Addis Ababa - The Merkato

Following our unsuccessful sojourn south we have been resting in Addis Ababa, mainly dining out in relative style, reading and wandering the streets of Addis. Once again we bumped into Chris and Leanne and it was great catching up although we seem to have converted them to the excitement of Scrabble -albeit the electronic version. I tried to explain to them that Scrabble is competing with base jumping as an adrenalin fuelled sport but I'm not sure it worked.

Anyway, Becs and I decided to visit the Merkato the biggest open air market in Africa to while away a couple of hours. We had met a helpful guy in the street called Haile when we had first arrived in Addis 4 weeks ago and he agreed to be our guide (more unofficial than official).

We caught a minibus and entered the Merkato ready to drink the atmosphere but fairly certain we would not buy. Straight away a man exchanged harsh words with Haile becaue he would not let the  man take us to his friends shops. We were grateful for this but it seemed to knock Heile out of his stride as he pretty much ran through the Merkato grunting the odd bit of information.

Anyway Becs and I tried to take in the sights and sounds the highlights of which were; a stone being thrown at the feet of Becs because she dared to take a picture of a chicken without its consent, the usual chants of You, You, You but with a four letter word added in front, being deliberately walked into grabbed by the arm in a menacing manner spun round whilst his friend nicked the broken disposable camera in my pocket. However, what really stunned me was that they guy was wearing a full shell-suit complete with bright colours.

We finally caught up with Haile thanked him for his helpfulness tipped him 1pound 10p and left what felt like the smallest market in Africa empty handed after 20mins. I cannot help thinking that the Ethiopians had lost an opportunity to perhaps enage with us and try to sell some of their wares.

Walking back from the Merkato we decided to watch a few mins of a football match. It was 1-1 but the game was interrupted because the T-birds complete with denim rode through the middle of the pitch on a motorbike, sadly Rizzo and rest of the Pink Ladies were no where in sight.