I have decided to start this blog with my latest adventure to Ethiopia for our October Break from the 18-25th, 2014. I traveled with Sue from my current school to visit Sarah a friend whom I taught with in Thailand. Our adventure began at Heathrow's Terminal 2, which only last May, Sue and I volunteered as testers to see if all of the systems were working. It was nice to see to see the terminal up and running. We both decided that it doesn't have enough grab and go kind of places to eat.
We arrived in Addis Ababa on Saturday morning after a night flight, which I hate by the way! As we entered the airport we all had our temperatures taken as an Ebola screening! The wait for our visa took about an hour but after that we were able to meet up with Sarah and walk through customs using her red residents card. We made it back to her apartment without much effort though it was easy to see that driving in Addis is not so straight forward with the pedestrians walking across anywhere they pleased, the dogs having a nap in the median, the goats grazing down the sides, and the horses having a rest in the middle of the roads!
After a quick nap we went out to lunch at a pizza place called Efoy. They had good pizza. We decided to go to a shop near her school in order to see what things are available as gifts so that we had an idea while we traveled. Then we went to Mr. Basket! He had some amazing big baskets in front of his shop that would have made great laundry hampers. I bought a couple of baskets to add to my collection at home.
After a bit of shopping we had a drink and a snack at the middle school principal's house before heading off to dinner at Gusto's. We had a great Italian meal for dinner and were able to listen to some good jazz music before heading back and crashing for the night.
The next morning we had breakfast at the Radisson after a bit of a detour around Addis! Sarah then borrowed one of the school's drivers to take us to the National Museum and Mt. Entoto. As we pulled into the National Museum parking lot Sarah informed me that this is where Lucy was housed. I was so excited to see her, I mean how often do you get to see a 3.5 million year old fossil of humanoid! I remember looking at my mom's book on Lucy over and over again when I was younger. The rest of the museum had a few history items from Ethiopia but it was still quite small. Oh and it only costs 10 Birr - £.31 - $.50! Can you believe that? That is so cheap to see such an amazing piece of history!
We left the museum and headed to the top of Mt. Entoto which is one of the mountains that surround Addis Ababa. It had a very typical Ethiopian Orthodox Church at the top, which was painted in the colours of Ethiopia! There was also a Palace of Emperor Menelik at the top.
We arrived in Addis Ababa on Saturday morning after a night flight, which I hate by the way! As we entered the airport we all had our temperatures taken as an Ebola screening! The wait for our visa took about an hour but after that we were able to meet up with Sarah and walk through customs using her red residents card. We made it back to her apartment without much effort though it was easy to see that driving in Addis is not so straight forward with the pedestrians walking across anywhere they pleased, the dogs having a nap in the median, the goats grazing down the sides, and the horses having a rest in the middle of the roads!
After a quick nap we went out to lunch at a pizza place called Efoy. They had good pizza. We decided to go to a shop near her school in order to see what things are available as gifts so that we had an idea while we traveled. Then we went to Mr. Basket! He had some amazing big baskets in front of his shop that would have made great laundry hampers. I bought a couple of baskets to add to my collection at home.After a bit of shopping we had a drink and a snack at the middle school principal's house before heading off to dinner at Gusto's. We had a great Italian meal for dinner and were able to listen to some good jazz music before heading back and crashing for the night.
The next morning we had breakfast at the Radisson after a bit of a detour around Addis! Sarah then borrowed one of the school's drivers to take us to the National Museum and Mt. Entoto. As we pulled into the National Museum parking lot Sarah informed me that this is where Lucy was housed. I was so excited to see her, I mean how often do you get to see a 3.5 million year old fossil of humanoid! I remember looking at my mom's book on Lucy over and over again when I was younger. The rest of the museum had a few history items from Ethiopia but it was still quite small. Oh and it only costs 10 Birr - £.31 - $.50! Can you believe that? That is so cheap to see such an amazing piece of history! We left the museum and headed to the top of Mt. Entoto which is one of the mountains that surround Addis Ababa. It had a very typical Ethiopian Orthodox Church at the top, which was painted in the colours of Ethiopia! There was also a Palace of Emperor Menelik at the top.
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