Back to Addis

My remaining couple days back in Addis were relatively uneventful. I spent most of one day shuttling back and forth to the Indian Embassy to get my visa sorted out. I hung out with my new friend little sammy, a kid living at the guest house. I had one last lunch with 'Pastor Z' and drove to the top of Ntoto Mountain just outside Addis. And on my last night in town MC and I had dinner with her friend Meaza, and they both decided it was a good idea to braid my hair...

The next morning I woke up sick with a cold but made it to the airport with plenty of time. Not surprisingly, the flight was delayed by about an hour, and then when I got on I had to switch seats three times due to some 'mix ups', ending up in a middle seat as opposed to my rightfully assigned exit row seat. I'm proud to say that despite this last straw almost breaking my back I managed to keep it together, thanks to a friendly German guy sitting next to me, and prevent myself from giving the Stewardess an ear-full, which I still think would have made me feel a lot better.

Despite the problems I had in Ethipia I think it's a place that I will have to come back to and explore in a bit more depth...hopefully at a time when other airlines are allowed to fly within the country. Axum and Lalibela could easily consume two weeks of exploring, as well as the much raved about Simien Mountains (often locally spelled 'Semen' for some reason!) which I had to skip. One major change I would make for those of you that might make it to Ethiopia one day, is that I would do the northern trip in reverse, starting in Axum and heading to Lalibela, Gondar, and Bahir Dar; all of the Christian Orthodox history made much more sense after I visited Axum and learned the pre-Christian history.

Photos: Addis Ababa