Ethiopia, Part Two

One thing I forgot to mention in my last update was our last night in Mekele. Girmay took us to a local club for some traditional dancing to finish off our Timkat celebrations. We all got up and had a bit of dance, shaking our shoulders in the traditional style. A little later in the evening a local singer came on who was very popular. People kept getting up and sticking money on his head. There seemed to be a bit of competition as to who would stick the most money on forehead. Afterwards a drunk Russian got up and started singing. He was part of a group of Russians who are here training Ethiopians to fly Migs. It was a bit surreal to see a Russian singing melancholy songs at an Ethiopian festival. I got up and stuck 1 birr note to head (worth about 7p) but was outdone by a local who went and stuck an even more worthless coin on his head.

From Mekele it was a two day bus journey to Lalibela. The main draw here is the rock hewn churches. They have been carved out of the rock in the ground, so that the rooves are at ground level and do look rather impressive, especially the chuch of Saint George. Lalibela was also notable for its lack of fruit and pastries. Thankfully there was beer in town though. From here it was another two days on a bus to Addis Ababa, still traveling with Nick. When we first got on the bus there was a massive scrum for seats and a bit of a crush on the bus. As someone squeezed past me something didn't feel right and I realised that my wallet had gone from my pocket. Luckily because the bus was so full the thief wasn't able to get off the bus. I accused him of taking my wallet and then found it still in his hand. I took it back from him and made sure everyone on the bus knew what he had been up to - ha ha!

On arrival in Addis I can't say I was too keen to get on a bus again in a hurry. I worked out that in the previous three weeks, seven days had been spent on buses. I had to sort out my Djibouti visa, which took a few days and needed a letter of recommendation the UK embassy again, at a cost of 40 quid (more than twice as much as the cost of visa). Before coming away I had always thought that one of the roles of an embassy was there to help out its citizens when they are abroad. I now realise that the British ones, at least, seem to be in the business of robbing there own citizens blind.

Other than spending lots of time running round embassies, I also ate well in Indian and Italian restaurants, drank plenty and watched a few games of Premiership football. The locals here are mad for the premiership. I they think televise more games here than they do at home and all the kids can tell you just about everyting you could ever want to know about the league. I've met a few guys who have heard of the mighty Watford.

After Addis I went to Harar and caught up with Nick, who had gone the day before, and Sean (South Africa) and Nave (Israel) who we first met in Addis. There isn't that much to do in Harar so we spent three days doing not a lot. There was a really nice German guy in town who is the brewmaster at the local brewery, which explained why the Harar beer is the best I have had since I've been away. He invited to the brewery and showed us round, then we all got pissed for free.

The real reason for coming to Harar is to see the hyena man, who feeds the hyenas every evening. We all took it turns to feed the hyenas. It was quite strange because they were quite timid and none of us were at all scared of feeding them. It was quite a surreal experience and I had to remind myself of what I had just done afterwards.

Harar pretty much spelt the end of my first journey in Ethiopia (I will be coming back after Eritrea). From here myself and Nick went to Djibouti. Most people have never heard of this place and there's not too much to say about. It's just a necessary stop for me to pick up an Eritrean visa and Nick to get a boat to Yemen. It was actually nice to get my Eritrean visa. The consul at the embassy was really pleased I had chosen to go to Eritrea and invited me for coffee and asked me to call back when I return from Eritrea - I think the UK embassies could learn something from this. I was planning to get a boat up to Eritrea, but got very disillusioned with idea very quickly and took the easy way out and bought myself a flight, said goodbye to Nick, my travel companion of the last month and flew off to Eritrea with my expectations high.