After saying goodbye to our wonderful driver – was quite sad – we arrived in Addis Ababa. Oh before talking about Addis, here we are with Lauga by a very phallic looking rock! Haha
Anyway, won’t dwell too much on the capital, as it is just another African city that I was unimpressed by… ‘fairly charmless’ as Jamie put it!
We did visit a couple of the museums – saw Lucy the skeleton (the oldest human ever to be found), we had some nice food – oh and stayed at the most amazing guest house a little out of town called Kefetew – if you ever get to Addis, stay there! And of course we met some really nice local people, too – thanks to Biruk and Joni for a fun day! See you again soon, I hope!
But mainly we reflected on what a great trip we had… so here a quick recap of some of my observations from my first Ethiopia experience.
More churches than people… not true but there are sooooo many churches and I was starting to wonder if it was a ‘seen one, seen them all’ scenario. But it was not… they are quite different from region to region and totally impressive, although I found that sometimes the churches were less interesting than their location. I have probably visited more churches in the past two weeks than the rest of my life! Jamie and I did have a chuckle at the fact that we were two of the most nonreligious people travelling around one of the most religious countries in the world.
Breathtaking nature… it really is! I know that my photos won’t have done it justice, but I hope they have at least given you an idea and maybe even a desire to come and see it for yourself! Ethiopia need more tourists to boost their economy (although it’s a shame for the those of us who like to travel in a culture not yet spoilt by excessive tourism).
Don’t believe what you read… well, it’s not all untrue of course – there is a lot of poverty and some unrest at times, but the western perceptions of Ethiopia is only famine, war and Haile Gebrselassie. People were quite surprised and/or shocked by our choice of holiday destination, but I can truly say that it is a fantastic place! People are genuine, friendly and smile lots!
What most surprised me…
– the natural beauty – I had heard about it, seen pics but never realised how beautiful it really is
– excellent quality of bread and cakes – the tastiest bread I have ever had in Africa
– so many donkeys! they are everywhere, being worked so hard as well, felt quite sorry for them actually, they looked so sad!
– a lot of pasta and pizza on the menu everywhere, the Italian influence I guess
Too many people… back in 1960 there were around 23 million people in Ethiopia, and now there are over 100 million! The population growth rate means that Ethiopia remains one of the poorest countries in the world. Too many children being born, not enough schools and teachers, not enough resources etc. etc. But with the new prime minister there is a sense of optimism in the country, I just really hope he can make a difference. I am certainly looking forward to seeing how the country develops over the next few years!
Beer ratings… the beer research was a great success I think and Jamie and I rated the selection on our last night!
- Walia – German pilsner like, always available and tasty
- St George – as above
- Raya – local to the Tigray region, pilsner taste again
- Habesha – ‘cold gold’ is their slogan, tastes different to the top three – still quite tasty!
- Dashen – drinkable
- Harar – drinkable
- Zebidar – the newest beer in Ethiopia, just one year old, shouldn’t have bothered really
So that’s it… end of a fabulous holiday. The experiences were so great – I have totally fallen in love with Ethiopia and look forward to going back to see more of it in April.
BETINA IN AFRICA 