Niger: Around Niamey

Sandy streets, piles of trash, and hectic African markets pretty much describes what you see driving around Niamey. The city is large and sprawling, but for the most part lacks grand buildings or green areas. Buying and selling happens along every street, traffic moves slowly through this cluster of people, animals, women with buckets on their heads, phone card salesmen, sheep and goats and carts loaded with goods. There are a couple of interesting monuments mostly in the center of road roundabouts. The palace of congress and the new football stadium stand out proudly as well. And you can also swing by the Niger River, where sand briefly gives way for a couple meager vegetable growing patches and locals doing laundry and washing themselves in the river. Occasional military personnel with AK-47s blazing complete the impression of Niamey.