Ethiopia - In Addis Ababa

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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 museums I want to visit will be open tomorrow (Sunday) so I decide I ought to try and catch up on some sleep.

I sleep for a couple of hours and awake in the early evening. I should be adventurous and go out in search of food but since the hotel's menu is showing a vegetable curry with rice for 60p I decide to be extravagant and eat at the hotel. Instead of the curry I decide to go for injera, which is a local food, with a spicy sauce and a beer.

I am joined by Nick and Sam who will be on the tour with me on Monday. They have come to Ethiopia for their honeymoon. They have come to Ethiopia for their honeymoon!!! How brilliant is that!!!. They are treated to an unexpected romantic candlelit dinner. My earlier comments about the electricity were way too optimistic and there is a powercut. I now can't see the food I'm eating but it taste's OK!!

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Photos

The Porter/Guard At The Awraris
I managed to get him to stop saluting just long enough to take a photo

Comments

[revcat]

Ethiopia
I spent a month there last October and I too was surprised to see how green much of the country is. We did go to Awash National Park which was filled with bronze colored brush and flat topped Acacia trees, hot and dry - looked like pictures I have seen of Kenya. But the drive from there to Harar was filled with green hills and crops, beautiful. Also went to Lalibela and spent quite a bit of time in Addis as well. The first half of my trip was sightseeing and the last half was volunteering. I had a wonderful time learning first hand about the rich culture of Ethiopia. Sure there are a lot of problems, but the country is so culturally rich. Most westerners only know the famine stories. Everyone should go somewhere in Africa at least once in their life. I have also been to Ghana, but have a personal connection to Ethiopia.

[WhereIsSteve]

Hi! I just got back from Harar yesterday. One of the things I've picked up on while here is that the Ethiopians are very conscious of how Westerners view their country and they are concerned that we think there's famine everywhere. On my trip the North of the country was very green everywhere. Near Harar you could see evidence of the effects of global warming and the lack of rain. A couple of lakes near Harar were little more than swamps and the sorgen crop as we drove from Harar to Addis was looking rather stunted. Fabulous country, though!

[Nick Buchanan]

Romantic Candlit dinners
Yep ... we came to Ethiopia for our honeymoon ... can't be doing with these dull 'lie on a beach' holidays where you read loads of books you could have read at home without forking out on a plane ticket! If you're going to go somewhere, make it interesting! Of course, the icing on the cake for us was having a romantic evening with the lovely Steve ... they even bought out candles when the electricity failed - what can I say, it was a special moment. You find out an awful lot about a person in those circumstances ... but not quite all. It wasn't until the next day that we discovered Steve's uncanny sense of direction ...