Ouagadougou:
Poor old Ouagadougou, it really doesn't stand a chance. Despite sounding like a 1970s concept album, the capital city of Burkina Faso reflects the country it represents, in that it has no serious tourist attractions; for this heinous crime it's rarely anything other than a transit city for people travelling between Mali and Ghana. For me it was exactly that, and I expected nothing other than a few days of killing time while waiting for the legendary bureaucracy of Ghana to chug its way through my visa application.Perhaps because I was expecting absolutely nothing, I really liked Ouaga. It doesn't have anything particularly stunning to occupy the average visitor – there's a big market, an ugly cathedral, a museum and that's about it – but what it does have is a congenial atmosphere, friendly people, not too much hassle and shops absolutely everywhere. Walking round Ouaga is fascinating simply because its shops are so varied, and every few metres there's another pile of merchandise spilling out onto the street and making the mopeds swerve.
