Sika | June 15, 2010
We went back to the hotel so I could catch breakfast and to pick mom, who was feeling much better after more sleep. I had what seems to be the traditional Ethiopian breakfast: bread with creamed fresh honey in Hello Kitty-ish plates and coffee (ok, the Hello Kitty may not be traditional). I had decided [...]
Sika | June 15, 2010
Mom didn’t feel like going to see the actual festival in the morning. She wasn’t totally recovered from getting sick earlier in the trip (what with the go go go pace) and we both were a bit tired of the preferential treatment and especially of all the religious stuff. Eventually, after many longing looks at [...]
Sika | June 14, 2010
At the Lalibela airport, I was once again surprised at the ornateness, suburban-Ethiopian style. We had a new problem in Lalibela: a taxi and two guides waiting for us. Apparently there was a guide convention in Addis, because the guide Nebil had arranged for Lalibela was there, too. But he had sent a replacement, and [...]
Sika | June 14, 2010
We got up and threw on clothes we had set aside the night before. I brought my shama, just in case. Michael was was waiting for us in one of the blue rickshaw-like vehicles that are so common, noisy, and pollute-y in Ethiopia*. We drove through the pre-dawn streets, which were only slightly illuminated by [...]
Sika | June 11, 2010
The first thing I noticed on landing in Axum was the airport. All of the airports on the historical circuit are very fancy; they look like architectural representations of Ethiopian culture. The airports not on the historical circuit, like Dire Dawa/Harar, look like boxes. We were traveling relatively lightly because Desalegn let us store a [...]
Sika | June 10, 2010
Since we couldn’t get anywhere on the historical circuit until Wednesday, and I had thought Harar sounded interesting,* that’s where we decided to start our journey. The flight lands in Dire Dawa, about an hour from Harar, and we got in late enough that we felt we needed to stay in Dire Dawa for a [...]
Sika | June 9, 2010
Monday, we made it to the museums, the ethnographic museum first, as god (and by god, I mean our random plans) intended. The ethnographic museum has many things to recommend it: the displays about Ethiopian life throughout history; the upper floor with an entire room of traditional instruments* and a larger one full of religious [...]
Sika | June 9, 2010
It was Sunday and Eid, and so the streets of Addis were thrumming with people who didn’t have to be at work. Semien hotel, where we were staying, was just off the piazza (ah, Italian attempts at colonization) and we needed to head from there further into town to find one of the few ATMs [...]
