You will be relieved to hear that we actually made this flight.
And without ANYONE checking for visa. Nives felt like having a fit (well,
actually had a small one, but let’s move on…). Instead of originally planned
flight with Quatar, this one was with Ethiopian with a long stopover in Addis Ababa
(serves us right we thought). We were prepared – food and water in the
backpacks – to face an African airline. And were totally surprised! New plane (Dreamliner),
lovely food and wine on tap (actually good South African one). Flight was
great, although a bit in a haze. We believe it could be the altitude, possibly
helped by the few (well, technically more than two, but who’s counting?)
bottles of lovely red… Flight to Addis Ababa passed in no time.
Customs passed in the regular manner. We dutifully declared
all the cheese we had on us in sandwiches. To utter dismay of customs officers,
of course. Think they probably had money or diamonds in mind. On the other
hand, judged by our past experiences, there is probably a circular between
customs officers of the world with pictures of crazy middle-aged couple (well, her
really) who are declaring various types of food products. What can we say?
Scarred in Australia and New Zealand for life…
Anyway, bad news was that we had 16 (yes, you are reading
right!) hours stop-over. Getting books and phones ready and bracing ourselves
for the worst we were shocked again. Lovely people in Ethiopian not only
provided us with free hotel, but also free food and complementary visa! Goes
without saying we felt a bit sheepish carrying all that vasa-brot, cheese and water
with us….
So, Addis. Not a lot to say really, city is a dump. Seriously! Two hours in, we had enough and retreated back to the hotel to have few beers (at extortionate price of €1 per bottle). And surprise, surprise – encountered another St. George. But really liked Habesha more. Talking about beer if u happen to get all religious on us. Hotel was cool, we kind of thought it was two, maybe lower three star, but after talking to our friends in SA who travelled in Ethiopia, we were told it was a four star (apparently real luxury is confirmed if windows have glass – yeah, we know). All in all, sixteen hours was enough and we were happy to leave (with two hours’ delay, of course – this is Africa!).
Didn't really fancy taking pictures of severe poverty, so only a tiny amount of pictures here.
No comments:
Post a Comment