Addis at last

Goats crossing the road, Addis Ababa
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Our flight to Addis was interesting. Mostly because there was a lady being deported on it and she screamed and wailed for a good portion of the flight. There was a very red faced official escort with her. What a job!

We got into Bole airport at around 3.30am, sorted out our visas and waited around for it to get light. At 7.15am we hired a taxi from the airport and tried to find a hotel. We tried several from the guidebook and had called a few from the airport. The cabbie kept getting lost. Turns out a lot of hotels were booked and the cabbie got really bored with us when we refused to stay in the overpriced hovel he wanted us to and started yelling at us. At this point we were very tired, I grabbed our baggage and yelled at him to go then. Silly man, as we were going to pay him extra if he'd been a bit more patient. So we walked to find a hotel, having to shake off an annoying self appointed tour guide on the way. He got an earful as well.

Goats and donkeys everywhere!

Addis city centre
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Eventually we found a hotel for much more than our original budget but tired and hungry (by now it was 11.30am) we checked in for $35 dollars a night.

Addis Ababa is an interesting city. Very dusty and dirty, donkeys and sheep dodging blue and white minibuses. People in traditional and western dress wandering about their business. We went to the museum to see the famous replica of Lucy (one of our ancestors, in skeletal form). I'd managed to get a cold so we rested up in our nice hotel and drank some great coffee. Ethiopia as my coffee fiend husband informed me is where coffee was discovered. Apparently by some goats who were getting rather hyper after eating the berries! Anyway they have good coffee in Ethiopia and thanks to the Italians invading in the 1940s they now have lots of good machines to make a mean cappucino, so it's all good.

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There's a funny atmosphere to the city due to all the goats being herded about, but the people are very friendly. The blue and white minibuses are the only way to get around, you just need to know a few key destinations so you get on the right one. The system is very efficient. An old Hiace van zooms round the city with a young guy hanging out the sliding door yelling the destination at the passersby. If you want to go there, you hold your hand up, the van screeches to a halt and you get on, regardless of whether there's a seat, everyone squishes up. You pay about 1.20 birr, which is maybe 5p and off you go, banging on the roof when you want to get off.