It's been a while since our last entry, but I'm sure you can imagine that it's hard to find the time to blog on our sun filled travels and then settling in! But here's the first update on the Ethiopian leg of our journey! We arrived in Addis Ababa on the morning of Good Friday and we saw the sun rising as we landed *cue chorus of the Circle of Life from The Lion King...*
As we headed into the airport we went straight into a queue for our visa and then after another queue for immigration, we were finally reunited with our friend Kal! He is based in Addis Ababa and we were very fortunate enough to be able to stay with him and travel around Southern Ethiopia with him, so many, many thanks to Kal!
That evening we had our first experience of Ethiopian culture, at a restaurant called Yod Abyssinia - ‘yod’ meaning ‘witness’ in Gurage, a regional dialect.
We sat down opposite a stage where entertainers played traditional Ethiopian instruments and dancers treated us to traditional dances of the numerous groups in Ethiopia. We both learnt very quickly that Ethiopia have an incredibly rich and colourful culture - so many different dances, songs and traditional dress.
And with all the performances, we had our first experience of Ethiopian food! And it's all hands on, so one of the waiters came to our table to allow us to wash our hands.
And here is the food! It's eaten from a communal plate, and covering the plate is a crepe-style sourdough bread called injera. Placed in and around the injera are different cooked meats, vegetables and even a type of cottage cheese. You tear off the injera and use it to grab some food and then eat it! The food was great, not too spicy but definitely full of flavour. Along with the singing and the dancing - featuring cameo appearances from Kal and his friend Daniel - it was definitely a great start to our trip.
The following day, we started our day with breakfast just outside of Kal's apartment block and it was here where Tack tried his first coffee and where better to try it than in Ethiopia!
He said he enjoyed it but it hasn't turned him into an addict like me!
We headed out north of Addis towards The National Museum of Ethiopia is where we met Lucy - our oldest ancestor at (approximately) 3.2 million years old amongst other ancient fossilised remains all of which were discovered in Ethiopia. After a brief lesson in the history of Ethiopia, we headed further north towards Mount Entoto - a historical site where Emperor Menelik II lived and no wonder... the view is amazing! Emperor Menelik II is highly regarded as the father of Ethiopia as he defeated the Italians who invaded Ethiopia in 1896. This is Entoto Maryam Church, an orthodox Christian church.
Around the grounds is Emperor Menelik's palace.
It was coming up towards lunch time, so it was time to move on - this time we headed to an athlete’s resort Yaya Village, co founded by none other than one of Ethiopia’s successful sons - Haile Gebreselassie. It’s location at high altitude and accessibility to Addis Ababa makes it attractive to budding athlete’s. Here are a few shots of us in and around the village!
You can go on horse rides around the ground!
As it was an athlete's village, there was some exercise apparatus that we - of course - had to play on! It was like being in a kids playground!
On our way back to Addis, we stopped off to check out the scenery...
The following day was Easter Sunday and we had the pleasure of spending this day with Kal's family in their home where we were treated to delicious traditional home cooked food.
Along with Kal's aunties, uncles and niece we met his nephew, Alef - pictured here. And out of respect, as the youngest member of the family it was down to Alef to help clean our hands after eating... bless.
Notice how there is grass scattered on the outside porch - this is a Christian Orthodox tradition where 'aromas are used to invigorate the minds of worshippers.'
And then of course, it was time for coffee!
Coffee originated from Ethiopia and it is a very important part of their culture. There is a ceremony when making and serving coffee. Green coffee beans are roasted then ground, poured into a special pot then boiled. After being cooled down and boiled again the coffee is filtered and poured into small cups - like espresso cups. And it's served with my favourite snack... popcorn! In Ethiopia, you're never too far away from good coffee.
Following lunch and coffee with Kal's family we headed back to the city for some cake and after a while Tack said he wasn't feeling too well. And we knew that really was the case when we had to quickly get out of our taxi back to Kal's place as Tack... had to throw up on the side of the road :-( The next hour or so, poor Tack wasn't keeping anything down. All his symptoms pointed towards food poisoning but despite all the fluids and dioralyte, nothing was staying down. Not long after, Kal insisted it was best that we took Tack to the hospital and I'm glad that he did.
Kal took us to the local hospital - a Korean hospital that was built as a joint project between the Ethiopian and Korean government (I think?) But Tack was really well looked after. Following a few tests the results came back as food poisoning and the doctor put him on an IV drip.
Even going through all this Tack was so worried that he was potentially ruining our road trip to Southern Ethiopia, which was to kick off the next morning! But of course, for Kal and I that was the least of our worries. After a few hours, the drip had emptied and we were allowed to go home. Tack wasn't feeling 100% straight away but there were definite signs of improvement. Kal couldn't have been more helpful - if it wasn't for his quick thinking and support in getting him to the hospital and dealing with all the paperwork, the experience would have been much more stressful and we are both incredibly thankful to him and the staff at the Myungsung Hospital!
I think I've made this post long enough, so I'll end it here. If you have any questions, let us know! Also, we're quite new to blogging, so feedback is welcome!
More photos to come soon!
