While in Kenya, pay homage at the Karen Blixen Museum and visit the UNESCO-listed Maasai Mara.
Karen Blixen, the Danish author of “Out of Africa” and “Babette’s Feast,” both of which were turned into Oscar-winning movies, lived in Kenya from 1914 to 1931. Her coffee farm is now the Karen Blixen Museum in her honor.
Ernest Hemingway is reported to have said on winning his own Nobel prize in 1954 about Karen Blixen, who wrote under the pseudonym of Isak Dinesen, “I would have been happy – happier – today if the prize had been given to that beautiful writer Isak Dinesen.” Blixen was considered several times but passed over because it was feared too many Scandinavians had received the prize.
The Karen Blixen Museum is located in what was Blixen’s farmhouse. It makes for an interesting visit as it is an example of a significant architectural style, that of the late 19th-century bungalow. It showcases many of Blixen’s furnishings, which were re-purchased for display as they had been auctioned when Blixen left Africa.
