I never thought I would write that I loved Ethiopia sooooooo much that I couldn't wait to go back, but here we are. I love Ethiopia, so much so that if I were offered a job there, I would for sure consider taking it. Hard to pinpoint exactly why, the people might tip the scales. I like them far more than Kenyans, they are nice and helpful, not too pushy. The food is ok, I am not a huge fan of Ethiopian normally, obviously much better in situ, but still, the bread makes me sort of gag.
So Aine, Shannon and I did the weekend trip there, Thursday night to Monday morning. The first 2 nights we stayed at the Sheraton, which I must say was an AMAZING hotel, almost the best hotel I have ever stayed at. The grounds were very well maintained, and the rooms were really nice. And they picked us up from the airport. What more can you ask for? Addis is a decent capital city, by African standards. We spent the day on foot walking around and exploring. We did the Mercato (largest market in Africa - although very big, so if I go back, the next time I will do it with a guide). We went to St. Georges church (Ethiopian Orthodox, comes from the Coptic orthodox), which was interesting. There are Islamic and Judaic influences (women and men are on separate sides, women cannot go into certain places because they are unclean). He is also the patron saint of the country and the name of a bar in Phoenix. Very exciting. I became a fan of his beer (St. George's beer), but sadly Ethiopia has not gotten to the point where they sell beer shirts and beer glasses to tourists. We went to some cafes and had great coffee and pastries. We shopped for gold and silver jewelry. We had great food at Habesha 2000 for dinner, saw some dancing unlike anything I have ever seen before. Did I like Addis?
From there, we hopped a flight to Lalibela, which was a one up to Addis. Lalibela is the icing on the cake, the cherry on top of the sundae, the coup de gras. It is this funky town that is famous for churches built out of rock. And when I say built from rocks, they actually carved them out of the mountains. It was insane. There are 14 of them, give or take, and we saw all of them, save one we couldn't enter because we were women. Of course I couldn't stand for that, so I made our guide translate a conversation to the priest there. The guy humored me for 5 minutes, in the end the rules are the rules, and no women allowed. But I had fun trying. We saw churches all afternoon, went to the market (where I learned the price of goats - 2000 birr I think - which is like $200 - not too bad). We went to dinner in a hole in the wall local place with our guide (I was forced to dance, so thanks to the Indians for teaching me how to dance with my shoulders). We had beers and stayed up late. The next day we went to see a service as well as a wedding, which was the highlight of the trip. Singing and dancing around the church, drum banging, praying, incense, a total assault on the senses. And everyone dressed in white. Church started at 5am and went to 9am. No wonder they need sticks to keep them propped up for the service.
I always thought Ethiopia as a dry place, but I guess after the rainy season, it is super green. The drive around Lalibela is amazing. Lush green hills, trees in bloom, it was really beautiful. Then back to the airport and to Addis, where we had a drink on a hill overlooking the city, and dinner at the Indian place int eh Sheraton (everything else was closed, it was Sunday I suppose).
Great, great place. And so much more to see - Gondor (castles), Aksum (theoretically where the Ark of the Covenant is), Simeon Mountains, the list goes on. What can I say, sucker for good people, history, and culture.
Thursday, October 23, 2008
Long time, no blog . . .
I know, where has Melissa gone for the past 2 months? Well, between work and travel, I have simply not made the time to write anything on my blog. But, since I am waiting on my taxi to come pick me up to take me out to the bars tonight, I thought I would put some pen to paper (figuratively), and get some thoughts out there.
It has been a crazy couple of months. After Bangkok, I spent a week in Melbourne for work. Australia is an interesting place, sort of like the US in that it is a very young country (so not too many old buildings), people are a nicer, stranger sounding version of Americans. The city itself was great, lots of sushi (which I ate every day), good food in general, very friendly, easy to walk. Not too many major sights, which was good since I was not going to have too much free time. I did manage to get out to the wineries on the weekend, and also got to see some native animals - I even pet a kangaroo! And of course, some grocery shopping for goods I cannot get in Nairobi - brown sugar and chocolate chips for baking. Not sure Australia is at the top of my list for an immediate return, but it was a good time.
