Prince of where??

"I work for the Prince of Hanover."

"The Prince of where?!?"

"Hanover"

I burst out laughing. Hanover? I have never even hear of Hanover.

He began to explain to me where it was in Europe and I just continued to giggle.

Have you seen the Princess Diaries? Well the movie is about a young teenage girl who discovers that she comes from a lineage of royalty in the country of Genovia, a country that she never knew existed.  Now, Genovia is a fictional country made just for the movie. So when this fellow mentioned to me that he works for the prince of Hanover, I immediately thought it was a fictional country he made up.

Turns out it is an actual place. (Maybe you are reading this and you already knew Hanover existed so don't laugh at me.)

Last night, Kelvin and I met up with a friends, Kayla, and her friend. They are both Canadians from Vancouver and have come to Mombasa for 2 days to visit. Kelvin really wanted to watch the Arsenal game and we wanted to eat so we went to a bustling beach bar just a little ways from where the girls were staying. Upon arriving at the gate, Kelvin met a guy who he had known from Kongowea. This guy was all blinged out with tiny dreadlocks. The guy also had two kenyan friends who were looking rather snazzy.

Because the place was packed, the three guys sat at our table. I got a bit uncomfortable thinking that they were going to make a move on the girls, but Kelvin reassured me they were harmless. One of the guys offered to buy everyone a round a drinks. All the men ordered beer and we got some sodas. Then the guy offered to buy us another round of drinks. Mighty generous of him. I was beginning to wonder where he gets all this money from. All 3 of the guys had their iPhones and high end cameras on the table. And then he orders another round of drinks (by that time us girls had had enough soda).

As the game ended we started chatting with one of them. That's when he brought up Hanover.

Apparently he works on the yacht for the Prince of Hanover. He grew up in Lamu where his grandfather was the governor. Lamu does attract some pretty high end people, including the Prince of Hanover and his wife, Princess Caroline of Monaco, who own three houses on the island. Having grown up around these people, they paid for his school fees and offered him a job. Now he lives a lavish life cleaning the yacht of royalty. He even showed us that he has the Princes' number in his phone. I guess they are good buddies.

He had some pretty cool stories. He told us that the Prince was set to come to Mombasa in a couple days where he would rent the whole wing of a hotel and have lunch with our new friend. Yah, the guy has got some money.

I actually went home and looked all this up because I didn't believe it (sounded a little bit too much like Princess Diaries). But it's true.

We thanked him for the drinks but he told us it was his friend buying them. We asked what his friend did.

"He is married to the daughter of the biggest share holder of Heineken."

Ah, now it makes sense. The 2 iPhones, eReader and 3 rounds of drinks didn't seem so absurd anymore.

We were all pooped and although these guys were fascinating, I was ready to get my head back into reality. It seemed all too glamourous for me. So we left and giggled all the way home about our interactions. I guess you never know who you are going to meet.