Gondar

I arrived in Gondar just before the sun went down and passed the night in a cold, dank, mispainted, poorly lit room with a lone picture on the wall. Early the next morning my guide picked me up to show me all that Gondar has to offer. Turns out Gondar doesn't really have all that much to offer and can be done in a couple of hours, but is mainly used as a jumping off point for the Simien Mountains a couple of hours drive away. Unfortunately because I was leaving relatively early the next morning, the Simien Mountains were out for me.

First we stopped at an old church, the name and history of which I confess I forgot. What did make it interesting is that its steeple cross had 7 ostrich eggs on it, which had alegedly been there since its construction 800 years before. Also, the inside walls of the church were covered with paintings depicting scenes and characters from the bible that are important in the Ethiopian Orthodox church, specifically 'the Crucifiction', Mary with baby Jesus, Saint George slaying the dragon, and the Trinity. Also, the ceiling was covered with paintings of angels, very unique.

From the church we headed to a compound containing full or partial remains for six castles built starting in the 13th century by King Faisalad and his descendants, one castle for each successive king. Unfortunately most of the building were bombed during fights with the Italians in the early part of the 20th century and only three of the castles are still standing. From the castle we went to visit a large pool built by King Faisalad that is currently undergoing rennovation but is usually filled, using a near by river, once a year and used for a religious ceremony.

I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring the small town and met another pair from Canada that joined me for dinner. The next morning I hopped up early to head to the airport for my early flight...which you probably guessed by now was delayed...by seven hours. What was most infuriating this time was that three hours into being told every hour there would only be an hour delay, the Ethiopian Airlines employee finally admitted that the plane that took off shortly after my checkin was actually my plane but that it had to fly to Addis and back first...a five hour round trip.

Photos: Gondar