Around Addis Ababa

Having swallowed bitter disappointment at the cancellation of a planned trip to Ankobar at the last minute, I returned home to formulate ‘Plan B’ over a cup of coffee. I had stayed overnight with a couple of VSO volunteers in preparation for a 6.30am departure. By 7.30, I was at home deciding whether to spend the day moping, or whether to do something, anything, more constructive. The latter easily won and so by 8.30 I was on my way for a day as a tourist in Addis.

First stop was the Misrach Centre, an NGO that supports blind and partially sighted people (and only five minutes walk from my house) to buy birthday presents for Molly, my niece. Then I headed to Holy Trinity Cathedral. Having paid my 30 birr entrance fee I mingled with white-swathed people in the grounds, extricated myself from a well dressed man who started out being friendly, then began asking for money, and headed to the museum. This was opened in 2006 - and well worth a visit - with a variety of royal and ecclesiastical artefacts all well labelled. My favourites were Haile Selassie 1st’s crown, which was like a fairytale crown, a bible in Amharic (“printed in London in 1848, offered by Emperor Menelik II”) and the thrones of Emperor Menelik and Empress Tayetu used in the church in 1880 (EC). I decided not to actually go into the cathedral, but contented myself with finding the grave of Sylvia Pankhurst (daughter of Emmeline) who, according to my Lonely Planet Guidebook was “one of the very few people outside Ethiopia who protested against the Italian occupation; she later lived in Ethiopia.”

Walking back to Arat Kilo, I took a line taxi to Piazza and wandered around for a while, enjoying being in a new area. Having got myself slightly lost, I had a macciato coffee in a Kaldi’s (a local coffee house chain), walked along a road of vehicle glass replacement shops, with broken glass on the pavement glinting in the sun, until a man loitering with his friends gave me directions to Churchill Road (offering to show me the way, which I declined).

Churchill Road runs all the way down from Piazza to Legar (an adaptation of La Gare). I had decided despite the description in my guidebook that it would only being of interest to train buffs, that I would visit the railway museum. On the way, I met Patricia and Kwame, who decided to join me. A second disappointment awaited me … the museum was closed (permanently, or just for the day?) although the station itself is a beautiful building. Having looked into the Buffet de la Gare, I decided that nothing on the menu appealed and that I would head down Bole Road to the Limetree Café, which does excellent sandwiches. Patricia and Kwame headed home and I got a line taxi the length of Bole.

At the Limetree I bumped into some friends and ate with them. They headed off for ice-cream, I took a line taxi back to Arat Kilo. One final stop, half way along the lane to my house, at a music shop to order a videodisc of Ethiopian dancing for Molly.

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