills where you could easily fall down.
I enjoyed the free day in a different surrounding, but I also realised that some things are just the same at all places I went to in Ghana: these are the poverty, the state of roads and houses and the waste. And also the attention that I attract wherever I go. I know that for the people I pass they greet me only once but for me this happens every two minutes. They are always nice and just want to say hi or show you their shop but I feel how it exhausts me to stay friendly, to reply to everyone, to negate the invitations or offers repeatedly...I feel how I start missing the anonymity in Germany where you can walk down a road by yourself and barely be noticed by anyone.
But I guess this also originates from the different upbringing. In Ghana people are used to be surrounded and interacting with other people every minute of the day, and not only with family members. They are open to everybody, sellers approach you directly, you don’t just walk into a store and take what you want but the owner helps you to your things.
In Germany I am used to be anonymous, to go wherever I want without being asked by anyone if I want to buy this or that or if I wouldn't rather go here.
I don’t want to judge on these different life styles, I am sure that both have their advantages as well as disadvantages, but sometimes I miss the ways of interacting that I am used to. I look forward to disappear in a crowd rather than to stand out all the time.