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Published: November 2nd 2012
Back again and we have safely arrive in Addis Ababa. Things have slowed down quite a lot for us since the rushing around of Egypt and we haven't achieved a great deal since we last blogged.
We arrived early morning and got visas etc fine, after being betrayed by 5 cashpoints we finally got a wad of Ethiopian Birr in our hands and got some emergency sleep at the hotel. Suffered a bit from culture shock on arrival after the comparative ease of Egypt. It's been a while since we were in sub Saharan Africa and we needed to adjust our eyes once again. I'm pleased to say we have settled in and have embraced the lack of time keeping, slow pace and cool clean (away from the roads) air of Addis.
So far we have eaten injera - huge sour pancake with sauce or meat (sometimes raw - avoid!), drunk some freezing 45 pence St George beers - delicious, been to a Ethiopian jazz club, been to the national museum which had an amazing exhbition of human evolution discoveries fron Ethiopia, this was right up our street and we stayed for ages admiring the Australopithecus and Homo fossils. Overall Addis is pretty chilled and Ethiopians seem very nice indeed, Alice is putting serious effort into learning some Amharic, often with amused responses but, as usual, the scaremongering of the guide books seems to be a poor reflection of the city.
We are leaving Addis tomorrow to head for Adama (Nazaret) to look at a school we may volunteer in in December, it's two hours South East so we may head further East to Harar then race back via Addis to catch the weekly Sunday ferry leaving from the southern edge of Lake Tana.
All is well, we have retuned to a proper African rhythm, stomach toughness has failed for both of us but we are happy smiling nuts with less sweat and more insect bites than a week ago.
PS - internet is a bit ropey but I think I will be able to get some photos up in the next blog - fingers crossed.
Love to all. C&A. x x x
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Mum and Dad
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Happy Smiling Nuts
Hello Happy Smiling Nuts, it is lovely to hear from you and to know you are both well. Last day of the hols today being filled with painting and cleaning with a sunny but very cold day. Just eaten a bowl of leek and potato soup - much more up Dad's street than sour pancakes! Sounds very exciting and interesting where you are. Stay safe and healthy, all our love, mum and dad xxxxx