Going Home On the last morning I have a few hours to kill before I have to go to the airport. I have not yet seen a fridge magnet or a local football shirt anywhere so I set off into the center of Addis (by turning left out of the hotel!!) in search of these. I think it's a sign that the Ethiopian tourist industry is only just starting that they haven't started making tacky fridge magnets yet. I think I do really well to eventually find one. I've wandered around a lot of shops and been led on wild goose [View Full Entry]

---

---

My mom has informed me that my blog entries are overly negative (or always end on a bad note) so I've resolved that this one will be only good...which is easy because I can't think of anything bad that has happened in the last week. In Kampala I stayed with a young Rwandan man who grew up in Uganda and had strangely worked on the film crew of Last King of Scotland and so had pictures with all the stars. He seemed to hang out mostly with ex-pats though so I got a very ex-paty view of Kampala, going to a [View Full Entry]

---

---

Museums, Monuments, Cathedrals and the Pink School Museums All the group is here now - the last 3 people arrived during the night. We are supposed to meet at 9a.m. for a tour of Addis Ababa but there is no bus yet. We wait in the hotel reception while Baty organises a bus. The film "Zulu" is showing on the TV in reception - seems an odd choice for Ethiopian TV to show! Eventually a bus arrives and we get taken on our tour of Addis Ababa. As a "Baty Bonus" we taken to the National Museum. Quite a few [View Full Entry]

---

---

Sevastapol At breakfast on Sunday we are joined by 2 more members of the tour group who have just arrived from the airport. Matt has not slept in over 24 hours but still decides to join us for a stroll around Addis Ababa. Jane votes for sleep. Nick and I have both read Philip Marsden's book, "The Barefoot Emperor" about Emperor Tewderos. We are both very keen to find the replica of Sevastapol - this is the cannon he built and then had transported (by building all the necessary roads) to his mountain fortress at Maqdala. We think that the [View Full Entry]

---

---

Hotel Awraris On first appearance the hotel seems a bit shabby but it's just about what I expected. The hotels I'll be staying in are described as "mid-range" but that is mid-range by Ethiopian standards. The room seems to be clean and the staff here are really friendly. I have one of those showers where you can never be sure if you're going to get wet or get electrocuted when you stand under it. But I have hot water and I have electricity at the moment - it's all good!! The hotel staff assure me that the the couple of [View Full Entry]

---

---

Flying to Addis Ababa The first day,getting from home to Addis Ababa, was always going to be a long one. But it's even longer than it needs to be because of the choices I have taken. The cheapest flight my travel agent could find was with Emirates so I have flown further East than I needed to in order to spend some time waiting in Dubai before coming back West to Addis Ababa. Secondly I've broken my journey a couple of times within the UK. I've stopped off in London for a couple of hours to have lunch with Martyn [View Full Entry]

---

---

The past weekend was a religious holiday in Ethiopia. Meskel is the Ethiopian Orthodox celebration commemorating the discovery of the True Cross by Queen Eleni (Saint Helena) in the fourth century. The day is spent preparing for the evening service where people gather firewood for their bonfires, buy daisies for decorative purposes and typically dress in white clothing. It is generally a peaceful and spiritual occurrence however the night swiftly turns into an excuse for a piss up and raucous fire dance....pretty scary stuff! The main event occurred in Meskel square where thousands of Ethi [View Full Entry]

---

---

Not a drop to drink. Ethiopia is considered the birthplace of coffee and legend has it that Kaldi the shepherd first discovered the effects of the illusive drink in the ancient province of Kaffa when his goats became strangely hyperactive after feasting on the red cherry. Nevertheless, despite its heritage and reputation as one of the world’s finest producers, the coffee in Ethiopia leaves a lot to be desired. There is a good reason for this which is that it is illegal to sell any coffee that is above a certain quality domestically as these coffees are reserved for the export [View Full Entry]

---

---

Dette er så mit første officielle indlæg. Jeg er blevet bedt om at sætte mig ind i, hvordan det hele fungerer INDEN jeg tager af sted, hvilket giver mening. Tak far. :) Under mit ophold vil jeg så ofte som det er muligt, holde jeg underrettet om, hvordan jeg har det, hvad jeg laver, om jeg stadig lever og om hvor meget jeg savner jer alle sammen! Stay tuned xD Maria. [View Full Entry]

---

---

Photos of our trip to Babogaya Lake and surrounding area. [View Full Entry]

---

---