The farewells were becoming each time more difficult, it's was really time for us to go. After one last intense weekend, following a intense month and a half, we're on our way to the airport. We start the check-in process and we're handed our first moment of stress. We have a ticket around the world but no flight out of Ethiopia.. yet. The person who is supposed to register us is bitchy and unhelpful. We go talk to someone else and it's a different story. We're ready to buy a flight out of Ethiopia but she tells us that they don't really check it at the Ethiopian custom. Following her unofficial advice we decide to try our luck. They just tell us we'll have to sign a discharge to the airline so they avoid trouble... they'll never make us sign it :D We finally leave Paris with the sun setting nicely as we board the plane.
Day 1
Addis is cloudy and on the chill side. The flight was only ok thanks to a couple who decided to talk through most of it. First order of business, get our on arrival visa. There's a long line and it's not really organized for efficiency. They have computer but the 3 persons in charge of delivering the visa are using binders and pencils to do it. Once they are done, you can go to one of the 4 assigned guys in charge of payment. Needless to say these 4 guys have it much easier than their colleagues. It's finally our turn, we walk up to the desk when a mother with a child cut the line and talk in Ethiopian with the guy. Following some unspoken rule he takes care of her problem first. It's too early to fight so we patiently wait and end up getting our visa. Next stop is the custom officer. That's where we could have problems but everything goes super smoothly. We get in the country without a single question about our “return” flight. It took us 2 hours to get out of the airport, it's about as bad as entering the US! We have a shuttle from the hotel waiting for us and get our first look of Addis on the way. It's gray, with bad roads, air pollution and buildings in constructions everywhere. They use wood scaffolding and they have goats on the sidewalk. That's the first impression. Even though it's early, we get our room right away and happily start the day with a 4h nap.
We're getting ready to go for a walk but there's a bunch of things not working properly in the room (the safe!!!) and we want to get them fixed before heading out. It'll take so long we'll opt out of the walk and just have another nap ;) From our window we have a good view of our new and trendy neighborhood (Bole). We see lots of corrugated iron roofs (cannot be fun in the summer time) with cistern on top, all of it very grey, nothing to be exited about. We finally go out to have a beer with the guide we hired for visiting the Omo Valley. He happens to be in Addis so it's a great opportunity to meet him beforehand. He's a super nice guy, ex-teacher, and he comes with two of his ex-students. It's about time to start discovering the local culture and where better to start than with beer. We start our discovery of the Ethiopian beer with the Amber; good and refreshing...a keeper!
Day 2
Even though we had two naps the day before, we still manage to sleep for almost 12 hours. It cuts a piece of our day but we're in no rush, we have a whole year after all and there's not that much to see in Addis. The museums and the St-George Cathedral (patron saint of Ethiopia) are not in our neighborhood and it's an hour hike to go there... or we can try minivan taxis or regular taxis. Since we need cash we plot our course on Google maps and look for ATM's on the way. You have to be lucky to get cash here. You have enough ATM in Addis but not all of them are in the mood to give you cash. We get what we need eventually and keep on going towards the museum. Google maps leads us in small and quiet cobbled stone street where we come across donkeys trying to kick each other, sleeping dogs and a beautiful bird with a white train. It's too fast and escapes my camera. It's starting to rain, s good time to find a cab. We haggle the price of course (I still remember the lessons you gave me in Burma Narjiss!) and jump into a taxi that has clearly seen better days. The engine is so worn out it can barely get to 50km/h. It belongs in a museum more than on the road clearly but it does the job and drop us off at the museum. The basement is about evolution (animals and humans) with a copy of Lucy's skeleton on display. It's very well done, educational and we spend a good while down there. The rest is just a bunch of pieces (Farming equipment, potteries, clothing, ...) on display with little context and no explanation.. disappointing. We also realize it's actually not the museum we wanted to see. I guess more sleep is needed.
We decide to visit St-George Cathedral next and grab a bite on the way. Just before crossing the street, a bored and chatty policeman decides to refresh his English with us. It's not possible to ignore a policeman as we do ignore other people when we don't want to talk to them it seems ;) We'll never make it to St-George. After lunch we decide to arrange the transportation to Arba Minch. We were counting on a jeep to be arranged by our guide but we have had no news so far so we try to arrange a bus. Unfortunately for us it's too late to book anything and when we check tomorrow's flight it's full too... The whole episode was not entirely in vain though. We're able to get a local SIM card. Back at the hotel, we meet up with our guide's brother. The jeep driver is AWOL so we'll have to try our luck tomorrow at the bus station.