Guest Written
Addis Ababa was such a beautiful experience for me. We’d travelled for an intense week of meetings and hadn’t had any opportunity to explore the beautiful culture rich city. The opportunity presented itself on the last day of our stay in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. We booked our tour, and our guide, a happy go lucky local picked us up in a 4×4 landcruser.
Our First Stop
Our first stop was at the National Museum where we got to see replicas of the fossils of Lucy, one of the oldest hominid remains found in the world. In fact, several times when I mentioned to people that this was my first time in Ethiopia, they said, “Welcome home!” In a sense, since this is widely believe to be where humanity emerged and distributed to the rest of the world, I had indeed come home. I am human, after all. Or so I’ve been told.
The National Museum’s displays were well annotated in English and Amharic, and quite thoroughly covered the discovery and classification of the many hominids discovered in the region. It also had excellent displays of the progression of Ethiopian Royalty up to the Emperor Haile Salassie, including clothing, thrones, and other baubles and badges of office. The museum tour continued with displays of culture and art before we headed to lunch on the museum grounds at Lucy’s Café.
Lunch was a delicious beef dish with the customary injera flatbread used as a utensil, and following our meal, we got on the road for a quick drive up Mt. Entoto. Passing by colorful shop stalls and driving through an area of non-touristy, every-day activity was fascinating. At the summit, we stopped for a look around, and Zelalem, a trained naturalist, described the importation of blue eucalyptus trees from Australia to combat deforestation. This type of tree is fast growing and hardy, and when young, the leaves appear to be a blueish color. We also stopped and chatted briefly with some kids who were selling baskets before heading back down the mountain to our next stop, the Ethnographic Museum.
On the campus of the Addis Ababa University, the building is the former imperial residence. Entering the grand building, there’s an historical display that gives the history of the building and its significance to the history of Addis Ababa. Wandering through the building was an education in the different cultures and traditions found in this fascinating country. It even has the Emperor’s bedroom and bathroom as part of the display (interestingly, he got a much better bathroom than his wife did…). We unfortunately got there just before closing, so had to rush through the tour, but it should not be missed.
As we left and headed toward the Merkato, the largest open air market in Africa, we made a stop at my request that was not on the original itinerary, and paused to take a cup of coffee prepared in the traditional Ethiopian way at a great little coffee shop called Taly Coffee. In addition to being the cradle of humanity, Ethiopia is also the birthplace of coffee, and should be a pilgrimage for all coffee lovers. We experienced the roasting, grinding, and brewing of probably the most delicious cup of coffee I’ve ever had in my life. As the young lady finished roasting the beans, she came by everyone in the shop and waved a blessing of roasted coffee smoke. It was submlime.
We then continued to Merkato where we spend a half hour or so wandering in and among the various wares. I’m no stranger to markets, but the raw mass of humanity and everyday people was a photographer’s dream. We passed by the bucket market, and I never imagined how many different styles, colors, types and uses of buckets there were. The rest of the market was the same…so much stuff, and so much variety! As Zelalem said, “about the only thing you can’t buy here is a person.” Well, that’s good to know too.
Around this time, I discovered that I’d misplaced my reading glasses. I’m at the age where my arms have gotten too short to read anything, so we retraced our steps to Lucy’s Café, and sure enough, they’d been left off at the office. Upon recovering them and rejoining the world of the sighted, we headed back and the team dropped me off at my hotel.
All in all, it was a great way to get oriented to the Capital of Africa.