After that I spent a week in Nairobi and on the weekend stayed in Kenya to go to Nakuru and Crater Lake, two parks relatively close to Nairobi that can be done in your own car. So a group of us Accenture folks (Steve, Jessica, Salvador, Rob) rented a car and headed off for our own mini safari. The whole driving on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road was strange, not that I hadn't done it before, but the way people drive here, it is total insanity. I managed to get us out of the city without killing anyone, and we safely arrived in Nakuru for an afternoon game drive. It was great to be in total control over where we went. In hindsight I wish I had a 4x4, because some of our little off road adventures in the regular car were a bit over the top. There were loads of buffalo, rhino, rhino with baby, giraffe, zebra. And flamingos by Lake Nakuru. And baboons, not a huge fan I must admit, they stole a boxed drink from Salvador, which was pretty funny, but in general, ni fu ni fa. We stayed at a Kenya Wildlife Services guest house, which was nice enough, but no food services. So in the middle of the night in the park we drove over to a lodge, where we had a fine meal, but got a flat tire on the way back. We debated changing the tire in the middle of the park, but instead went back to the lodge for help. Alls well that ends well. The highlight of Nakuru - I almost ran into a giraffe. How many times will I be able to write that down?
Next day we headed back towards Nairobi to Crater Lake, which was a beautiful park, but we are sort of dumb. The car was given to us with no gas, so we were not super incented to fill it all the way up. Just trying to put in enough gas to get there and back without leaving any for the car. Which meant that on our way we ended up running out of gas, and we had to buy it from some shady characters on the side of the road. We were not even sure it was gas, but oh well. In the park you can get around and walk on foot, which is a great experience because you feel closer to the animals. No predators there, just zebra, giraffe, gazelles, etc. We did get to see giraffe foreplay, which was very entertaining.
So I thought that this post would catch me up, but only up to September 14th! Oh well, it will leave more for another day.
It has been a crazy couple of months. After Bangkok, I spent a week in Melbourne for work. Australia is an interesting place, sort of like the US in that it is a very young country (so not too many old buildings), people are a nicer, stranger sounding version of Americans. The city itself was great, lots of sushi (which I ate every day), good food in general, very friendly, easy to walk. Not too many major sights, which was good since I was not going to have too much free time. I did manage to get out to the wineries on the weekend, and also got to see some native animals - I even pet a kangaroo! And of course, some grocery shopping for goods I cannot get in Nairobi - brown sugar and chocolate chips for baking. Not sure Australia is at the top of my list for an immediate return, but it was a good time.
After that I spent a week in Nairobi and on the weekend stayed in Kenya to go to Nakuru and Crater Lake, two parks relatively close to Nairobi that can be done in your own car. So a group of us Accenture folks (Steve, Jessica, Salvador, Rob) rented a car and headed off for our own mini safari. The whole driving on the wrong side of the car on the wrong side of the road was strange, not that I hadn't done it before, but the way people drive here, it is total insanity. I managed to get us out of the city without killing anyone, and we safely arrived in Nakuru for an afternoon game drive. It was great to be in total control over where we went. In hindsight I wish I had a 4x4, because some of our little off road adventures in the regular car were a bit over the top. There were loads of buffalo, rhino, rhino with baby, giraffe, zebra. And flamingos by Lake Nakuru. And baboons, not a huge fan I must admit, they stole a boxed drink from Salvador, which was pretty funny, but in general, ni fu ni fa. We stayed at a Kenya Wildlife Services guest house, which was nice enough, but no food services. So in the middle of the night in the park we drove over to a lodge, where we had a fine meal, but got a flat tire on the way back. We debated changing the tire in the middle of the park, but instead went back to the lodge for help. Alls well that ends well. The highlight of Nakuru - I almost ran into a giraffe. How many times will I be able to write that down?
Next day we headed back towards Nairobi to Crater Lake, which was a beautiful park, but we are sort of dumb. The car was given to us with no gas, so we were not super incented to fill it all the way up. Just trying to put in enough gas to get there and back without leaving any for the car. Which meant that on our way we ended up running out of gas, and we had to buy it from some shady characters on the side of the road. We were not even sure it was gas, but oh well. In the park you can get around and walk on foot, which is a great experience because you feel closer to the animals. No predators there, just zebra, giraffe, gazelles, etc. We did get to see giraffe foreplay, which was very entertaining.
So I thought that this post would catch me up, but only up to September 14th! Oh well, it will leave more for another day.
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